How to Teach Students to Not Guess the Teacher’s Password?

Petruchio

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:

Young children often do not know the basics on the subject which they are learning, be it math, science, art, religion, literature etc.
Many children are very shy, and try to give as short of an answer as doable to a verbal prompt.
Written prompts are arduous, straining the attention span and writing capabilities of the students. This is not a bad thing, but it presents difficulties in the economy of time and material to be presented.
Attention spans in general are very short.
Experiments can be very infrequent, and nigh impossible with certain subjects.
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.

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.

The problems I foresee are as follows:

Young children often do not know the basics on the subject which they are learning, be it math, science, art, religion, literature etc.
Many children are very shy, and try to give as short of an answer as doable to a verbal prompt.
Written prompts are arduous, straining the attention span and writing capabilities of the students. This is not a bad thing, but it presents difficulties in the economy of time and material to be presented.
Attention spans in general are very short.
Experiments can be very infrequent, and nigh impossible with certain subjects.
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 wonder what the simplest actual-practical-use-of-math is?

Despite the rambling nature of that "essay" the counting sheep thing is a really good example.

Might want to make it connect to their reality. I wonder if there is a way to use math on becoming popular or whatever elementary kids care about.

Pokemon was an epic driver of (nonuseful) study for people in my generation. It was an RPG, too, so you could squeeze a lot of math out of it. I wonder if the schooling establishment has the ability to keep up with what kids are doing?

I'm still confused on what can usefully be learned in elementary school history class.

Propaganda and indoctrination? You might be able to tell them that the past really sucked and most of the world still sucks, and it's their destiny to grow up to make the world awesome.

Probably, as well as attempt some really quick immunization against fascists or whatever. Also, you might drill into them that things are complicated and happen You also could give a really quick outline of the world. I know that in 5th grade I did not know any of the following:

The world is really, really big.
A lot of the world outside of America has a standard of living similar to America, but even more of it doesnt. Its getting better.

Not sure about Pokemon or making studying fun. Attempts to make educational games often fail miserably, and childr... (read more)

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How to Teach Students to Not Guess the Teacher’s Password?

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How to Teach Students to Not Guess the Teacher’s Password?

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