Freeda

Remark on a comment that you found interesting in Chapter 2. I believe there is a lot of value in "naming" what students are doing when engaged in learning because I so often feel like children need to be validated, no matter how simple the contribution. Particularly when establishing a trusting learning community where students feel safe taking risks, I believe teachers need to provide students with the words to match their attempts at making meaning.

Chapter 3 I try to bring identity into everything I do with my students, which includes calling them writers and/or authors during our writing workshop time. During Science experiments, I call them observers and investigators, and during Math, they are my data collectors. I have always believed I can get more buy in from students when they feel they have a larger purpose in the activity and they understand what the end result is. Using the words to name what a student is doing can solidify their sense of self-worth and illicit feelings of belonging and purpose in a classroom environment, where all children feel essential to the process.