"Why Didn't You Use That Gluten Word?"

“Why didn’t you use that ‘gluten’ word, today”?, the six-year-old remarked.  ...  I was caught off guard.  As the young boy played on the floor with a few of his classmates, all eyes downward, he admonished me for not using ‘that word’ that morning. I had no answer but promised to use it again - next week. ...   

The student remembered a word never mentioned in day to day conversation. It had been used 7 days ago while discussing a new area of study: yeasted dough. It was a most profound word recovery from his past. The teacher and I were at a loss for words!

A strange two-syllable word, part of the vocabulary used when working with yeast dough, was now at the center of the student’s thoughts - out of context - as he played with his action figures on the classroom floor.... As a subscriber to Scientific American and its cousin, The Mind, I was reminded, yet again, of the wonders of the human brain and its plasticity, of the ‘use it or lose it’ doctrine that keeps the brain vital as it prunes itself of useless / unused cells during its ongoing development. ... Only those brain cells that are used regularly for the functioning of the human body, overall learning and other survival directives are kept, to be retrieved when the action is repeated over and over again, as mastery of a skill is achieved.

The more startling, innovative or novel an activity, the more we remember everything connected to it, its configuration, its application or use in everyday life.... With children who have difficulty with learning- (maintaining attention, remembering direction in both content and action) -  this 'hands-on' learning is experiential learning and is a critical first step in the learning journey for these at-risk children, commonly referred to as slow or slower learners. Personally, I think of them as super learners!

Perhaps it is we who are slow in understanding the learning disability of the child. Each is different. The introductory question was an ‘out of the park’ hit....Gluten, a word seldom used in everyday conversation, yet at the center of a skill the student and his classmates were learning-once a week-, had piqued this student’s interest, suddenly! .... The focus on language and the art of questioning had begun again. Though  gluten is not a very nice word today, it has been associated with a host of dietary problems for many of us....Once upon a time, though, gluten was not the problem it is today. ...More about it later)

As the above introduction illustrates very boldly, language skills, the art of questioning and thinking, are learning outcomes that matter as the students in 'Mary’s' class honed their ‘baking’ skills. ... It was never about working with yeast dough, or baking. ... It was always about 5 sense brain stimulation, social and intellectual engagement, higher order thinking, with language at its core, while creating a ‘bond of learning’ within a relaxed classroom atmosphere.  Mistakes were critical in this learning world and always encouraged!

Deep learning requires real people in a ‘face to face’ meeting of the minds... It requires debate, probing, understanding and doubt...  Rates of learning vary while making mistakes is the hallmark of in depth learning experience, the result of an inquisitive mind. 

The student had stored 'gluten' in his memory bank. It was a word tool in understanding why the dough rose, time after time, in the making of rolls, pizza and cinnamon buns. What was not lost was the significance the student attached to a strange word associated with this new skill. Though the word seemed to come out of nowhere, in my mind, it was much more than that.  His ‘plastic’ brain had remembered it from his past, questioned me about it and added yet another building block to his learning scaffolding..... Thinking while playing! ...  What a revelation! What a team!