Renee,
I am a retired teacher and I found these same problems when I taught. I
think it comes from adults in the child's life who are controlling and do
not allow the child to learn by mistakes. I once had a child (boy) in my
first grade classroom who was held back because of failure to perform.
Trying to get him to put anything on paper was a nightmare. He was so scared
of making a mistake that he refused to try to do anything. I later found out
his previous teacher stood over him while working and pointed out every
mistake he made and he had to do it all over. It took over half the school
year for him to relax and gain confidence in himself before he could write
anything other than his name on a piece of paper. He ended the year well but
had lots more 'trauma' to overcome from that year with the controlling
teacher. Children who have issues with self confidence ie "Is this right?"
have not been allowed to feel successful after a mistake and fear being
wrong and punished. They don't understand that it's ok to make mistakes and
that mistakes are normal parts of learning.
I hope you have a very successful school year next year.
Deidra Chandler
MA Reading
MA Early Childhood Ed.
ps. I teach adult education now and still find this same mentality among
them.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Renee" <[email protected]>
To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 10:32 PM
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Do we really need to teach explicit strategies?
I teach Art to Kindergarten, first, and second graders. I have many, many,
many students who constantly ask, "Is this right?" and "Can I (whatever)?"
and "What do I do?" and many, many, many students who say, "I don't know
how to (whatever)" and.... the most disconcerting of all.... many students
who, right after I give directions for whatever we are doing and send them
off to the tables to get started, will just sit there. Just sit, and sit,
waiting for me to tell them to start, even though the paper and/or other
materials is sitting right there in the middle of their table. I walk by
and say, "I'm not sure what you are waiting for" and they look at me.
This is all AFTER I give directions, perhaps model the use of a new tool
or show a couple of techniques or show a few examples (which I then put
away) to spark some ideas. I always end my introduction (which takes place
as a whole group, sitting on the floor), with directions to go find a seat
and get started.
I really think this is a direct result of way too much direct instruction
and focus on "the right thing" and "the right answer" and not enough
discovery and/or inquiry. I base this, of course, on my own deductions
relating to the degree of "is this right?" behavior among different
classes (I taught 24 classes last year) and my impressions of their
regular classroom teachers' teaching styles. Very unscientific, to be
sure. :-)
A story:
I had one little boy this year, a first grader, who in the beginning of
the year REALLY wanted me to tell him he was doing the right thing. Early
on, I said to him, "This is art class. If you are following directions and
taking care of the materials, whatever you put on the paper is going to be
the right thing!" and after that, if other students asked if they were
doing the right thing (which they did, often), I referred them to the
first boy. On the last day of school, when we were charting what they had
learned in Art class, my young man offered, "that anything you make in art
class is the right thing." :-)
Renee
On Jun 13, 2009, at 6:02 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Renee
........
I am very interested in your comment about kids getting into that place
where they can't function without modeling. Can you talk a little more
about
that idea for me? I tend to think that my kids ALREADY come to me like
that...even the K kids. Maybe what we need to model is independent
thought and
problem solving.
Jennifer
"The important thing is not to stop questioning."
~ Albert Einstein
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