I'm always telling my students that there not in school to absorb knowledge during the week and spit it back out on a test on Friday. That's what copy machines are for.
I ask them to USE the knowledge by applying what they're learning to a project, experiment or activity.
Last week we were learning proper nouns. Pretty non-exciting stuff, unless you turn it into a Native American myth and play, using proper nouns.
We even went downstairs to use the stage! Every kid loves getting out of that seat and playing. All I'm getting them to do is play with knowledge :-)
I wish I could show you a video of how much fun they had. We're not allowed to post pics or videos of students. But I can show you the results of such playing with knowledge:
Almost everyone got an A on the test and the average grade was an 84%!
To paraphrase Plato,
You can't teach by force or harshness, but by finding what amuses their minds. And in this way a teacher is much more likely to discover the genius of each child they teach.
No comments:
Post a Comment