This weekend I was cuddled down in my bed reading and my 9 year old daughter, Charlie, was sitting next to me tinkering on a Chromebook. If you don't know Charlie, you might want to read my previous post,
10 Strategies to Help a Reticent Reader Love to Read. Reading has always been hard for Charlie. But this weekend she showed me some of the many strengths that she has deep down in her amazing brain.
How many of you use Google Slides? I was just having dinner with a friend who has a PhD in education and she doesn't use Google Docs, let alone Google Slides. So Charlie had seen me use Google Slides one evening when I was teaching at Bank Street College. She was my official "clicker" so she had some idea of how this works.
Back to this weekend on my bed. Charlie asked me, "Mom, I want to make a slide show." I literally opened a new slide document and she went to town. I didn't have to show her how to insert a text box or how to insert images. I was floored. Before I knew it, she had started a slide show about cute puppies. But even more interesting than her facility with the program, was her ability to manipulate the images and text to send the messages she wanted to send. When I taught her how to use animations, where you drive which parts of the page appear in which order, she had a clear plan. The picture of the dog had to come first, so that when the text came that said, "So cute too" that the reader had the context of the picture already. She also researched about each type of cute puppy she wanted to write about. So, when she introduced the maltese, she commented that "A maltese is known for being brave." (We'll get to APA references a little bit later!)
I was lucky enough this weekend to go up to TC and see Cornelius Minor talk about digital literacy. I was struck by the idea of "reading images" and how so much of the world of the internet is about how you read images. This is a wonderful thing for Charlie. She has such visual acuity; the words are what are hard for her. With this new medium to work with, Charlie's strengths shined through.
After she finished the slide show about puppies, she decided that she could write a slide show about the books she read this weekend. An amazing thing happened. Because she was so jazzed about this new way of writing, she actually started to write so much more than she ever has.
Charlie asked me to re-read her writing this morning before school. As I was reading, all of a sudden she noticed that the names of the characters needed to be capitalized. (She didn't get to all of them, but what a great noticing!) She, herself, on her own, noticed this editing that needed to be done. In addition, her retelling of the story was better than anything I have ever seen her do....she had the sequence down, she told the important parts, and all while being joyful. Her engagement and drive with this project helped her to pull on knowledge that she has inside her and express it.
How is it that we have these kids who have so much inside and yet, when they are placed in the structure of our schools, many times those amazing ideas and strengths don't shine. I thank Charlie for teaching me, again, this lesson of paying such careful attention to how kids learn and meeting them where they are. So I leave you with this question...How can you help a student to shine? This isn't the only way; this was Charlie's way. It is different for each child. That is what makes teaching so exciting and so challenging. Each little person's brain works differently. How can we help them "turn on their smarts?"
