Teaching: Nurturing Internal Processes
Nurturing internal processes.
- Reading aloud. Reading aloud stimulates both social interaction and internal reflection. I include it in this discussion of nurturing internal processes because I find internal reflection on passages read sometimes occurs long after the social aspect has ceased. Regardless of the content area I am teaching, I read aloud pertinent poetry, picture books, passages from chapter books, and selections from newspapers and magazines. I also encourage students to read to the class passages of text they find interesting.
- Modeling analysis. Moving students at any level beyond “one right answer” and “Is it on the test?” kinds of thinking takes perseverance and strategy. It also takes the ability to see things from multiple perspectives. One of the first things I do in my courses is to project an image and then ask students to respond in writing to the question “What do you see?” Some students give very literal answers; some answers are metaphoric; some answers concentrate on the artistic elements of production; some answers are written as a narrative about what is happening; some answers contain culturally influenced elements; a few answers contain allusions to other works. When I share the range of answers with the class, invariably someone comments about never having realized there are so many ways to see something. We talk about multiple perspectives, “right” answers, best answers, and “wrong” answers that lead to new discoveries.
- Being sensitive to serendipitous moments. Many courses are survey courses. We try to cover as many settings using as many strategies backed by as many studies based on as many theorists as possible in order to arm students to face as many situations as possible. While I try to pack as much as possible into my teaching sessions, I also try to remain open to those serendipitous moments where student interest begs for an issue to be explored more deeply. We have taken an entire class period to study the literature on a matter of concern to the students and to compose/write (or not write) letters to the powers that be. We have become so engrossed in debate over whether a character should or should not have taken a particular course of action, that the rest of the period was devoted to the discussion. I believe such experiences are the ones that extend student learning, because of both the content and the passion they felt, beyond the classroom.