Teachers Work to Change Their Daily Language
This presentation will include 10 main tips for changing our teaching language from general to detailed, expressive and meaningful.
Suggestions:
1. Use sentence starters:
Example: “I see you…” or “I heard you…”
Use thought openers:
Example: “Show me how you….”, “Tell me more about…”
2. Notice and provide feedback about a task:
Example: “Bella, I noticed you trying really hard to fit the coin into the jar. How did you finally get it to fit?”
– Avoid closed-ended questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”.
3. Invite children to speak:
Example: “Your tower is so cool! How did you get the blocks to stack so high?”
4. Pay special attention to details:
When commenting on a child’s work, such as a drawing, include specific and expressive vocabulary such as different drawing techniques used: scribbles, dark, light, waves, lines, circles, ovals etc. This also helps to expose and encourage the use of a wide variety of new vocabulary words.
5. Say, “Thank you!”
Remember to thank children when they are helpful and describe why what they did was helpful.
Example: “Thank you for putting books on the book shelf. That helps our friends to pick up the classroom so we can go outside!” “Thank you for helping your friend up off the floor. That probably made her feel much better after she fell.”
* Remember not to thank a child for completing an activity, because all activities should be done in the interest of the child’s learning outcome and should not be done “for” the teacher. Instead, you can thank them for using gentle touches, sharing materials, helping others, etc. and explain why each action was significant.
6. Identify a goal before responding:
Think about what aspect of the child’s achievement or activity would be the most appropriate to highlight at the time. You may choose to describe an act of kindness done by the child, a positive behavioral choice, or a specific problem solving skill used.
7. Provide non-verbal feedback:
Use high-fives, pats on the back, hugs and smiles to show the child that what they accomplished was special. This is also a helpful, key aspect in the development of very young children as well as ESL students.
8. Use mirroring:
When a child notices an achievement on their own, mirror their excitement and provide a dialogue for why that achievement is so special. Compare a child’s past achievements to present and future achievements.
Example: “Wow! Just yesterday you could barely roll the ball to me. Today you threw it right into my hands! Just think how far you will be throwing after you practice more and more!”
9. Highlight children’s work:
After completing works of art, writing or other curricular areas, invite children to help find a good place to display their work in the classroom. Have children present their work to other classmates, and include pictures of them completing work alongside the finished product. Provide evidence of learning to classroom families by giving them pictures of their children working on different projects and explain the various foundations or standards being targeting by each activity.
10. Encourage next steps:
After a child has accomplished a goal, lead them toward the accomplishment of another goal.
Example: “I see you filled most of the space on your paper with paint, now how can you find the blank spaces and fill them with color?”
(Source: NAEYC.org)
Challenges or Obstacles:
- Saying “Good job” has become a somewhat automatic response to achievement in much of our society. In school, it may be difficult to combat this automaticity due to a lack of discussion time during lessons.
Benefits and Successes:
- Providing extra time in our lesson plans specifically for the think-aloud and discussion process will create much more meaningful and relevant learning experiences for each child.
Submitted by: Emarie Warner, Huffer Memorial Children’s Center