First of all, when I read Dora’s journey through writing, all can picture is Dora the Explorer. You know, the little Mexican-American cartoon girl on television. She yells things like, “Swiper no swiping!” and, “We did it! We did it! We did it!” Dora the Explorer is a children’s television program that is supposed to encourage children to problem solve, think critically, and never be afraid to learn.
SINCE I was picturing Dora (the cartoon) while reading the article about Dora the writer, I couldn’t help but imagine the article as another episode of Dora the Explorer. As I watched Dora progress, I imagined her jumping up and down saying: “I did it! I did it! I did it!” I saw her celebrations and her frustrations, but loved her determination. I found myself rooting for her, cheering her on. I wanted to exclaim: “You’re doing it! You’re doing it! You’re doing it!”
In the television show, there is a character named Swiper who likes to steal things. To keep him from thievery, Dora yells: “Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping!” In the same way that Swiper shouldn’t steal the various things that Dora holds dear, educators mustn’t swipe a child’s ability to learn. As I was watching Dora explore punctuation, I knew that I must refrain from stepping in and telling her exactly what to do. The teacher in the story was correct when she let Dora develop hypotheses her own. If the teacher had sat down with Dora and told her everything she had done wrong, a chorus of ‘Swiper no swiping’ should have sounded in the room, because that teacher would have been swiping Dora’s chance to learn.
How do we, as teachers, promote an environment of self-discovery?
HAHA! YES! Now that you mention it, it does seem like Dora... the only thing missing is the talking turkeys, "Pavo,pavo,pavo...." I think that self-discovery is important and the only was to do it is on your own. The teacher should give the students the basic scaffolding and direct them in the right direction-- then back off and see what the students come up with. Some students will figure it out right away while others may need more support. The important thing is that the teacher only offers support; the teacher has to know when he/she is offering too much help and hindering the students self discovery.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher can tell writers the rules and conventions... but they will have to master them themselves. There really isn't any other way BUT to allow them to self-discover. Yes, we can mark papers and have them do workbook pages and DOL... but until they actually sit down and experiment with the concepts in their own writing, they CAN'T internalize any of the instruction.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, as Dan said, we can swipe them of learning by being too prescriptive and critical. They'll stop experimenting, and their writing will suffer.