I found Vygotsky's idea of private speech to be very interesting. I know that I have often spoken to myself when trying to work through a difficult concept or problem. Also, when I am going through a process, such as trying to remember where I placed something. I found it interesting that he thought this was something that sent away in the teens when I feel that actually many adults do this as well.
The other thing that I found interesting was where it was talking about differentiated instruction and how things should be challenging but not too difficult. I feel that in this age, because of all the standardized tests, this is not happening so much. Students are not being challenged and the focus is being put on getting everyone to understand the same basic ideas. Some students find these principles very easy but they are not challenged to try more difficult work because the focus is placed on trying to get the students who do find these basic ideas a bit more challenging, to understand them. This is really disappointing as I feel that it is very important to know each of the students needs and then make accommodations in order to challenge them more or to not stress them out with something that is going to be too difficult because then they have trouble learning the material at all.
I agree with both comments. And I think we talked about the first in class. Most of us agreed that we STILL talk to ourselves, especially during difficult tasks. (I did it today when doing a math problem.) Also, it is such a thin line to find the happy medium of pushing the students hard enough, but not too hard. I am slightly worried about this concept in my future classroom because as teachers we will get students that are at such different spots in their education. We will be responsible in making sure all of them are getting that happy medium of not too difficult, but pushing hard enough. With so many students at all different levels, this task will be difficult.
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