Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Social Learning

I felt that the article from class was very eye opening.  I personally agreed with my portion of the article that talked about the importance of allowing children to make mistakes.  My group talked about children that are discussing crabs but are spelling it in multiple ways.  The teacher is behind them listening but not telling them that they are wrong. It is very important to allow students to learn from their mistakes.  I think that there is a lot to be said for students learning from their peers.  In this example one student was saying that the spelling wuold be " krrbao" and another is disagreeing. 

On a personal note, I work at Knee High Daycare and children are always using terms in "incorrect" ways or spelling words in an unlikely way.  As instructors we need to encourage children's learning and  also encourage them to learn on their own and not just be "told" the correct answer by the teacher.  I have found this quote to be very meaningful in our discussion and throughout my experience in this program.  I feel that it can be used in many educational instances; especially this case:
 
"True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their
own."
— Nikos Kazantzakis


6 comments:

  1. Children's discoveries are just like the Aha! moments in our own learning--surprising and memorable, in ways that make us want to learn more. We'll look at "errors" as windows that allow us to see into children's development and better understand what they are ready to learn.

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  2. Very good post and it reminded me of something. I heard a quote off of the TV show Scrubs that said, "Nothing in this world that's worth having comes easy." Not only do I fully agree with that, I also believe that it applies to the importance of making mistakes. I think if every child got everything right the first time, the things learnt wouldn't be very memorable or resonate with the child. While cadet teaching I had this one boy who kept misspelling the word 'thought'. The first time he got it right I saw how proud and happy he was to finally spell it correctly. I don't remember him misspelling that word again.

    Also I really like the quote.

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  3. We all make mistakes in life. Children are no exception, but instead of constantly correcting them all the time children need to learn from them on their own sometimes. Children need to feel its ok to make mistakes, otherwise they can become withdraw and always be afraid of what they say or do will be judged negatively. You bring up an very important and crucial issue that all educators should be aware of.

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  4. This is such an excellent point to make. I must admit that sometimes it can be a challenge not to correct a student; maybe sometimes it's necessary to guide them in the right direction. However, it is important to be able to draw a distinction between when to support such instances as stated above and when to help consider other options. I would like to look more closely into this.

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  5. Children have their own meanings in their language and writing, and nothing is necessarily wrong with that! It is great that you support what the children think and do. By providing this non-hostile environment, they will be more comfortable to speak their minds and explore with language and writing in the classroom.

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  6. Agreeing with the other comments, I feel like not correcting students all the time is going to be one of my greatest challenges as a teacher. I would really like to explore when it is a good time for corrections and when to let it slide.

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