Educators must understand how students use mental models to perceive the world and also how students make assumptions that support those models. With these principles embedded in my curriculum, I helped students move toward the goal of becoming independent readers and writers. Since the medium for my curriculum is an authentic, student-centered activity, publication of the school magazine, students decide what articles they would like to write and what format their information will take. I facilitate this process by balancing the overall content of the magazine and suggesting resources, but selecting topics of interest to our readers is definitely a job for the students. For example, recently I helped my students discover how to make articles more readable and visually appealing by using their word processing computers to break large masses of print into spaced paragraphs.
Meaning is personal, unique, and based on each learner's individual experiences.
I am helping my students construct new meaning about writing by getting them actively involved in authentic publication. After the experience of composing on a computer, students construct the new meaning that writing and revising can be done quickly and efficiently on a computer. As a facilitator, I provide a classroom filled with computers, no desks, and a large, carpeted open space. Most students had the previous model that writing is done at a desk with paper and pen. After the experience of composing on a computer, students construct the new meaning that writing and revising can be done quickly and efficiently on a computer.