Dear colleague,
Ashley Yazarlou is a true Will to Learn warrior, having led innovative and personalized professional development on the material in the book multiple times in her setting of Hemet Unified School District in California.
Last year, when leading a session on the Effort and Efficacy beliefs, she asked participants to define Woodenization in their own words, using only a sentence.
This is what folks shared:
- “Woodenizing is explicitly teaching students how to successfully accomplish a task no matter how small or ‘obvious' it might be.” ~ Ann Marie
- YES! No matter how small or obvious it might be — that is so important. Remember, the strategy's name comes from John Wooden's first-day-of-practice habit of explicitly teaching his college athletes how to put on their socks and shoes. Wooden's level of specificity in doing this sent clear signals to his students: anything I expect you to do, I will teach you how to do. I won't overly belabor the small stuff, but I will take the time to do it clearly, matter-of-factly, and helpfully. This makes effective effort clear to students and also signals that this teacher really cares and is really passionate about excellence.
- “Woodenizing is holding students to high standards in everything by clearly modeling what's important, relentlessly.” ~ Elizabeth
- Spot on. Elizabeth hits on a few important ideas. High standards — one of the greatest signs of respect I can give to my students is expecting that they will do things well. But this is not a lazy expectation — it is one where we take responsibility for being clear and relentless with our students on how to reach the high expectations.
- “Respecting the student, their life, their journey enough to explicitly teach them what they need to know and hold them accountable.” ~ Tim
- Wow. So beautiful of Tim here to connect that A) explicitly teaching students what they need to know and holding them accountable flows from B) our respect for our students, their lives, their journeys.
I couldn't resist sharing these with you because of the insights I drew from them. It's important for you to know that even the guy who wrote the book is still deepening his understanding of the why behind these strategies and the how of doing them well with real students. The more I apprentice myself to these practices (the 10 strategies in The Will to Learn) and the Five Key Beliefs, the more encouraged and empower I become.
Teaching right beside you,
DSJR
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