PRAISE - Part One: There's more to praise than telling someone, "That's' good', 'great', 'fabulous', 'wonderful'...." The educational buzz the past few years is that adults do not do a kid a favor by praising indiscriminately. After a while it all sounds the same and loses its power to encourage. In little kids, the urge to do whatever the teacher wants takes over. They get addicted to the "great", "wonderful", and try hard to please the teacher by doing whatever it takes to get that word. I've seen a 4 year old create an original drawing and be so impressed by the adult reception ("Wow!, Great!, Amazing!"), he stopped creating and just drew the same thing over and over trying to elicit the same response. THE LESSON? Sincere, thoughtful responses with detail and examples gives more real encouragement. My young artist missed the crucial lesson - not that the squirrel on the tree was important, but that his conception and artistic representation were "unique", "clever", "accurate". These kinds of words encourage not that the student should, "Do something to please me!", but rather "Continue to explore being 'unique', 'clever', 'accurate'...."
Very well said and something for us, as teachers and mentors, to remember. You are doing a great job getting your students to work on the Globaloria curriculum. They have numerous wiki edits. I am trying to learn from your post.
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