One of the main goals of education is to enable children to become independent, however, I sometimes notice that some children in my class would happily sit and wait for every single thing to be ‘spoonfed’ to them. So, over the next few weeks, I’m hoping to help the children in my class to think for themselves, get the equipment they need, make decisions about their work etc.
We started this morning with a brainstorm about ‘Independence’ and talked about the ways we are independent in 3rd class/ things we can do independently.
Some strategies I plan on using are;
Ask 3 before me
I know lots of you probably use this strategy already so I hope to implement it from tomorrow. I think this strategy will make the children think before they ask ‘silly’ questions to their peers.
Materials Hunt
I’ve moved a lot of materials and bits and pieces since September so I’m sure some children are not sure where exactly things are. So we’ll spend some time checking and showing where things are stored.
Independent Work
Every morning for 5-15 minutes the children will work in their handwriting/sum detective books. The children will need to work independently during this time and complete individual tasks.
Role Play
This morning we had a mini role play where I made some ‘mistakes’ and we discussed how to fix them. For example I ‘spilled’ some water/ broke my pencil etc. The children then came up with strategies to solve these small issues.
What do you think?
I’m making a conscious effort to put the responsibility for decisions about work on the child themselves. Sometimes children ask questions for approval and not because they actually need help/assistance.
