Big travel day. Back home. Tired ready for bed.
We were asked to do a quick final right-up review at the end of our literary exchange. This is my first-thought-best-thought quick write.
This weekend has made me realise the value of critically reading and thinking about non-fiction. The world is a complex, and as we have seen with the events of the last week, a divisive place. We are surrounded by so many ideas, opinions, knowledge, research, lies, propaganda and agendas that it is exhausting to make sense of it all, so we often hide behind our own echo chamber walls and leave the hard work of understanding outside the door.
We cannot afford to burden our students with the inability to make sense of the deluge of information that is thrust upon them everyday as they watch the news, movies and videos, read books and articles, or simply interact with their family and friends.
My next steps are quite practical and pragmatic. I want to try and build a working text set that about gender equality to be able to try and give my GC group a broader and deeper understanding of our issue as we plan to set goals and hopefully plan our second term campaign. I hope to work with Anne Marie and Claire to see if this is a working model for longer term teaching that crosses English class and GC time. It feels big and intimidating, but I am willing to start the planning process to see where I am.
I am also thinking of doing some of this work with my own kids. Finding non-fiction materials that we can unpack and talk about more often. it is never too early to start learning these skills.
My big take away is that non-fiction is not some boring genre that we trudge through. It should not be a time for rolling of eyes or heavy sighs. We owe it to our kids to build the excitement around the genre because we need their help in working toward the solutions we need for functioning, sustainable and peaceful global societies.
One word take away- Essential
We were asked to do a quick final right-up review at the end of our literary exchange. This is my first-thought-best-thought quick write.
This weekend has made me realise the value of critically reading and thinking about non-fiction. The world is a complex, and as we have seen with the events of the last week, a divisive place. We are surrounded by so many ideas, opinions, knowledge, research, lies, propaganda and agendas that it is exhausting to make sense of it all, so we often hide behind our own echo chamber walls and leave the hard work of understanding outside the door.
We cannot afford to burden our students with the inability to make sense of the deluge of information that is thrust upon them everyday as they watch the news, movies and videos, read books and articles, or simply interact with their family and friends.
My next steps are quite practical and pragmatic. I want to try and build a working text set that about gender equality to be able to try and give my GC group a broader and deeper understanding of our issue as we plan to set goals and hopefully plan our second term campaign. I hope to work with Anne Marie and Claire to see if this is a working model for longer term teaching that crosses English class and GC time. It feels big and intimidating, but I am willing to start the planning process to see where I am.
I am also thinking of doing some of this work with my own kids. Finding non-fiction materials that we can unpack and talk about more often. it is never too early to start learning these skills.
My big take away is that non-fiction is not some boring genre that we trudge through. It should not be a time for rolling of eyes or heavy sighs. We owe it to our kids to build the excitement around the genre because we need their help in working toward the solutions we need for functioning, sustainable and peaceful global societies.
One word take away- Essential
No comments:
Post a Comment