This is teaching in a nutshell (pun intended).
I ask my students many questions. For the most part, I want to bombard them with information so they’ll have words that their ears heard, and maybe that will spark something in them. Perhaps they will go on the blessed Internet and seek to learn more. Perhaps they . . . you know, that’s about all the “perhaps” moments that need to be explored. When something is of interest to kids, they look up more information on the Internet and go from there. Pretty much everyone does that now.
The subject of peanuts or allergies or both came up in class today and I told them that I have a friend whose kid has a really bad peanut allergy. Somehow, the word peanut made them speak of peanut butter–is smooth or crunchy better, in my opinion?
“I like crunchy peanut butter,” I said, “because then I know it’s made with peanuts and not a bunch of random chemicals that stay solid at room temperature.”
Yep, those are the types of answers you get from simple questions sometimes. I then asked, “What should be on the top of real peanut butter?”
Some said, “A lid,” but others got it right with “Some oil.”
We’re on the right track. We’re learning here, giving students the ability to use familiar, real-life situations to bolster their confidence, which leads to success from taking a risk (they take a risk because they have the confidence from previous correctly-answered questions).
And, when talking about real peanut butter, what’s the worst that’s going to happen. How about asking them, “So, at most, what are the two ingredients that would be in real peanut butter?”
They got peanuts. Once again, keep them confident. We’ll read hard books this year and they need to not be afraid of wrong answers. But they said oil after that. Some said sugar. Some said MSG. No one said salt. Not a one.
They thought they had it right, though, when they put two and two together. If it’s called peanut butter, it must be for a reason. “Peanuts and butter,” too many kids said. They looked really happy when they said it, too.
Oh, honors students. Ya’ll need to get out more. Funny, but not funny.