Lesley sent this along tonight via an email. It is a method of KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) "a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States." I think that this could be a good chance to try out the "post comments" section of the blog.
...There was a great NYT magazine article (Nov 26, 2006, link:
http://www.kipp.org/08/pressdetail.cfm?a=291 )
called "What it takes to make a student." In it, Paul Tough visits a
highly successful charter school in inner city NYC where a new
technique
for eliminating CPA is working.
Students at the KIPP charter schools follow a system for learning
invented by the founders, David Levin and Michael Feinberg, called
SLANT. The acronym sums up the appropriate classroom behavior: Sit
up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod and Track the speaker with their
eyes. The following is quoted from Tough's article:
"Levin's contention is that Americans of a certain background learn
these methods for taking in information early on and employ them
instinctively. KIPP students, he says, need to be taught the methods
explicitly. And so it is a little unnerving to stand at the front of
a KIPP class; every eye is on you. When a student speaks, every head
swivels to watch her. To anyone raised in the principles of
progressive education, the uniformity and discipline in KIPP
classrooms can be off-putting. But the kids I spoke to said they use
the Slant method not because they fear they will be punished
otherwise but because it works: it helps them to learn. (They may
also like the feeling of having their classmates' undivided attention
when they ask or answer a question.) When Levin asked the music class
to
demonstrate the opposite of Slanting -- "Give us the normal school
look," he said -- the students, in unison, all started goofing off,
staring into space and slouching. Middle-class Americans know
intuitively that "good behavior" is mostly a game with established
rules; the KIPP students seemed to be experiencing the pleasure of
being let in on a joke."
Levin and Feinberg's SLANT method works on inner-city elementary and
middle school students but what about for college students and
academics? Have we forgotten how to be polite--how to fully focus on a
lecture? Or are standards of "politeness" changing based on the
exploding market for peripheral mobile communication devices? Attend
any academic conference with a wireless network and ask yourself how
many people in the audience are following the discussion 100%.
Closing the laptop lid and trying out the SLANT method might be
educational for us older folk as well as the younger ones.
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1 comment:
I think I saw something about KIPP on 20/20 or a similar program. This echoes a lesson my JV basketball coach taught me. When someone is speaking, and you are in a group, your job is to watch the speaker and acknowledge it when you understand what they are saying.
At the NCTE in Pittsburgh two years ago I attended a workshop on blogging, I believe, which also had a focus on class discussion. Anyway, the students presented along with the teacher, and they spoke of a method they use to track class behavior during discussion. A student sits off to the side with a blank sheet of paper, and...like...doodles lines between classmates in order to track the who was speaking, responding, paying attention, exhibiting poor body language, etc. The next day in class, they would analyze it. It was voodoo weird, but interesting nonetheless. I don't remember the name, nor do I know if I still have the materials, but anyway.
Lastly, a teacher I observed had a rubric and self-assessments for participation/class discussion/etc. On this rubric he defined positive participation by focusing on different areas (piggybacking, changing opinions in light of convincing arguments, body language, etc.). Once every two weeks students would take a self assessment, and he would comment on them.
Anyhoo...just a few ideas.
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