Children, at this age, are likely to take the words of a parent or teacher at face value, and naturally parrot it back. This may be a hard habit to break.
I'm not sure that third grade is an appropriate time to try to break that habit. That's an age where at least some of the students are probably still in the preoperational stage. Kids naturally start to question adults' reasoning more when they develop the capacity to manage those sorts of thoughts effectively.
Teaching students to grasp a complex topic will generally require walking them through various stages of simplification. Most third graders are probably still in the process of developing the foundational skills that they'll eventually need in order to effectively learn complex topics without guessing the teacher's password.
Most third graders are probably still in the process of developing the foundational skills that they'll eventually need in order to effectively learn complex topics without guessing the teacher's password.
But then they don't, so we need to try another method, yes?
As a teacher, I wonder if it is possible to instill this skill into students the skills of rationality and critical thinking. I teach the third grade, and it is not immediately apparent how to apply this with my own class.
The problems I foresee are as follows:
In the sequences, it is suggested teachers should drill into students words don't count, only anticipation-controllers. How practical is this for an elementary school level? Also appreciated would be any ideas or experiences on how to do this, or how to combat the above problems. Hearing from other teachers would be excellent especially.