Vygotsky and Mind in Society
This book was as difficult to read as it is to pronounce his name. I could probably read it several times and struggle. As someone in class said I was reading the words but nothing was coming up in my thoughts. Our class discussion was most helpful in digesting the contents and actually found it to be fascinating information of which I would like to find out more about his theories.
I always like to think about the development with my own children as I'm reading these books. As I look back at our discussion, I'm trying to understand what he meant by language shapes how you think. Does he mean spoken language or any form of communication? Did the spoken language we used at home while my children where infants/toddlers affect how they think now or in the future? Will they even remember those periods of their life as they age? Does the language I use in the classroom help or hurt student learning? Do I need a different symbolic tool to use while I'm teaching?
The biggest take away for me was the discussion of the zone of Proximal Development, the river that separates what a child can't do and what they can do independently, and play. Now how do I merge the two? I feel like my goals on how to incorporate these things in my classroom right now are a moving target. I think the take away is how do I involve "play" in the classroom to get my students "swimming" towards independence?
I always like to think about the development with my own children as I'm reading these books. As I look back at our discussion, I'm trying to understand what he meant by language shapes how you think. Does he mean spoken language or any form of communication? Did the spoken language we used at home while my children where infants/toddlers affect how they think now or in the future? Will they even remember those periods of their life as they age? Does the language I use in the classroom help or hurt student learning? Do I need a different symbolic tool to use while I'm teaching?
The biggest take away for me was the discussion of the zone of Proximal Development, the river that separates what a child can't do and what they can do independently, and play. Now how do I merge the two? I feel like my goals on how to incorporate these things in my classroom right now are a moving target. I think the take away is how do I involve "play" in the classroom to get my students "swimming" towards independence?
As I was reading Vygotsky, I thought about my four-month-old daughter as well. I wondered many of the same questions. Right now, my daughter is smiling, cooing, and crying. However, my wife and I understand how she is feeling based on her tones. We can differentiate between a “I’m hungry” cry from a “change my diaper” cry. Are these tones intentional or simply a reflex? I have also wondered if the language I am using now will affect her in the future. Will it affect her now, or will it be buried in the subconscious, and she will always have some sort of feeling toward an object or situation but unsure of why?
ReplyDeleteFor a classroom setting, this goes back to the discussion of the teacher as the representation of culture. As teachers, it is our responsibility to encompass all cultures in the classroom, which leads to modeling, coaching, and fading. Thus, language is one of the tools used to create the classroom culture.
I agree with you--I struggled with the read, too. The class conversation helped me most put it together. I was trying every reading strategy I knew to get through the book, notes on the side, sticky notes, pausing and summarizing. But it felt like it kept going on and on and on...
ReplyDeleteWith that said, there is a lot for us to take from the book. I think we take a lot of Vygotsky's work for granted as teachers. We know that we are supposed to model, coach, and fade, but we don't know whose idea it was...we just know it as good practice! When they say it takes a village, they really mean it, it takes an entire culture coming together to get the child across the zone!
I completely agree with the feeling of the "moving targets"! We are learning so much about what & why, and we are still grappling with HOW. We are, I think, very much in the middle of the ZPD river. I'm so glad we are all in this class. The teachers who don't have this coaching going on need to join us! You said, "Do I need a different symbolic tool to use while I'm teaching?" This really has me thinking, especially as a Language Arts teacher! I actually think we shouldn't have separated (magical) subjects anymore. Or at least we should have an easier way of combining the content areas so that we can collaborate on real-life problems/projects without feeling like we are adding to our plates.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I also gained a better insight into Vygotsky (even if in a shallow way) after we shared our ideas in class. As a language learner and as a linguist, I can relate to Vygotsky's ideas about language as the tool that enables the development of the human mind in society. I guess that spoken language is the first tool that we have to start labeling and making sense of the world around us and of ourselves. For us teachers it's even more critical to pay attention to language. Even though they don't always show it openly, students do look for social cues and look to us to try and figure out what are socially acceptable behaviors, so every interaction we have with them is important in modeling that.
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