This week I observed a teacher
communicating with a child in the classroom during center time. The child was
playing in the block center. The adult was standing at the entrance of the center and asking the child to tell her about what he was building. The adult would pause and allow the child to
speak. She would ask the child questions about the different animals. The child
would answer and then the teacher would provide more information and comments
about his construction. He was telling the teacher
that he was building a zoo with Legos and the animal that lived at the zoo. She asked the child
specific questions about the animals and he would tell her what each animal
liked to eat. He would proceed to speak for the animals and make animal like
sounds. This communication was effective because the teacher would allow the
child to speak and answer questions. This made the child feel important and
allowed the child to provide information about animals. The teacher did not
dominate the conversation which let the child know what he was saying was
important. I always try to balance my listening and speaking time with my
students. I want to let them know what they are saying is important by listening
and engaging in their conversation. One thing that I do is try to make eye
contact with them and get at eye level with them. This teacher could have been
more effective if she would have been at eye level with the student.
References:
Laureate
Education, Inc.(Producer). (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children
[DVD]. Communicating with young children. Baltimore, MD: Author
Marcie,
ReplyDeleteI find amazing how much children know, because we can consider we are the ones who are there to teach them, while the truth is that the two of us can learn from each other. Asking questions helps children to broaden their knowledge and then takes them to the next level (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011), but these questions need to be related to the children’s interests, other ways they will just move away because of feeling bombarded with meaningless questions.
In addition, I agree with you on the importance of placing ourselves at children’s level, while talking to them. I consider that this way we children know we are trying to really understand their point of view, and we consider their words are important to us.
Thanks for sharing Marcie!
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Communicating with young children. In Strategies for Working with Diverse Children. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2652530_1%26url%3D
I agree! Asking questions helps children to understand things better and expand their knowledge. IT's important that we let children ask questions and answer them to the best of our knowledge. Ignoring a child's question is telling them that we do not care about what they are saying. If it is important to a child, it should be important to us.
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