We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. 
Legitimate Periphwatta?
Maybe I should have written this earlier. Especially on Valentine’s Day. Now I have to stop thinking about this amazing waterfall, strenuous hike, gorgeous sunset, and killer sushi. Sorry to those of you who are single. I’ve sat through three years of Valentine’s Day alone and I think I deserve to rant about it before I go into this reading.
So what the heck did I even read this week? To be honest I’ve had so much reading in all my classes that they’ve started to just meld together. It’s not like this first chapter wasn’t confusing enough. After reading it twice though and having two days worth of class helped a lot. At least I think I understand it.
Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Yes, it’s a mouth full and I can never say it right the first time. Well LPP (legitimate peripheral participation) is nothing without a community. Someone learns something by watching others that are skilled at something, they do the something and tthen become good at the something. I love the idea of using job training as an example. I use to work at a restaurant and it was a lot like a Panera (but honestly ten times better). My boss had me train all of the new guys and the first thing I would have them do is watch. I never just let them watch, I’m never suppose to let them take orders or make food the first day but I did. Only during down time as I stood next to them. I never got in trouble and they always learned much more from getting to do small stuff. I think that it’s an awesome way to teach someone how to do something new. Having them become a part of the community instead of watching from the sidelines helped them to understand the patterns and flow.
I love starting a sentence off with ‘so’ because I like to answer my questions sometimes.
So what does any of that previous story have to do with LPP and education? Just as the new employee is told to stand off to the side and watch their first day students are told to SIT in a classroom all day. Not much learning goes on for the student or employee. Integrating participation or hands on into the learning environment lets them understand about what is important. I’ve stood off to the side before for four hours watching someone toss a salad and when it came time to toss that salad nothing from those previous four hours prepared me for the mess I made.
One Reply to “Legitimate Periphwatta?”
Hello! My usual victim hasn’t posted today, so I’m here to comment on your post! I have to start out by agreeing with you. After having a decent Valentine’s day myself, it’s not like I really wanted to get back into LPP, and yet like you I just had to put off my post until last night. Well.
I think you completely grasped the idea behind that rather intricate chapter. Life is learning and we learn from what’s going on around us, after all knowledge without context is little more than learned trivia. Unless it’s contextualized, learners are usually left in the dark with the knowledge imparted upon them. I mean it’s one thing to be just told what to do or learn, it’s another thing to be shown and immersed into it in a setting where the information is practiced. I know for a fact I learn better in the latter way, the first one leaves too much room for confusion. Then again, I never was very good at following directions. Oops!
I think your story is a prime example of LPP in progress and I think you certainly made the right choice letting those employees experience their job with your instruction.