Re: [xmca] Might we pause to consider? Imitation and the Zoped

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

I do not know the work of Doug Fisher, Phillip. could you give a ref?  The
way he sees shifting responsibility for "getting the whole task done" in the
diagram resonates with a lot of my own experience, although.

What strikes me as most significant about your characterization of the
processes involved, is that it makes clear that teaching in a zoped requires
that the teacher as well as the student develop. I was talking with the
adult son of a former colleague of mine yesterday about his father, a
mathematician, loving to teach intro calculus every year. I knew he was a
famous teacher, but I did not know that after teaching the class, he threw
out his notes and started fresh every time. Still pondering that phenomenon.
I know that when i teach, I cannot do so without getting involved afresh in
the materials, but I sure would not throw away my prior notes, but rather
try to build on them afresh. Perhaps because of the highly codified nature
of mathematics, starting afresh is the only way to keep each lecture
"creative." Of course, he has to create the lecture each time, but reading
from last year's notes and starting afresh seem very different.

Fly over the Rockies a couple of days ago. Amazing site with all the snow,
rising out of the plains.

mike

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 2:56 PM, White, Phillip
<Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu>wrote:

> Peter, first, greetings, to you and everyone reading this thread!
>  Vygotsky elucidated greatly about the development of writing in
> “Imagination and creativity in childhood” – Journal of Russian and East
> European Psychology, vol. 42, no.1, Jan-Fed 2004, pp. 7-97, in chapter 6.
> Literary Creativity in School-Age Children.
> That said, he notes when Tolstoy attempted to teach writing to the local
> peasant children on his country estate – wherein first Tolstoy began to
> write on a topic he had chosen, since the children refused to write
> anything.  (demonstration) then, Tolstoy took dictation from the children
> and wrote what they had to say in response to the chosen topic.  i thought
> that clearly this was evidence of multiple ways of imitation - which
> supported the zpd.
> Tolstoy had written an article on this experience that he titled “Who
> should learn to write from whom: peasant children from us, or us from them?”
> Which reflects my own experience – that in writing with children, the
> ‘expert’ learns to write as one of the practices of the activity.
> It reminded me of Doug Fisher’s gradual release of responsibility – his
> graphic organizer isn’t the first that I’ve been on this concept, but I like
> it the most.  (see attached file)
> But I think that this points strongly in the direction of your experience
> as a basketball coach – you demonstrate – perhaps you even sometimes play
> with the team you’re coaching – but certainly the team players practice
> together – so that during the game individually the multiple skills have a
> high degree of fluency and automaticity.;
> So, yeah, I would do a demonstration in front of my students about how I
> would begin writing on a particular topic.
> Then, the next day, perhaps, the students and I together would write a
> paper on the same topic, or at least the beginning of the paper.
> Next, students would work together in small groups crafting a group written
> paper – and I’d rove around, mostly observing, taking notes, etc., so that
> when we all came together as a class I could call on specific groups to
> explain what I saw as near-ideal exemplars.
> And then in time, the individual students would individually write their
> own papers.
> Of course, there were similarities – but there were also multiple
> individual differences.
> And for me the ultimate goal was that over time – five months, say,
> students would know how to write a paper on a given topic without having to
> go through the gradual release of responsibility.  On the whole it worked.
>  Professionally, I used Nancy Atwell and Lucy Caulkins and Donald Graves as
> guides, often first directly following their directions, and then over time
> building in modifications as I became more confident with the processes, as
> well as better able to anticipate the individual needs of my different
> classrooms -
> again, imitation through text.
>
> phillip
>
> Phillip White, PhD
> University of Colorado Denver
> School of Education
> phillip.white@ucdenver.edu
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