Nell Blodgett
Training: Saturday February 6, 2016 : Jumpstart Winter Training: Enhancing reading Strategies With Young Children, Supporting Classroom Management and Extending Learning Across Session Elements.
Instructors: Melissa Frazin : Jumpstart Site Manager, Lauren Kolak: Head preschool teacher at Eerie House Chicago and Heather Little: DePaul faculty and previous Jumpstart Site Manager.
Insights:
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It is important to ask children open-ended questions when working on their language and literacy skills because it gives them the opportunity to have genuine conversations that expose them to vocabulary, concepts and feelings that they could not get out of a question that is simply answered with the words, “yes” or “no.” Instead of asking a child you are working with, “Do you like the color purple?” You can increase their literacy skills and overall relationships by asking questions like, “How did you make that?”, “What will you do next?”, or “Why do you think that happened?”.
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When having conversations with young children in a setting where they can get everything out of the conversation it is important to make sure that you ask genuine questions, that you give the child enough time to answer your questions (even though it can feel like a painfully awkward silence) and that you only ask the child one question at a time so that they do not feel overwhelmed by their interactions with you.
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In order to achieve powerful interactions with the children you are working with you must be present , connect and extend the learning of that child. One way in which you can connect with a child is by using ‘mirror talk,’ when interacting with them. This is when you directly copy what the child says to acknowledge what they are doing. We can make observations about materials or what the children are doing. Sometimes this involves staying quiet and other times we can say things like,” You wrote your name on the front of your book. It must mean you are the author. I wonder what the title will be…”
Overall Enrichment of Training:
This training was extremely beneficial to the ways in which I interact with the children in my classroom. It is important to practice with adults the things that you must try to incorporate with your lesson plans because they can help you figure out what you might do in a stressful or tough situation where you feel like the children you are working with are not getting exactly what they need. It is so important to remember that giving children the individual attention unique to them is what will help them excel most. Everyone learns at their own pace and staying patient and surrounding them with rich language and nonjudgement will help children figure out the literacy skills they need to excel into kindergarten. This workshop helped me reflect with my team members on the success and challenges we face related to classroom management and problem-solving in our Jumpstart sessions. I developed a deeper understanding of powerful interactions and reading with young children and was able to review tools and strategies for refreshing classroom management expectations and practices