Its a couch kind of day today in Christchurch and what else do you do, other than sit on your phone on Facebook, scrolling over and over the same boring content thinking to yourself 'I should really get off this now'. I thought this to myself until I came over a video of Nathan Wallis talking about how children in a structured preschool setting have a higher chance of ending up in prison, than children in a free play structured preschool. The video was only 30 seconds long but he inspired me to go and read something useful and interesting written by him.
I found an article called "When should a child learn to write" (Wallis). This article challenged my thinking right from the heading. In my mind as a primary school teacher, I have been taught that children start to write when they start school along with reading and counting. Research on brain development states that “the part of the brain that likes repetitive pattern, the formal cortex, is associated with numeracy and literacy” (Wallis). This part of the brain isn't fully active until children reach the age of seven. Wallis states that a solid basis to writing is a good understanding of oral language. As a teacher I know that children need to have some basic letter recognise and sounds before they can start to write. This has challenged my thinking of the expectations I set. I now see that I need to lower my expectations and encourage the children more to enjoy writing. At five a child should not be stressing out about their learning, they have a lot going on with developing their emotions and attitude towards themselves as a learner. Going forward I am going to ensure that the children are writing about topics they enjoy and ensure that none of my students are under stress. To ensure my students don't experience stress while writing I need to make sure that I have well established relationships with my children, so I am aware of how they think and work. Wallis suggested that children under stress are basically learning they are a bit stupid. This article fits great within my practice as Wallis also believes that schools should move towards in Learning through Play. “Along with two and a half hours a day with teacher-led instruction, free play and creativity will make for an intelligent child”.
Go and research Nathan Wallis I am sure you will find something well worth reading!
