Extended Free-Write Paper

“Attending to Present and Current Experiences”

Kelly Kingsley

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

TEAC995

Dr. Ted Hamann

March 2009
 Proefriedt claims that Dewey emphasized “attendance to the possibilities of the

present, extracting the fullness of meaning from current experiences.” How does this

proposition pertain to your current practice and/or to your participation in the CPED cohort?

Dewey is literally emphasizing that we need to take careful regard to what is happening at the

moment, considering the significance of our active participation in events and activities to the

accumulation of our knowledge and skill. So, we basically need to pay close attention to what is

happening now for the possibilities of future application.

I think Dewey was implying that we need to look at what is happening in our classrooms

right now, and look at how to address the issues, problems, and/or concerns that are pressing

and attend to possible solutions from current research readings, best practices, and from

sharing/discussing with our colleagues and peers. Proefriedt states that Dewey tried to rethink

what should be taught and learned in schools and how teaching and learning ought to go on,

given the new understandings of labor and leisure, reason and experience, theory and practice

forced on us by the scientific revolution, the emergence of political democracy, and the new

technologies of the industrial age (Proefriedt, p.95 ). As teachers we need to rethink what

should be taught in our classrooms, considering the individuals in our classrooms, the standards

that need to be met, and what new theories or practices that are available for consideration to

help benefit our students. Smokey Wilson states, “We can look beyond what we know, not

necessarily by going to a new place, but by looking at what we see every day with new eyes.”
(p. 132) There are so many possible avenues to venture on in education and I think it is

important to stay on the roads that are current to your practice at the time, evaluating what

works and reevaluating changes you made and why.

I am currently looking at how I teach reading, what works and what I need to improve

upon. As I am reading articles, I am asking myself, “Would this work for me? Is this doable?

Would this work for my kids?” I am finding that a lot of the research is suggesting the same

things, whole group instruction, guided small group instruction, immersion in reading and

writing, and a lot of texts at different levels of reading and at different interest levels. So, now

as Dewey infers, I need to look at what I currently do in my classroom and find out what is

significant to the research and continue doing what works, but then look at what else research

suggests and begin to accumulate those skills.

“The standard reformers avoid a focus on how students learn; they stress, instead, the

content to be learned, the standards to be met, and the mechanisms by which students and

schools can be held accountable.” (Proefriedt, p. 98-99) Thus with all of the testing and

accountability measurements happening, it makes it difficult to take into account what sort of

learning Dewey recommended. Dewey wanted the teacher to actively engage the student in

their own learning. When students have a vested personal interest in their learning and are

engaged in the process of acquiring the needed knowledge, they are going to have a much

deeper learning experience. Children would then be able to accumulate knowledge and

incorporate the learning into his/her life. Emerson commented that only individual students

can make sense of their own world, including the world of school (Proefriedt, p. 168). As a
teacher, this is what I want a child to be able to do. Students will take the knowledge they have

accumulated and make it their own. I have to be able to facilitate and help all children in their

journey of acquiring knowledge and keeping it. A teacher needs to have an arsenal of tools in

their tackle box to use to help each individual child. Each child and situation is different, so

there is no prescribed universal treatment. One size does not fit all approaches to helping our

students learn. Dewey announced that, “Nothing has brought pedagogical theory into greater

disrepute than the belief that it is identified with handing out to teachers recipes and models to

be followed in teaching.” (Dewey, p.170) By thinking we can teach the whole group in one

certain prescribed way and all will learn we are fooling ourselves. Stanley Fish’s collection of

essays builds on a particular dichotomy: Is meaning in the text, or is meaning located in the

reader’s interpretations? Fish maintains that even though everyone may have in hand a book

with the same title, there is nevertheless no single text. Instead, he says each reader constructs

from the text the meaning most relevant to his or her wants and needs (Is There a text in This

Class?, 1980). Emerson, Dewey, and Ellison offer us an alternative language to that offered by

the standards reformers. The energy of the learner, they tell us, resides in individual interest,

engagement with problems, and desire to solve them (Proefriedt, p.170). Each child in our

classroom has their own individual thoughts and concerns. We need to view each child

individually to help them in his/her learning process. We should be helping students solve their

own problems and not problems posed by the teacher or textbook. This would make learning

more meaningful for the student.

Putting this into perspective as I am researching about reading instruction, I know that

each child learns to read at different paces, there are many levels of reading ability in my
classroom. If I try to instruct to the whole group all of the time, only a small majority of my

students will improve their reading ability. I need to be able to work with small groups while

helping them learn the strategies and skills they need to improve their reading. Dewey wanted

teachers to look at those individual differences and then help those students gain knowledge in

the areas where they need work. His theory was all about the individual learning, what was

pertinent to him/her, not the whole group learning the same thing. This is a great application

for all learning, but especially reading.

Dewey’s overarching idea that the students be treated as individuals and the

experiences that they learn from should be their own, is really one of common sense. We are

connected most to learning that has occurred within our personal interests. I can see how

many teachers may frown upon this idea, especially with so many students in their classroom. I

can hear many saying, “I need to have 25 separate lesson plans?” “There is no way I can have

all 25 of my students learning different things at different times, it just isn’t manageable.” I am

unsure about the management component, but there must be “buy in” from the kids, or it just

won’t mean anything to them. I think a way to manage this is to allow students to have some

choice in what they are studying. For instance, when I have my students write for me, I let

them have a choice in the prompt they wish to address, or I may give them a broad topic and

let them free write regarding that topic. This involves choice on the part of my students, and

lets each student individualize what they would like to write about. I have found including

choice into my lessons has greatly impacted the participation of my students. The quality of the

work they turn in is much more impressive than of past lessons where choice was not given.

We can inject Dewey’s suggestions about students learning from their own experiences in many
different ways. We just need to take the time to look at how and when, and then actually

follow through. We know this is something that is good for kids, so why not put it into

practice? In Jeffrey Wilhelm’s You Gotta BE the Book, he quotes Annie Dillard: “As a teacher,

am I using each day to teach my students in the most challenging, interesting, exciting, and

worthwhile ways? If not, then why not and how might I overcome the obstacles to doing so?

Because if I do not face this challenge with attentiveness and courage, than I teach years of

days and multitudes of students in ways that are not all they could be. I fail to actualize the

potential of my teaching and of my students-an inevitably of life itself.” (Wilhelm, p.xvii)

The individual learning approach is put into practice for the members of the CPED

cohort. Although we are receiving instruction as a whole, we each have our own individual

problems or questions of practice that we are seeking to answer. We are looking at issues that

pertain to our practice in our classrooms. We are being instructed to look at articles of

research, how research is done, great educators of our past and present, and reform, either

positively or negatively impacting education. We are taking our present day experiences and

drawing on the possibilities of what we can do to answer our questions. Our instructors are

facilitating the information in a way so that each individual can acquire the knowledge

pertinent to them and accumulate what is valuable to make their own. As Dewey claimed, the

only aims formulated within a particular individual’s situation are those that make sense

because they focused on the process of growth within individual learners and on the direction

in which they were moving (p. 102). This is exactly how I see the CPED cohort working. We are

moving in the direction our learning is taking us, and we are processing the information and

growing as educators and researchers while we learn.

 As we continue in the process of gaining answers to our most pressing problems of

practice, we will need to share our experiences with others in the cohort. We will also need to

share in the experiences that our students bring to the classroom. For Dewey, the good society

is the educational society, one which values education, in which we encourage a maximum of

sharing of its accumulated knowledge, and provide opportunities for thoughtful participation in

its life (Proefriedt, p. 104). Our CPED cohort is a good society. We are sharing our accumulated

knowledge with each other, and our instructors will be sharing theirs with us as well. We will

be provided opportunities to use this accumulated knowledge as we continue in our practice as

educators and researchers.

“We surely would have different sorts of classrooms and a different sort of society if we

lessened our commitment to individual performance in school and society and used

cooperative activities to build worthwhile communities.” (Dewey, p.105) I really think this

applies quite well to our cohort. We are building a worthwhile community by cooperatively

sharing our experiences, professional practices, and newly acquired knowledge with each other

as we explore new areas in our profession. Each of us is different in background, years of

experience, places of employment, grade level(s) taught, and so much more. We each bring

something different to the table. If we were to pursue this degree on our own, most of us

would be successful, but we would be lacking in rich conversation and camaraderie. By

participating in the CPED cohort, we are building a rich platform and creating a community of

learners who can work together and create a more impressionable educational experience. We

can support and encourage each other as a society is meant to do. Yes, we are all individuals

with different questions to answer, but by sharing those answers, we are helping each other
grow. Some of our answers may be a help to someone else, some of our experiences may be

what another might try, and some of our conversations with others may lead to another

question to answer.

Is there a place for Dewey in our classrooms? Definitely! We should have students

learn experientially rather than through direct instruction, but it doesn’t have to be the end all

beat all solution. We can have students learn at an individual pace or on individual topics and

we should. We can also include direct instruction, but we shouldn’t just have one method of

imparting knowledge to our students. We can also have our students impart their knowledge

to the class and let the kids learn from each other. We need to look carefully at what we do or

regard as important in our classroom and then consider what is working and what is significant

to our students. What events or activities can we provide for our students so that it leads to

the accumulation of knowledge for them? If something doesn’t work, then we need to remove

it from our tool box, or we need to tweak it and try it again to see if it will work. If things aren’t

working or are of no significance, then we need to look elsewhere for another means of

instruction or imparting of knowledge.

I thought Andrea Wien’s cartoon that she shared on John Dewey in her notes on chapter

5 of High Expectations: The Cultural Roots of Standards Reform in American Education by

William A. Proefriedt to be the best way to sum up what Dewey’s message was to educators.
This is exactly how we should view our practice by asking ourselves, “What is best for my

students and how can I help them get where they need to be?”
References

Bacall, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from Cartoon Stock:

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=aba0398

Dewey, J. (1964). Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan.

Fish, S. (1980). Is There a Text in This Class? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Proefriedt, W. A. (2008). High Expecations: The Cultural Roots of Standards Reform in American
Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

Wilhelm, J. D. (2008). "You Gotta BE the Book" Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with
Adolescents. New York: Teachers College Press.

Wilson, S. (2007). "What About Rose?" Using Teacher Research to Reverse School Failure. New
York: Teachers College Press.
1) How did your draft change from start to finish? My draft went through many revisions. I

wasn’t really pleased with my first draft and began to look at how I could add references to

support my argument. Crystal and Erika both add great insight, and I used every one of

their comments and suggestions. My paper originally was about 5 pages after my first draft,

once I began to really look at what I wanted to include, it just blossomed from there.

2) To what concerns did you pay particular attention as you revised your draft? I definitely

focused on referencing texts we had read and how they intertwine into what I wanted to

relay in my argument.

3) How did you integrate your peer’s feedback into your revision? Which feedback and by

whom was especially helpful and why? Which feedback did you decide to reject and why?

Both Crystal and Erika had excellent feedback, I was able to include and incorporate all of

their suggestions. I truly feel my paper is a better revision after making all of the changes

they suggested.

4) What do you see as the strengths in your paper? What were your key challenges as you

wrote? With more time and energy what would you continue to develop? I feel tying in our

current readings and how I am implementing my inquiry strengthen my paper. My

challenges were including those references. My first draft had a couple quotes regarding

Dewey and that was it. As I continued thinking as doing some recalling of text we had read,

the references and citations seemed to just jump out at me. If I had more time, I really

think I would deepen my look at Dewey and read more about his philosophy.
5) Do you think you would want to work with the same peers as peer reviewers for your

next paper? If not, offer a brief explanation. I would definitely work with Erika and Crystal

again. They have great insight! I hope I was as helpful to them as they were to me.

6) Rate both of your peer reviewers. Erika – 2, She was very positive, she found errors I had

overlooked and her suggestions for enriching my paper we very useful. Crystal – 2, Crystal

was incredibly helpful, encouraging, and insightful, her additions and suggestions really

helped me to add more content to my paper.