Self-Reliance

“To find yourself, think for yourself.”  ― Socrates

This week I have thought a great deal about how to make our kindergartners more self-reliant learners.  As a teacher I want to facilitate learning, model appropriate behaviors, and guide students in developing strategies that help them become competent readers, writers, and problem solvers.  Striking a balance between allowing them to be independent learners and knowing when to step in to help can be difficult.  I want to provide the balance that allows children to become self-confident and self-sufficient while still feeling supported and mentored. 

          It is often more important for me to ask questions to guide thinking rather than to provide quick easy answers.  “What do you think?  How would you solve that problem?  What should we do first?”  Asking leading questions and brainstorming together can help stimulate thinking.  Modeling good questioning techniques provides young children with some strategies to attack problems on their own. 

          As parents and teachers we have to encourage our children to take risks in their work and let them know that it is okay to make a mistake or two along the way towards greater independence.  As adults it is hard to let go of our idea of perfection.  It is definitely quicker (and more skillfully done) to complete tasks for our children instead of allowing them the time to complete them on their own.  When hanging up coats or packing bookbags on their own our children see they are responsible for taking care of their belongings.  When a child says, “What’s that word?” or “How do you spell…?” It is so easy to give the quick answer.  I know I am guilty of this during a time crunch, but this makes my students continue to depend on me.  My goal should be to nurture the persistence and inquisitive spirit needed to find answers independently.  I want our children to know they are capable of solving problems and that making a mistake is not the end of the world.    

          We need to model responsibility and self-reliance in what we say and do.  Our children rely on us and watch carefully to see how we react to life’s situations.  I have often been guilty of wanting to rush in and shield children from disappointment or failure, but by doing this I deny them a chance to develop some important life skills like self-reliance and self-confidence.  Our children are depending on us to teach them how the world works and how we should work in the world.  Sometimes that means they learn from us and other times it means we encourage them to work it out on their own.   

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Questions

Life is an unanswered question, but let's still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.   - Tennessee Williams

Questions, questions, questions!  Skillful readers ask themselves questions as they read to build understanding.  Often children read and save the questions for the end. To better understand a text a reader needs to ask questions before, while, and after they read. As a parent you can help your child become a more proficient reader by modeling this process and encouraging your child to use this technique when reading independently.

As our young readers begin, encourage them to examine the book’s cover.  Talk about the title, browse through and discuss the pictures, and make some predictions about what might happen. 

While reading together model questions - “What do you think the problem might be in this story? Often characters have a problem they have to solve.  How do you think they will solve it?”  Encourage children to use prior knowledge (what they know about the world around them) and think about what they would do in a character’s situation.  After reading on, model how you use evidence from the text to show what the character actually did in the story.  Children love to talk about stories and share their insights.  This practice helps the text become more meaningful and promotes better understanding.

Here is a list of just a few discussion items you might use while reading together:

• Do you think this story is fiction (make-believe) or nonfiction (fact)?
• Describe the character using details from the story.
• Where does the story take place?  Describe the setting.
• Where did that happen?  How do you know?
• Using a picture on a page describe how you think a character feels.
• Why do you think he/she feels like that?
• What was the problem?  Why is that a problem? 
• What would you do if that happened to you?
• What do you think will happen next?

After reading you might ask some of these questions:

• Did the story end the way you predicted?
• What would you have done if you were that character?
• How did the character change throughout the story?
• If you could rename this book, what would you call it?  Why?
• What lesson did this story teach?
• What did you learn from this story?
• Does this story remind you of anything that has ever happened to you?
• How did you feel at the beginning of the story?
• How do you feel at the end of the story?

Reading is so much more than simply decoding and calling words.  We need to help our young ones see that we are reading to gain meaning.  We read for knowledge, but also for enjoyment.  To help our children develop a love for reading we need to model good practices and show them how much fun reading can be.  The quality time you spend together with good books will help create a lifelong love for reading and a lot of fun memories for your child.