The "Making Words" technique reminded me a lot of the exercise we did in class yesterday. The exercise makes a lot of sense because it allows teachers to enhance learning in a variety of ways. It allows for hands on manipulation that is consistent with the constructivist method of teaching that we are constantly being drawn towards. It allows for repetition because children become used to a way of exercising their word knowledge through creative word making. Finally, it teaches children how the symbols of letters work together to make meaningful words. It seems like a simple concept to us now that letters carry meaning, but I think that this is one of the most difficult concepts we can teach children, and this exercise does a great job of impressing this idea.
The Ten Important words exercise goes along well with this exercise because of its emphasis on "meaning." I think that unfortunately a lot of teachers today are missing the idea of teaching meaning to their students. They may teach addition, multiplication, or reading but they fail to explain to children
why these teaching points make sense. I love that we are learning to expand the understanding of teaching as future educators.
I love the idea of this magnetic board. It's just like the paper we did, but you don't have to throw it away once you're done!
I also really enjoyed reading about the ten words exercise. By encouraging children to decide on one word to describe a section, it allows them to focus on a deep understanding of that word. They then have to explain/justify this deep understanding to the class. In the end, everyone's vocabulary and understanding has been expanded!
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