Who sailed the ocean blue in 1492?

Keene's chapter seeks to understand what it means to understand? It seems that my entire education is based upon the learn by chapter and then test method. Once the test was over, little review (save for when a test would be given) was placed on what we learned. Subsequent years were spent building upon what we learned the year before, just more in-depth. Basically, if we didn’t understand it the first time, we had the opportunity to re-learn it which eventually reinforced placing less stock in what we were learning because the same material would be regurgitated the following year. It is a cruel fate that school must now be seen as a place where learning does not offer more than a set curriculum of re-hashed information. What Keene proposes is to reevaluate the methods used to teach. She says “ they had learned in the classroom, understanding meant remembering the facts long enough to answer questions, completing a project, or scoring well on the test (Beers). There is little incentive for students to learn save for the grade. In a way, school could be seen as a job for minors. They arrive at a set time, perform the bare minimum of tasks when instructed to do so, and leave, hopefully receiving the payment of a high grade.

This chapter acknowledges that learning has lost its mojo to induce creative thought and stimulating discussion. Students who are ingrained with the modern mindset to merely teach curriculum in order to prepare students for what they need to achieve on tests or aptitude tests become baffled by the idea of actually sitting down in a circle and discussing what they are learning. Keene calls for a more rewarding definition of comprehension and understanding so we can start teaching from it. The basis of this concept starts with teachers simply seeing their students understand the concepts. Observing what works, what doesn’t and how students are engaged in different activities can help us help them. It is the hope that students will go beyond merely understanding and evaluate the significance that each lesson can bring to them. 

Keene divides the different stages of learning as so: concentrate, dwell, struggle for insight, manipulate our own thoughts, explore, discuss, create, feel. It seems impossible to accomplish this in one sitting for a lesson, but since they function as stages, the learning process could span from two days to two weeks on one subject. All that matters are that the students are learning. Even though they are focusing on one subject, they can still draw additional information from one subject. In an English class, after reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, students can establish the basic information given, consider the implications of the story, start to draw conclusions, change or evaluate how they think, do research or confide in an outside source, defend any conclusions, and then create a product reflecting their learning process. Giving the students semi-controlled free reign to explore their learning, rather than just telling them what they need to learn about x-book, allows them to find the underlying messages, significant points and later be held accountable for their learning.

If a majority of the students understand the concepts, then it should be okay to move on, right? Wrong. Even if a majority of the students comprehend what is being taught, they still possess the capability to draw more--especially in literature--as the students struggling to understand. By holding the students accountable for their learning will help ween students off the tempting preference of being told what to learn. I like the idea of having random writing assignments, in class Socratic seminars, and consistent practice over specific technicalities such as grammar. By reinforcing an environment that requires constant recall of what they've already established, students are not susceptible to the Bueller syndrome. it is not merely the mindset of the teachers that needs to be restructured, but also the students. They are the ones learning primarily and should be challenged to explore beyond what they are expected to do.