Flexibility = Knowing Something Well

I like to cook - from scratch, trying new recipes for just about every category of food. I cook a lot. We almost always eat at home where I use fresh ingredients to make scrumptious meals for family and friends. I feel very confident in the kitchen because I enjoy food and its preparation as much as I enjoy eating it.

The other day, I was making "Loaded Oatmeal Cookies" and at the point of stirring in the oatmeal with the chocolate chips, craisins, and nuts...I realized I didn't have enough oatmeal. I didn't have time to run to the store. I searched the cabinets and found some packets of instant oatmenl - dumped in about 3 packets to make up the missing oatmeal, and...problem solved! I was very proud of my ingenuity. The cookies were delicious after all.

When you know something well, you can use your knowledge in flexible and fluent ways. This doesn't happen overnight. It happens by having many experiences with something.

Dislexia

When daughter Susan was in middle school, she had identical twin friends named "Jenny" and "Michelle." I had the hardest time telling them apart for quite a long time. After spending lots of time with "Jenny," who was probably the one closer to Susan, I began to notice slight differences in the twins' personalities, facial expressions, tone of voice, preferences in fashion, etc. After being around Jenny so much, it was easy to tell Jenny from Michelle. There was no mistaking one for the other once I knew one of them well.

Now the girls are grown and I still have no trouble deciding who is who. I know each of them, wherever and whenever I see them. So it is with children and those letters that they confuse: b/d/p/q, for instance.

Very, very few children truly are dislexic. Most children just need to be taught to notice the salient features. Watching for children's confusions and teaching them to look at the features that make up a particular letter can help solidify that knowledge. Then, the others letters no longer get confused with the one that is well known.

I have worked with hundreds of children who have common confusions like the b/d/p/q or w/m or f/t - in my 14 years of experience in teaching struggling readers, I have never seen a true dislexic child. I guess there really is something called "dislexia," but I've never known a child who could not be taught directionality of letters and words.

Experience Compliments Learning

Have you ever been somewhere new and found it's hard to soak in everything around you? I remember looking for a house when we were moving to Springfield. I didn't know the area that well; and if you know me, you know that I am easily disoriented.

We spent 3 busy days driving through different parts of Springfield, trying to find the house that would fit our needs. I was totally confused. Once we moved and I became familiar with the area, I was trying to remember and asking my husband, "Is that the street with the ugly Spanish house?" or "That looks like a house we saw..." Most of the time, I was way off - a clear sign of my confused state when all was unfamiliar to me.

It's like that for any learner. With very little experience, many children of low economic status seem to be in a fog, lost, easily confused, or mistaken for "slow learners" in the world of school.

Experience, or lack of it, can affect how we appear to the world. We can look like idiots when in another country or culture as we grapple for the right words or try to find our way around.

I have watched with awe when traveling in New York City with my daughters. They have no trouble navigating the subways. Me - I'm so scared and disoriented that I become like a little lost puppy tagging behind. My daughters seem to feel at ease and are able to lead the way. They have traveled the world so they should be more at ease.

Reminds me of watching them play "Mario" when they were young. Goodness, they knew all the little tricks and turns. But I'm more confident than they are when it comes to something I've done a lot: sewing.

When you're observing children or anyone, don't be so quick to think they are "slow." It's probably inexperience.

"What if we viewed being smart as a goal that students can work toward rather than as something they either are or are not?" - Ron Ritchhart

Lesson Number 1

Not every lesson gets a number. But Lesson Number 1 is for the Observer:

Always Be Tentative.

The Observer can never really know what the Learner is Thinking. Thinking and Learning go hand-in-hand.

When I'm observing a person that I'm teaching, I have some tentative thoughts about whether something I've taught or modeled or suggested is shifting the learner's thinking. But I can't know for sure what's happening in that person's brain. I can only theorize from the behaviors I observe. Being tentative allows me to develop my "theories" and adjust my teaching accordingly.

When communicating with someone, especially when teaching someone, always remain tentative.