So, the other day a wonderful teacher on one of the preschool teacher Facebook Groups I like to follow, had an epiphany or what I call a Helen Keller moment. Remember when Helen felt the cold water from the pump while her teacher, Anne Sullivan finger spelled the word ‘water’ in her hand and Ms. Keller understood the connection between those gestures and language? If you truly closely observe your children, you see these moments in the classroom too – the moment a child discovers meaning between what his senses are feeling and fact or language or thought.
This teacher asked her children to tell her what they wanted to learn about. This, in itself is not new. It is called child-centered planning or inquiry-based learning, but it is not used enough in early childhood education. Traditionally we’ve done this: the program sets goals for learning, the teachers plan experiences, the children ‘do’ the experiences, and teachers assess the learning.
That’s an ok way to teach (as long as we use DAP and NO WORKSHEETS, DESK WORK, 30 MINUTE TEACHER LECTURE and other inappropriate-for-preschool stuff).
BUT
The best learning comes when the children use SARRA:
Selection Make decisions about what interests them or choose what toy, center or experience they will work with
Action Take the initiative to work and play
Repetition Do the action over and over until they are comfortable with the learning gained
Reflection Recall and reinforce the learning by talking, singing, dancing, drawing, & hearing stories about it
Application Use that learning in appropriate, new, or original ways
AND
The best way to let SARRA happen is for us to change our traditional methods and do this: assure the program’s goals are developmentally accurate, give the children opportunities to share their interests, give teachers the materials they need to set up learning experiences that match the program goals, give the children time, freedom, and ample opportunity to use the methods of Movement, Manipulation/Creation, Sensory-Intelligence, Role Play, and Expression to gain optimal learning (SARRA) and teachers document the learning as it happens and make a formal assessment and plan for continuation of learning.
Now that’s the way to teach.
The difficulty for some of us comes with creating Learning (not lesson) Plans that show what the children will be offered to match the goals of learning. We plan by Learning Method (listed above) because we know these are the ways young children gain knowledge and skills best. The teacher who listed her children’s interests shared it online and it was wonderful. My favorite topics were Teapots, Corn Mazes, and Ketchup. I couldn’t resist planning some learning.
So
Teach 'Em the Way They Learn 