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Theodore Whitfield's avatar

"It is quite difficult for a child to tell time."

Thank you! It's remarkable how often we take certain concepts for granted, almost self-evident, when in fact they are quite challenging for someone who isn't familiar with them.

This is a great post! It's a fantastic example of the process of *scaffolding*, the process of breaking a complex task into smaller, more manageable components. This is one of the most important skills of teaching, and one that is often neglected. This post shows how in detail how to scaffold, and it will repay many re-readings. Thank you!

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Paul Coyne's avatar

Thanks for your comments. The book, "Give Your Child A Superior Mind," offers methods to teach a variety of basic academic skills. It was written before Englemann authored his Direct Instruction curricula.

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John Wills Lloyd's avatar

Paul, thanks for recapping—re-outlining?—this procedures for teaching learners to tell time. Very nice.

A corollary: Not only can lots of people not tell time to the minute on an analogy clock, but if you asked lots of professors of education and psychology to demonstrate how to teach learners to tell time to the minute on an analog clock, they'd come up with lots of convoluted and kookie recommendations...you'd get a lot of illustrations of dysteachia really quickly.

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Paul Coyne's avatar

Thanks. I may steal that word, 'dystechia' from you.

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John Wills Lloyd's avatar

It’s not my, but you’re welcome to it. I should trace the history of it!

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