Moving Closer to Surrender...

So here we are, week number whatever, and I'm still struggling with constructivism. So what else is new? What is new is that I think I'm getting closer to that point of surrender when I stop being so critical and start just embracing the ideas and concepts wholeheartedly. I really do think that constructivist classrooms are the way to go. When students can see the immediate implications of what they're doing, their interest, involvement, and motivation skyrocket. And who doesn't want that? The thought of crafting authentic learning experiences, while still daunting, is also beginning to seem more exciting and definitely more worthwhile.

The point that I continue to wrestle with is what my classroom would look and act like in a constructivist model. I think Sprague and Dede did a nice job in the article of showing the differences between the instructive and constructive models. I really liked that the classroom in question was a middle school classroom, as so often examples of these ideas seem to come only from elementary classrooms. But now I want to know the nuts and bolts. How much time did the constructivist teacher have with her students? How many days a week did she see them? What does her classroom management plan look like?
I guess what I really want is a blow-by-blow manual of the preparation and process for implementing this in a classroom. I realize though that there probably isn't an article out there that does that. (If there is, let me know! :) ) I'm beginning to believe that creating a constructivist classroom is a constructivist act in itself. You just dive in and muck around and figure it out and create understanding as you go.

I guess what I'd like to hear from people about is what they think the "nuts'n'bolts" of constructive classrooms are. How does a constructive classroom operate? What does the classroom management plan look like? What groundwork needs to be done to establish the conditions in the classroom and in students that allow this concept to fly rather than crash and burn? I don't necessarily expect that any of you will understand this any better than I do, but it might be beneficial just to bounce ideas and share.

That's it for me tonight. I won't be in class on Thursday as I have conferences (boo!) and then I'm going to see Ian McKellan play King Lear at the Guthrie.... yeah, you're drooling a little now, aren't you? Full report on Gandalf as Lear next week! Take care! :)