Thursday, February 9, 2012

Gleaners vs. Guides


World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, an article by Will Richardson, brought up several ideas that are now percolating within me. He says,

"as teachers, we must begin to model our own editorial skills -- how we locate and discern good information and good partners -- at every turn, in every class, reflecting with students on our successes and failures."

How many of you have thought of something you wanted to share with your students, spur of the moment or planned, and typically will look something up, choose the best source, get the information cued and THEN turn on the projector? It was an ah-ha moment for me last year when I realized that I need to be modeling the entire process of information searching, retrieval, and selection. small_5450695742_projector

We are no longer the gleaners of information, searching through books, etc. to find the best information to disseminate to our students. Our role has shifted to that of guide. We must remember to openly demonstrate the entire process, even when it doesn't work out as we thought it would. Even the 'failure' is part of the process. If we aren't willing to guide students through the steps how will they learn the steps? Or at least learn them well?

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