September 2nd, 2009
9:00 a.m.
Even though this is a Dunwoody Chamblee Parents Council meeting -
All DeKalb County School Parents Welcome!
Dunwoody High School
5035 Vermack Road
Dunwoody, Georgia 30338
Phone: 678-874-8502
Cross Keys advocates - make this your opportunity to ask questions of Dr. Lewis!
One of the more useful concepts that came out of America’s Choice the first time it went through DCSS was the introduction of a reading element known as “activating schema” which means that good readers connect to what they read based on past experiences. So for example, when I read a passage of Angela’s Ashes I reflect upon incidents in my own childhood that pop into my mind as I read. This not only improves my comprehension because of increased interest but also serves to remind me of the value and validity of my own experiences(no matter whether they were good or bad). This second part is a subtle but valuable insight that adds a depth to the reading process that in turn improves comprehension. Many below grade readers focus so much on words that they have a great difficulty in seeing thoughts or ideas in a passage they are reading.
ReplyDeleteThe point of this, and I apologize for the length and the misplaced placement of this comment in this section (but where else to put it?) is to share with you an explosion of activated scheme that I experienced on a Saturday morning. Watching “Fort Apache” with Henry Fonda and John Wayne, it was crystallized for me just what DCSS wants in their administrators. Watch or read about the movie, and know that it could have been made about the former principal at Sequoyah MS who just received a bonus and a move to Stone Mt. Middle.
For further explanation, just go to http://www.temple.edu/philosophy/Dyke/HorseOperaII.htm
And read the section titled Class of 48.
Colonel Thursday and Principal Arnold are one and the same right down to their (mis)treatment of their assistants and staff, and yet he is held up as the model principal in DCSS.
Interesting, Anon. Why not explain your "activated scheme" in a bit more detail for us?
ReplyDeleteOn a similar note - I feel the same way about principal Moton's move from Lakeside. She came to us as a principal at a middle school in Gwinnett that hadn't made AYP. She took the helm at Lakeside for two years - a school that has always made AYP. She was deemed "highly successful" - and given a $10k transfer bonus to another DCSS high school. Ironically, the principal before her, seemingly performed similarly in assessments (Lakeside made AYP, etc), and though he was given a "transfer" - it was one out of the system - and certainly didn't come with a bonus.
The difference? Surmise for yourself using your own paradigm.
Question from an email -- Does anyone know what happened at the regional PTA meeting that was held at Laurel Ridge E.S. last week?
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ReplyDeleteSorry, you can't give credit to America's Choice for "activating schema" -- unless it's only for using a new term for a very old concept. In my first psychology classes over twenty years ago, the terms accommodation and assimilation to explain how we learn - the same process. You have new information that you compare to what you already know. You either assimilate the new information into your present "schema" (my professor used a filing cabinet analogy - you add the info to the file) or you accommodate the information by altering your existing schema (make a new file, throw out some old files).
In all my Reading Methods classes (circa 2000)for my early childhood certification, the same concepts were there - children need to make connections to text and do so in various ways - text to text (relate the current to something they've previously read), text to self (relate text to a personal experience) and text to environment (relate text to something in their world).
My major problem with America's Choice and all the other "quick fixes" is that they take something that's pretty much common knowledge for the majority of educators, give it a new bigger and better name, add tons of paperwork and voila, you have the cure du jour.
For a pre-Lewis meeting discussion, visit the conversation on the topic at Heneghan's Dunwoody Blog.
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