The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
Erika Christakis
ISBN: 9780525429074
Read March 5, 2016
Discusses the hodge-podge nature of preschool and kindergarten education, and what we are discovering about effective learning environments based on longitudinal studies, other countries, developmental psychology research, and hands-on experimentation.
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Friday, March 11, 2016
Monday, February 22, 2016
Continuing Education: Reading Picture Books with Children, Megan Dowd Lambert
Reading Picture Books with Children
Megan Dowd Lambert
ISBN: 9781580896627
Nonfiction: a book explaining and extolling the "Whole Book Approach" to presenting picture books.
Lambert assumes the reader is already an experienced teacher, parent, or storytime-giver, and doesn't waste any time rehashing the traditional method of storytime: kids sit quietly, reader reads to emphasize story and narrative (and characters if they're talented/brave enough to do voices), pictures are shown around perfunctorily, the books are finished, the kids stay mostly quiet.
In the Whole Book Approach (a method Lambert developed while working with the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art) the narrative is relegated to simply another facet of the whole picture book as a purposefully created entity using multiple disciplines and arts to present a concept and narrative. Here, equal or more focus is given to describing and questioning the art, the book design decisions, and even to choices in typography and page borders. Even more scandalous, this is a discussion-based approach, so not only are the kids supposed to talk, the "storyteller" is actually supposed to interrupt the story on each page and ASK them for their thoughts on what's going on with the art, design, typesetting, and whatever (directed questions, of course). What heresy!
She's really gung-ho about it, and her enthusiasm is infectious, but I do have a few qualms.
Point one: I work with toddlers. No amount of directed questions will forstall the flood of "I have a dog and a mommy and a bedroom and it was my birthday and my gramma is a princess..." stream of consciousness that 4 year olds do so well when presented with any sort of official adult attention. So this is already limited to older kids who can actually process and respond to prompts, and to take at least a little bit of time thinking about what they're seeing before chattering away. She talks about kindergarten groups, but even then I wonder if I could lead them well enough for the process to be coherent.
Point two: If you really dedicate to this, the narrative is going to get shafted, and I do not like that. I LOVE that she wants to focus on the art and design, and to bring attention to what are very much informed and purposeful choices, and to bring kids consciously into an awareness of motifs and memes and conventions that we follow in our culture to signal specific ideas or concepts or moods. All of that is really really great, and SHOULD be taught to kids - BUUUUT... it bothers me that the method to achieve this will totally wreck the flow of a good story. Grrr. I am coming at this from a performative and theatrical background, and really truly this bugs me quite a lot. My personal opinion is that this sort of work should be done with books that the reader and audience already knows extremely well. That way the first encounter with a story is always smooth and presents the story, and does justice to the narrative and pictures being a natural and cohesive unified experience (which is what I THINK most picture book authors and artists want anyway - for the work to just meld seamlessly into this delightful experience that kids love, even if they can't specify why they love it). So, book first as narrative, THEN you go can back in with the post-season analysis and really dig into the why and how and wherefore, with as much discussion and digression and not-ever-finishing-the-actual-book as you like.
Point three: Some people like being all meta about their pleasure activities, and (here's the point where I think Lambert is being a bit more universal than she ought) some people really really don't. And I think those preferences that we have as adults are present as kids. Everyone knows the trope of the annoying TV-watching friend who constantly wants to talk talk talk and overanalyze and overthink every little part of Walking Dead or Game of Thrones - and it's not a positive representation. I hate to think that an overenthusiastic Whole Book Approach during a storytime would turn a kid off of reading because they now associate pleasure reading with that piecemeal and reductive meta-critical approach, and it's not a requirement - simply another way to appreciate and enjoy this particular type of book. And I say this as someone who actually already likes to analyze and critique books and artworks - I just realize that not everyone shares that particular impulse. Not everyone is a book reviewer, and not everyone should be. Not everyone wants to think about critical art theory while they relax, and they shouldn't feel like they have to. And there is the other massive downside here - there's the presenter's opinions on this analytical approach to consider as well. This book is likely to cause a small, quiet revolution in at least some places, and I really feel sorry for any librarians and educators who are forced into this method by decree rather than inclination, or any parents doing this out of a sense of obligation towards their child's development. I feel even MORE sorry for the kids they're presenting to. As much harm could come from an individual kid being not interested in the process, infinitely more harm can come to entire classrooms or groups from a slack or grudging approach by an adult forced into presenting this Approach by a boss or by guilt. I strongly believe that you should only read books that you at least LIKE, because kids are perceptive, and for every book I personally don't like enough to tell (SkippyJon Jones, I'm looking at you) there's other people who LOVE it and can do it justice and be enthusiastic. Please please don't make presenters use a storytime format that they don't intrinsically believe to be valuable or worthwhile - it's just going to backfire.
That was an awful lot of criticism, but those three basic points are really my main hesitations. Lambert presents her points clearly and with beautifully-selected picture-book examples, and explains her reasoning and her methodology rationally. I do support her goals, and I think that her method is fundamentally sound. I don't have any desire to see this format replace or supersede "traditional" storytimes, and despite her enthusiastic proposal of this method, I don't think she really does either. There's a time and a place for reading for uninhibited pleasure and for enjoyable critical analysis, and a perfect program would incorporate both, given by adults passionate about books and reading and children's developing minds.
Megan Dowd Lambert
ISBN: 9781580896627
Nonfiction: a book explaining and extolling the "Whole Book Approach" to presenting picture books.
Lambert assumes the reader is already an experienced teacher, parent, or storytime-giver, and doesn't waste any time rehashing the traditional method of storytime: kids sit quietly, reader reads to emphasize story and narrative (and characters if they're talented/brave enough to do voices), pictures are shown around perfunctorily, the books are finished, the kids stay mostly quiet.
In the Whole Book Approach (a method Lambert developed while working with the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art) the narrative is relegated to simply another facet of the whole picture book as a purposefully created entity using multiple disciplines and arts to present a concept and narrative. Here, equal or more focus is given to describing and questioning the art, the book design decisions, and even to choices in typography and page borders. Even more scandalous, this is a discussion-based approach, so not only are the kids supposed to talk, the "storyteller" is actually supposed to interrupt the story on each page and ASK them for their thoughts on what's going on with the art, design, typesetting, and whatever (directed questions, of course). What heresy!
She's really gung-ho about it, and her enthusiasm is infectious, but I do have a few qualms.
Point one: I work with toddlers. No amount of directed questions will forstall the flood of "I have a dog and a mommy and a bedroom and it was my birthday and my gramma is a princess..." stream of consciousness that 4 year olds do so well when presented with any sort of official adult attention. So this is already limited to older kids who can actually process and respond to prompts, and to take at least a little bit of time thinking about what they're seeing before chattering away. She talks about kindergarten groups, but even then I wonder if I could lead them well enough for the process to be coherent.
Point two: If you really dedicate to this, the narrative is going to get shafted, and I do not like that. I LOVE that she wants to focus on the art and design, and to bring attention to what are very much informed and purposeful choices, and to bring kids consciously into an awareness of motifs and memes and conventions that we follow in our culture to signal specific ideas or concepts or moods. All of that is really really great, and SHOULD be taught to kids - BUUUUT... it bothers me that the method to achieve this will totally wreck the flow of a good story. Grrr. I am coming at this from a performative and theatrical background, and really truly this bugs me quite a lot. My personal opinion is that this sort of work should be done with books that the reader and audience already knows extremely well. That way the first encounter with a story is always smooth and presents the story, and does justice to the narrative and pictures being a natural and cohesive unified experience (which is what I THINK most picture book authors and artists want anyway - for the work to just meld seamlessly into this delightful experience that kids love, even if they can't specify why they love it). So, book first as narrative, THEN you go can back in with the post-season analysis and really dig into the why and how and wherefore, with as much discussion and digression and not-ever-finishing-the-actual-book as you like.
Point three: Some people like being all meta about their pleasure activities, and (here's the point where I think Lambert is being a bit more universal than she ought) some people really really don't. And I think those preferences that we have as adults are present as kids. Everyone knows the trope of the annoying TV-watching friend who constantly wants to talk talk talk and overanalyze and overthink every little part of Walking Dead or Game of Thrones - and it's not a positive representation. I hate to think that an overenthusiastic Whole Book Approach during a storytime would turn a kid off of reading because they now associate pleasure reading with that piecemeal and reductive meta-critical approach, and it's not a requirement - simply another way to appreciate and enjoy this particular type of book. And I say this as someone who actually already likes to analyze and critique books and artworks - I just realize that not everyone shares that particular impulse. Not everyone is a book reviewer, and not everyone should be. Not everyone wants to think about critical art theory while they relax, and they shouldn't feel like they have to. And there is the other massive downside here - there's the presenter's opinions on this analytical approach to consider as well. This book is likely to cause a small, quiet revolution in at least some places, and I really feel sorry for any librarians and educators who are forced into this method by decree rather than inclination, or any parents doing this out of a sense of obligation towards their child's development. I feel even MORE sorry for the kids they're presenting to. As much harm could come from an individual kid being not interested in the process, infinitely more harm can come to entire classrooms or groups from a slack or grudging approach by an adult forced into presenting this Approach by a boss or by guilt. I strongly believe that you should only read books that you at least LIKE, because kids are perceptive, and for every book I personally don't like enough to tell (SkippyJon Jones, I'm looking at you) there's other people who LOVE it and can do it justice and be enthusiastic. Please please don't make presenters use a storytime format that they don't intrinsically believe to be valuable or worthwhile - it's just going to backfire.
That was an awful lot of criticism, but those three basic points are really my main hesitations. Lambert presents her points clearly and with beautifully-selected picture-book examples, and explains her reasoning and her methodology rationally. I do support her goals, and I think that her method is fundamentally sound. I don't have any desire to see this format replace or supersede "traditional" storytimes, and despite her enthusiastic proposal of this method, I don't think she really does either. There's a time and a place for reading for uninhibited pleasure and for enjoyable critical analysis, and a perfect program would incorporate both, given by adults passionate about books and reading and children's developing minds.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Nonfiction: Seven Myths About Education, Daisy Christodoulou
I was referenced to this title by an earlier read: Curious, and after having read the other title that it recommended on education theory and practice (Why Don't Students Like School?) I decided I needed to follow up on the ideas presented with this one as well.
Seven Myths About Education
Daisy Christodoulou
ISBN: 9780415746823
Read September 28, 2014
I don't know why I expected this book to be longer than it was, but it's practically a pamphlet. It's also written by a teacher in Great Britain, so the specific institutional frameworks referenced are quite different from ours (mentions of analogues to school boards and review or policy-makers, or even to the grades or ages of students in examples - all were unfamiliar) but does not in my opinion make the book difficult to understand or to follow her chains of logic.
And her chains of logic are scrupulously maintained. For each myth, she examines in detail the theoretical underpinnings of an idea, proof that this idea is promulgated and approved by current school doctrines, then shows neurological and historical counters to this idea which establish it as a myth, and offers counterexamples and options for preferred teaching methods (although these last are a bit scarce).
I was amused to see her champion the Common Core methodology, given the political aching and moaning which is torpedoing progress in adopting a knowledge-based curriculum, but in a sort of perverse satisfaction, at least now with this book I know the British aren't head and shoulders ahead of us.
On the down-side, I have practically given up any hope that if I do have offspring, I'm going to be able to trust their education to any school system, either public, private, or Montessori. It's depressing to realize, but the saying seems to be true: if you want it done right, do it yourself. Needless to say, I've purchased this book for my own parenting collection.
Seven Myths About Education
Daisy Christodoulou
ISBN: 9780415746823
Read September 28, 2014
I don't know why I expected this book to be longer than it was, but it's practically a pamphlet. It's also written by a teacher in Great Britain, so the specific institutional frameworks referenced are quite different from ours (mentions of analogues to school boards and review or policy-makers, or even to the grades or ages of students in examples - all were unfamiliar) but does not in my opinion make the book difficult to understand or to follow her chains of logic.
And her chains of logic are scrupulously maintained. For each myth, she examines in detail the theoretical underpinnings of an idea, proof that this idea is promulgated and approved by current school doctrines, then shows neurological and historical counters to this idea which establish it as a myth, and offers counterexamples and options for preferred teaching methods (although these last are a bit scarce).
I was amused to see her champion the Common Core methodology, given the political aching and moaning which is torpedoing progress in adopting a knowledge-based curriculum, but in a sort of perverse satisfaction, at least now with this book I know the British aren't head and shoulders ahead of us.
On the down-side, I have practically given up any hope that if I do have offspring, I'm going to be able to trust their education to any school system, either public, private, or Montessori. It's depressing to realize, but the saying seems to be true: if you want it done right, do it yourself. Needless to say, I've purchased this book for my own parenting collection.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Montessori, A Modern Approach. Paula Polk Lillard
Montessori, A Modern Approach
Paula Polk Lillard
ISBN: 080520394X
(1971)
Read March 25, 2014
I finally actually read it! Bought a lovely 70's style orange and yellow paperback copy from the library book sale, and read it cover to cover in an afternoon. I'd seen it before, and have had it recommended several times, but never gotten around to it.
I have to say, despite being nearly 45 years old, it holds up pretty well. That either says a lot for how little we've changed as a culture in 45 years, or speaks to her ability to avoid "modernisms" that become outdated quickly.
Basically this is a polemic, supporting Maria Montessori and her methods of instructing young people. I find it interesting that in America, the "land of the individual," Montessori has had such a tough time catching on, despite being pretty much designed around respecting and supporting individual interests and development. I think that is because while adults in America are supposed to be rugged and self-supporting and independent, kids are supposed to be passive and obedient and tractable - I'm never quite sure how or when people are supposed to mature from the one category to the other.
If you're not familiar with Montessori, you will be after reading this book. What I find interesting personally is that a lot of Montessori's ideas have been corroborated by modern scientific testing and developmental studies of children. We now KNOW that kids develop in certain stages, that it's good for kids to try and amster new abilities, and that it's normal for them to focus on one ability to the exclusion of others (the early walker who won't talk, or the chatterbox who is still crawling at 16 months). In fact, other than her didactic "Sensitive Periods" which are debunked by a better understanding that ideas and experiences are picked up and processed sequentially through infancy and childhood, most of what Montessori learned through observation more than one hundred years ago is holding up pretty darn well to modern scientific discoveries.
Now, what I'd like to see, and haven't been able to find, is an actual "modern" update to this classic, talking about developments in science that back up their ideas. No luck so far tho.
Paula Polk Lillard
ISBN: 080520394X
(1971)
Read March 25, 2014
I finally actually read it! Bought a lovely 70's style orange and yellow paperback copy from the library book sale, and read it cover to cover in an afternoon. I'd seen it before, and have had it recommended several times, but never gotten around to it.
I have to say, despite being nearly 45 years old, it holds up pretty well. That either says a lot for how little we've changed as a culture in 45 years, or speaks to her ability to avoid "modernisms" that become outdated quickly.
Basically this is a polemic, supporting Maria Montessori and her methods of instructing young people. I find it interesting that in America, the "land of the individual," Montessori has had such a tough time catching on, despite being pretty much designed around respecting and supporting individual interests and development. I think that is because while adults in America are supposed to be rugged and self-supporting and independent, kids are supposed to be passive and obedient and tractable - I'm never quite sure how or when people are supposed to mature from the one category to the other.
If you're not familiar with Montessori, you will be after reading this book. What I find interesting personally is that a lot of Montessori's ideas have been corroborated by modern scientific testing and developmental studies of children. We now KNOW that kids develop in certain stages, that it's good for kids to try and amster new abilities, and that it's normal for them to focus on one ability to the exclusion of others (the early walker who won't talk, or the chatterbox who is still crawling at 16 months). In fact, other than her didactic "Sensitive Periods" which are debunked by a better understanding that ideas and experiences are picked up and processed sequentially through infancy and childhood, most of what Montessori learned through observation more than one hundred years ago is holding up pretty darn well to modern scientific discoveries.
Now, what I'd like to see, and haven't been able to find, is an actual "modern" update to this classic, talking about developments in science that back up their ideas. No luck so far tho.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
How Toddlers Thrive, Tovah P. Klein, PhD
How Toddlers Thrive
Tovah P. Kein, PhD
ISBN: 9781476735139
Read March 6, 2014
Nonfiction: parenting, education.
Interesting focus here, approaching toddlerhood through the lens of understanding WHY toddlers are demanding contrary little beasts; what's actually going on mentally and emotionally that causes their behaviors.
Some really insightful bits, but overall the tone is a little too upbeat - having seen lots of toddlers myself, I think that it can never hurt to really emphasize that no matter how good your understanding, or how talented and in-touch your parenting, there are going to be battles of wills, there are going to be tantrums, and there are going to be moments when you (the parent) want to tear your hair out by the roots, and that this is all normal and ok. I didn't feel like the book really addressed that quite seriously enough.
That said, I did like the focus on how toddlers live in the now, that they don't have an ability to understand the day in sequence or handle transitions well, and that as a parent your job isn't to make them happy, but to help them learn to navigate their big and complex and scary emotions - especially the ones that society considers "bad" - without making the kid feel bad or shamed or unworthy or unloved. Easy peasy, right?
Finally, I was interested in the approach to sharing. She emphasized that the kid has to be both developmentally and emotionally ready to share, and that forcing the issue often backfires. In other words, young kids are working out the concepts of "me" and "mine" and they conflate the two. If you force a child to share what they still think of as part of themselves, that doesn't help them set up healthy emotional boundaries, and also causes them to feel that their identity is unrecognized or worse, unimportant. After they get the idea that they are not their things, they still emotionally need to have their own things be theirs - to have the concept that their needs are important, recognized, and met. Once they are secure in their feelings of self, and their feelings of ownership, then (at least according to the author) they should not only share, but share willingly and of their own impulse. I'm not so sure I buy that they'll miraculously jump into sharing on their own accord, but I do understand the ideas of letting them figure out themselves and their stuff before making them share (ie - give away) what is important to them, when they don't have a mental framework to understand why it is important to share (no sense of empathy yet, or theory of mind to understand that other people even have wants/needs), or even that they will get the shared item back (no developed time-sense, living in the now).
Now, on how to balance that revelation with a society that looks on sharing as the prime directive of toddlerhood and socialization? No advice for parents there, thanks so much, author lady!
Tovah P. Kein, PhD
ISBN: 9781476735139
Read March 6, 2014
Nonfiction: parenting, education.
Interesting focus here, approaching toddlerhood through the lens of understanding WHY toddlers are demanding contrary little beasts; what's actually going on mentally and emotionally that causes their behaviors.
Some really insightful bits, but overall the tone is a little too upbeat - having seen lots of toddlers myself, I think that it can never hurt to really emphasize that no matter how good your understanding, or how talented and in-touch your parenting, there are going to be battles of wills, there are going to be tantrums, and there are going to be moments when you (the parent) want to tear your hair out by the roots, and that this is all normal and ok. I didn't feel like the book really addressed that quite seriously enough.
That said, I did like the focus on how toddlers live in the now, that they don't have an ability to understand the day in sequence or handle transitions well, and that as a parent your job isn't to make them happy, but to help them learn to navigate their big and complex and scary emotions - especially the ones that society considers "bad" - without making the kid feel bad or shamed or unworthy or unloved. Easy peasy, right?
Finally, I was interested in the approach to sharing. She emphasized that the kid has to be both developmentally and emotionally ready to share, and that forcing the issue often backfires. In other words, young kids are working out the concepts of "me" and "mine" and they conflate the two. If you force a child to share what they still think of as part of themselves, that doesn't help them set up healthy emotional boundaries, and also causes them to feel that their identity is unrecognized or worse, unimportant. After they get the idea that they are not their things, they still emotionally need to have their own things be theirs - to have the concept that their needs are important, recognized, and met. Once they are secure in their feelings of self, and their feelings of ownership, then (at least according to the author) they should not only share, but share willingly and of their own impulse. I'm not so sure I buy that they'll miraculously jump into sharing on their own accord, but I do understand the ideas of letting them figure out themselves and their stuff before making them share (ie - give away) what is important to them, when they don't have a mental framework to understand why it is important to share (no sense of empathy yet, or theory of mind to understand that other people even have wants/needs), or even that they will get the shared item back (no developed time-sense, living in the now).
Now, on how to balance that revelation with a society that looks on sharing as the prime directive of toddlerhood and socialization? No advice for parents there, thanks so much, author lady!
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
The Read-Aloud Handbook (7th Edition), Jim Trelease
The Read-Aloud Handbook (7th Edition, publication date 2013)
Jim Trelease
ISBN: 9780143121602
Read February 4, 2014
Nonfiction; education, parenting.
Background info: This nifty volume is in two parts: the first is an educational/parenting treatise giving the then-current state of research into why reading is paramount, and especially why reading TO kids is so important. The second half is a listing of various titles that the author believes are suitable for being read aloud to kids, divided into categories like wordless books (yeah, I know) poetry, nonfiction, and various age-groups.
Each subsequent edition has recognized that there's no reason to purchase or read a new edition if nothing much has changed, so the author and publisher have done a decent job in the first half at updating the research, changing out the vignettes, and including the current state of affairs each time around. For the second half, the titles recommended are cycled through, with special attention paid to titles currently out of print or difficult to find (those being either removed from the listing entirely, or noted as such if they are thought too good to miss).
So, with all that in mind, let me say here that last spring I discovered this resource existed, and I went on a binge-read right before the Summer Reading Program, placing requests on each edition (yes, all 6 of them), and checking out the different recommended reads, and thoroughly enjoying the first half of each book (which were, although slightly different each round, almost literally a repeated paean to librarians and readers). The only one I couldn't get was this last edition, which our system couldn't borrow until it was a bit older. Well, it got a bit older, and it arrived today! Yay!
I haven't gone through the book recs yet, but I did take a while to read through the first half (and it has grown now into almost half) of this very-well-researched presentation of the current research into reading, the sorry state of our educational system (I want to move to Finland) and how parents and educators can individually contradict these bad influences by READING MORE!!!
My kind of book!
On a slightly more serious note, if you're interested in learning about what the deal is with received language, how kids learn vocabulary, and how to put your kid on the top of the scrap heap called life, read this edition of this book. The other editions are of course out of date, so I'd only recommend them if you are interested in seeing how the history and the research developed (which I was, and I thought was fascinating, but then I'm a nerd).
I'm sure that this record will be seeing the evidence of the other half of the book as soon as I get a chance to dig into the lists and learn of interesting titles I've missed.
Jim Trelease
ISBN: 9780143121602
Read February 4, 2014
Nonfiction; education, parenting.
Background info: This nifty volume is in two parts: the first is an educational/parenting treatise giving the then-current state of research into why reading is paramount, and especially why reading TO kids is so important. The second half is a listing of various titles that the author believes are suitable for being read aloud to kids, divided into categories like wordless books (yeah, I know) poetry, nonfiction, and various age-groups.
Each subsequent edition has recognized that there's no reason to purchase or read a new edition if nothing much has changed, so the author and publisher have done a decent job in the first half at updating the research, changing out the vignettes, and including the current state of affairs each time around. For the second half, the titles recommended are cycled through, with special attention paid to titles currently out of print or difficult to find (those being either removed from the listing entirely, or noted as such if they are thought too good to miss).
So, with all that in mind, let me say here that last spring I discovered this resource existed, and I went on a binge-read right before the Summer Reading Program, placing requests on each edition (yes, all 6 of them), and checking out the different recommended reads, and thoroughly enjoying the first half of each book (which were, although slightly different each round, almost literally a repeated paean to librarians and readers). The only one I couldn't get was this last edition, which our system couldn't borrow until it was a bit older. Well, it got a bit older, and it arrived today! Yay!
I haven't gone through the book recs yet, but I did take a while to read through the first half (and it has grown now into almost half) of this very-well-researched presentation of the current research into reading, the sorry state of our educational system (I want to move to Finland) and how parents and educators can individually contradict these bad influences by READING MORE!!!
My kind of book!
On a slightly more serious note, if you're interested in learning about what the deal is with received language, how kids learn vocabulary, and how to put your kid on the top of the scrap heap called life, read this edition of this book. The other editions are of course out of date, so I'd only recommend them if you are interested in seeing how the history and the research developed (which I was, and I thought was fascinating, but then I'm a nerd).
I'm sure that this record will be seeing the evidence of the other half of the book as soon as I get a chance to dig into the lists and learn of interesting titles I've missed.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Tell Me a Story, Elaine Reese
Tell Me a Story, Elaine Reese, ISBN: 9780199772650
Read Sept 23, 2013.
Nonfiction: interactive story-sharing.
Excellent
parenting/professional guide discussing how reading and literacy and
oral language skills improve children's mental stats, their ability to
learn, and their emotional skills, metacognition, and theory of mind.
Not a bad slate of improvements for a fairly simple
technique - involving the child in telling (or sharing) a recitation of
story - either from actual books (from wordless picture-books on up
through adult-level fiction and nonfiction) or from telling and
re-telling stories of your own family (from the time you went to the
zoo, to the time grandpa ended up in the hospital) or from allowing the
child to create stories of their own (from fictional "and then I grew
wings and flew to the moon" to chapters-long created adventures cribbed
from Star Wars or Warhammer.
Nice balance between scientific study and
child-development milestones (listed at the end of each chapter with
real-life implications and indications) and actual transcripts of kids
and parents/researchers using the techniques with actual kids (some of
whom we see over and over again between infancy and teenagerhood). Very
interesting resource, but not complicated enough or profound enough to
feel like I need to own it.
If you're already devoted to literacy and language
skills, it's pretty much a simplified and straightforward set of
examples to make sure you're loading as much language into every
encounter with your kids as is humanly possible. Knowing my husband and
me, I doubt that's going to be a problem.
Friday, August 23, 2013
The Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley
The Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley. ISBN: 9781451654424
Read August 20
Nonfiction: education comparisons through time and between four main countries: USA, Poland, Finland, and South Korea.
I really enjoyed Ripley's first book: The Unthinkable. In fact,
I've probably bought more copies of that book as a gift for friends and
family than I really want to think about. This one - not so amazing,
but still good. I do like that she's got a fairly tight focus on the
countries involved, and that she uses real experiences of study-abroad
kids and her interviews with them to provide a human-interest angle.
That part certainly worked. But I really feel like this is unfinished.
I don't know what I was expecting - some sort of manifesto or clear
lessons to be taken from each different place (both positive and
negative) but I was expecting something - and there wasn't anything.
No real conclusion or stirring call to action. It was an interesting
and finely-crafted journey through the education policies and practices
across the world, but it was sort of like an amusement park ride - all
that rising and falling and interest and anticipation, and you end up
exactly back where you started. Sadly, the only real spark this has
given me is to my resolve: to homeschool any of my hypothetical eventual
children.
As always, I am in awe of the volume of footnotes and
references in Ripley's works. I wish every nonfiction book had half as
many notes and resources cited to follow back to their sources.
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