Teacher’s Corner

Children need to know the difference between fact and fiction. 

Writing Prompts and Discussion Topics on figuring out what is real:

For older students:

1. Collect ideas from your students about how they can tell whether something they hear or read is true or not. Make a master list.

2. Review the list and merge those that are alike, reducing the size of the list.

3. Give volunteers a chance to say why they think their strategy is effective.

4. If you think there are ideas that need more critical thinking, push back on them with probing questions. For example, if one idea is always accept what your best friend says. You could ask, “Is it realistic that your best friend knows the truth about everything?

5. Conclude by sharing your own list of 2 or 3 strategies and explain why you think they are useful.

For young students:

Play make-believe with them. Tell them you are having fun pretending and agree that you can pretend for a certain length of time. Then, say you are done pretending when the time is up and point out what is different when you stop pretending. You might put away dress-up clothes and say you are going to wear your everyday clothes now. You can point out that a table is now a real table and no longer a fort. You might put away play dishes and remind them that they eat real food on real dishes at home.

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.