Chapter 5: Building Inquiring Minds Around Disciplinary Texts
Doug Buehl opens Chapter 5 with this essential question: "How can teachers mentor students as disciplinary readers, writers, and thinkers?" What is the answer? How can teachers tackle such an enormous challenge?
I think Ben Franklin hit the nail on the head, involvement. Students need to be involved in learning to understand it---to own it.
I believe Buehl fostered this idea as well with the vignettes he provided in the beginning of the chapter. Buehl reasoned that he is a disciplinary expert in baseball because he can provide first hand experience along with devoted research to the game. His wife on the other hand, is categorised as a disciplinary expert in classical music because of her years of playing violin and her dedication to the art. Both feel confident being engrossed in their preferred areas of discipline because they have a great variety of connections to the discipline. As a teacher, I try to bring this frame of mind to the table. I strive to incorporate this percept into the planning, delivering, and reflecting of teaching. If students are provided inquiry based learning their ownership of learning enhances and therefore can be applied to further problem based learning.
Chapter 5 “Building Inquiring Minds Around Disciplinary Texts” by Buehl. Reading the chapter and Colleen’s response it reminded me when I did my observation hours for the class. The teacher was actually using all the techniques that the author talks about such as describing the difference of a mind –set reader verses a disciplinary insider. According to the author a mindset reader are students that tends to regard reading as a disciplinary that needs to be taken care of, an obligation that is being imposed by someone else. In the other hand, the classroom that I observed I noticed that the teacher used the idea of disciplinary insiders approach because the teacher is promoting readings as a personal access of knowledge to the student, because the teacher was asking questions to the students therefore, the teacher was promoting critical thinking in the class. Also, students were encouraged to read any books of their interest. This motivated students to ask questions, do classroom talk and group activities. The author mentioned that students must be thought the idea that reading is inquiry. The act of asking for information is important because students learned to target the big ideas of a subject therefore students can “cut right to the core of why they are studying a discipline” I don’t have teaching experience, but can describe what I saw in classroom and I think school that train the right teachers can make a big difference in the school system.
ReplyDeleteHello Colleen,
ReplyDeleteGreat post this week! Buehl's Chapter 5, "Building Inquiring Minds Around Disciplinary Texts", provided a lot of great examples and information that will be useful to teachers and pre-service teachers across all disciplines. The question Buehl posed to readers and that you discussed above is very important. It is essentially what we are trying to uncover in this class. We want our students to become disciplinary writers, readers, and thinkers. As teachers, it is our job to help them do so by using different literacy strategies, teaching techniques, etc. Your discussion of having students get involved with the material they are learning is absolutely crucial in having students understand the concepts they are working with. Having that first hand experience is so helpful in being able to make connections and understand the concept fully. It is also great because it supplies them with the knowledge that this can all be applied outside of school as well. I also agree with Laura's post. I always love when people can give their experience of seeing this in real life especially in a classroom. Overall, great job.
Thank you, I think this chapter was pretty thought provoking. I too really like the quote provided by Benjamin Franklin and need to remind myself of this while teaching.
DeleteHello Colleen,
ReplyDeleteGreat post this week! Buehl's Chapter 5, "Building Inquiring Minds Around Disciplinary Texts", provided a lot of great examples and information that will be useful to teachers and pre-service teachers across all disciplines. The question Buehl posed to readers and that you discussed above is very important. It is essentially what we are trying to uncover in this class. We want our students to become disciplinary writers, readers, and thinkers. As teachers, it is our job to help them do so by using different literacy strategies, teaching techniques, etc. Your discussion of having students get involved with the material they are learning is absolutely crucial in having students understand the concepts they are working with. Having that first hand experience is so helpful in being able to make connections and understand the concept fully. It is also great because it supplies them with the knowledge that this can all be applied outside of school as well. I also agree with Laura's post. I always love when people can give their experience of seeing this in real life especially in a classroom. Overall, great job.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the image you incorporated into your blog. It tells a lot about how students retain information and that goes in connection to what was discussed in Chapter 5. I think it’s important to have student involved in the classroom because as you mention “they need to learn to understand it—own it”. If students are involved in the classroom, then they will be able to use that knowledge in other classes. We don’t want students to be “doing reading”, but more importantly we want them to critically think about the reading. Laura also brought up some good points in her response, as teachers we have to learn how to get students involved in the classroom therefore serving as a gateway to their learning. Which as your quote puts it we want them involved in order for them to learn.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. As an immediate tangential side note, it perfectly demonstrates how it is possible to make a compelling point without thousands of words, as I know I am wont to do. It is nice to see that approach modeled here.
Your observation - or, rather, Ben Franklin's observation synthesized by yourself - speaks to why I found this chapter so germane to my own anxiety about teaching English. I encounter a lot of young people who say "I like reading, but I just want to read for enjoyment." Buehl mentioned this phenomenon, too, in the chapter. That sentence always makes me wince. As a long-time student of literary criticism and a critical reader of fiction, the whole "fun" of reading is trying to unpack and interpret texts, not just reading the surface level narrative.
As you mentioned in your post, "involving" students is the key to making them WANT to learn. This is where I think Buehl's approach of teaching disciplinary "inquiry" is so crucial. By modeling a process by which students are able to "involve themselves," rather than being compelled to participate by the structure of a classroom or an assignment, we are able to create enthusiastic learners. In a way, Buehl's approach signifies the possibility of removing "external" rewards as the principal motivator for students, replacing them with "internal" rewards that derive from the satisfaction of asking one's self meaningful questions and searching for their answers.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI really like your post this week. I definitely agree with the fact that you said student involvement has everything to do with learning. Throughout chapter 5, Buhel’s examples (as mentioned in the post, basketball and classical music) really stressed the idea of being an expert in a discipline and drawing connections which I think is a useful tool to use in the classroom. And I think you did a good job reiterating that in your post. It is an important thing to incorporate in all aspects of the classroom.
Hello Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the image that you included with your blog post because it speaks volumes about things i have seen in the classroom as an observer and an educator. I feel like students really learn best when they are involved in what it is they are learning. Especially because from that point on they are makeing sure they understand what it is they are learning in their own way. We as educators may teach a topic in a certain way that may turn off a student from it but, by getting them more involved the student can find things that make the lesson more interesting, they are at this point teaching themselves. Which is also where i feel the Buehl reading comes in. By having students take the reigns they will learn what is expected of them but along the way they may teach themselves things that we never touched on. They would have built their own interest and inquire further then we would have guided them. Having a student involved, i feel, is one of the things we need to push as educators in our future/current classes.
Hi Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the image you provided as well. I think it really sums this chapter up in a few words. In chapter 5 Buehl talked a lot about the importance of questioning the author. I really got a lot out of his example of "questioning the author think-aloud" and I really believe it is a good strategy to use especially in science when many texts are complex. This type of think aloud forces students to analyze each section of the text and does not allow them to read just for completion. Have individual students break down an entire text forces them to be involved in order to learn. I know in my educational and personal experiences, this type of strategy has really helped me. Allowing myself to break down a complex text and to ask questions out loud leads to a greater understanding.
Hello Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that students need to be involved in their learning as it is happening. There is no point in simply stating facts and having the students recite them later for a test if they are going to forget it as soon as they turn in their exam. Students need to be directly involved in the lesson, they need to have hands on experience handling the information so that they know how it can be utilized in the real world or for their own betterment. By using their hands and bodies as well as their minds true learning can be fostered.