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Lesson Plans


Re: kids that destroy their work

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Wendy Manning (wmanning)
Wed, 04 Mar 1998 07:06:57 -0400

KChamb28 wrote:
>
> Some of these replies on this subject are really discouraging. Has no one here
> gotten discouraged eith a drawing and thrown it away and started over, painted
> over a canvas and begun again, thrown a bad pot and squashed and begun again?
> Why are children being treated so differently. If this is happening again and
> again, might you ask yourself "Am I doing something wrong in theenviornment
> I'm creating here? Is there something going on in this kid's life that's
> coming out here?"
> Anyway, rigid rules on paper and putting it where kid's can't get it sounds
> bizzare to me.
> Sign me .. Go ahead,get another piece of paper & try again, Kevin

Yes, if they're genuinely discouraged. I tell them, "You can start
over but don't throw this out yet. Keep it in the file and write on the
back (this is if working on the back is not a option) that you're
starting another one. That way I know you've been working."
Sometimes they end up finishing the first one after all, or finishing
both.Don't you ever find that if you put a work away for a while the
solution to the problem pops up after you've had a break from it?
If they're repeatedly throwing throwing away perfectly good work in
progress we need to help them have faith in themselves ,give them extra
positive reinforcement. Allowing them to continue destroying their work
won't help.
But having "rigid" rules on paper isn't so bizarre if there's a finite
amount of paper and a limited budget. I found that many of my students
would take 3 or 4 sheets of good paper and no scrap paper for planning,
scribble on the good paper and then throw it out. I asked them to do
some math: "Ok, if all 270 grade sevens wasted 2 sheets of paper, how
much paper is used up ? Can you see that I'll be out of paper by April?"
I got tired of saying that but it helped a lot because they weren't
really aware of the consequences of their actions.
Sign me...Getting low on paper, Wendy