freddieflintoff2005 wrote:
It's a well established idea that someone has got hold of and made into "news" by making out that it is for some "political correctness gone mad" reason.
If pupils put their hands up then you never ask the quiet ones and it allows some to nod off. Also, some children shoot their hands up without an answer, or they take longer to think of a reply than others so they get left out. Stands to reason. So hands down, and pick someone when everyone has had chance to think of an answer. Better answers, children don't feel left out (which they do because they get the idea that if they're not the quickest then they're not good enough).
Some children know the answer and do not put hands up because they do not want to speak in public - but are satisfied and happy that they understand what is going on.
The doodling child or one who appears to be "day dreaming" is actually yuour quintessential kinesthetic learner and they know exactly what is going on in class anyway.
I know that Jessika, Jan, Jenny and the other teachers in the family when they talk most animatedlyand interestingly about their jobs - and the enthusiasm and love of their work is reflected in everything they do - even when socialising and holidaying. Lost count of the numbers of
"can use that in a lesson" over the years
Gather there are a lot of methods in which they teach the whole class and then use a range of grouped and interactive activities designed at "reaching each child in their class".
When Wildy engaged in a "bash teachers routine" during a family get together some time back - these girls were hot on defence and gave her a run for her money

For once - Wildy had no smart cat retort
Basically we got a routine lesson plan out of them - which went something like this:
1.
Ritual - children like a routine of sorts so their classes arrive and are allowed five minutes to remove coats and get out their books and work through a set of simple warm up tasks - following previous lesson waiting on OHP/interactive whiteboard whilst register is taken - to the soudn of Mozart or Chopin ...
2.
Clear lesson aims'end outcome They are then presented with the aim of the new lesson - "teacher centred with random computerised pick of pupils" - and to get over the hands problem - these girls use some kind of "press button gadget" which works witht he white board - and all pupils press a button to choose correct answers and cast a vote - and it seems they have a range of activities using this ploy which go from basic to developing thought (*so they claim - but I'm not in their classes

)
3. I gather they blend old methods with new methods in most of their lesson plans to achieve lesson aims - and these girls teach Maths, Sciend and Modern Languages - (Jessika is Maths/Modern Languages -( because she's Swiss

)) - and each lesson ends with a kind of sum up as these teaching girls in our family reckon we remember the first and last five minutes of each lesson burst - and that this also applies to professional and driving lessons as well
So - ways and means around this - but basically just because a child does not put his or her hand up in class does not mean "child feels failure". I used not to put my hand to answer even if I knew the answers because I just could not be bothered.
