Mistakes are Valuable!

Happy New Year! And Happy Friday!

It's been a very long time since I updated, but I wanted to share this quick teaching tip today. Maybe I'll start a segment of tips on Friday! :)

Alot of times, we don't want to draw attention to student's mistakes or make a big deal out of them. But we have to remember that mistakes are valuable because we learn from them. I found that pointing out common mistakes children make are a great way of helping them to be made aware of those mistakes and usually learn not make them.

Here is an example from Edmund this week:

Edmund is working on vce this week, specifically uCe, which is the toughest vCe by far. Alot of times students hear that long u sound and will write o. I saw it all the time teaching. Edmund started doing this so I simply said to him, "Edmund, alot of times when we hear uuuu, boys and girls will think it is a oCe. But what does long o say? Yep, it says ooooo. So, it can't be that. When we hear uuuu, we might want to write o, but we have to remember that is a mistake and to not make it because uuu is the long u sound."

This is about giving the students metacognition to actually think about their thinking and be aware of what they are doing. It's so helpful in many different areas!

He did great on his spelling test this week and was SOOO happy and proud! :)

Quick easy Friday teaching tip! :)