Snow and a Learned Helplessness

As I'm writing this post I'm enjoying a view of white roofs and snow/grass men. (In the South we often do not get enough snow to make a man purely made of snow. He usually is covered in bits of grass as well.) But, I am cuddled up warm inside due to my "Learned Helplessness" of being a Southerner. I don't have the clothing appropriate for snow, nor do I know how to drive my car on the snowy roads.

Why did I bring up snow? And this "learned helplessness" thing? Well, there is a connection, I promise. I was listening to this podcast (#17) earlier and one of the first things discussed was learned helplessness. I think I've heard that phrase before, but for some reason it really caught my attention this time. The teachers on the podcast were discussing their classrooms and how students seem to come in to the classroom and immediately say, "I don't get it!" As teachers, it is our job to help students to "get it", but a lot of the time I feel like we, as teachers, are making our jobs even harder than they already are. Students have a job too. Their job is to learn. When assigned a reading or homework, if they don't immediately "get it" then it is their job to wrestle with it on their own until they can't anymore. Students are not taking ownership of their own learning. We often teach students a "learned helplessness" and make it all too easy to just give up. They know that after being assigned a worksheet we will write all of the answers on the whiteboard the next day. In my student teaching, students were even allowed to re-take tests for FULL credit with the help of their books. What are students learning from this? (I'm asking myself this as much as asking for your help understanding!) I also gained some insight on this topic from this blog post of a teacher relating her struggles of learned helplessness with her students.

The teachers went on to talk about reading which grabbed my attention again as I'm still trying to better define "content literacy". I am a good reader. I just am. My mom jokes that I learned to read in carpool lines. (Oh the joys of older siblings.) But I have always enjoyed reading. I like being read to. I never understood students in class who couldn't read very well. So, knowing this, you will understand how surprised I was to hear the podcast say, "We all thing we're good readers. {I don't think. I know.} But the truth of it is that we're all bad readers. {Maybe you are, but I rock!} It just depends on what reading we're given. {*jaw drops*}" Humbling. That makes sense. This also helped me to get into the mindset of a student who might have difficulty reading certain materials. It also makes me think that maybe different students should be given different readings that can push them but also encourage them and help them succeed. (I'm slowly realizing that teaching is more work than everyone thinks it is.)

So if some type of reading is difficult for everyone, what do we do when we hit that wall? I am too stubborn to give up, so I use a strategy. One strategy that we've been focusing on in my content literacy class has been double entry diaries. (This blog gives a great description of how to use and teach double-entry diaries.) You basically fold a piece of paper in half and write a quote or something from the "text" on the left side. On the right side you are supposed to add your thoughts or ideas on what you have written on the left side of the page. I've seen it used in math classrooms as well as literature classrooms and it seems to be a great strategy for some students. Not for me. I'm very much a highlighter and underliner. Sometimes I write in the margins if I need to. But there is nothing I like more than a good colorfully highlighted reading or book. It means I understand. Knowing this, I still know that many of my students are going to need different strategies. So I need to adapt. I need to learn more strategies. I want to know 15 ways to understand a text so that I can help my 15 different students understand their texts. I've got a long road ahead of me, but I'm up for it. But it will definitely require me learning just as much if not more than I am teaching.

"Content Literacy - the ability of someone to interact with and use strategies to interpret the content of some subject (in its own language) including being able to speak, listen to, read, and write in that language"

Oh, and the connection between snow and learned helplessness that I promised earlier? I realized that I am completely helpless about snow because I live in the wonderful South and have learned NOTHING about snow. It's cold and wet. And beautiful from a distance.

{Sassy}