Interpretations, Ideas, and Inspiration

Today's post is guest hosted by Talia Hurwich - a middle school teacher who has wonderfully insightful and creative ideas.  We hope you enjoy it.

Interpretations, Ideas, and Inspiration

When we observe the world around us, we don't simply observe, we interpret it in our own way. 

• Historians interpret events with the hope of gaining greater insight into a culture's past, present and future.  
• Writers are constantly interpreting and reinterpreting stories and histories. Shakespeare did this with many of his plays (whose plots were largely taken from other sources). 
• We constantly interpret social situations (particularly awkward ones!) to decide what our best response or course of action should be (or should have been).  
• We interpret speeches, movies, books, songs, and poetry.  
• We interpret a person's facial expressions, their posture, their hair and clothing.  
• We interpret what others say and don't say - all to gain insights into relationships, events, and the world around us.
• We can call it "spin" or "bias" when we talk about news stories or opinions that do not necessarily represent all 'parties' or 'sides' - but these too are reflections or interpretations.

Children similarly are always interpreting the world around them.  In fact, the act of interpretation is the first step to learning. 

This is especially true for language acquisition.  Babies will interpret and imitate the sounds they hear until they begin producing those sounds in closer and closer approximations of recognizable speech. They use these approximations to express needs.  As these approximations become more intelligible, they are reinforced.

When faced with a question about the world, children often try to come up with their own answers - which are often quite creative, and quite entertaining.  Art Linkletter and later Bill Cosby had television shows "Kids Say the Darndest Things" based on kids' interpretations of the world around them.  James Thurber wrote a wonderful children's book  Many Moons which illustrates this (and I highly recommend it).

Here is a clip form The Lion King  which also clearly imitates and interprets kids' views of the world as Pumba, Simba, and Timon contemplate what the stars are made of:

Interpretations are made by incorporating various existing ideas in 'original' ways and combinations, or by taking new information or questions and attempting to explain or answer them by 'brainstorming' and combining various existing ideas that may not have originally been associated one with the other.

Interpretations:

•  Feed creativity.  Many works of art including Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet (to name two), Michelangelo's Moses and the Sistine Chapel, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, and A Muppet Christmas Carol are all interpretations of others works.  And while inspirational on their own, they lead us to think of and create other stories and versions. 
• Inspire. Exposing kids (or oneself) to interpretive works inspire us to read more about them, or inspire us to create our own versions or similar versions, to think of multiple perspectives, and allow us to look at the world somewhat differently.  
• Entertain.
• Teach us to think.  First, they show us how 'tweaking' or rearranging stories, facts, or ideas can inspire, entertain, and help us generate rules and greater knowledge about the world around us.  Often, when these interpretations or 'rules' proof false this creates what Jean Piaget termed 'cognitive dissonance' which forces us to rethink and reinterpret that question or issue to form a more lasting schema, rule, or response (which is hopefully closer to the 'truth').

How to help inspire our kids to interpret:

• Shows like Sesame Street are FULL of interpretations of classic works.  Super Grover is pretending to be a super hero; many of the songs are interpretations or 'takes' on existing classic songs. After watching these 'interpretations' show your kids the 'originals'. Ask young kids what was 'different' and what was "the same.'
• Do the same with books. Compare The Wizard of Oz and Wicked;  nursery rhymes and modern interpretations for younger kids (Jon Scieszka has some wonderful versions of "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Frog Prince Continued"). Make up your own versions. Talk about what you like and don't like; what is same and different. With older kids talk about what worked and what didn't.
• Ask kids to take stories further; ask them how they might tell that same story today, in 100 years, or how they might have told it a few centuries ago. 
• After reading a book or story ask your child, "if you could retell this story any way you choose, would you make it a video, a book, a comic, a song, or something else? Why?"
• Greek myths and fairy tales are great sources of 'interpretation' told across a variety of mediums.  If your child liked the Disney movie Hercules, show your child the episode Hercules and Cerberus from the television show The Storyteller:  Greek Myths; have them read the graphic novel Zeus, Hera, or Athena (all beautifully done graphic novels by First Second Books). Here too ask questions of comparison and inference.
• Create challenges for them!  Ask your child to summarize a story in under two minutes. There's a series of videos called "The 90-second Newbery" where kids and adults make videos summarizing plots of Newbery Award winning books in 90 seconds.  You may want to try this too.

The point is to have fun with interpretations.  They are entertaining, they make us think, and manipulate ideas and perspectives. 

In closing, here are two more (related) clips illustrating how interpretations can be entertaining, humorous, educational, and inspirational.  They are from The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged.  (It is a must see show for fans of all ages). 

In this clip, Shakespeare's histories are reinterpreted in a football game.

Here we have "The Othello Rap"

Thanks for your visit -  please, leave your own interpretations and ideas in the comments - and have a great week.

NO! How to use "NO" to Help Them Shine

No television was allowed in our house as the kids grew up...well not quite true, they were allowed educational shows on PBS such as Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Mister Rodger's Neighborhood and Wishbone.  They didn't like hearing "NO" you can't watch what your friends are watching, and they thought they were fooling me with play dates as they went to friends to watch - once homework was completed.  The thing is with "NO" they learned limits, they learned structure, they learned about exceptions.

"No!" and/or  " Wrong!"

The way I look at this, there are two issues with "NO."  

1. Telling a child, or anyone that they can't do something. 
2. Responding to a question with a wrong answer.

In regards to not being allowed to do something, sometimes it is for the safety of the child, sometimes it's for the sanity of the adult, and sometimes someone is just being mean and/or petty.

We'll ignore mean and petty today, and save them for another day.

Regarding "NO" : Use this sparingly.  You want inquisitive minds and you want your kids to explore and to take calculated, relatively safe risks.  This is how they learn and create.  Boundaries and options are better than, "NO." Say for example, "no, you can't go outside now, it's late and time for bath and then bed... but, you can pretend you are Ishmael hunting a great white whale in the bath tub!"

Regarding "No, Wrong":  Giving an incorrect response can actually be GOOD.

First, "No, WRONG" can be harsh, painful words - and again, you want your kids to want to explore options and take risks.  Too many "no, wrong"'s can discourage creative thinking and going out on intellectual limbs, and so many times there are many perspectives to an issue.  Too many "wrong"s can easily discourage kids from voicing opinions when there are multiple ways of responding.

Second, a wrong answer (in my opinion), is ever so much better than no answer.  With a wrong answer, our kids are at least engaged in learning.  They are trying to sort, consolidate, manipulate data and information.  With a wrong answer you have the opportunity of exploring the world from another perspective. No response is no risk.  No response is no learning.  This clip from Billy Madison, is funny in the movie, but no one likes hearing that their responses made everyone stupider for listening to them.

Be you parent, grandparent, responsible 'other' or educator - take advantage of the wrong answer and open up new worlds!

How do you deal with saying "No" or "No, wrong answer"?

• Reinforce your child's responding.
• If you say "no" because of safety issues, explain the ramifications. Explain that they could get hurt or that there is no time for that activity but they may want to do something that takes less time.
• Provide alternatives:  Provide more appropriate alternative options if you have to say "no" and provide alternative perspectives if an answer is incorrect.
• If a response is wrong, instead of a "no" ask if they've thought of the problem from a different perspective. 

I remember one of my students, for example, said that kids with learning disabilities are not smart.  This is clearly a response that has to be dealt with as it is clearly not true.  In fairness to this student, I must say that he had just moved to the States from Hong Kong and there were definitely cultural factors involved. But, that said, his response had to be addressed.

Instead of saying, "no, you're wrong," I asked him if thought Einstein was not smart.  When the student responded "no, he was brilliant" I then told him that Einstein had learning disabilities and added that learning disabilities means people process information and learn differently.  They see the world differently, and in Einstein's case this helped him discover many properties others had not seen.  This then led to a discussion on perspective, on different ways to study for tests, and different ways of solving problems, and the class discussed how they tackled the same problems differently.  It led to self awareness as well as to greater respect for others.  It also helped validate their own idiosyncracies and relieve many of their own insecurities with class material.

What happens when the wrong answer is funny?

 We all know kids say the darndest things and sometimes they are so serious and so proud of their answers, and we can't help but laugh.  When they're young,  a laugh with a side of love and a hug can be reinforcing. The love and a hug aren't always as effective with an older child.  With them, after the inevitable, unavoidable laugh or chuckle, I would still opt for the hug, and then get serious, validate the try, and discuss what went wrong.


The point is that wrong answers (aside from sometimes being entertaining), are jumping off points for learning.  Take advantage of them.  Talk about them - why the wrong answer was initially given, what merits are there to that answer, why is it wrong, how can you find a better answer?

Please let me know how you handle "no" or wrong answers.  And, if you have time (almost 10 minutes) enjoy this "The Weakest Link Elvis Special...Wrong Answers."

Memory? What Memory?

Science fact:  Fish Have No Memory!

Quick short-term memory quiz (for those who just watched the video above):

1. How many strike outs were there in the game?

2. How many requests did the yellow fish make for a hot dog?

While the fish above have no memory, they seem to survive just fine in school.  Our kids, though, absolutely need memory to survive and succeed in and out of school. Today I look at memory demands kids face in a typical day, and then show and tell suggestions to help boost memory. 

Part I. Basic school day demands:

Preparing for school our kids must remember what they have to take with them to school (homework, books, lunch, snacks, change of clothes for after school or for gym, the comic they promised to share with friends during recess, etc.).  They must also remember their schedule before, during and after school each day, and how they are going to get to the required destinations.

Arriving in school they must remember what they need for each class for that particular morning or portion of the day before they can get back to their lockers or cubbies.

Regardless of subject matter, students must remember where the class is meeting, what the teacher just said or demonstrated as well as what was said a few minutes ago, last class, last week, and what was read for homework, all while remembering the strings of information they want to relay and how best to relay them.  They also have to remember to take out and hand in any homework due.  In addition, when giving directions, teachers typically give them verbally and students must remember each step of those directions.

Math class demands: Students must remember math facts and formulas (for geometry, converting fractions, etc.). Students also must remember sequences for solving problems (commutative principle, associative principle, when to add and multiply numbers in and out of parentheses, and when and how to do long hand subtraction, division and multiplication, etc.), computation short-cuts, as well as the prompts given in the examples to be solved.

Language arts class demands:

• When reading students must remember sight vocabulary and phonics in order to recognize and decode the text in front of them.  They must also remember the meaning of the words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, and chapters they just read - all while keeping track of the names, dates, and events, they just read.
• When talking or writing students must remember what they want to write or say, in the order they want to say it, while remembering the words they need, their spelling and punctuation (when writing), and the best way to say or write it.
• If responding to a question they also have to keep that question in mind checking and making sure they staying on topic as they answer it.

In science classes, not only do students have to remember all those items of a language arts class (if they are reading or writing anything in class), but they must also remember lab sequences and safety rules to follow.

In social studies classes, not only do students have to remember all those items of a language arts class, they also have to remember sequences of names, dates, and events and their significance to a particular time or times in history.

Then there are memory demands of gym, music, art, and after school programs, and remembering social conversations they had with friends, parents and other adults...but I am assuming you get my point and want to move on to constructive memory training suggestions.

Part II. WAYS TO HELP STUDENTS REMEMBER:

1. Repetition and Rehearsal- teaching students to repeat strings of facts over and over - either chanting to themselves or through songs (my kids learned the state capitals in a song and years later, still remember them).

2. Visualization - sometimes visualizing directions and items helps us remember them and their required sequence.


Here is a video from Sesame Street demonstrating the power of repetition and visualization.

Sesame Street Animation:  Repetition to help memory...visualizing to help memory

3. Rhyming - turning strings of information into rhymes helps kids remember.  It does not work for Grover however in the following Sesame Street clip, but you and your child can watch this together and figure out why.  Different types of strategies work for different types of kids and for different tasks.  You will have to experiment which one works best for you.

Using rhyming to help boost memory.

 

4. Mnemonics- are finger / hand/ word games, tricks, or rhymes kids can use to help remember sequences or strings of words, numbers or events.  I learned to remember which months of the year had 30 and which had 31 days by reciting the months across my knuckles.  Roy-gee-biv or short sentences with ROYGBIV - represent the visual color spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo[thank you, Roger], violet).  What are some of the mnemonics you used?  What are some your child uses?

5. Build Associations.  Teach kids to make associations and connections between what they know and have to remember.  The more personal you can make something, the more one thing is associated with another, the more memory connections and channels there are to retrieve the information (see my blog on humor it discusses how humor connects various memory channels).

Let's continue the conversation.  In the comments, please leave your favorite memory strategies or your child's favorite mnemonic device.  Why constantly re-invent the wheel?  Also, please watch these videos with your kids, talk about different strategies she or he can use to remember.  Also talk about how different strategies may work for remembering different types of things.  What works best for you?  What works best for him or her?  These should be ongoing conversations.  Let's learn from each other.