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Summary: Opening the Minds of our Children
Review: Ruth Hubbard has spent over four years in first grade, one as a student and over three as a researcher. She has spent many of her years in elementary school classrooms participating as a student and observing how the children behave in a natural setting. In A Workshop of the Possible Hubbard describes her experiences with the children in the classroom and how she feels is the best way for students to learn. Her main point was that children learn best if they are taught in creative ways. One of her example classrooms was set up to let the children be fairly self sufficient. They would make up their own math problems, that would challenge themselves and then they had to solve them. This manner is highly effective in getting children to learn. The students in one class even wanted to make a bench for themselves to sit on throughout the day. They then drew up crude plans and made phone calls to find donors and help in making the bench. Many of the Ideas that Hubbard has discovered are truly amazing and most people would be jealous of these first, second and third graders, for their classes were much superior to the most elementary school classes. Each chapter focuses on a different method or quality of enhancing a child's learning and creativity. The frequent use of conversations that she had with the children and photocopies of the children's work was an excellent way of illustrating what she was talking about. When she would discuss a particular method of making the children learn on their own, often times an illustration of what the child had drawn or written was included. Although it was a research work A Workshop of the Possible was quite an enjoyable and easy read. This is a must read for all elementary teachers and highly suggested for parents as well, for many of these ideas could be used at home as well.
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