Workshop 6 Intentional teaching within follow up activities
1. Positioning equipment and materials: Positioning is the process of
placing objects in relation to each other or in relation to people. As a
teaching technique, positioning involves placing learning materials to
safely and ethically support and enhance childrens learning.
Creating multilevel spaces inside, as well as on the playground, gives
children different ways to explore spatial relationships with their bodies.
Offering open-ended materials in a variety of areas will spark childrens
imaginations and speak to their desire to continually rearrange and
combine materials for exploration and invention.
Place materials and equipment to facilitate social interaction in the
learning environment.
2. Demonstrating: Demonstrating can help childrens learning by showing
them how to use materials and special tools or how to accomplish a
particular task. Simplify moving in and showing a child how to approach a
task can be very effective way of reminding a child how to do something
that they may have forgotten or of teaching them a new skill. It can also
help children to learn alternative and more effective ways of approaching a
problem.
Using clear, unambiguous verbal instructions to support your
demonstration.
Break a skill or task into small, sequential steps.
Allow time for the children to intently observe and listen in to what
you hope for them to learn through the demonstration.
Review with children what they have learnt so that additional
demonstration can be planned if necessary.
Provide the children with lots of opportunities to practices the skill or
technique being demonstrated.
3. Encouraging and helping: To encourage someone means to reassure
and to support them when they are having difficulty with a task or
experience. This reassurance and support might be verbal or non-verbal.
Educators use encouragement as a teaching technique to reassure and
support children attempting new or difficult activities. The aim of such
encouragement is to help children persist with the task and to learn new
skill s or dispositions.
There are several simple non-verbal ways of offering encouragement
and physical help to a child. For instance, moving a toy closer to a
child; moving yourself closer to a child; offer a helping hand; finding a
special tool or item that will enrich a childs play; handing a child a toy
that is out of reach; sitting by a child to offer support when needed;
smile at the right moment.
Verbal encouragement can act as a positive motivator for childrens
learning is some basic rules are followed. Educators need to ensure
that their encouragement is very specific and that it focuses on how
child is undertaking a specific task. Words of encouragement should
extend childrens learning rather than reduce it. Educators have to
emphasize the process of thinking, rather than the product, extends
the thinking. For example, a comment such as, Great job! focus on
the product and does not extend the childrens thinking. In contrast, a
comment such as, I wonder how we could make happen again, it
looked really interesting not only tells the child that what they have
done is worthy of interest and comment, but also encourages them to
think about how to extend what was happened.
4. Facilitating: As a teaching technique, facilitating refers to the process of
making childrens learning easier. It refers to all things that educators do to
make childrens learning more possible, such as scheduling, selecting
materials, organising space, and interacting verbally and non-verbally with
them. Also, facilitating is about careful observation and thoughtful timing to
ensure that learning is appropriate to the childrens needs and interests.
Having a clear stated purpose for what children are asked to do.
Giving children explicit directions.
Providing children with the materials needed.
Guiding children through their tasks by asking questions, answering
questions and providing them with clear feedback.
5. Questioning: A questions is a sentence worded or expressed to seek
information. When we ask questions about someone or something, we
are trying to find out about them or it. We use questions to gain new
information, to increase our understanding of something or to compare our
own understandings with those of other people.
Questioning will be most effective if educators have established a
positive relationship with children.
Asking children how, when, where, what or why and ensuring your
questions have a simple and direct sentence structure. The younger
the chid, the more important this becomes.
Good how questions to support the development of mathematical
and scientific thinking include: How are they alike? How are they
different? and How do you know?
Focusing questions on a single task, thought or event. Young children
can be confused by double barrelled questions such as, How many
meals you have a day and what do we call the last meal of the day?
Double barrelled questions should be divided in two and the second
should only be asked once the child has responded to the first.
Using short sentence. Young children are more likely to readily
comprehend these than long, wordy sentences, and they are more
effective in arousing childrens interest.
Allowing children time to answer questions.
Responding to childrens answers with interest and warmth, as this
shows children that their answers are valued and builds a responsive
and respectful climate for child-educators talk.
Using prompting techniques to encourage childrens thinking and
persistence. For example, rephrasing or simplifying the question or
summarising what the children have said to date can prompt children
to respond further to the questions.
6. Suggesting: A suggestion is an offer of advice, ideas or recommendations
about what to do next. Educators make suggestions to children because
they believe there is a better, more interesting or more effective way to do
things.
Many suggestions will start with phrase such as: You could try it this
way; If you do thisthenX might happen; Why dont you
try this?; How about we try it this way?; It might help if you did
that; Maybe you could try this.
While children may choose to ignore educators suggestions, the
following guidance will reduce this possibility. Suggestions are more
likely to be followed if they are positive. Positive suggestions tell the
child what they might do, rather than telling them what not do to. The
suggestion sounds constructive rather than negative and restricting.
For example, If you walk while you are holding that jug of juice it will
not spill.
Suggestions will also best if educators avoid flooding children with
more than one suggestion at a time; allow children time to test
suggestions out in practice; accept that children may not use your
suggestions. If they do not have a choice about what to do next, make
it clear that you are not suggesting what to do but telling them what to
do; keep suggestions personal to the child and specific to their needs.
