Learning is a social phenomenon

Quality literacy education cannot be neatly packaged and sold to the highest bidder. There is just no quick fix. At teacher conferences eager Book Publishers tout their wares and veteran and rookie teachers alike are enticed by the glossy new covers and the snazzy media packages. Literacy programs promise to improve EQAO scores, engage slower learners, address cultural concerns, solve media literacy issues and of course reduce teacher preparation time. This is the sales pitch and we should be a little cynical. Every few years there is a new buzz word and Publishers are quick to jump on it. As an Intermediate teacher, I can remember eagerly cracking open the cardboard boxes with new student reading anthologies inside. We were promised by Board Consultants that this was a comprehensive literacy program that would encompass all new curriculum expectations. A great deal of time and money was spent launching this new Crossroad literacy series. I now find odd copies of these books sitting idly on teachers’ shelves collecting dust. Frank Smith (1995) states, that the bureaucratic control of classrooms through prescribed instruction is an affront to the intelligence of students and teachers alike. In the video presented in class today Allan Luke encouraged teachers to draw from their personal teaching repertoire and to weave together an educational program that connects to students’ everyday life. Smith (1995) suggests that money spent on literacy programs would be best spent on workable programs focussed on poverty and unemployment. There are no simple solutions but as professional educators we need to find our own recipe for success, trust our instincts and be able to articulate reasons for our choices

I enjoyed listening to our study group share stories about their favourite books and how they personally connected with them. My favourite book as an adult was recommended to me by a French teacher at my current school. I read the book, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to my graduating grade 8 students every year and each year it seemed to take on a new direction or send a new message to myself and the students about life and relationships. It just seems that in every aspect of my life, I can connect with a quote or a lesson from the book. Today, in my role as Special Education teacher I realise that it is the individual personal time and effort I spent on my students, not the prescribed programs that make all the difference in the world. This was one of the lessons that was taught to the main character in the book. Extending this notion, Special Education students often don’t feel that they have an important role in the classroom. They just don’t meet up with classroom expectations, academically or socially and inadvertently teachers’ actions and words may send the message they don’t belong. I spent 20 years in a classroom and I do have some regrets. Assigned readings over duration of this course have consolidated my opinion that learning is about the relationship or positive connections between the teacher and the student. To quote Frank Smith (1995) Learning is a social phenomenon. What everyone in every culture has taken for granted for millennia is that learning is a simple consequence of the company you keep.