Motivating Young Children

          On the evening of February fourth, our class once again sat down around a table of goodies to discuss the book that was assigned to us this week. The book we read this week was Understanding How Young Children Learn, Bringing the SCIENCE of Child Development to the Classroom by Wendy Ostroff, who happens to be our teacher. As the facilitator I first asked the group how they felt about this book. I got many positive thoughts about this book including one by Sarah Fazio who said, "I always love a book that doesn't just point out issues but also offers solutions," and that is how many of the students felt about this book. I then asked the class to pair up and write a question they had for discussion on a piece of paper and then to put it in the jar. The bolded questions in this blog are the actual questions that were used in the seminar.

What is the right amount of free time a child should get in a day? (in a classroom setting)

Free play has been a much talked about subject in our class so far. It seems to me and many of the other students that free play is very key to learning in the classroom. As Ostroff states in her book, "Children have an inclination to play as a means to exploring and being inventive, creative, and curious;..."(26) Ostroff also talks about children's cognitive development happens primarily through play. In an article by Caralee Adams she talks about the benefits of having free play. She says that research shows that free play leads to less fidgeting, more improved memory and attention, and more leadership skills. She also says that physical education should promote more free play and more choices of the kids of what should be played.

When the students and I conversed on this question we first did not have an exact answer. We put thought into how much time should be given to the students for free time and if it should be split into multiple time periods or not. Then the thought of how much structure should be put on free play came up. Our group really felt that the environment of free play needs to be structured but we need to give children their space to explore and have their creativity run free.

Is there a better way to discipline the children without taking away their free time?

Children need to have their time to be free and run around. More and more teachers are taking away recess as a punishment for acting out in class or not doing their homework hoping that it would motivate the students to do better. We discussed other possible ways of discipling as making the children do tasks in the classroom that students wouldn't want to do or to send behavioral notes home to the parents.

How can you set up the classroom in a way that students are working together but not with their backs facing the teacher?

According to Ostroff, "collaboration enhances and deepens learning" meaning that having children learn in groups is very beneficial. Ostroff talks about the students in your classroom should be a community because it helps motivate more learning. As a group we shared our experiences in classrooms when there have been group tables, individual rows, and small groups of two or threes. Ostroff even mentions having the students be evaluated in pairs to feel a part of something bigger and to be less self-conscious. The only negative thing about evaluation of pairs is that one person could be doing all the work or one person could be working ahead of the partner. Working in pairs is wonderful but I just do not see how you could evaluate them as a pair. Having children who are confident teach other students can helpful for both roles. The student teaching the context will be able to fully understand the material while the student being taught is receiving help from a peer who can maybe explain it in terms the student can understand better.

Many people work better with other people especially with people who have confidence issues. This also ties into another topic in the book where confidence is a very important factor to motivation of learning. The book talks about "learned helplessness" in which a student has already defined him or herself bad at a particular subject which in turn leads to a lack of motivation in that subject. We want our students to have the confidence to succeed and to take risks in their learning. Taking the risks can lead to creative ways of solving a problem and in the end helps the student understand the problem better.

Teachers need to know how their feedback can be detrimental to their students confidence if not said in the correct manned. Ostroff writes, "Instead of saying 'nice job' you might tell the child how the technique was effective."(19) Commenting on the process is more beneficial than commenting on the end result.

Novelty and Learning

Keeping things new and exciting is a very good tool to keeping children interested in learning but also giving the students a predictable structure with clear expectations is important to too. Keep the classroom structured but keep the curriculum fresh and interesting to the students. As a teacher you should want to keep the curriculum new and exciting for yourself as well because you will be teaching it over and over again for years to come. Create lesson plans with room for improvisation and surprises. Its very hard to keep children's attention these days so it is very important to know what the children want to learn and how they want to learn.

Students in my class shared their experiences of how their teachers kept things interesting. Many of them experienced theme weeks where the curriculum was based on a particular theme that interested them. Some encountered different types of teaching techniques. One technique that was mentioned was the socratic seminars. My question for the group was "How young can we start socratic seminars with student for them to be able to keep the conversation going and on topic?" Much of the class said that it can be done at a young age but in simpler terms. Having the children discuss what they are reading in class can help students get over their fear of talking in front of class and it can help them think critically.

The picture below talks out the five learning strategies I found on the Cord.org website. I believe putting these strategies to use would be very helpful when motivating the children because its a process of showing the topics they are being taught are necessary for life.

Adams, Caralee. "Recess Makes Kids Smarter." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.

Ostroff, Wendy L. Understanding How Young Children Learn: Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"The REACT Learning Strategy - Center for Occupational Research and Development."The REACT Learning Strategy - Center for Occupational Research and Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.