In this chapter there were a number of topics of particular interest to me. One of the programs I work with is a daycare center for 0-4 year olds, and we have a high percentage of students with special needs - about a third of the students in our center have IEPs or IFSPs. This chapter talked about early intervention and early education, and how early exposure to strategically designed activities can improve executive function.
These topics made me think of a Washington Post article about a newly released study: Lively Minds. The author of the study argues that play-based learning focused on intellectual skills will foster the best brain development in young children, as opposed to concentrating on academic skills. Personally I think there can be a combination of what the author describes as intellectual skills (questioning, problem-solving) and academic skills (mastery of discrete topics) within the same play-based center. I would be curious to know what others think about this topic based on our course readings!
In another section of the chapter, Zadina talks about the importance of metacognition at all grade levels. She defines metacognition as the act of thinking about thinking! A child's ability to be metacognitive will help him or her take ownership of learning.
I think this idea of metacognition applies well to a guided reading format, and I tried it out with a group of four 1st graders. I told the students that in the story they would come to words that they did not know, and asked them which word attack strategies they would use to solve an unknown word. Then, when I noticed a student solving a word, I would ask him or her to tell me which strategy they used to figure it out. In this way they were becoming metacognitive of the skills they were applying in the moment. I think it definitely helped students feel confident when they approached another word they did not know, because they knew they could access multiple strategies to solve it.
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