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You often hear about teachable moments when you're talking to parents or training to teach. But what exactly is a teachable moment, and how can you seize them in the classroom or at home? Here's your guide to teachable moments and how to take advantage of them.
A teachable moment is an opportunity for a teacher or parent to provide special insights on a topic that has captured the attention of their classroom or children. Teachable moments are unplanned and must be sensed and seized by the teacher or parent. Often, it's a brief tangent from a lesson plan or conversation to discuss a topic of interest or timeliness. Teachable moments are easier for children to digest and remember because they are inherently more interested in the topic at hand and can feel its applications to the world around them.
Teachable moments are unplanned and can occur at any moment. Here are examples of teachable moments in different contexts:
Seizing a teachable moment takes practice. First, to understand what moments are teachable, you need to be dialed into what your kids or students are talking about and interested in. You also need to be willing to engage with questions and opinions, and to foster honest dialogue in your home or classroom.
To seize a teaching moment, take a question or topic of interest of your students or children and provide time to talk about it. If it's a question, explain the "why" behind it's answer. If it's a topic of interest, ask questions to find out why they are interested or what their thoughts are. Then, dive deeper by answering questions about the topic, discussing their opinions or tying the topic of interest to other topics you are teaching. If you don't know the answer to a question, demonstrate a dedication to learning new things by saying you will look up the answer together.
Creating a teachable moment is possible. Find out what questions your students or children have or what part of a lesson truly captures their interest by asking them questions about their work. For instance, if you are reading a book, ask them to talk about what was interesting to them or what they didn't understand. Listen to a song and talk about the lyrics they identify with. Look at pictures and ask them what they see. Ask what questions they had about a worksheet or what they enjoyed about an assignment. Then, see what topics come up to explore.
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