Chapter 6
Learning Together with Young Children

Are we viewing children as competent or as
incompetent?
◦ This has a lot to deal with how we interact with
children, what our expectations are, and our
attitudes toward others.
 The
Hundred Languages of
Children
by Loris Malaguzzi
(translated by Lella Gandini)
The child
is made of one
hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of
thinking
of playing, of
speaking.
A hundred always a
hundred
ways of listening
of marveling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and
understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred
hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the
body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and
Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the
child
that the hundred is not
there.
The child says:
No way.
The hundred is there.
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

Follow the lead of the child
Try not to shoot down their ideas
Allow for the excitement of their ideas to
come through

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

Wait time
Clarity
Placement
Calling on children in different ways
Thought level



Increasing wait time increases number and
quality of responses.
Three second average
15 seconds is best

Ask specific question, then stop talking.

What about elephants?

What do tigers eat? Do they eat plants?
Would you find one attacking another tiger
to eat it?



Before reading—to comprehend specific
information
During reading—to focus
After reading—for general comprehension




Solitary response (Jim, what is the date?)
Controlled response (What is the date,
Jim?)
Uncontrolled response (What is the date?)
Mass response (What is the date, class?)

Literal

Interpretive

Application

Read the lines.

“Does he love me?”

Read between the lines

“Did he kiss me like he loves me?”




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Wait time
Clarity
Placement
Calling on children
Thought level

Read beyond the lines.

“Will he ask me to marry him?”
—

Figure out what they are exploring and
talking about, LISTEN carefully to what they
are saying and not saying, try to view the
situation from their point of view



Drama, drawing, songs, stories, buildings,
play dough, clay, photography, (amazing
what can be done with digital photography
these days)
http://playsplus.com/video.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgmm
rLyBI&eurl


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGBNUYtt
4no&feature=related
Surgery

Spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go
down!!