In pursuit of literacy, students define questions, read from a variety of sources, create idea folders, write position papers, make presentations, debate, and ask more questions. A creative teacher could even tell the students to see words as scientific “specimens” to be observed, dissected, and experimented with, using the dictionary as a natural habitat from which to gather and explore.
In one sixth grade class I am familiar with, students had little interest in the dictionary until the teacher named it “Huey.” Immediately, Huey came into constant use. Magic? Sure. But then great teaching has always been about finding the magic.
Students shouldn’t do these things just because they are fun, they must do them to become an educated person. Being literate is more than just rising on the ladder from C-A-T to Harry Potter. Literacy requires all those skills and competencies noted above. It is a manifestation of the full development of the human organism. Getting there entails everything from recess to art to algebra. It starts with a child with a voice and proceeds through the whole complexity of life, story by story, and requires that the story have meaning.
So being literate is a matter of integrating the whole thoughtful, feeling, imaginative, creative, empathetic person. At its core is the soul of the child and the search for meaning. For best results we must keep our eye on the full engagement of the student, for only then can we trust that we are maximizing their academic potential.
Last Month’s column: In Search of Wanderlust
From the Principal’s Office: Lessons on Learning, Life, and Parenting is published bi-monthly. Each column is written by Rick Ackerly, a distinguished educator with thirty years experience in middle and elementary school education, who is currently the Head of the Children’s Day School in San Francisco.
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