Creating a Child Centered Curriculum and Classroom

         In the readings this week one of the main themes that was focused upon was to enter into teaching with a child centered classroom approach.  This is described as designing instruction in response to the children’s actions, interests and knowledge.  The readings for this week, and last week are keen on having teachers act in a way that is responsive to the individual needs of the children as well as focusing on what each child brings to the classroom.  If the teacher is truly acting in this way, the same lesson plans may not be effective year after year for different students.  Teachers should be listening to children for how to create an ideal learning environment.

            In the Lester article, Establishing A Community of Learners, the teacher allows the students to lead the investigation, she gave them a topic, so that they were meeting the objectives of the lesson.  However, the students led the investigation based on their own curiosities and interests.  This allowed the students to learn at their own pace and level and also focus on their own misconceptions and curiosities while engaging in the lesson.  These students were learning as they were choosing the direction in which the lesson and discussion went and they were therefore more engaged than they would have been in a teacher led lesson, where an outsider was the main operator of the discussion.  In this same way, in the article The Value of Mistakes by Eggleton and Moldavan, the instructor encouraged students to make mistakes and learn from them instead of instantly telling the students the mistakes that they were likely to make and how to avoid them.  In this instance the students themselves were making mistakes and finding ways to problem solve and work their way out of these errors to reach the correct answer.  The students were learning in their own way working through math problems so that they are also developing complex problem solving skills that they can use for the rest of their careers.  This same idea was also reinforced through the article that was assigned last week, Never Say Anything a Child Can Say by Reinhart, the teacher had the students lead the discussion and would constantly be checking herself to ensure that she wasn’t teaching them things that they could say, she would allow them to say it.  The students were leading the conversation and therefore determining what they would learn and how they would engage in the activity.  When the child has a choice in how they complete an activity they are much more likely to be engaged and therefore learn from the activity, and participate at higher levels. 

            Creating a child centered classroom sets the stage for differentiation and complex learning experiences for the child, where they can operate at their optimum level.  In my classroom the teacher has writer’s workshop time for literature where the students can work on their own stories, it is an open prompt and they can write as much as they want.  This is a child centered activity where the children can extend their own learning in ways that are the most beneficial to them.  Math activities generally do not reflect this same concept in my own classroom, despite the benefits that it proves to have in other subject areas.  I believe that creating a child centered classroom for every subject area is greatly beneficial and should be used.  Ways in which teachers may achieve this are outlined in the articles assigned this week.