Thinking Together With Children

Your child is asking Why? and seeking meaning. Listening and responding encourages refl ective thought. Now that our children are spending more and more time in virtual reality, making connections with their minds is becoming even more important. Thinking requires an individual to formulate an idea into a conceptual thought that can be recalled and analyzed. A parent can help their child think clearly by actively participating in their learning. Listening to your child means your child will listen as well. The child is seeking meaning.

Dialogic Readers: Children talking and thinking together about visual texts celebrates the sophisticated and dynamic discussions that primary-aged children can have as they talk together to make meaning from a variety of texts, and it highlights the potential for talk between readers as a tool for critical and creative thinking. It proposes a new dialogic theory of reading comprehension that incorporates multi-modal media and adds further weight to the argument that talk as a tool for learning should form a central part of primary classroom learning and teaching. The book explores: • the language of co-construction • children’s critical and creative responses to text • the dialogic transaction between text and readers • the use of language as a tool for creating a social cohesion between readers. This significant work is aimed at educational lecturers, researchers and students who want to explore an expanded notion of reading comprehension in the twenty-first century, realizing how opportunities for children thinking creatively together might transform the potential for learning in the classroom. It provides a framework for analyzing co-constructive talk with suggestions for promoting children’s critical and creative thinking.

Thinking Together shows how story-based material can be used to help children raise philosophical puzzles and problems that will set them thinking. It shows how to build a community of inquiry in the classroom, and how to use questioning techniques, group discussion and other activities to develop thinking skills and concepts that can be applied across the curriculum.

Your child is asking "Why?" and seeking meaning. Listening and responding encourages refl ective thought. Now that our children are spending more and more time in virtual reality, making connections with their minds is becoming even more important. Thinking requires an individual to formulate an idea into a conceptual thought that can be recalled and analyzed. A parent can help their child think clearly by actively participating in their learning. Listening to your child means your child will listen as well. The child is seeking meaning.

"Learning and Thinking Together is full of simple, easy activities, games, and discussion prompts to help support and build kids' learning and critical thinking. There are reading activities that include read-clouds, writing, and how to have family book clubs. Science and math activities include games and D.I.Y. activities that are fun to do while kids expand their learning. Social studies activities help kids understand and think about their world. The perfect book to help keep your kids (ages 2-14; Pre K-Grade 8) learning, thinking, and growing."--Amazon.

This book draws on extensive research to provide a ground-breaking new account of the relationship between dialogue and children’s learning development. It closely relates the research findings to real-life classrooms, so that it is of practical value to teachers and students concerned that their children are offered the best possible learning opportunities. The authors provide a clear, accessible and well-illustrated case for the importance of dialogue in children's intellectual development and support this with a new and more educationally relevant version of socio-cultural theory, which explains the fascinating relationship between dialogues and learning. In educational terms, a sociocultural theory that relates social, cultural and historical processes, interpersonal communication and applied linguistics, is an ideal way of explaining how school experience helps children learn and develop. By using evidence of how the collective construction of knowledge is achieved and how engagement in dialogues shapes children's educational progress and intellectual development, the authors provide a text which is essential for educational researchers, postgraduate students of education and teachers, and is also of interest to many psychologists and applied linguists.

′This is a book to be treasured. This deeply respected pioneer brings together major research literature, theoretical understanding and practical help. She does so in a way that demonstrates her love and commitment in working with young children and helping them to have rich lives intellectually and with personal fulfillment′ -Professor Tina Bruce CBE ′What comes through is weighty warmth. The weight of research and experience coupled with the warmth of the fascination of children′s development over Marion′s professional and personal lifetime′ -Professor Mick Waters, Wolverhampton University ′This highly knowledgeable yet accessible book will be hugely valuable for all those who care deeply about young children′s learning and development′ -Liz Roberts, Editor, Nursery World ′A tour de force which has the potential to change practice and thinking about early childhood′ -Helen Moylett, Early Learning and Consultancy, President of Early Education Clearly linking theory and practice, this highly accessible book will be valuable to practitioners, teachers and students. The author explores the development of children′s thinking from 0-7 years, and how this affects home, Early Years settings and schools. The book includes: - case studies - professional checkpoints to help reflection - practical suggestions - guidance on involving parents - suggested reading - questions for discussion. It will be a great asset for students on Early Years Foundation Degrees, Initial Teacher Education and Early Childhood Studies courses. Marion Dowling works as a trainer and consultant in the UK and overseas, and is Vice President of Early Education, a national charity.

Primary teachers need to incorporate the use of computers in their daily lesson plans, but how can this be done most effectively to promote learning skills in the classroom? In this fascinating book, Lyn Dawes and Rupert Wegerif outline a strategy for enhancing the effectiveness of computers for teaching and learning with an emphasis on: * raising pupil achievement in the core subject areas * developing collaborative learning in small groups * using group discussions as a way of improving general communication, as well as thinking and reasoning skills. The approach is to use computers as a support for collaborative learning in small groups and this book presents ways to prepare pupils for talking, learning and thinking together around computers. Excerpts from pupils' discussions illustrate the main issues and guidance on lesson planning and developing and choosing appropriate software is also provided. Thinking and Learning with ICT will be a valuable resource for primary teachers and student teachers.