Learning Strategies

A fourth-grader in my Saturday Course class, “Create Your Own Computer Game,” announces to me at the end of the third day that she’s almost done writing her game.

“So you are,” I observe. “How did you get it done so fast?”

“On the first day,” she explains, “the other kids were just experimenting and exploring, but I was already building a prototype of my game.”

Aha. A prototype. Of course. “And how do you happen the know the word ‘prototype’?” I inquire.

“Because I read a lot,” she explains, giving me one of those how-dumb-can-you-be looks.

Then, in the fourth week (i.e., on the fourth day), the same girl is carrying around a large book entitled Miniature Bonsai. “Isn’t that title redundant?” (I was confident, of course, that she would know the word ‘redundant.’)

“Not at all,” she explained. “Most people think that all bonsai are miniatures, but actually the word ‘bonsai’ just means an artistically shaped plant that’s grown in a pot.”

Labels: teaching and learning