I sometimes had students who claimed to be unable to understand what they were reading, history, math, science, literature. 
Sometimes my children say the same thing. When that happens, I turn to Flingledobe and Pribin.
It’s a short story – a 40-word paragraph – that I read aloud while the students follow along. They look at me like I’m the one who is retarded – ahem – and state that the story makes no sense. Then I ask seven questions, and without fail, each student can answer each question correctly. Which proves, I tell them, that they can, in fact, understand what they read – even gibberish – and that their supposed lack of understanding of nongibberish, of history, math, science, literature, is all in their heads, all in what they tell themselves.
Read the story. Answer the questions.
Last Serny, Flingledobe and Pribin were in the nerd-link treppering gloopy cables and cleaming burly greps. Suddenly a ditty strezzle boofed into Flingledobe’s tresk. Pribin glaped and glaped. "Oh, Flingledobe," he chifed, "that ditty strezzle is turning in your grep."
When did this happen? Who was Flingledobe with? Where were they? What were they doing? Then what happened? What did he do? What did Pribin do?
When did this happen? (Last Serny)
Who was Flingledobe with? (Pribin)
Where were they? (In the nerd-link)
What were they doing? (Treppering gloopy cables and cleaming burly greps)
Then what happened? (A ditty strezzle showed up)
What did he do? (He boofed into Flingledobe’s tresk)
What did Pribin do? (He glaped and glaped)
Note: I don’t know where or when I first saw this, and cannot find a reliable source for attribution. If you know, please let me know. Thanks.
Maybe. One day I lost patience teaching my nephew's kid to play badmittion, so switched to my left hand. I volleyed fine, but could not serve at all. That showed me how it's like to be learning something new. I go cross-eyed trying to understand instructions to put together a kid's bike or BBQ grill, and toss them aside and do it by trial & error. When done, I'm able to say, "oh, so that's what they were talking about!" I had to reread the tale, to be able to answer the questions. If it had read, "Last Saturday, Dick & Jane were in the back yard putting together a BBQ...", I'd probably have been able to answer all the questions without a backward glance. My point, is, maybe sometimes when a student says, they don't understand, they truly do not.
Posted by: mary | May 30, 2006 3:32 PM | Permalink to Comment