teaching disadvantaged children in the preschool

Carl Bereiter

Siegfried Engelmann

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how should be the community be informed about the preschool?

greater educational leverage

give the child much greater practice in using the skills he learns

shorter study periods

study periods should be shorter(perhaps 10 minutes each),and material to be learned should be presented in smaller chunks,a task should be presented,and then,ideally,some kind of interesting activity that is related to the task should follow

smaller groups

groups should be smaller,the teacher should not work with more than three children at a time in a study group,unless they are exceptionally advanced and well motivated

rewards for different behavior problems

slower pace

the pace must be altered

basic teaching strategies

a trick for motivating children,a technique for commanding attention,a way of restructuring tasks in anticipation of trouble,and a thorough knowledge of her subject

work at different levels of difficulty at different times

the teacher should present tasks on four levels of difficulty:

1.require the child to point to or locate the instance of the concept nonverbally:show me which truch is bigger?

2.require the child to answer(with one word)yes -no question about the presentation."is this truck bigger?"

3.require the child to repeat the basic statement;present questions that require these statements as an answers."tell me,is this truck bigger than this truck?give me the whole answer,yes,this truck is bigger than this truck."

4.require the child to identify the relationship by producing the appropriate statement without the support of a directed question."tell me about this truck."

the teacher should try to work at level 4 as much of the time as possible.however,she cannot work on this level all the time,especially during the initial stages of the program

when the child starts to show honest signs of fatigue,the teacher backs up to a task that is less difficult(which means less verbal).perhaps to answering simple yes-no questions,perhaps (if the child has to exert great effort to produce any kind of verbal response)to pointing tasks

as children become more facile in repeating statements and producing them,the teacher shifts to presentation toward the more verbal tasks

adhere to a rigid repetive presentation pattern

a child has to learn to understand various types of statements and that some variation is necessary to keep him from being bound like an automaton to only certain forms of expression,the child should be expected to handle language in its natural setting,with all of its nuances and irregularities

use unison responses whenever possible

the teacher should assume that while she is working with one child individually,the others in the class are not learning anything

she should work with children individually no more than is absolutely necessary

she can avoid individual sessions by introducing unison responses

never work with a child individually in a study group for more than about 30 seconds

sometimes it is expedient to structure tasks so that each child has a turn,if each turn takes more than about 30 seconds,the teacher should restructure the task

each turn should take five seconds or less,and ideally each child should not know in advance when he will be called upon to recite

if a task,such as reading a simple statement,requires more than 30 seconds to complete,it should be restructured so that different children read different parts of the statement or so that the task is broken by intermittent questions that are directed at other members of the class

phrase statements rhythmically

require the children to speak in loud,clear voices

do not hurry children to encourage to talk fast

the tempo should always be moderate,with the accent on correct pronunciation

clap to accent basic language patterns and conversations

the child is "deft"to certain words in a sentence,since he is,it is sometimes difficult to call his attention to the critical sentence elements,it is often even more difficult to make him aware of the element's proper place in the sentence

the clap,is extremely useful in teaching basic sentence forms,in correcting mistakes,and in calling attention to changes in sentences

use question liberally

questions are valuable because they call the child's attention to specific parts of a sentence or process and help define them

to demonstrate that statements are made up of parts and that each part functions,the teacher should follow every statement with a string of questions that focus on the various parts of the statement.

the book is on the tabel,

where is the book

what is on the table

is the book on the floor

is the book under the table

in answering these questions,the child learns not only about prepositional concepts,but also,what is equally important,about the structure of the statement"the book is on the table."

when the operation deals with a series of steps,the teacher should use the appropriate question-and-answer series to lead the child to the solution

what do we know this thing?

yes,it's a word

and what do we know about words

they have a beginning and an end

and whcih one do we start out with

do what do we know about this part of the word

yes,that's where we start out

for each question in the series,more than one answer is possible

use repetition

plan on going over basic statements perhaps hundreds of times

be aware of the cues the child is receiving

the child often try to be a mind reader.instead of attending to the material that demonstrates the concept,he will watch the teacher's face

the purpose of any kind of cue in the learning situation is to introduce an element that is not essential to the understanding of the concept but that makes the processing of the concept easier,good cues,however,should operate within the minimum concept framework

for cues to be entirely effective,however,the teacher must have them under her control

she must resist the empathy she experiences when a child is searching her face for the answer

she must not let her lips form the word,or the child will probably say the word and learn to focus on her lips instead of on the material from which the respons should derive

she should watch for spurious unison responses in which one child is merely trying to imitate what the others says

she should try to remove from the group a child who is substantially ahead of the others

she should avoid telegraphing responses through expression,glance,or word

she should avoid placing materials on the chalkboard or in the room that will cue the child

she should not always present tasks in the same order(so that the child cannot learn to answer by rote order)

use short explanations

tailor the explanation and rules to what the child knows

if an explanation or rule assumes more knowledge than the child has,the explanation should either be simplified or,if this is impossible,should be replaced by a demonstration that will show what the teacher is trying to get across

比如：

1+0=1

2+0=3

3+0=3

......

10+0=10

use lots of examples

when teaching a new concept,don't make the mistake of presenting a limited number of objects and then talking about these

the best way to rule out irrelevant details is to use many examples

prevent incorrect responses whenever possible

the teacher who anticipates an incorrect response before it occurs and short circuits it helps the children overcome chronic mistake patterns more quickly

if the task requires the child to make a visual discrimiation and the child has not inspected the material,the teacher can prevent it by saying"now look at it,what is this,what do you know about it"

if the task requires several steps in reasoning but the child begins to respond immediately,the teacher can prevent a guess by saying "now,think,take it a step at a time,what do you ask yourself first?"

if a child makes a mistake,the teacher should always assume that he will repeat the mistake the next time the task is presented

by completely unambiguous in letting the child know when his response is correct and when it is incorrect

dramatize the use value of learning whenever possible

the intrinstic value of learning comes from the sense of mastery associated with the use of the concepts,by using the concept,a person can do things he could not have done previously, including showing off an exhibiting his superior knowledge to others,interpersonal mastery can be handled especially well in the classroom

encouraging thinking behavior