Successful Learners

Nathan Mikaere-Wallis' RNZ interview has got me thinking! It was very timely that I stumbled across this as I have spent a year teaching children who fall into this age bracket. It opened a lot of questions for me and left me pondering about how WE as a school can foster this social and emotional learning more.

Below are the notes I made while listening to his interview.

When a child reaches 7 years this is when their frontal cortex is finally developed. In theory they are 'mini' adults.

Before 7 this has not developed therefore they learn differently.

From 3-7 it should be all about the social and emotional skills. 

Parents have this perception that their child is intelligent if they can read and write at an early age.

 Research has shown this is not the case.

• A study of adults aged 32-37 who had degrees showed no correlation to what they knew at 3-7 (whether they could read or write early). 

• 90% of hot housed children have plateaued by 8 years of age. The only thing that marks them as different is that they have stunted social skills. (Nathan Mikaere-Wallis)

• Those who started reading at 3 had the same reading age as those who learn t to read a 6.5 years of age (when they were aged between 8-9).

We need to build the perception of  'What am I like as a learner?' 

We need to build up students experiences to be successful in learning.

Are they gifted or are the gifted at 'parroting' back?

What is important is how the child feels about themselves as a learner. 

If you build the confidence there is a desire to learn. 

If you 'push' them it inhibits the risk taking.

Model in a way that doesn't point out the mistakes- research showed that if we point out the mistakes in the next 30 minutes children will use less language. 

(As Nathan pointed out in the interview about the 'sheeps').

Wording is important.

Tell them specifically what they have done rather than 'good boy/girl' be more specific and acknowledge what they did well. 

From 3-7 children are 'divergent' thinkers. They are creative and we need to foster this. 

Avoid right and wrong questions. 

Develop more open ended questions for them to work through - Problem solving enhanced by creativity. 

Create the thinker before you bring the facts in - Power of Play!

Good outcomes= less structure.

Stop asking test questions

Open ended questions so that children can have an opinion

Listen to the child's concept of the world.

Do things of interest and don't push the need that they need to be at a certain level by a certain time.

Intelligence as a parrot vs Intelligence as a human

Key Competencies are important. If a child has anxiety/sensitive go back to being a child- social skills are important- stop the learning

90% of people in reading recovery are boys who are not the first born. Piaget says we will learn to read at about 7 when we're ready for cognition. Schools has pressured students into learning to read at 6, then 5, then below 5

How does this affect their self confidence? For nearly 2 years they are not feeling successful.

We need to remember not to give 3-7 year old to much cognitive skills. Develop the social and emotional skills.

Rubrics

Be careful how they are used. Are they developed so every child can be successful? Will children move or for ever be on that bottom rubric?

Same as grouping children 

That one child.

Every Kids needs a Champion   by Rita Pierson says it all.

Every year we are given students we struggle to connect with. This year for me it happened. It seems like a terrible thing to say but it can happen. I saw it straight away and reflected on how was I ever going to find a connection with this one child. They were so disengaged, uninterested and had no empathy for their peers. Yet I also knew they didn’t have the greatest home life and therefore lacked a lot of confidence and self-esteem. 

As Rita say in her Ted Talk, 'until the relationships are built the ‘real’ learning will not happen'. There is a value and importance of human connections. It took me nearly two terms to find a connection with this child and it developed over reading. One-one reading with them every day and I saw a side to this child I had never seen before. They would smile, feel proud of their efforts and enjoy themselves. Better yet, their reading improved dramatically.

I realised in a group situation that this would have never happened and if it meant that I started my reading programme at 8:30 in the morning to cater for this need, then so be it.

As Rita says ‘Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like’

Te Reo

Over the year I have been re thinking the way I have been teaching Te Reo in my classroom. Usually it is a 30 -minute lesson once a week. I began to find this wasn't working for my class in the the fact it was only a one off lesson and by the time we re-visited the following week a lot of the students had forgotten their Reo.

I decided to do a 15 minutes lesson every day and started incorporating activities into their language programme to help consolidate previous and new learning. So after our Karakia each day we started to do mini lessons based on the topic we were looking at that term.

My emphasis was to make sure that my class were pronouncing the words correctly and had time to consolidate this. This is where I felt a one off lesson a week wasn't helping with this. My students needed time each day to work on their pronunciation and to listen to themselves and others speaking.

When we learnt about Te Tinana (the body),  I had already establish that the majority of my class knew their basic body parts thanks to 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes' song in Te Reo therefore I decided to extend them by teaching them the rest of their body parts. Once we had spent time learning how to pronounce each body part correctly, we moved on to asking simple commands to help identify them.

Kei hea? (Where is your)       Anei taku (here is)

We also played a matching game in groups/pairs (as shown in the picture below)

Twinkl

During their language time, students were able to work in pairs/small groups to either play the matching game or ask Kei hea? 

We also did this when we learnt about about Akomanga (my classroom). I used a lot of the ideas from this site. Parts of our classroom were already labelled in Te Reo so my class were able to identify a few items already. We used the command 

'He aha tēnei? - What is this?'

Children used the cards to help consolidate their learning.

There were a number of ways they used these from 'matching game' 'memory' 'snap' etc. 

After each term, students still continued to use these cards and pictures during their language and free time.

I saw a vast improvement in their learning and saw the benefits of doing mini lessons each day rather than a one off lesson each week. 

Growth Mindset

These posters are a great way of reminding my students about growth mindset concepts. I have had these ( and a few more) up around the room and each week we have take one and looked at what it might mean. The students have loved discussing about 'Growth Mindset' and the clips on ClassDojo are great to consolidate these ideas for students. 

As a teacher you always get 'warm fuzzy' when you hear students talking to others and discussing these Growth Mindsets and re-phrasing their wording! 

Self Reflection.

One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging for a while is because I have been struggling to write anything positive. I will admit this year has been a struggle. I am teaching a year 2/3 class and to be honest, I am finding it very difficult to enjoy it.

I am WAY out of my comfort zone and spend a lot of weekends wondering if I am actually the best person to teach this year group.

My comfort zone is older children. Give me some of these students in year 5/6 and I will absolutely love them! But at this age I am not so sure.

I am reflecting a lot on my own teaching and learning. My planning is for ever changing each day and some weeks I completely re-write what I am doing.

I look at my assessments and wonder how will I move a certain child on to reach a level that seems so far away!
Post assessments have me questioning my own teaching style. Did I expect too much from some individuals? Did I rush through the learning? Do I need to give this year group more time? More hands on? Learn through play?

My biggest worry is that I will fail these children.

As a teacher I feel I’m not experienced enough at teaching younger students to read and write and feel I am always swimming in the deep end. I then begin to second guess myself and my own teaching ability.

Is this where I want to be?