TEACHER MODELING RESPECTFUL TALK:

How to pay attention

Too often teachers and other adults expect children to be respectful in the way they talk to them but may actually model disrespect when they talk to children.

How do children LEARN to talk to one another and adults with respect. One way is that teachers model, moment by moment, such ways of talking. However, children also need to be TAUGHT social skills.

In this clip, the teacher is having a discussion about shapes of various sorts. Students have just finished taking shapes and finding objects in the room that match the shapes. As she talks she becomes concerned about the students lack of attention. She first requests, with firmness but respect, that students pay attention (modeling respect) but then asks students, "What does it look like when you are paying attention to someone". The students then discuss this. This interaction is brief, one example of teaching social skills that occurs frequently in her classroom as an integral part of intstruction.

Michael Peterson, 2003