A lot teachers make the common mistake of always moving on to teach students new things without a review of what they were taught the previous time. Some with the assumption that since they were taught, the students know it and there's no need to revisit.
I don't agree with this. Yes, every student is expected to know a particular thing because he/she has been taught but what if the reverse is the case? It could be the lesson wasn't properly understood, the method was too complex, the child was confused somewhere, it could be anything.
I always think it's better to teach a child a few things he understands perfectly than a lot of things he can't explain if asked. In as much as I don't dwell on a particular topic for ages, I do take my time to makesure my students understand atleast up to 60%.
A little background story.
It was a thing of joy for me to be called to teach two amazing kids at home. I have been a teacher for two and a half years. I had to quit my job to pursue a degree in English Education. I was a bit sad when I had to leave the school. I knew I would miss all my young students.
I used to hold private lesson sessions for some kids. Their parents felt sad when they heard that I'll be leaving but they were happy for me as well. All thanks to the Nigerian government, all federal universities are on strike so I've been at home since March. When this particular parent saw me one day and figured I'll be around for a while, she asked me to continue my private lesson sessions with her kids for a month. I was delighted to do this, I have missed teaching little children.
I started yesterday. I went there to see the kids and agree on the amount of payment. After we came to an agreement, I proceeded to know the respective classes of the kids. I requested for their previous term results to see how good they're doing. I also requested to see their textbooks. Even though I'm supposed to be preparing them for a new class, I felt it was wise to use their previous term's books to give them a review. I needed to see how well they could do.
For the little girl who is about 4 years old, I asked her to count and write numbers 1 - 60. She counted perfectly to 59 but had a problem with the last number. She kept saying ''5 and 8 58, 5 and 9 59, 5 and 0 50" rather than saying 6 and 0 60.
I was happy to see that she has made good progress. This is because when I started teaching her a year ago, she could only count from 1 - 20. She also could only write the numbers if they have been written out for her to follow the pattern. But now, she could write from 1-50 on her own. That was a good progress.
Moving on to the elder brother who is about 7 years old, I figured he had gone really far. From his school books, I saw that he's been taught even numbers, time tables from 2-5 etc. Still I had to evaluate him. I focused on Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning. I drafted some questions with a few examples and left the rest for him to complete.
He did a good work. He didn't get everything right but he did very well. The class was very interactive and he was so excited about learning.
I wrote some numbers in words and asked him to change them to figures. One of such numbers was seventy-seven. He write out the numbers as he read them - 707.
This was clearly wrong but I was glad he could at least read the numbers. I didn't mark the work because it was just a review. I did draw his attention to the ones he didn't get right and showed him how to arrive at the right answers.
Now imagine I had begun the lesson without reviewing the pupils on their previous term's work with the assumption that they were already taught, it would be so wrong.
Today we'll be starting our lesson properly and I'll be teaching them new things and also bringing back some old topics in-between. I'm looking forward to sharing the experience with y'all. See you then!
