"Teaching Children to Care" Ruth Sidney Charney

2002, 447 pgs, published by NEFC USA.

This is an holistic teaching method that encourages empathy and understanding going both ways between teacher and student. It adopts the Responsive Classroom approach. Using vignettes to illustrate her points, Charney teaches the teacher to listen carefully to the students and enable them to be involved in their own classroom and henceforth, lives. It is only when you begin to know and understand the person that you can begin to teach them with empathy.

Charney makes great use of the old favourite, 'time out'. But, this is time out with a difference. It is no longer used as a punishment, or to distance the child from what is 'normal'. It is used instead as a supportive tool, with the child, to assist their regaining of self-control. They communicate to the child transgressing that they have gone over the limit (p167). A simple "time out" or even a simple hand movement lets the child know that they need to have a break for a short period, until the teacher agrees that it is right for them to rejoin. 

Time out is instituted early, before any large problems erupt - before the child is fully out of control. All time outs are accompanied by a discussion at the end, a debriefing, if you will. 

Of course, time out may not work for all children. For these children, Charney suggests a different plan, which can involve certain strategies such as bargaining.

The second half of the book is devoted to problem solving in more depth. There are methods to assist students and whole classes to problem solve, with a view to them taking this on independently. Charney points out the importance of 'noticing': stating what you see rather than cajoling and nagging. It is even useful when questioning a child about their actions. They cannot deny the bare facts.

"Teaching Children to Care" goes through the very methodology of doing so, it helps you to create an environment with which children can learn the skills of caring for others. It provides a platform with which children can become more independent, and take responsibility for themselves.

"The Explosive Child" Ross Greene, PhD

2nd ed, 2001, 334pgs, published by Quill, USA.

We've heard of the children that are "chronically inflexible", children that lose their temper quickly over seemingly nothing, children that seem to be quite miserable overall. Standard modus operandus for these people is to implement the "discipline" even harder, which, if you've read the previous post's book, won't work. And it doesn't.

Similarly, dangling rewards like carrots and being clearer in consequences, only frustrates further, for these children who just can't. He illustrates this point with a great story on page 89, suggesting that if he were paid Michael Jordan's salary to play like Michael Jordan, well sure, he'd be motivated, but that alone wouldn't be enough to be an outstanding basketballer.

Greene argues that these children are developmentally unable to deal with frustrations, such as doing something that they don't want to do, leading them to lose it like a two year old. They may have any number of the various learning difficulties as well, so put these together, and you have one confused and tense child.

Greene's solution is simple enough: choose your battles. But, of course, it is difficult to implement, given a human's basic desire to avoid conflict. Through choosing (and you choose, not them) a "teachable" moment of conflict, you can get through to these children. That is not to "let them get away with things". It's merely a way of reducing their stress for the time being. Once they are better equipped to deal with conflict and exhibit a more controlled response, then the smaller things can begin to matter.

This is for those teachers and parents of children who are difficult to work out and manage. Ross Greene has an endearing writing style, and displays a sympathy - having met so many of these frustrated children.

Next review: "Teaching Children to Care" Ruth Sidney Charney....

"Why we do what we do" Edward L Deci and Richard Flaste

1996, 230pgs, published by Penguin USA.

A short book, but filled with psych theory and primarily devoted to the discussion/sharing of research on motivation. Which is thought-provoking, if you've ever thought further about "how can I help these kids be more motivated?"

Well, according to Deci, that is not the question. Rather than "how can I motivate people?" the question is, "how can I create the conditions within which people will motivate themselves?" (from the blurb). It isn't just semantics either. Deci presents a thoroughly researched argument - he studied this area empirically for over 25 years - and well-chosen vignettes that illustrate his main points.

He begins by stating that rewards can hinder intrinsic motivation, and in some cases, can go further to destroy it. Praise can be considered a reward, if it used contiguously. In fact, rewards in general used contiguously are more akin to manipulation, which is considered external motivation and produces unsatisfactory results for everyone involved. (pp 67) In short, if intrinsic motivation is encouraged, then the learning will be deeper, retained longer, more likely to be pursued independently, and will positively affect future learning.

Deci places a lot of importance on the way that the message is delivered by a person in a "one-up" position, eg. teacher. Through his research, he has found that providing rationale, acknowledging feelings, and using inviting language rather than controlling to be the best to encourage intrinsic motivation in others. (pp 101)

Deci notes early on that taking care to nurture intrinsic motivation is hard. In contrast, it is easy to hand out a sticker, and usually gain compliance. But, at what cost is that compliance? And what of the learning you are trying to encourage?

I recommend this book for those who are interested in improving their pedagogy to incorporate deeper learning in their classes.

Ok, I've thought this through a bit more...

I just realised that this blog is an absolute mess. I mean, where is it going? What kind of purpose is pulling it together? What was I thinking?

I have another blog filled with purposeless rambling. I don't need another. I probably don't even need to ramble on that one.

So. Let's bring new purpose and direction to this lost boat in a sea of flotsam (or is it jetsam?). From now on (thereby excluding any previous entries), this blog will be filled with useful information. Since, as previously mentioned, I read a lot about education, I'll post all my reviews of those books at this spot.

Well, I'm excited by it!

There are some kind-of reviews already in the blog, I know. I'll add to them.

I've also been inspired by "The Polyphonic Spree" by Nick Hornsby, where he lists his reading for the month, and then reviews them. I probably can't do funny like he does, but I like the book listing idea. Thanks!

First book to review: "Why we do what we do" by Edward Deci. Coming soon...

New book... surprise, surprise!

New book is called Making Revision Matter by Janet Angelillo. I've read her other Writing Workshop book, called A Fresh Approach to Teaching Punctuation. She's got some sterling ideas, mainly focusing in on helping students become more independent in their learning, which I think is the bees knees. Good revision is attached to good reading, and reading like a writer. Thusly, a revision unit may entail reading a mentor author, eg Cynthia Rylant, and viewing how their writing is unique. From this, the students can revise to try out their strategies, such as, alliteration. It reminded me of the old composers of the 16th century, something like that, who would copy famous composers' works to learn the craft. It's not plagarism either, they change the words!

Another new book

It's safe to say, I like reading. Not only that, but it enables me to target the PD that I want, rather than what someone else wants for me. If I don't like it, I can put it down, or skip the offensive bit.

Having said that, I want to tell you about another new book that I want to recommend to y'all. It's called "Young Children Continue to Reinvent Arithmetic 3rd Grade", and it's written by Constance Kamii. She's a researcher of Piaget's ideas. Basically, if I were to trim the ideas down, she's saying that we shouldn't teach algorithms (that is, how you do your sums), as if they were the word of the law. Kids should be able to invent their own ways of working out sums.

I must admit, I thought, what? at first. But, she does give a convincing argument. Children, when left to invent their own ways, usually work from left to right, which is the way the we would read number. However, when using an algorithm, they work from right to left (excluding division). With this seemingly insignificant detail, they tend to lose their understanding of place value, and thus, cannot use the algorithm, or anything to solve the problem.

I can back her ideas up though, having looked at the work of algorithms through my class. They just don't understand it. I am making it my goal to give this constructivist idea a go. More later.

Oh, if you were wondering, Alfie Kohn got me onto this new book. No, not personally. Through reading his book, "The Schools our Children Deserve", another great one. Big eye opener.


On another note, the Developmental Discipline is going well. Of particular note, I've focused on:

• co-operation instead of competition
• better tasks and more enjoyable content instead of rewards
• consequences instead of punishment (difference is not just semantics!)
• group tasks instead of working alone, where possible
• lots of talk
• social skills discussions
• workshop based instruction instead of whole class
• student choice
  

So now, I'm going to add to that, constructivist maths. We'll see how it goes. I think it's going to work!