Greetings, this is the Reading Instruction Show.
I'm your host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic
of today's presentation, train seals, reading
instruction, and educational overlords. Let's
talk about reflection. Effective teachers are
reflective teachers. They think about what they're
doing, what they did, and what they're going
to do. Now there are two levels of reflection,
surface level reflection and deep meaning reflection.
Both are necessary, but one without the other
is not sufficient. So let's look at surface level
reflection. Surface level reflection focuses
only on the lesson objective. How did I do today?
Did I achieve my objective? Did students learn
what I intended? Could I have done something
differently? I, I, I. Surface level reflection
focuses on your performance and how you might
go about improving it. This level of reflection
is based on the conception of teacher as trained
seal. The goal is to get the trained seals to
perform the right sort of tricks in the right
sort of way so that all reading problems will
go away. Arf! Using surface level reflection,
the trained seal asks, did I perform my tricks
the right way? Did I follow the directions with
fidelity? But... Teachers are much more than
trained seals performing tricks for fish. At
least they once were. Deep meaning reflection
focuses on four big questions. Number one, does
my teaching align with what I know about human
beings, human learning, and human development?
reflects the kind of things you'd learn in a
good educational psychology course. Number two,
what am I teaching and why? Is what I'm teaching
necessary? Should I even be teaching it? Am I
teaching it simply because it's required? Who
made it required? Of what value is it? Should
I instead be teaching something else? The third
question, how am I teaching? Are the approaches
and strategies being used aligned with what a
body of research says is effective for most students?
And is it effective for the students in front
of me? And number four, does my teaching reflect
my educational philosophy? And an educational
philosophy commonly has three parts. First, what
do you believe to be the purpose of education
in a democratic society? In other words, why
do we educate our children? Of what worth is
it to both the individual and our human communities?
Second, what's the desire to end a state? And
third, what are some objectives for attaining
this end? These questions don't get asked nearly
enough. What's wrong with you? The overlord asked
me angrily. We can't have teachers running around
thinking whatever they want to think. Why not,
I asked. Because there'd be chaos, he shouted.
Chaos and pretty soon teachers would be doing
all sorts of things. all sorts of things, even
creative things. And he shuddered. Yes, I replied,
that's the purpose. Teachers would be designing
learning experiences based on their students'
needs and interests. They'd be using their professional
knowledge and experience. Nonsense, he said,
pounding the desk. Nonsense. We know what's best
for teachers. We know what teachers need. We
know what's best for their students. But you
don't even know their students, I pointed out.
Oh, this infuriated the overlord. Guards, he
shouted, guards. Two men and a woman all wearing
identical brown suits ran into the room. The
overlord pointed at me. Take this man out and
cut off his head, he shouted. The suits looked
at each other. One of them finally spoke timidly,
cut off his head, sir. You heard me, the overlord
said. Get a big sword, take him outside and then
cut off his head. It's not that complicated.
There was more silence. Well. The overlord demanded
impatiently. What are you waiting for? One of
them spoke up. Last year, sir, the board made
a policy about the head thing, sir. Remember?
A policy, you say? Yes, your lordship. It was
making a mess on the carpets. Damn, he said.
That's right. Well, what can I do? You could
debunk him, sir? Oh, very well, he said impatiently.
He fluttered his hand at me and said, in the
name of lexia learning, I hereby debunk you.
Now get him out of here. I've got puppies to
kick and Barbie dolls to shoot. And the three
suits grabbed me, took me down to the lobby and
roughly threw me out of corporate headquarters.
And I sat on the ground. all debunked up.