How My Content Area Sweet Spot Looks and How I Might Arrive There

My Carpentry II students are now completing their first hands-on project of the year---an 8' x 12' wood-framed floor joist system replete with subfloor installed by them, comprising 3-4 students per team. They are about to begin reading and studying how to frame walls in our textbooks. They now know that what they see in print, drawings, and photos will be their gateway to actually framing their first 2x4 walls on their floor systems, and later after that, framing a roof for the first time. By now they should understand that if they pay attention in the classroom they will be rewarded by precision and speed when it's time to return to the framing.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

This time when they sit in the classroom, they will sit with their respective team members and work together on the uptake concerning how to do it---frame walls. They will also have classroom access to periodicals---"The Journal of Light Construction" and "Fine Homebuilding"---with the sections regarding how to frame walls laid out. They will be given class time in their teams to read anything they like in these magazines, even that which is not related to framing walls. I'm curious to see what they choose to read, and if they'll choose to augment my lectures and the textbook by using these other sources.

Kelly Gallagher's READICIDE has stretched my concept of how to teach my book-shy students to use these resources to swiftly develop high level technical knowledge. They have now seen the real consequences of not paying attention in class when something real is built: mistakes are made, and work must be disassembled in order to correct it. This puts them in conflict with their own pride which is tied to what they are able to produce with their hands, not necessarily their grades. I may even leave out my how-to lectures and have them build their first wall using input from any classroom resources they choose. We'll see.

I love Gallagher's 50-50 approach to allowing classroom time for students to read both textbooks and related "high interest" material. Obviously the "high interest" stuff, in our case would still be related to the hands-on world most of them gravitate toward naturally.

I also love the idea of the teacher modeling the struggle to understand what a book is trying to get across to the reader. In our content area it might be a complicated process, for instance how to square up a framed wall before lifting and bracing it. Much of what my students must learn to do is recognize and follow a process full of specific techniques and methods. I believe ultimately for them, the best learning is in the doing. But I am certain they will learn more and faster using many resources they must read and comprehend. This will also fill in the gaps left by the curriculum and me. I too have learned, there are so many close in tricks-of-the-trade so-to-speak that the textbook fails to touch, that only I can demonstrate with the tools and the lumber if I catch them at the right moment. When that occurs, I usually stop everybody and call them over to see the demonstration.

One of the most enlightening parts of READICIDE'S chapter four for me was Gallagher's comparison between "good readers" and "struggling readers," (READICIDE, PP.103-105). Like teaching carpentry tricks-of-the-trade, there are strategies listed here that I personally use. I may never have thought about them as strategies worth imparting to "struggling readers" for some unknown reason until I became more self-aware through reading this chapter.

I believe I've touched the sweet spot in my classes when my students ask relevant, challenging questions, what-if and what-about questions for instance, that reveal they are actively engaged and thinking about the process and techniques they are learning. That's the good stuff. I'm still sometimes struggling to thread together how to get them there and keep them at will. READICIDE is helping me with this I am sure.

I wonder how many of you, own student colleagues taking this course, TED535, are teaching an elective requiring hands-on skills like myself. I'd love to hear from you. Please let me have the benefit of your comments on this blog or by email. I'd be honored to have your input.