Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/documenting-teacher-talk-an-exercise-in-modeling/5010582/
Eavesdrop on a dialogue between two experienced teacher educators, Margie Carter and Elizabeth Jones, as they consider ways to encourage teachers to examine their talk with children. They have some specific thoughts on what directors can do as well.I love sitting in child care classrooms, watching how children figure out what the teacher wants and then invent ways to get around that when they want to do something else. It's unsettling, though, to hear some teachers respond as if their job is to be a cop or drill sergeant. If only teachers spent their time watching and understanding and then inventing appropriate ways to talk to the children. With all your work on identifying and describing roles teachers have in children's play, how have you addressed this?
I've begun by saying that the teacher's most important role is observer. Young children learn primarily by playing and talking, so it's up to the teacher to create an environment that frees children to play and thus frees adults to watch and listen to children. Teacher talk should have the purpose of supporting problem-solving and learning through play.
Part of the task is helping teachers think through the goals they ...