I teach high school students carpentry. But I also teach them better communication skills, using both the spoken and written word. One supremely critical lesson I learned as a young carpenter's helper was that the most important tool I would need in carpentry I already possessed.
Carl Prescott, the 6'5", 280 pound giant of a framer who wore a long pigtail down his back,was also a mechanical engineer. He taught me so much about structure and the forces on them. He taught me to recognize the step-by-step process that would deliver us to the vision of the finished house. These words however, are written on the white board day-one in my classroom where they remain all year along with "Have a great work ethic" and "straight, level, square and plumb." Carl revealed to me what he called, "rock of the eye" as my most important tool. He was speaking of my own two eyes---my ability to be critical of my own work. If you constantly checked your work as it came together, if you probed and looked back at it as it took form, you could shape it into the finest of finished product, he explained.
I believe this applies to my young students learning to refine their writing skills and presentation skills in my classroom too. It is also essential I believe, to look closely at what is happening in your classroom as instruction happens too, no matter what it's form. I desire that my teaching literacy be embedded and mostly invisible to my students. I want them to recognize it as a tool they use daily to make them better craftsmen and that only. They want to build real things. They will accept the tools that get them there, but they don't want to revel in the fact that one of the most useful tools might be a book which one must read.
What has helped me more than any single thing in learning what teaches literacy to my students in my discipline is using my own "rock of the eye." This has me remain watchful for what bridges to this audience who love to tell you how much they hate to read and write, but will burn up a cell phone reading and writing texts all day, or stay attached to their circle of friends till late at night on Facebook. I believe we must make it alright, to at least meet them some of the time on the ground where they love to play, and for me, that means having them submit a reflective journal in "text" language once in a while.
The premise of Kelly Gallagher's book, READICIDE, that schools are killing the joy of reading for students, has heightened my awareness for how I teach literacy in a carpentry/construction class. To some degree though, I think he pushes a one dimensional thesis. He acknowledges it. But it is important to remember the other stakeholders in suffocating the love of reading, most notably in textbooks and what Fisher and Frey call trade books. And then there is or isn't parental support. I know, "but this is public school, and this is our context."
The most important metric I know for when it's right in my classroom though, when my students are getting it, is the frequency and quality of their feedback, their inquiries, their dialogue between each other over the topic of the moment. This is the good stuff. This is the classroom telling me what's going on is worthy and they recognize its benefits to them. Remember these are students who abhor sitting in a class and "doing bookwork." They want to "go over there (the shop)."Are we going over there today, Mr. Saunders?"
Fisher and Frey, in their book, IMPROVING ADOLESCENT LITERACY, talk about teaching vocabulary in context. They say in teaching vocabulary in mathematics that "teachers find success in timing the instruction of technical vocabulary using the sequence of "introduce, define, discuss, and apply." I believe that, with my students, it is often even more effective to have them apply first if possible, using the vocabulary required over the work and in context, then re-visit the definition, discuss, and apply again. This way they get to see the vocabulary at work. That's the payoff. It then becomes an imperative for them to learn it. It has purpose.
This brings us to Fisher and Frey's discussion of Vocabulary in Electives (p.71). The bell rang for me when I read their "it is repetition embedded in a meaningful context that supports vocabulary acquisition." Some of what I teach my students takes a carpenter's helper 2-4 years to master. Repetition is the vehicle that carries them there. I have one year with my students at each level, Carpentry I and Carpentry II. In that time, I tell them, they won't become carpenters, but combined with the power of our classroom, they will far exceed the knowledge of a newbie helper. They must be told this repeatedly as well.
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