Making Thinking and Answering Safe for Students
I ran across a great article about helping students feel safe when discussing or answering questions. The tips would also be good ones to use with our small book club discussions as well as with any class discussion. Here is a link to the article: No Big Deal: Providing a Classroom Environment Where it is safe to Participate
I am currently reading a book about poverty and brain development in children: Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About It, by Eric Jensen, ASCD, 2009. His research confirms that one of the things we can do is provide more time for our kids to think and answer without feeling stress. Here is a quote from the book that I thought went well with this article about giving kids time to respond:
“Developing children need reliable caregivers who offer high predictability, or their brains will typically develop adverse adaptive responses. Chronic socioeconomic deprivation can create environments that undermine the development of self and the capacity for self-determination and self-efficacy. Compared with their more affluent peers, low-SES children form more stress-ridden attachments with parents, teachers, and adult caregivers…. They are more likely than well-off children to … receive less positive reinforcement from teachers….” p.8-9, Jenson, 2009. By providing more time for students to respond and offering positive reinforcement, we can change the adverse response that their brain may typically react with to a response that is positive and pleasant and will help them to develop cognitively.
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What great advice for anyone who works with children or adults in teaching and learning! Thanks for sharing these helpful tips. I have bookmarked this article and plan to revisit during the year.