Mrs.Devi Venugopal
Educational Psychologist
Indonesia
New reat to catch up again, with the continuity of Zoom fatigue. I hope the tips were useful. We are now moving into how to provide the nudge, which promotes the child’s growth in online learning. We should not push the child; it will disrupt the learning process.
The teachers from one school discussed how all the first graders have become excellent in spelling; since online learning started. No mistakes!
What is the reason, any guess?
Yes, too much help from adults around. Will this help the child become good in spellings or help the teacher understand the weak zones to work with the child. It disrupts the learning journey. I know it’s tempting to provide answers to our children when struggling with simple math, reading, or writing, but it is not teaching.
The best way to nudge a child in positive online learning; we need to consider two points.
Honoring approximation – accepting the current developmental state of the child and appreciating them for who they are.
Nudging Development rather than pushing the Development – if the child asks you how to spell a word, instead of just spelling, you can ask them to say it aloud, hear the sounds and guess what letters come in. You should not push 15 things at a time, one step at a time. If the child struggles to dance, telling them to bend their knees, then move the body, then the arms, and so forth.
The nudge will develop the independence of the child, with just a little bit of adult support.
Instructions might be invitational or directive – for example, let’s make the bed is invitational, and Go and make your bed is directive. The little nudge to the child can be invitational or directive.
Teaching is not
Reminding – Don’t forget to use the comma after a phrase, with the example of making a bed reminding your child to make the bed.
Telling – Use the comma after a phrase, make your bed.
Correcting – You have not used a comma after a phrase, pointing out you don’t know to make the bed.
If this is not teaching, what is teaching?
Teaching is
Showing
Demonstrating
Modeling.
For the teaching to happen, we need to have the starting point – approximation, crucial for online learning.
As parents, we intend to help our children, want them to be successful, and like the child to share their learning with confidence.
Several problems arise due to the push from parents in online learning.
Inaccurate perception of students – the teachers will miss the opportunity to the child’s stand due to the extra help from the parents. The teachers can understand the child’s learning better through their mistakes.
Too much support decreases independence level; the parent’s constant proximity will initiate a different behavioral pattern in the child. So it is better to avoid eye to eye contact if your child is looking up to for answers.
Teaching too many things at the same time – parents can demotivate the child from learning.
Make the teaching at school difficult due to the above factors.
Inaccurate information about s child can lead to ineffective pushes by the teacher.
One of the common challenges to bring out the writer in a child is to select the topics for writing. It starts with kindergarten and goes on until university. The nudging tip is to lead the discussion into issues rather than just spilling the problems. For example, the teacher can ask where you went on vacation, where you want to go after the pandemic, significant moments, and kids’ posters in the child’s room. These are the few ways to help children to find topics which motivate them to write with resilience.
Parents, please resist yourself when the child is trying to find the solution. Avoid jumping in too quickly; avoid making eye contact, and reduce the child’s proximity when online learning happens.
Some tips to support children at home
Noticing what published author do, while reading aloud to your child, talk about the illustrations the author used to explain, the phrase to express their emotions, the usage of new words.
The strategy is to model to notice every once in a while, what the author is doing.
Value both composition and conventions and be comfortable with accurate information.
Nudging Development
Provide choices in the topics and provide a clear purpose for writing, which inspires the children to choose the genre. Clearing indicating the authentic audience encourages the children.
Children spent a lot of time; they care a lot about our acknowledgment. Conventions and compositions both must go parallel. The composition is continuously getting vocabulary, sentence variety, limitless. High-quality writing depends on the ability to with a variety of word choices and good conventions. Both are prerequisites to have engaged in writing. Let’s help the kids to learn the best possible way during the challenging times. Next month we will see, how to nurture the love for reading.
Citation
Workshop by Matt Glover, Author, is a full-time educational literacy consultant and acclaimed author on nurturing writers and supporting children’s intellectual growth and development. Matt has been an educator for over twenty years, including twelve years as the principal and instructional leader of Creekside Early Childhood School. Matt lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and four children.
