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On TED.com there is a speaker whose talk was recently published with a focus on education of children.  His name is Sugata Mitra and he has devoted a greater part of his life to education research.

In 1999, he and his colleagues developed an experiment where children were left unsupervised and he noted how they were able to teach each other and others.  This was started in New Delhi and replicated in other parts of rural and urban India.

Of course we are not advocating that teachers be removed from the classroom but rather reflect on the marvel of kids and the some of the ways they are able to learn and teach others.  Quite thought provoking isn’t it?

Having a child who is about to enter Kindergarten is a very exciting experience.  Your child is growing up and will be starting one of the most important and memorable years of their life. I am sure that you might also be anxious.  Your child will be going to a new school, will have a different daily routine than previous years, and will be in a classroom with lots of kids. Don’t worry, you are not the only one feeling anxious! Many other parents and children are feeling the same way. Help your child adjust and plan for the upcoming year by creating a Kindergarten social story.

Take your child to their new school and walk around. Play on the playground, walk around the building and down the halls. Show your child the cafeteria, gym and music room. You might also be able to peak in their new classroom. At every juncture, take a picture. Put the pictures in a book, possibly on index cards and write captions on each page. Have your child create the book with you. Read your child the book every night before bed. Most children are visual learners. Providing your child with a picture book about the upcoming year will give them confidence, make them feel excited and help them adjust.

Don’t forget to take pictures of your child on their first day. You will want to remember this forever!

Reading a story to your child can be challenging for both you and the child. Your child might be easily distracted, not appear to be involved in the story, and seem bored. You may feel like you are at a loss and do not know what to do to make this an enjoyable and educational experience. In traditional storybook reading, adults read to children and the children listen. Dialogic Reading is a technique designed to help involve the child in reading as well as improve their receptive and expressive language skills. Research indicates that preschoolers begin to use bigger words and expand the amount of exchanges they have with a communicative partner when this technique is used. Two parts are used in Dialogic Reading, PEER and CROWD. PEER involves the following actions:

Prompt or ask a question about a story

Evaluate or listen to what the child has to say

Enhance the child’s response by gently correcting them

Repeat the correct answer

The second technique, CROWD, is used to help during the prompt part of the PEER procedure. This includes:

Complete- ask the child to complete a phrase

Recall-ask the child to recall what is happening in the picture

Open-ended- ask the child what is going on in the picture

Wh prompts- ask wh questions about the picture

Distance- have the child talk about how the events in the story are similar or different that those in their lives.

Read the story several times. As the child becomes more familiar with the book, do less reading and have the child tell the story. You can help them by pointing to pictures and asking them questions. Dialogic Reading is a technique that I have been using in the classroom for a few years now. You will notice, as I did, that reading can be enjoyable for both you and the child. Most children love to participate. It makes them feel like they are involved in the story.  I have also noticed that after a book is read a few times, children begin to learn new vocabulary from the book and they use the words in everyday life. Enjoy!