{"id":1347,"date":"2012-10-22T08:21:52","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T08:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2012-10-22T13:05:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T13:05:31","slug":"learner-autonomy-chuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2012\/10\/22\/learner-autonomy-chuck\/","title":{"rendered":"Learner Autonomy – Chuck"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOKS FOR AUTONOMOUS TEACHERS<\/strong>\u2013 Chuck Sandy\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Chuck
Chuck Sandy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyone who knows me knows I\u2019m a reader, and anyone who\u2019s a reader knows that reading what you\u2019ve chosen to read is an act of rebellious autonomy.<\/p>\n

Reading makes you think, and the more you think, the more you\u2019ll question the way things are. You\u2019ll then start wondering how things could be different and before long, you\u2019ll be making changes in the way you live, think, and teach.<\/p>\n

I give you fair warning: if you read the books I\u2019m going to tell you about, you\u2019ll no longer look for ways to encourage learner autonomy. Instead, you\u2019ll wonder how anything less could be called teaching and why school systems the world over work so hard to discourage autonomous teaching and learning. \u00a0Allow me to introduce you to some old friends.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Teaching As A Subversive Activity<\/strong>\u2028 – Postman & Weingartner<\/h3>\n

\"\"When Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner wrote Teaching As A Subversive Activity<\/em> in 1969, it was news. It still is. This book is as valid an attack on lock-step teaching and unimaginative schooling now as it was when they first declared that, “There are trivial ways of studying language which have no connection with life, and these we need to clear out of our schools.”<\/p>\n

This is something I remind myself of every single day. Above my desk is a \u00a0card on which years ago I copied these three questions from the book:<\/p>\n

What am I going to have my students do today?<\/p>\n

What is it good for?<\/p>\n

How do I know?<\/p>\n

Reflecting on these questions before teaching a class or writing an activity has forced me to constantly rethink the way I teach, the activities I write, and the reasons I’m a teacher. You might like to try this yourself.<\/p>\n

On Becoming A Person\u00a0<\/strong>\u2028- Carl Rogers<\/h3>\n

\"\"Roger’s beautiful book\u00a0opens with these words<\/p>\n

“I speak as a person, from a context of personal \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>experience and personal learnings”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

To offer yourself, as\u00a0you are, to a group of learners is the greatest gift you can offer them. This is at the center of Roger’s work and at the core of what I believe about authentic teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

For me, being a teacher means constantly working to become who I am while openly sharing that journey with others. My experience has been that the more I \u00a0offer who I am on any particular day, the more likely it is that others will do the same. Under these conditions, real learning and teaching become more possible.<\/p>\n

This is not an easy thing to do, and so it’s only right that\u00a0On Becoming A Person is not<\/em>\u00a0easy reading. It asks questions like: “What is the meaning of personal growth? Under what conditions is growth possible? How can one person truly help another? Is it really possible to teach<\/em>\u00a0anyone anything?”\u00a0Rogers grounds his work in a lifetime of practicing psychology and teaching to share the answers he’s arrived at. In the process of reading, \u00a0you’ll likely discover your own.<\/p>\n

A Place To Stand: Essays for Educators in Troubled Times<\/strong>\u00a0– Mark Clarke<\/h3>\n

\"\"Like many teachers, you might be experimenting with non-traditional ways of teaching.\u00a0In Clarke’s words you’re “a change agent” promoting not just change in your learners as you create conditions that make autonomous learning more likely. You’re also promoting\u00a0change in the way things are done. Fantastic!<\/p>\n

Be ready, though. People are going to notice, and not all of these people are going to be happy. I know this from hard experience. Reading Clarke’s book has saved my career more than once. If you’re doing non-traditional things in your classroom, get this book and take the following advice to heart:<\/p>\n

Invite others in to see what you’re doing in class, but be sure to prepare these observers for what they’re going to see. Then, as your students are huddled up \u00a0around laptops gathering data, while others are in some other corner practicing their presentation, while still others are doing something else all together noisily, \u00a0be ready to “help others see the structure and order of events and how these build upon each other toward a coherent experience for the learners.” Then be ready to be accommodating. Sure, I’ll get them to quiet down. Of course, we’ll use the textbook sometimes. Yes, I’ll make sure students learn what we’ve all agreed needs to be covered. Then smile, make sure you do those things, and get back to work.<\/p>\n

How Children Fail\u00a0\u00a0 – <\/strong>John Holt<\/h3>\n

\"\"I\u2019ll let Holt speak for himself, but as you read, replace the word children <\/em>with the word\u00a0teachers<\/em> and the word\u00a0learning\u00a0<\/em>with teaching<\/em>. \u00a0Watch what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools assume that children are not interested in learning and are not much good\u00a0at it, that they will not learn unless made to, that they cannot learn unless shown how,\u00a0and that the way to make them learn is to divide up the prescribed material into a\u00a0sequence of tiny tasks to be mastered one at a time, each with its appropriate ‘morsel’\u00a0and ‘shock.’ And when this method doesn’t work, the schools assume there is something\u00a0wrong with the children — something they must try to diagnose and treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe who believe that children want to learn about the world, are good at it, and can be\u00a0trusted to do it with very little adult coercion or interference, are probably no more than one percent of the population, if that … My work is to help it grow. \u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my work, too, and since you\u2019ve read this far, it\u2019s probably your work, too. The good news is, we\u2019re no longer the one percent. We\u2019re a movement whose members do not quite make up a majority yet, but we\u2019ll get there in my<\/em> lifetime. I\u2019m sure of it.<\/p>\n

Breaking Rules\u00a0 – John F. Fanselow<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Twenty-five years ago, this book set me free to become the autonomous learner\/teacher I\u2019m still becoming. \u00a0It helped me see what was really happening in my classes, while also giving me<\/em> permission<\/em> to explore alternatives. John\u2019s premise is that, \u201cOnly by engaging in the generation and exploration of alternatives will we be able to see. And then we will see that we must continue to look.”<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still looking, and what I see gets me looking more. \u00a0My teaching is an ongoing experiment. I never do the same thing the same way twice. This way of being<\/em> has extended into every aspect of my life. I live for learning and radiate that energy. I’ve got these old friends like John F. Fanselow to thank for that.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to experience some of this buzz, I invite you to join me in taking Breaking Rules\u00a0Live<\/em>, a five-week online course led my John F. Fanselow himself. I\u2019ll be taking the course. It’s a never-ending journey, and you’re welcome on it.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: iTDi\u2019s Breaking Rules Live course with John F. Fanselow<\/a>, begins on November 10th<\/sup>.\u00a0 For more information and registration, please click the link above.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>A limited number of seats are still available.<\/em><\/h3>\n

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BOOKS FOR AUTONOMOUS TEACHERS\u2013 Chuck Sandy\u00a0 Anyone who knows me knows I\u2019m a reader, and anyone who\u2019s a reader knows that reading what you\u2019ve chosen to read is an act of rebellious autonomy. Reading makes you think, and the more you think, the more you\u2019ll question the way things are. You\u2019ll then start wondering how … Continue reading Learner Autonomy – Chuck<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29,19,23,30],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learner-autonomy","tag-chuck-sandy","tag-itdi","tag-itdi-pro","tag-learner-autonomy-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}