The belief that you can teach anyone anything if you break learning into discrete pieces and provide extrinsic rewards can be true based off of certain circumstances. In the circumstance of teaching English language learners and in depth learning, direct instruction can be challenging. This kind of instruction makes me think of the question I asked myself in my first blog post about rushing children to learn. Direct learning is based off of scripted lesson plans and is designed to essentially accelerate the child's learning. As an early educator it is never my goal to have a child memorize correct answers and be drilled on answering with correct responses. By having them memorize things doesn't help them make connections to their learning.
When a child is a English language learner or a immigrant, it is already a challenge to communicate basic needs and wants. So does teaching them through direct instruction work would be a question of debate. If we teach from a scripted lesson plan, we a not teaching based on a child's interest. And if we frequently to assessments which is a feature of direct instruction, we may be focusing on how much a child gives us the correct answer versus taking the time to truly see if he/she understands what we have been trying to teach them.
This school year I have two children that a English language learners, a child that speaks Serbian and child that speaks Samoan. At the beginning of the year I wondered how I would communicate and interact with them meaningfully. I am happy to say that 6 months later, both children are speaking in English completely in the classroom and use 3-4 word sentences. The parents of theses children say they hear much more English at home and are continuously labeling what they see and hear. Each child is able to interact with other children and staff in the room. When it comes to teaching, we use lots of repetition, gestures, and simple words. I don't have a script I follow and as much as they are learning, I am learning with them to.
When I meet with parents during conference time, a very common question is "when are you going to start to teach reading". My response to each parent is different based off of what their goals are for their child and the development of the child individually. In early childhood education, there is a progression to reading. The child will first learn to recognize the letters, learn the phonetics before reading. For example, before a child can write his/her name, they will learning to spell it and recognize the letters before writing it. I understand that children start to learn to read early in elementary years so the thought of teaching them early sounds practical. However, a early childhood educator knows to teach a child based on his/her individual needs and teaches what is developmentally appropriate.
This weeks readings made me think of these questions: "Do some aspects of my teaching reflect direct instruction, and is it effective?" and "How can we change the view of importance of phonetics/learning to read among parents and legislators?"
