The best teacher practices for young children
Why are teacher practices so important? The way children see the teacher and what the teacher normally expects of them is probably the most important thing in creating the learning environment.
Teachers,
whether for a large classroom of children or for one child, should look
closely at what they do and how they are perceived by the children.
Research has shown emphatically that the feelings developed by children
in the learning environment are critical to the learning that the
children will acquire.
Some teacher practices that help build a strong language centered learning environment are:
- Plan for and focus on helping children think and express their thinking
- Focus all teaching towards language and vocabulary development
- Have children focus on and practice early literacy skills at different times throughout the teaching day
- Listen carefully to the children and follow up by helping them expand their thinking and add related vocabulary.
- Encourage participation from every child (Keep this positive but keep the expectation high.)
- Use a variety of teaching approaches (direct teaching, exploration and discovery, skills practicing, child creativity)
- Use sophisticated vocabulary with the children and then expand on it
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