Learning from a Book
Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs
You must have noticed that I have been reading and re-reading “Curriculum 21″ by Heidi Hayes Jacobs. I have posted my first impressions and recommendation here and since then have joined and written about the companion Ning to the book here. I created a Flickr Curriculum 21 group to have a hub for images and videos of Curriculum21 teaching and learning examples.
I was inspired by quotes from the book to write the following blog posts Geography is a Separate Subject. Really? and Isn’t the Answer Anymore, It is the Question!
Curriculum 21 is a book that is just FULL of information, ideas, thoughts, research, recommendations and exactly about the change in education, life, skills, literacies, and global competencies I am contemplating and working for.
Unfortunately, the book is not available as a Kindle Edition, which means, I am relying on sticky notes and highlighters as a way to make the rows and rows of text more appealing to my visual eye as well as a way to find passages and quotes more quickly later on.
Stickies and Highlights
I am conducting an experiment about my own learning style. How can I read this book and best:
- filter out the information that I want to keep?
- make connections to my previous thoughts, ideas and blog posts?
- remember quotes from different chapters?
- make the text content more visual for my brain?
I am eager to find out:
- Will I be able to learn about the content of the book differently/better/easier/?
- Will I be able to “see” connections that with the text alone I did not?
- Will the process of looking for and selecting the right image that will represent the quote make me think “deeper” about what the quote us trying to say?
- Will the sum of the quotes I selected from the book tell a story in itself?
I wonder how my personal experiment will turn out… but in the meantime, please take the time to share:
- How do you learn best from a book?
- Highlighting, taking notes, talking/discussing it with someone ?
- Do my visuals help you visualize what Curriculum21 is about?
- Do the slides do nothing for you?
- Do the visuals give you a different point of view, than when you were reading the text alone?
- Are you interested in reading Curriculum 21 (if you have not done so) because of the visual “Preview”?
- What opportunities do you give your students to learn from a a book?
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- Adapted from Alan November (pp.188-193), Curriculum 21 (ASCD, 2010) by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.
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- Adapted from Alan November (pp.188-193), Curriculum 21 (ASCD, 2010) by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.
I do just what you have done – highlight and stickies, I also take notes in a little learning note book that has words of wisdom from conferences, other readings and just thinkings.
I am inspired to read this book – we just got is as subsciption gift from ASCD, and from your postings, I want to be the first to read it at our school.
Thanks for sharing.
.-= Dianne McKenzie´s last blog ..I am amazed at what others are able to achieve… =-.
@Dianne- I like the idea of a “little learning note book”. Looking forward to what you will write in yours as you are reading Curriculum 21.
It is funny- tonight I was reading Curriculum 21 at soccer practice. I was circling, underlining and writing notes in the book with a pencil. One of the girls asked me why I was writing in the book. I tried to explain that it helps me learn and remember what I read and what I want to reread.
I feel so old-fashioned to admit my book preferences here, but I don’t have an ereader, and I don’t even have a big desire to have a kindle or an ipad yet. I love books with the pages and paper. If I really like a book or want to go deeper into the book, I like to talk about the book with others. Another thing I do sometimes is to copy sentences into a notebook. Writing, even copying, really helps me to process the ideas and information.
I really like your process of creating images to understand and share the ideas. It is something I have been wanting to do myself since seeing you use this so successfully. In fact, while reading Curriculum 21 I was thinking of creating slides, too.
Yes, I think the visuals can and sometimes do give a different point of view. One thing about reading (vs. a movie or similar media) is that with reading we create our own images in our minds. When you create slides you are taking the images in your mind (which might be different than the images I am making in my mind while reading the same words) and making them visible.
.-= Andrea Hernandez´s last blog ..Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society =-.
@Andrea,
Yes, yes, that is the way I feel about creating images in my mind when I read. I find it very satisfying if I can create that visual in my head in a slide and group, categorize and share online. Can’t wait to see your visuals.
Silivia,
I showed my copy of C21 to Heidi when she and I were visiting a few weeks ago and it looked like yours with sticky notes abounding and highlighted text throughout in a rainbow of colors! As you have posed your personal and collegial thought-provoking questions, I too, have been thinking how to to best take in and absorb what I am learning anew, and at the same time synthesizing with that which I know well or am trying to know better.
When I saw that you were developing visual representations of specific quotes via Flickr, I was thrilled as that was my plan as well because I wanted to create new screen savers to use for the Curriculum Mapping Leadership Academy for Administrators and Teacher Leaders I am co-presenting at CMI in Saratoga Springs, NY, in July. I have to share that I will be using many of yours, not only from Curriculum21, but also ones that you and others have posted in Flickr (with credit, of course!), and a few of my own.
Thank you for being an inspiration to me as a learner, a colleague. You are an amazing innovator!
Educationally yours,
Janet Hale
@Janet
Please add your visuals to the Flickr Group. Collaboratively we should be able to create a visual story of Heidi’s book. Looking forward to meeting you in July at the conference.
Silvia,
Interestingly, seeing your book marked with all the stickies has made me hunger to read the book, and in fact, made me wish I had it right now!
So there must be something exciting about seeing someone engage with the text in print!
Love the questions you are asking about how we engage with texts.
And while I like your slides, and do the same thing myself, and enjoy them in a presentation, for me, it’s engaging with the text itself and having those “yes” moments that bring the learning home the most for me personally when I am engaging with a text. Which is interesting to realize.
I just had such a hunger to read a great book when I saw yours all marked up!
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