Another Lesson on Learning

Here we are, year 2009. Eight years past 2001, the year made famous by the movie 2001 A Space Odessey.

And here we are, many of us, still educating our children in the same way, with the same content, that we experienced in school. For some of us, that means teaching children in elementary school in the same way we experienced school FIFTY YEARS AGO! What are we thinking?


Last week, I was traveling to a meeting with two younger (OK much younger) male colleagues. They sat in the front, and I freely eavesdropped on their discussions about the TV series Lost. What did I learn?

That their discussion involved plot, theme, characterization, conflict, foreshadowing, setting, point of view, ideas about the writers, speculation about where the plot would go next, problems with the writing from one season to the next, and so on and on… I was pretty fascinated. All of this literary-style criticism, from two young men discussing a television show.

It struck me that if I were to go back into the classroom again, I would do so many things in reverse order from the way I taught before. For instance, if I were teaching a tried and true novel, take The Grapes of Wrath as an example. Instead of starting with the book, Id start with the screenplay. How does a staff of writers take a great novel and turn it into an equally great, compelling movie? What is involved in doing this? We’d watch the movie, then go back and deconstruct the movie. We’d use the Internet to research screenplay writers. We’d answer questions about theme, plot, characters, and lighting, and scenes. We’d talk about the decisions involved in writing a screenplay. Obviously, not every single detail in a great novel can be transferred to a movie. What about characters’ thoughts? Why do they sometimes combine characters? Why do some parts of the novel end up being left out? And so on . . .

After we’d deconstructed that movie, then we’d break out the book. And as we read, we’d compare and contrast that novel and that movie. We’d have created a great entry point into the story, and we’d capitalize on that until every student had a way into the book.

This, to me, would be a great way to help our students link various forms of literacy into their learning. And the LEARNING is what it’s about, isn’t it?