When you talk to yourself you are learning!

 

    Did you know that when children talk to themselves they are actually learning? Prominent psychologists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky both explained that private speech or egocentric speech is part of a child's cognitive development. Today's classroom tips relate back to private speech

Tip # 18- Verbalizing your thoughts during the learning process is a beneficial practice for both younger and older learners. We all need that private speech that Vygotsky spoke about.

Tip # 19- In order to encourage dialogue use open-ended questions, such as “What do you notice?” Open-ended questions require more than a one-word answer. WHAT, HOW, WHY are often the best way to begin an open-ended question.

Tip # 20- Phonics instruction is critical in early reading learning. Phonics is the study of sounds. To write and speak any language correctly we must have a good grasp of how things sound in that language. English is particularly tricky in this respect.

Tip # 21 - By using the terms that you are learning in explaining a concept you learn to synthesize and understand the concept you are trying to learn. It will then bring your understanding of the concept to a higher level of thinking. Whenever possible have kids talk through their thinking. We used this practice in class when explaining the concept of classical conditioning. By using the vocabulary we learned to understand the big idea of classical conditioning.