- I think we've known for a long time
that kids who are engaged in asking their own questions,
and doing their own research, you know, there's a light
that burns within them, as far as growing as learners.
I think what we learned when we went into this
is that kids are not developing the depth of knowledge
they need on topics, when they're just released.
Go, you know, research.
I remember my daughter, one night had a,
she was supposed to learn about submarines,
and so we started Googling for submarines.
And we got all sorts of stuff that she couldn't
make sense of.
So, how do we step back and take control,
and help kids, like I talked about earlier,
realize what are quality sources?
You know, what are sources I am really going to be able
to get some information from?
How do we help kids analyze those sources?
Read and reread, or listen and listen again.
And how do we, how do we just hold on tighter to them,
and watch them begin to bloom, but then we have
to trust what we've done, and begin to release them?
So, I'm not sure if I'm answering the question,
but that work we did up front with the kids,
the work we did up front where we had vetted the sources,
we had picked manageable sources, we had developed
the questions, or co-developed the questions with them,
really paid off later as they took on their own research
in the classrooms that I've been visiting,
or teachers that I've worked with.
Because student's had a better understanding of what
they needed to do.
So gradually, releasing, I think what I'm saying is,
yes gradually releasing responsibility is important,
but we can't do that unless we've invested in
building their capacity and expertise for
taking that on themselves.