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Mud Slide: The Teacher as Facilitator
Even the youngest children have observed and experienced enough
of the world around them to discuss erosion and deposition processes.
By tapping into their prior knowledge through guided instruction,
you can encourage thoughtfulness and speculation.
Begin by asking for their previous experiences. Such questions
as, "What have you observed during thunderstorms? What washes down
driveways and streets?" strengthen children's confidence in their
own abilities to observe and learn. Start with local conditions
and expand to predictions of what would happen in different seasons,
in different terrains. Open-ended questions encourage higher level
thinking and help avoid the "guess what the teacher wants" game.
The facilitating teacher places the student in the role of a scientist
who uses knowledge, observation, and prediction to draw a conclusion
about an event.
Let the students use their own words. Learning such terms as erosion
and deposition is not a prerequisite for the experience. Vocabulary
introduced at appropriate times will take on meaning in the context
of its use.
The facilitator should elicit a variety of views from the students
- there may be different explanations from the group about the reasons
and results of erosion and deposition. Allow those variations to
surface, guiding the discussion with questions and invitations to
speculate. Continue to refer back to what the students observed
in the activity and the conclusions they can draw from what they
saw.
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