How many times have you encountered students who “hated” to read—who apparently had to be forced to read by any of various means of coercion or threat? Have you ever noticed instances where one of those very children had once (at an earlier age) eagerly engaged reading material, driven by a native passion to discover and grow? What are some of the key factors that promote or inhibit a love of reading?
Work at each student’s ability level and incrementally build it up from there
For some, the response to the demand that students know more is to put increasingly sophisticated material earlier and earlier into the school curriculum. They reason that if a student has trouble when algebra is introduced (as an example) in the 7th grade, then the solution is to introduce algebra starting in the 2nd grade—and to let it somehow “seep in through the pores of the skin” as the student moves forward. In reality, higher levels of mathematics are understood to the degree that every one of the steps below them have been thoroughly mastered.
Work at each student’s ability level and incrementally build it up from there
For some, the response to the demand that students know more is to put increasingly sophisticated material earlier and earlier into the school curriculum. They reason that if a student has trouble when algebra is introduced (as an example) in the 7th grade, then the solution is to introduce algebra starting in the 2nd grade—and to let it somehow “seep in through the pores of the skin” as the student moves forward. In reality, higher levels of mathematics are understood to the degree that every one of the steps below them have been thoroughly mastered.