Responding to Wiggins and some other thoughts

Tyler's statement from a class discussion last week that this course is a very good supplement to the MA Composition program seems to be a fairly apt description. The assigned readings we've had all reiterate many of the ideas that we've discussed in the MA Comp program. For example, for this week, Mortimer Adler described the teacher's responsibilities as direct instruction, facilitation, and coaching. The direct instruction is the most obvious element but the notion of facilitation and coaching seemed especially relevant to our class discussions. Although it isn't explicitly stated in the three roles, I feel like encouraging student motivation would definitely be included in one of the roles. The article later argues tat students should be able to acquire important information and skills, make meaning of that content, and effectively transfer the learning.

I did however, notice something that brought me back to the notion of student maturity. I wanted to bring it up earlier but I misplaced my notes. Many of the articles that we've read for class share many commonalities in that they emphasize some form of student learning and engagement. All the pieces we've read have been, in one way or another, actively discussed ways to increase student understanding and learning. Most also include some metacognitive aspect as well. For example, Morris's piece on meaningful annotation reminds me of my experience with annotating in high school. It was just meaningless, busy work for me. I'm pretty sure I knew that the material my teachers were trying to teach me would have larger, "real world" implications, but I simply didn't care at the time. My indifference to school work combined with boring, seemingly pointless assignments didn't help me learn much. Or so I thought at the time. I had no idea what I was doing in class, but I never struggled with a writing assignment after struggling though AP English. I think it's unfair to assume so, but what if the majority of high school students aren't mature enough to do the work we're expecting them to accomplish?

Now that I've written out some of my thoughts, I'm depressed to say that it lacks the gravitas I thought it had when I thought about it in the first place. I may have worded it poorly. I'll try and come back to it again. But I suppose my main question remains. Certain concepts are fairly straightforward, but something like critical/analytical thinking is much more difficult to teach. I can't say with confidence that I felt like I knew what I was doing after a specific English class. It was only after a multitude of English classes and some growing up that I felt like I knew what to say and how to say it. I think I had finally figured out how to use what I had been learning. During my years as a high school and undergraduate student, I knew how to make my writing sound like an academic paper, but my words were hollow. Am I just a slow learner? How much does student maturity have to do with the learning process, and if there is, there any way to measure it? It has to be more than just knowing to "sound" academic.