It
was interesting to read chapter 9 and then read the posts from others in our
cohort, as I found that the information I took from the chapter actually was
unlike a lot of what others got from it. While the concepts were the same, the various
opinions about the range of story maps were quite different, and that really
shows what it is like in real classrooms. What works for one student might be
of no help to another, and what confuses some kids completely might be the one
example that finally clears something up for someone else. I appreciated that
Ohler took the time to give a variety of other examples of different kinds of story
maps because this really is how the real world is; we have to seek out the
examples that make the most sense to us personally, and just agree that not
everything will work the same for all people.
The
first example of Aristotle’s dramatic diagram, (Ohler, 2008, p. 115) was of no
help to me at all. I actually sat there for quite a while trying to understand how
it was supposed to help me before I decided that it wasn’t worth it, and I should
just move on. My brain just didn’t connect with that example. At that point, I was
a little discouraged about what the rest of the chapter might be like, but
luckily did find some story map examples that made more sense to me and the way
I think. While the simplified Joseph Campbell map was a little easier to
understand, it still didn’t connect with how my brain works, but when I finally
got to the Treasure Map Story Map diagram, (Ohler, 2008, p. 116) I found one
that seemed to agree with my thinking style. Because I look at stories from
beginning to end, and always visualize some sort of line, the use of the peaks
and valleys throughout the story line really helped me visualize what was going
on.
After
reading through this chapter, I was reminded again of how important
differentiation is in the classroom, and how not going out of our way to
provide numerous examples of the concepts we teach could be confusing the
students that we are simply trying to help. If those of us in our cohort could
have so many differences of opinions about which story maps work for us, the
same would be true in the typical classroom. And unfortunately, because our
time is so limited in the regular school day, I know we don’t all have the time
to differentiate instruction as much as we might like. But this chapter did a
good job of helping me see the importance of trying my best to always reach as
many students as I can, just as Ohler did by explaining so many varieties of
story maps in this chapter.
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