Chapter Two

I love the real-life examples she uses! I especially liked when she was talking about her father after he had his stroke and how giving him reasons to fight helped him to recover quickly. I feel it is extremely important to give our students reasons for why they are learning certain material. When students feel they are doing something for a purpose, then they put more effort into the work. I also like that she gave her students an audience for their writing besides the teacher. Giving students a purpose and audience for their writing makes the end goal clear to the students. When I was doing my long-term sub I taught letter writing. When it came time for the students to write their own letters, I let them choose to whom they wanted to write their letter. The students were very excited and engaged in this activity because, they knew that they would be able to deliver the letter to whom they had written it to. I found that my students worked harder on this assignment than the prompt writing for PASS. I really feel the reason for this was because they had a real audience and purpose for the letter writing.
In creating an "I can do it" environment I think one of the most important things she talked about was giving specific praise. Telling students things like "good job" means nothing to them. It is important to find specific things that students have done well and make a point to let them know. Finding something to praise a child about will greatly boost their confidence in themselves as learners. We like to be praised specifically for our work and so do they!