Do a Little Turn on the Catwalk

Today, I'd like to talk about models. No, not David Beckham for H & M. I'm talking about mental models ... visual frameworks. I love making and tinkering with models and charts! It's such a creative way to link ideas and create metaphors for your thinking. However, I  don't believe models are static. We must make new iterations as our thinking and experience evolves and thus, the "turn on the catwalk."

As you may recall from my previous post, my initial model was of an intersection, where maker education was at the cross points of reading and writing.

But I moved away from this the more I thought about. Reading and writing are not on a linear continuum nor are they polar opposites. I see reading and writing represented by the infinity loop. These literary forms of communication are linked and recursive. We read what we or others have written, and all good writing is informed and improved by reading. Makerspace can then intersect this loop.

The model has evolved further. The more I think about it, all three elements - reading, writing, making - need to be woven together to created a cohesive program where all are equal players. Together, they create a new whole. 

Then, Taoufik Nadji, an educator in my Twitter PLN, gave me one more thing to think about. He wrote that one of his Arabic language teachers "used the analysis of 1 verse (from a poem) & the making of a verse as the bridge between reading & writing. Hmmm ... a bridge! I like that picture too.

​Which model or picture resonates most with you?