[MOSAIC] Cambourne's Atlanta institute

[jdelich at springfield.k12.il.us]

Readers,

I am resending this with a new subject. Some people may not have opened it under the previous subject of end of year year. I am sorry if you get it twice. Some people are asking for the information.
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>Dear Lori,
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>I took lots of notes because I knew I might need to go back for clarity, and I have his hand-outs. I will attempt to briefly summarize, but it humbles me to try to do it justice. I have taken every opportunity to hear him speak over the years. He is brilliant.
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>Cambourne started with the conditions for all learning. He next spoke of the work of Ellen Langer, and her book. THE POWER OF MINDFUL LEARNING. I wrote down that he translated her work as work that is engaging and makes sense to learners. Students are deeply engaged in literacy, not just motivated. He spoke of teaching strategies that were mindful & contextualized. He noted that drill and repetition for automaticity leads to "mindless" learning.
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>His next really big point was that in his observations of effective teachers and effective classrooms the product will be substantial "incidental learning;" learning that is "unintentional, unplanned & is situated, contextual, social and mindful." "Students will display skills and knowledge about aspects of literacy that they never have been formally or deliberately taught." 
>(I used quotes on this, but I am not certain it is an exact quote. It's what I wrote down, and I know it didn't originate from my mind!)
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>He then made a visual of two "pools" literally, and spoke of the linguistic "spill-over"  from the small pool into the main pool. The small, "side-data pool" would be the skills and knowledge associated with the explicit focus of the activity-for example whatever the component of the Reader's theatre the students might have been working on in any given day, and the spillover would be all the other literacy related skills and knowledge not explicitly taught.
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>Cambourne then spoke about the guiding principles of effective classrooms & teachers for this learning. 
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>#1 Valid & Reliable Theory of Learning (Conditions for how complex human learning works) 
>brian_cambourne at uow.edu.au
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>#2. Teaching & Learning Structures: regular, reliable, organized patterns to support student learning. These included predictable schedules, routines & expectations, teaching episodes or mini-lessons (guided reading, shared rdg. modeled writing, etc), Teaching-learning Activities, and rich tasks (retelling, narrative writing, lit circles, reader's theatre, etc.), and Things or objects used or acted upon-which he called Literacy Learning Activities (journals, independent rdg. read to someone, SSR, etc.)
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>#3 Meaning Making Behaviors and Learning Processes. He listed these under two headings: Overt & Covert. The overt are of course visible: talking, listening, reading, writing, drawing, and performing. The covert are more complex and subconscious, or behind the scenes. Students might paraphrase via multiple tellings; studetns transform to oral, visual, written & 3-D versions; students construct metaphors; students' metacognition of their own learning. The teacher might be heard to ask, "How did you figure that out," or "How do you know that?"
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>#4 Language-in-Use: He called this principle the "glue that binds the learning theory structures and processes together, and at the same time provides the 'lubricant' to enable the bits to run smoothly." There were 3 types of language in use: language that created trusting & supportive relationships; language that supported classroom management (calm assertive tone), and "learner friendly talk that established learning expectations.
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>To summarize this effective teaching and learning he drew a 3-part model with arrows running both ways. You would need to picture it in an oval or circle. The three parts were: Meaning Making, Demonstrations, and Opportunities to Transform Learning.
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>The man is certainly a "gem" in our profession!
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>John
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>mosaic at literacyworkshop.org wrote:
>>Brian is a gem.  
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>_______________________________________________________
>Sent through e-mol. E-mail, Anywhere, Anytime. http://www.e-mol.com

_______________________________________________________
Sent through e-mol. E-mail, Anywhere, Anytime. http://www.e-mol.com