Monday, October 20, 2008

Does it really bear repeating?

I was thinking the other day on the way home from school about how often I re-state a student's response in class, when they said it wonderfully the first time. Then I thought how demoralizing that must be, to think my own words were not good enough for public consumption. So I decided to re-double my efforts to just let their words stand and do the job they're supposed to do and, if they don't speak loud enough, ask them to speak up or have them turn around to the majority of the class, and if they weren't specific enough, to ask them to elaborate, or ask a friend to help. That way, the student's words are the catalyst for the class's learning, not my compulsive re-statement of those words.