We have had three breakthrough ideas over the past week here, strategies that can be considered in the same discussin as the most bad ass teaching idea of all time, jGR, which in my opinion can be used to great effect in every single classroom in the world and should be because it could revolutionize teaching in all nations, because it holds kids accountable to be real people in the classroom.
Actually, nothing can match jGR in its power to transform a classroom. But the three new ideas we have had this past week are significant. They are:
1. jGA – already presented a few days ago – an important new concept in how we relate to people who attack our work with CI because it puts them on the defensive. Thank you beyond words, James, I think it is genius and more than merely important. It is something that has been needing to be written for decades, something that Blaine or Susie or the other experts could not have written. As Angie said so well, jGA is astoundingly clear and as she also said, in a paragraph that made me very happy to read because it sparkled so much, your four points in jGR remind us to become a part of the magical process of teaching language instead of picking it apart. It also opens up a can of Whoop Ass on those who attack us. Mace. Badass mace. Right on, my brother. Right on.
2. sGI – Sabrina’s Great Insight. That article will post in the next few days as part of this new mess, but a critically important mess in my own view of what is happening on this site right now. (The airplane is picking up speed, so strap in and read well this month. We’ll land it in June and take off again in the fall for another rocky ride but an exhilarating one after some R & R in the summer conferences.)
3. cRD – read about it here in this article. In my view, this modified approach to reading novels is just huge.
In this series of posts: I break into digestible pieces the long post on cRD published yesterday. Next section to follow.