A great man once told me the old adage, "The more I learn, the more I don't really know. " This is how I feel and think about sensemaking. I actually, understood the article. I wrestled with it for a few hours. I read, reread and rereread. I actually liked it, and I like the work that it made me do to get to understand it. It took me back to my time I spent in Brazil. I had about an hour set aside everyday to just read and study. So, I made sense of the article through hard work and taking notes. It made me do what I preach to my students. I actually broke out my old underlining card and I put notes down (I took your advice and printed it out) in the margins and made comments and questioned things. Man! it feels good!
In all reality, she is very explicit with what she is trying to teach. In her introduction she outright tells you what each part is going to be. Now, the words she uses are magnificent and extremely complex, but very concise and direct. Once you get past her "voice" as we call it in English, you can understand her over all meaning. The overarching thought is that (in her own words) in "the argument between qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, sense-making likewise refuses to choose a side. It is explicitly both qualitative and quantitative." In the video with the lego librarian Darvin spoke of going to a computer store with an inquiry about computers. The computer tech explains to you in his own esoteric language the answer to your question. You have no idea what he is talking about. That disconnect happens in research. This article is explaining about that disconnect or as the Darvin calls it the gap. One quote I really connected with from the reading was assume "a human being taking steps through experience: each moment, a new step. The step may be a repetition of past behavior, but it is always theoretically a new step because it occurs at a new moment in time-space." That is deep stuff! I love it though. It makes me think that there is an eternal round. Although, I may do something over and over again it is considered a new step bc it is a new time. So how do I chunk this and explain it to a high schooler? Haha Tell them that this is where your Read with a Pen skills are going to come into play. I think that the video helped to understand. I would start there and then I would show them the different parts of her paper that she explained in her 2nd paragraph. I would definitely have to explain her complex language. I would also, maybe give examples more relatable to them. Like her video said (maybe it was another I watched to understand it better) the concept is easy it is her words that is difficult. I think the best thing is to teach the overall gist first and then pick parts out that support the gist. Which is what the standards say needs to happen anyway.
3 Comments
Jennifer Wade
2/5/2017 07:58:41 pm
I really enjoyed what you had to say here. I commend your efforts, as well. I had to take a pen to the document too. I think it would have helped me more if I would have read your blog first. It would have shed some light on the topic and might have given me a more positive attitude as I approached it! I look forward to class, where maybe I can deepen my understanding.
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Todd
2/5/2017 09:58:30 pm
Adam,
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Zack
2/6/2017 09:35:55 pm
Adam, I appreciated that you mentioned Brazil, and the experience of sense-making when you are not fluent in another country. I also experienced this extensively while traveling in Mexico. I can get by in Spanish on simple topics, but I enjoy conversing about philosophy and find myself without the sense-making tools to do so in Spanish. It can be frustrating, but really it is a glimpse into the experience of our students who may need to address the knowledge gap multiple times before making sense of the lesson. Most important, I think it's helpful to remember how it feels to be overwhelmed by the knowledge gap. I really think teaching is about motivation, the best way to connect with students is to empathize with them, not sure if there's a better way than, visiting a country where you are not fluent in the native language.
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Adam Vedomske
father of Danger Archives
April 2017
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