Monday, March 26, 2012

Child Participation and Interest

I recently resonated with two educational videos that seemed to confirm my belief on having the student’s interest and participation drive a lesson. Being in classrooms as a teacher and a student I believe that students learn best if they can resonate with what is being taught. Two ways for the students to not only resonate with but remember the lesson of the activity is for them to participate and have an interest in the topic. Participation requires the students to use more than one sense. Taking part in a discussion, acting out a part, or creating a visual representation of something provides muscle memory as well and intellectual memory. I feel doing something that is accompanied with listening will provide a more memorable situation. That is the same with providing an interest. It is easy for something to “go in one ear and out the other” if the lesson is not engaging. Teachers should try to have their lessons be not only something that they need but want as well. For example in one video a teacher recently came back from maternity leave and they decided to use that opportunity to read about babies. The 1st graders were listening fully to the book and wanting to ask questions and tell stories relating to the story. This provided a memorable lesson for all.

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