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The Essentials of Teaching
and Learning
by Phil Builder
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| Use these ideas to guide your teaching, and to smooth the path for your child's learning. |
For a more in-depth article on this topic see Natural Learning
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Demonstrations, or Modelling
Our demonstrations form the basis of what our children aspire to do. Adults demonstrate walking and talking just by doing it, and children learn to walk and talk by copying
(mimicking) what we do. We can use this knowledge to show them how to read and write by reading with and to them, and writing with and to them. We call this 'demonstrating' or 'modelling'. Examples include
reading stories or rhymes to children and pointing to the words as you say them; writing messages to them and reading them together, pointing to the words; writing their name slowly and carefully so that they can see each
letter as it is formed; counting with them as you walk or step, as you play a game, or give out biscuits; and showing how to hold a spoon to eat our food. Demonstrations need to be real, enjoyable, and able to be used
by the child. |
Having a Go, or Using the skill
By encouraging your children to have a go, to stay involved, to try, to approximate and experiment, you enable them to progress and to eventually learn. By accepting and rewarding their
attempts (even though they are not yet 'correct') you motivate them to continue. Imagine the difficulty of trying to teach a child who will not try because they are scared of making mistakes.
Next your children need to practice and use the skill. The more it is used the more they will learn. So keep on looking for reasons for them to read and
write. |
Approximation
Children's first attempts at anything will be far from perfect. We understand and expect this and therefore we reward them for their attempts.... regardless of the result. We
continue to encourage them to explore, experiment, and approximate as they learn new things, knowing that it will take some time before it is completely learned. Remember this when your child is learning to read and
write, and don't scare them off by expecting too much too soon. Remember how they developed and progressed as they were learning to speak. You didn't insist on perfection then!
WASP
- Watch
- Acknowledge
- Select
- Practise
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Remember
WASP.
It represents four important steps to teaching.
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| 1 |
Watch
Find out what the person
can already do?
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It is your
skill of patiently observing or watching that determines what you
will teach, and when. Consider the following examples:
- the toddler who is standing unaided
is ready to be taught their first steps
- the child who misspells 'Mume'
is ready to learn to spell 'Mummy' correctly
- the preschooler who pretends to
read and remembers the words for a short book is probably ready
to learn to read
- the child who knows about rockets
is ready to read a suitable non-fiction book on the subject at
their level, and
- a person who has a weak backhand
in tennis might be ready to learn how to strengthen it.
The principle in
use here is to recognise that the learner must have begun to learn
the underlying skills before going to the next step.
So, establish what the learner can
already do as a starting point for further teaching. This
is not always an easy task. It may take weeks of observing
a child who is in the early stages of writing and drawing to decide
what comes next.
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| 2 |
Acknowledge
Acknowledge what the person
can do!
(Acknowledgement is not
necessarily praise)
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Always let
the person know that you can see what they can do, and be positive
about it.
| Respond
like this |
Not
like this |
| "Thank
you for writing me a letter! I know you spent
a lot of time on it, and look at all the writing you have done!" |
"Your
letter has lots of mistakes in it. Let me just
show you how to spell these 10 easy words." |
| "Your
forehand is working well. What stroke do you want to work
on next?" |
'Your
backhand is terrible!' |
| "Your
reading is really sounding very sensible. It has good
speed and I can understand it well!" |
"The
word is 'horse' not 'pony'! Slow down and be more careful! |
| "I
watched you drawing. You really put a lot of effort into
it. Tell me about it" |
"Er....what
is it supposed to be?" |
For much of the time all you have
to do is give the learner confidence to keep on doing what they
are doing now. As they refine what they are currently working
on they will automatically advance themselves to the next
step ...... if you have provided the models for them to follow.
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| 3 |
Select
Select one thing that
they can already nearly do, and teach that.
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Build upon
what the person already knows and can do. This is the principle
of building on firm foundations. If a learner can nearly do
something then they are not far from really doing it. If they
already know about something then they can expand that knowledge.
The secret is..... in selecting
just one thing to focus on at a time.
| Example |
Response |
| A child's
written story contains heaps of spelling errors, poor punctuation,
untidy handwriting, and no capitals |
Today,
focus on teaching one thing, one idea, or one skill or
you risk discouraging or overwhelming the child |
| Your
partner's golf swing is terrible and he/she wants you to help
improve it |
Select
just one thing to work on that will enable your partner to achieve
a level of success, and build confidence with that first. |
| Your
grandchild is learning to count but gets confused with 1,2,3,4,6,8,10 |
Keep
it simple. He knows 1,2,3,4, so build on that and sing with
him the 1,2,3,4,5, until he gets the five. Then go further. |
| When
writing, your child reverses letters and numbers. |
You
notice that she does the capital B correctly every time so tell her
that. Then link the lower case b to the B, showing how
similar they are, with the 'stick' drawn first (from the top)
and the 'ball' added last on the same side. Build
on what she can already do! |
This is the opportunity to get the
person participating in making decisions about what to learn.
Instead of you deciding what to teach, throw the initiative back
to them. Ask questions like:
- How can I help you with this?
- What would you like to work on
next?
- Which bits are you concerned about?
- What is your goal at this time?
- Are you happy with what you've
done?
- What would you like to learn next?
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| 4 |
Practise
Practise and use
the new skill in a supportive environment
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New knowledge
and skills need to be used again and again in order to memorise, hone,
refine, and build automatic responses.
For instance, reading skills improve
through plenty of reading practice, and writing and spelling is
learned through the use of writing.
When your children are practicing
it is important to be supportive of their efforts, their attempts
and their approximations in order to keep them involved.
Expect practice to happen spontaneously
when the above conditions are met.
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| 5 |
Now
the cycle repeats itself.
Go back to step 1 and
Watch
Find out what else the
person can already do
........and what needs to happen next?
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