The first two chapters of the book, From Telling to Teaching, have been very interesting as it puts on paper things teachers should know, and do know but don't always do - at least not consistently. When reading it, there were things that I have done, others that I have not and others that I did once but should have maintained.
The Dialogue Approach
Norris speaks about how in essence people communicate with others the way they want to be communicated with. In terms of teachers, they teach the way they like to be taught. As a therapist, this made me think about communication with couples. A wife communicates with her husband the way that she wants to be communicated with and vise versa. My husband repeats things to me constantly because he needs repetition. I say something once, expect that you heard and listened and it need not be repeated again. Just like in marriage, we cannot always communicate with others the way we prefer communication to occur. We have to make that shift. If we as educators know that discussion and small group work is what is most effective, we need to incorporate that even if it is not our preference. Small group and discussion lead to more of a dialogue than lectures (which is how I love to learn and love to teach).
Personally, it will be a real paradigm shift for me to incorporate more activity into my teaching. I am very guilty of teaching how I like to learn. As many of you know, I am earning a Linguistically Diverse Educator certificate through Regis University concurrently with the CSU classes and this semester (Sat. classes - yuck!) have been devoted to learning through sheltered instruction - small group discussions, lot of scaffolding, visual supports, etc. I have to tell you, it is a lot more work on the part of the educator and requires ulitmate engagement from the student.
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