Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Shift in Thinking, A Shift in Believing

Since my October 3rd post titled "Challenging Students to Think for Themselves," there has been a shift in my students' thinking. Making every effort to not answer any question a student asks me that he/she can answer his/herself, the students have been redirected a countless number of times since my post about this movement in my class. Some students have even come to the point where they start to ask me a question, but stop and answer their own question. Actually, it is more than answering their own question. It is that they are "THINKING," therefore they don't have a question to ask. This change is because they are starting to realize that if they give themselves a little time to think about what ever it is they are questioning, that they can actually figure it out on their own. As per many of my encouraging comments about the students believing in themselves, giving themselves a chance or even giving themselves credit, the students are now appearing to have a shift in believing. Believing in themselves and their own ability.

3 comments:

  1. Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

    What you are doing (better still, who you are being) is so powerful. Would love to follow your students through life as the lessons you are teaching them, and those that they are teaching themselves(!), will serve them well for the rest of their life.

    Great, great stuff!!!

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  2. I have started to use this technique with my 4year old daughter and also see, before my very own eyes, how powerful it is to help them learn to be problem solvers and think for themselves. Empowering! Thanks for your blog! Really great ideas that are helpful not only for teachers, but for parents too!

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  3. Thank you for your recent comment. Given who you are it's always nice knowing you stopped by!

    The comment above reminded me of how powerful questions are with London (3 1/2yrs) and Lucius (18 months). Their first question came at 11 months. Having been taught sign language for 'Please' we asked them, 'What do you say?' any time they asked for something. As you note, it gets to the point where (with London) she asks a question and then answers it for herself. It's also great when you set up a question (e.g., You have two choices, you can brush your teeth or there are no books tonight), but never need to ask it (e.g., What do you want to do?).

    Thanks again for stopping by!

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