11/03/2014
Promoting Thoughtfulness
To every man alive, one must hope it has in some way happened that he has talked with his more fascinating friends around a table on some night when all the numerous personalities unfolded themselves like great tropical flowers.
G. K. Chesterton
In her article, "Best Brains in Science Under Five: Helping Children Develop Intentionally," which is included in the new Exchange CEU based on the Beginnings Workshop, The Intentional Teacher, Judy Harris Helm suggests one of the challenges for teachers is "to engage children in the intellectual life by supporting the development of traits such as curiosity and the disposition to be thoughtful." She suggests a number of strategies including the following to help children learn to be thoughtful:
- Listen carefully to children’s conversations and identify topics of interest.
- Choose topics for project work that have potential for hands-on learning.
- Lift up children’s questions by recording on chart paper; review these and add more. Be especially supportive and ask questions that indicate deep thought.
- Add materials to the classroom related to children’s interest as they emerge. Encourage children to contribute materials.
- Don’t jump in and tell children answers or go immediately to a book or the Internet. Today answers can be found in seconds, but this creates child dependence on adults who have mastered the skills of reading and writing and not how young children learn.
- Don’t be afraid to provoke children’s thinking. Challenge them to find an answer, create a model, or do observational drawing.
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