I thought it might be interesting to have a post where we could place links to articles related to what we're talking about in class. The one here is to an article about teaching music in languages other than english to young children. I thought the concept was pretty neat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/business/yourmoney/02money.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
3 comments:
I have heard this topic talked about a lot. It seems that every generation wants their kids to be smarter than they are. Now it seems to be getting a little out of control. There are so many things that you can expose your child to and to try and do it all before the kid turns 5 is just going to push him/her over the edge. "baby steps" I feel would be best in this situation. I think that it is definitely a good thing to teach a child more than one language. As the article said, even if the child does not learn to speak the language fluently right away, at the very least it is opening channels in the brain that would allow them to pick the language up later in life. If you are going to enroll your child in classes- and this applies to more than just a language class- it is important to remember that they are only children. Keeping them in a room and making them do flash cards and classwork is not healthy for them. It has been proven that children learn better through play, so if you wish for them to be exposed to anything, do it in the form of a play date or as in the article, the spanish craft class. That way the are not bombarded by facts and definitions and they are actually having fun. They wont even realize that they are learning.
I definitely agree that children should not be subjected to studying and learning all day. Kids need to have an outlet for all their energy. To me, if learning and playing can be integrated, the results will be rewarding. The article I posted talked about teaching children Spanish through "arts and crafts". The possibilities are endless in making children learn without actually realizing that they are learning.
I did an essay on ADHD and alternate teaching styles for Mr. Goodheart's comp class earlier in the year. I thought it was interesting that one of the biggest studies I found was from MENC and alternating teaching styles in music for the child's ADHD mindset.
The article was long, but to sum it up: it said that teachers should revise thier teaching styles to be more "wholly" involved. ADHD children have a higher stimulation threshold and therefore need to be more actively engaged, and once they meet the threshold they can learn better.
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