Reassure me!

[MurderOfProse]

My daughter is in Y1. She's a free reader, and knows all her phonics. The teacher was doing phonics with them yesterday firing questions at the class, and DD told me that she knew all the answers and got in there first, and so she was told to not answer any more so the others could have a go.

This is perfectly fine/normal, isn't it? Obviously the others need to get a chance to guess. I'm guessing it wasn't a "hands up" type of Q/A session as I know DD well enough that she wouldn't want to break the "rules" of calling out an answer unless she was asked to (if you see what I mean) so I'm guessing it was more of a quick fire thing. At school, at least, she does what she is told

But at the back of my mind are semi-repressed memories of being told similar and me feeling awful and ending up afraid to contribute to class again as like DD is, I was pretty sensitive over stuff like that, hence my paranoia.

I don't know how else the teacher could deal with it though?

It depends. It's like a lot of things in life; it's a question of balance. Of course no teacher wants all questions being answered by one pupil. What would be the point of that? But at the same time the teacher needs not to exclude any pupil either because she's too bright or informed (or as was posted yesterday, because she sits quietly.) With both types of pupil the teacher needs to take a balanced approach to including her otherwise she might feel unfairly targeted or unfairly silenced. And of course how the pupil feels may not actually reflect how she is actually being treated. But being singled out for either reason might adversely affect her for reasons that the teacher is unaware of. Giving the child a bit of reassurance at the same time in class might help to prevent resentment building in either of the pupils.

Hi MurderofProse:

I think you have to view this as a no win situation for a teacher. He/She'll have students eager to answer but he/she is also eager to see if everyone understands.

I think you have to give the teacher a bit of a slack on this - they can't always call on your child every time she raises her hand.

You also have to try to ensure that your DD can see it from the teacher's perspective - his/ her job is to make sure every child understands and she may have already established that for your DD but needs to do so for the other 29 children in the class as well.

In effect - this is a lesson in sharing the limelight, which is never easy for children. It's also an important lesson in teaching your DD that although it is wonderful that she understands what is being taught and can answer all the questions - she also needs to allow other children the opportunity to shine as well. And that can be a very tricky concept to get across.

I'd try approaching it in terms of sharing the opportunity - that everyone deserves a chance to shine. Not to make your DD worried or anxious about raising her hand to answer or shouting out answers - but to make her aware that if she's been answering questions more than say 3 times, it really is someone else's turn.

HTH

I don't know if she's mature enough for this, but you might try:

She needs to take turns at answering, like everyone else. Even if it takes longer for others to find the answer, they still need to have their turns at trying. Because the teacher isn't asking to get a quick answer, he's asking to make sure everyone gets thinking, and also so that he can find out who doesn't quite know yet. That way he can better help them, too. So as far as teacher is concerned, some wrong answers are okay. It's how he knows how much different children do and don't know yet.

Thank you everyone - all great advice and taken on board! Will have a chat with DD