I don’t know about your family but our family was enthralled with the Olympics this summer. We watched bits and pieces of countless events. Everything from surfing to ping pong, high jump to water polo and all the things in between. One part we didn’t really take a watch at, however, was the torch passing ceremony. I’m not sure why we didn’t also tune in for this part but it matters not – the torch was passed and from person to person as it worked it’s way to it’s destination. One person would finish their job and would successfully pass along all of the responsibility to another person. BUT for a moment, they would share in the responsibility of moving the torch from one location to another. For a moment, they were in it together.
It is this same type of responsibility passing is what we, as homeschoolers and educators, want to achieve. We want to move understanding and knowledge from one place to another and to do this we must all take our turn in bearing the responsibility. Just as the Olympic torch begins by being carried by one person over all types of terrain through rain and unbearable heat, as the educational guide we begin by carrying all the responsibility. We must first model what is expected. We must show our children what it is expected. In a recent blog post I walked you through what this looks like for teaching metacognition within the confines of reading comprehension.
But what happens between the modeling stage and letting our children go at it alone?
The first thing that happens is you begin to share the responsibility. You work together. The effort is joint and the experience is shared. Since reading comprehension is my expertise and passion, I’ll stick to examples from this area of learning though rest assured that this process is the same in all areas of education – including things like learning to do chores and cook. To share the responsibility in reading comprehension you must share the reading experience. Our family likes to do this with a picture book shared amongst all of us over breakfast. Each morning as the boys eat, I read aloud a picture book and we share our own thoughts as I read. While the boys may share anything they deem important to share, I gentle push them to paying closer attention to the particular strategy we have been focusing on recently. This morning I began to pass the torch in our study of metacognition. To make this pass off, I started by showing the boys the outside cover, reading the title and letting them know the name of the book’s author. Then, I shared something that my brain was thinking and asked them to share something their brain had come up with after looking at the cover and hearing the preliminary information about the book. Then page by page I read the book and we took turns sharing our thinking. If someone was stuck and couldn’t say anything about a particular section of the story, I would encourage them by asking one of the following questions:
- What do you notice about the picture?
- Have you ever had an experience similar to this?
- How do you think the character(s) feel?
- What might happen next?
- Does your brain wonder anything about what you see or have heard?
Rarely do these questions fail to spark some idea and help the child realize they were already thinking.
After a while, I hand over a bit more responsibility though I still hold just the slightest bit. At that point, I quit asking the questions listed above and just say “what kinds of ways can you think about what you have just heard?” Now, that they have heard the questions more than a few times, they can ask them of themselves. They can push their own thinking. They’ve learned not only to metacognate – think about their own thinking – but they have learned to focus their thinking when it feels as if their brain is blank.
When is it time to pass the final torch? When is it time to trust your child to take the learning to it’s final destination? How do you know when they are ready for full responsibility? This my fellow educators – yes, parents you are educators – is one of the hardest questions in education. You don’t want to let go too soon and see your child drown in frustration. You don’t want to hang on too long and find that you are letting them off the hook. Children should work to learn – spoon feeding them information will not allow for any growth. So, how do you know? You just will. You’ll notice they need less prompting. You’ll notice that though they may still turn to you quickly, with a little encouragement, they can work through it and answer on their own. You may even find that they tell you to go away because they know they can do it.
By passing the torch and not thrusting it at them without support of the in between, you’ll find that not only is your child far more confident but they are also far more competent. They will know how to work to learn and taking responsibility will come far more naturally. So take the time to pass the torch well but DO pass the torch.
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