Get Real: Bringing Kids' Learning Lives into Your Classroom

Kimmy's family is having chicken as the evening's main course. As Kimmy eats, she pauses. "How do they make chicken bones?" she asks as she casually inspects the piece she is holding. "They're part of chickens," her mom says, matter-of-factly. "We don't make them."

Kimmy's expression suddenly turns to one of horror. "You mean this used to be a real chicken, like on Old Macdonald's Farm?" she wails, dropping the piece she is holding. "I'm never gonna eat chicken again!"

Here an innocent question about something that baffles this six-year-old leads her in a direction she had not imagined possible. Her mom's response provides anomalous information that shocks her; it challenges her existing view of what bones (and perhaps even chicken) really are. In the end, she constructs a new (evidently disturbing) connection. The chickens we eat are indeed the chickens that roam about on farms (or used to). From this moment forward, the meaning of "chicken dinner" will never be the same for Kimmy.

Using dozens of stories of real kids like Kimmy, Jean Anne Clyde and Mark Condon bring to life fundamental concepts about learners,learning, and teaching. They believe that when teachers want a fresh perspective on the kind of learning that is possible in classrooms, they must first examine how children really learn—not in the controlled context of school, but in out-of-school settings, where kids like Kimmy have learned successfully since birth. By inviting you to help analyze these stories, Get Real will help you become a sophisticated "kidwatcher," able to recognize, appreciate, and capitalize on natural learning strategies. You can create rich curricular experiences that encourage kids to refine and expand their natural learning strategies in the classroom.

Get Real

• examines the everyday contexts that support children's learning so you can make those qualities a part of your own classroom;
• offers an extensive discussion of tools such as multiple literacies;
• provides illustrations of children's work and the significant artifacts from their world that prompted their learning experiences;
• helps you appreciate the multitude of resources for learning and teaching that exist outside of school;
• moves learning from the real world to theory to practice with a collection of specific strategies for you to follow;
• includes a self-assessment that links theory to practice to help you identify your strengths and target areas for growth.

Whether you are an inservice or preservice teacher, Get Real will help you recognize and build on kids' natural learning strategies to create a learner-centered classroom that maximizes success for all children.

Kimmy's family is having chicken as the evening's main course. As Kimmy eats, she pauses. "How do they make chicken bones?" she asks as she casually inspects the piece she is holding. "They're part of chickens," her mom says, matter-of-factly. "We don't make them."

Kimmy's expression suddenly turns to one of horror. "You mean this used to be a real chicken, like on Old Macdonald's Farm?" she wails, dropping the piece she is holding. "I'm never gonna eat chicken again!"

Here an innocent question about something that baffles this six-year-old leads her in a direction she had not imagined possible. Her mom's response provides anomalous information that shocks her; it challenges her existing view of what bones (and perhaps even chicken) really are. In the end, she constructs a new (evidently disturbing) connection. The chickens we eat are indeed the chickens that roam about on farms (or used to). From this moment forward, the meaning of "chicken dinner" will never be the same for Kimmy.

Using dozens of stories of real kids like Kimmy, Jean Anne Clyde and Mark Condon bring to life fundamental concepts about learners,learning, and teaching. They believe that when teachers want a fresh perspective on the kind of learning that is possible in classrooms, they must first examine how children really learn—not in the controlled context of school, but in out-of-school settings, where kids like Kimmy have learned successfully since birth. By inviting you to help analyze these stories, Get Real will help you become a sophisticated "kidwatcher," able to recognize, appreciate, and capitalize on natural learning strategies. You can create rich curricular experiencesthat encourage kids to refine and expand their natural learning strategies in the classroom.

Get Real

• examines the everyday contexts that support children's learning so you can make those qualities a part of your own classroom;
• offers an extensive discussion of tools such as multiple literacies;
• provides illustrations of children's work and the significant artifacts from their world that prompted their learning experiences;
• helps you appreciate the multitude of resources for learning and teaching that exist outside of school;
• moves learning from the real world to theory to practice with a collection of specific strategies for you to follow;
• includes a self-assessment that links theory to practice to help you identify your strengths and target areas for growth.

Whether you are an inservice or preservice teacher, Get Real will help you recognize and build on kids' natural learning strategies to create a learner-centered classroom that maximizes success for all children.

Education Review - Jeneen LaSee-Willemssen

Clyde and Condon, professors of literacy education at the University of Louisville, believe that teachers can help their students to be more successful learners if teachers become better observers and utilizers of children's personal learning strategies. In particular, they believe that children's out-of-school learning is not only sophisticated and complex, but also necessary to active, engaged learning in the classroom. The first two-thirds of Clyde and Condon's book is taken up with a discussion and demonstration of how teachers can learn more about children's natural learning strategies through "kidwatching." Clyde and Condon explain the nature of kidwatching and share their own kidwatching observation stories. Teachers are invited to observe and "run along side" Clyde and Condon, who guide them in looking for children's natural learning techniques of engagement, connection making, anomaly questioning, risk taking, experimentation, and demonstration. The final third of the book is dedicated to showing teachers how to integrate what they have learned about the out-of-school learning of their students into their classrooms. Curriculum design, teaching techniques (especially constructivist approaches), and professional development are covered in some detail. A case study of one teacher who successfully implemented natural learning into her classroom supports Clyde and Condon's belief that natural learning can result in a flourishing, engaged, learner-centered classroom. Those interested in creating or improving learner-centered classrooms will find this book a rewarding read. Condon and Clyde write clearly and provide the real-world examples, theories, and practical strategies and techniques necessary for readers to identify and utilize children's natural learning strategies to everyone's advantage.