Last week at the RAISE training, a participant made an observation that struck me as poignant and highlighted the difficulty of truly teaching our students and teaching them deeply:
"Sometimes as teachers, we cut corners by teaching students as if they all think and read the same way. If we really want to build them to be successful thinkers, we need to show them how to do it."
Even though the practice of theory of differentiation is not new, considering it in the light of reading and thinking is not something that we often give precedent to. Instead, we believe that if we teach the content, the thinking will come with it. It takes courage for us to reexamine this assumption in our teaching and embrace a paradigm shift. This quote made me uncomfortable and upset at first, not wanting to ever think that I am cutting corners, but it certainly warrants deeper reflection methinks...
