Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id eB30vs909210; Sat, 2 Dec 2000 19:58:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2000 19:58:04 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.2.2.20001202100454.00a29ab0@postoffice.worldnet.att.net.> Errors-To: rgspacone@worldnet.att.net Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Ronna G. Spacone" <rgspacone@worldnet.att.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:1276] 4EFF Reading Group Progress X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 Status: O Content-Length: 3992 Lines: 28 On Nov 22, I wrote: *Starting December 6th the EFF Book Group will appear on 4EFF to continue their virtual discussion of the book, "Equipped for the Future Standards: What Adults Need to Know and Be Able to Do in the 21st Century." The focus of this discussion will be on pages 56-64 and the content standard Read with Understanding. The group's initial discussion, which was a trial run conducted in a small group format, covered the first part of Chapter 3, pages 17-55. I'll post more details on this..." Before we move to the second discussion, I wanted to respond to inquiries about how our initial book discussion went. I do hope some other members of the group will comment on what they learned, but I think it's fair to say we all appreciated the opportunity to dig deeper into the EFF Standards book in a group setting. I recommend the activity. One member wrote, "I've really enjoyed this book group discussion; I have a much fuller understanding of the Framework, it now feels like something I can sink my teeth into and use; greater knowledge, greater fluency to talk about it with others. The next step for me will be performance - actually using the Framework, and i look forward to that." Another member said, "This book study seems to me to be what I think of as an EFF lesson. We have to use the communication skills to access the information and... use the information we access." I decided in advance to use the standard, Read With Understanding, as a guide and as a way to learn more about how the components of performance actually work. Shortly after I began the reading assignment, a little job came across my desk that changed my purpose for reading. I had to adjust my reading and monitoring strategies. For example, I read smaller portions of the chapter per sitting, made more notes in the columns of the pages, and spent more time thinking about the teacher excerpts for each standard and the questions they responded to for the EFF field dev process. The questions (fully outlined in Appendix B of the Standards book Excerpts From Documentation Templates) helped me think more specifically about what students and I would do and how we would use the standards and other framework elements in a "real" classroom. Everyone in the group responded to the reading and to the standards from their individual perspectives. This was an excellent way for us to get acquainted and to learn about our different work situations. I'm glad we decided to do the first reading "behind closed doors" because we've changed the discussion format as a result of our trial run. In our debriefing, there was consensus that we should use guiding questions and have a more structured discussion for the second reading selection. We hope this will give our discussion a clear thread and help us stay focused on the content rather than jumping off into other areas, which is what happened in the first go-round. Some of us raised concerns (all legitimate) about the utility of national standards and obstacles to implementation, but I'd hoped our discussion would be focused more on the practical application of the standards and, as one of our members suggested, more discussion about: "What are we going to do with them? How are we going to use them? What can we do (recognizing some things are presently out of our control) to make them work and make them meaningful?" I think it's fantastic that six of the eight group members have agreed to continue in the book discussion group and to carry out our next discussion on the NIFL- 4EFF discussion list. I've agreed to be more of a facilitator this time and have asked everyone to use the components of performance for the Reading standard as a guide. I'll post the question(s) for starting the discussion and a summary at the end that I hope will kick off an open, larger discussion that you will all join in. More on this coming up, Ronna Ronna Spacone rgspacone@worldnet.att.net NIFL-4EFF List Moderator
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