She opens the section saying, “Children use work activity time to investigate and explore…”. Investigation and exploration are at the heart of learning for children. I feel children are able to investigate and explore because there is not a teacher standing and holding their hands, telling them where to play and what to do. I feel this “alone-decision time” is crucial to a child and his/her development.
I love that the author discussed that the children need time away from academics during this time as well. She stated that children needed time to play with blocks, paint and beads. If children want to read or write, they could do so during this time, but it was not mandatory. I feel children should be given the option to sometimes read and write. I feel many teachers put too much pressure on students to do so, therefore causing them to hate reading and writing. If we as teachers treat these as an option and not a chore, students will be better off.
The author ends the section by hoping that one day a child will paint a scene from a poem or something worked on during a writing workshop. I feel it is important to not tell students to do so, but let them do this on their own. If teachers put this idea into students heads, it would not be unique and be teacher created.
Here is a video found from Annenberg Media from learner.org on making choices for themsleves:
http://www.learner.org/channel/libraries/makingmeaning/makingmeaning/wholegroup/
Happy reading,
Sarah
2 comments:
I really liked this section of the book as well. I completely agree that children need time to figure things out on their own. They dont always need a teacher there holding their hand. You also talked about giving children a chance to have free time away from academics. I think this is very important and even more with all the pressure it seems like there is on children today.
I also really enjoyed this section of the book as well! I agree that children need time to explore and investigate on their own. Students will be able to relate to things to their own lives when they are able to explore on their own. I also agree that teachers put too much pressure on students to read and write.
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