Teacher’s Corner

The following are writing prompts and discussion topics based on the blog, “Your Child’s Special Talents, Part 1.”

1.  Is there such a thing as “natural born” talent? Explain your answer. What part does training play in talent development? What part does encouragement play?

2.  Interview a classmate on the subject of “natural born” talent. If your viewpoint is different, try to convince your classmate of your viewpoint. Either in writing or orally:

• Explain your classmate’s viewpoint;
• If your viewpoint is different, tell whether you were able to change your classmate’s mind in any way and how you were able to do that.
• Tell whether your classmate changed your viewpoint at all and what caused that change for you.

3. What advice would you give parents about how to discover their children’s talents?

Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.

1. For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:

• Use the blog for discussion topics
• Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.

2.  For all courses, especially English Language Arts:

• Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:
  • Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?
  • Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?
  • What would be your advice on this topic?
  • What was left out of this article?
  • If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?

Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?

• Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.
• Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.
• The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.