Chloe Chapter 2

I feel extremely frustrated with this chapter.  In my mind, many of these concepts are not unique to boys alone.  The first idea that the authors discuss is “flow.”  In it, the authors mention that these are comprised of four different ideas: “a sense of control and competence, a challenge that requires an appropriate level of skill, clear goals and feedback, and a focus on immediate experience” (28 – 30).  Should these paramount in all classes.  Isn’t this sense of control and a challenge that is the right level what we call scaffolding? I agree that boys want to escape into areas that interest, but isn’t that what everyone likes to do? I know that I would prefer to stay with my hobby of hiking (where I feel competent and powerful) rather than learn how to run a marathon (where I think I would fail). It’s not to say that I don’t think we should do these things; it’s just that I don’t think they are new and I don’t think they are particularly unique to boys.

 

Out of all of the ideas in the chapter, I appreciated the idea of giving clear and immediate feedback.  This is something that I might have overlooked if not for this chapter.  I understand that reading a longer novel or article can be frustrating since it takes so long to see the fruits of your labor.  I like the idea of asking students to read for a specific purpose, such as finding instructions of some sort, or a shorter piece that is more immediate.  I think this would be good for everyone in the class.  It reminds me of the ideas of including both intensive readings and extensive readings.

The other reason that I felt so frustrated is that they don’t outline how they want these concepts to interact in a lesson.  I get the feeling that this chapter was the rationale of the lesson plan and that we won’t find out much more until Chapter 4.  They alluded to Chapter 4 several times, and I have to say that I am disappointed to have to wait so long to see what an actual lesson or unit consists of.  Overall, I just felt like the ideas in this chapter were not particularly new, but they are good teaching practices in general.