Stretch It!
What is it?
The “stretch it” strategy is a technique that helps teachers continue the learning after a student has answered a question correctly. Instead of using verbal praise and repeating the correct answer to the question to reinforce the idea and learning, the teacher should follow that correct answer by following up with another question to confirm the students understanding of the concept. By doing this, teachers are eliminating the possibility for a question being answered by luck, coincidence, or even partial mastery or understanding. This technique also helps with differentiating instruction, or teaching to multiple skill levels of students. This then allows the teacher to personalize questions to the individual instructional needs of their students.
Why should it work?
The “stretch it” strategy should work because it fits into the concept of meaningful learning strategies as well as provides an opportunity for educators to use scaffolding. Meaningful learning strategies address multiple methods of how teachers can present information to students to help the material stick. “Stretch it” uses the concept of elaboration from meaningful learning strategies. Through elaboration, children are able to relate information to new information, which aids in better storage and retrieval of information. This is connected to “stretch it” because it takes the correct answer then elaborates on it by asking more questions that relating to that answer. Through this, teachers cannot only reinforce the correct answer; they can also relate it to new information connected to the topic.
The “stretch it” strategy is also connected to the concept of scaffolding. Scaffolding is a technique used that is meant to support students to help them understand a concept. Scaffolding is also connected to Vygotski’s theory of cognitive development and ZPD, or zone of proximal development. ZPD is known as what a child can do with your help. Scaffolding is meant to fit into a child’s ZPD, meaning that a teacher is meant to support and guide a child in a level that is not above or below their ability level. The “stretch it” technique comes into play when a student is perhaps not able to answer a follow up question to the correct answer they gave. This gives the teacher an opportunity to guide a child through a concept and eventually the child should be able to grasp the concept and make his or her own connections to the subject being taught.
How will it look?
Currently, I am preparing myself to be a special education teacher in the adapted curriculum. This means that I will be teaching students basic academic concepts largely focusing on life skills. The “stretch it” theory may come into play when I am teaching step-by-step tasks, such as hand washing. When I teach tasks such as this, I will break it up into chronological steps and ask my students to be able to name and perform these steps. When I ask a student “what do you do first”, his or her response may be “go to the sink.” In order to be sure my student is positive that they know they are to go to not just “the” sink but any sink around them, I may ask what they do first if they are at home. This will hit home the idea that this step-by-step concept is not just something that applies to the classroom but to any location that they are at when they need to wash their hands. Instead of just simply asking what the next step would be, I may ask about certain steps out of order so they are able to internalize the process instead of just memorizing chronological steps. Granted, I will not be able to go as in depth with follow up questions as teachers in the general curriculum, but I will be able to ask questions such as “why”, “how”, “who”, “what”, and “where” to stretch the concept I am teaching so my students are able to develop a well rounded understanding of it. One way I could do this would be to have a question cup that my students would draw an expanding question from then have to answer it. I feel like this would be a fun and interactive way to get my students to stretch what they know.
The “stretch it” strategy is a technique that helps teachers continue the learning after a student has answered a question correctly. Instead of using verbal praise and repeating the correct answer to the question to reinforce the idea and learning, the teacher should follow that correct answer by following up with another question to confirm the students understanding of the concept. By doing this, teachers are eliminating the possibility for a question being answered by luck, coincidence, or even partial mastery or understanding. This technique also helps with differentiating instruction, or teaching to multiple skill levels of students. This then allows the teacher to personalize questions to the individual instructional needs of their students.
Why should it work?
The “stretch it” strategy should work because it fits into the concept of meaningful learning strategies as well as provides an opportunity for educators to use scaffolding. Meaningful learning strategies address multiple methods of how teachers can present information to students to help the material stick. “Stretch it” uses the concept of elaboration from meaningful learning strategies. Through elaboration, children are able to relate information to new information, which aids in better storage and retrieval of information. This is connected to “stretch it” because it takes the correct answer then elaborates on it by asking more questions that relating to that answer. Through this, teachers cannot only reinforce the correct answer; they can also relate it to new information connected to the topic.
The “stretch it” strategy is also connected to the concept of scaffolding. Scaffolding is a technique used that is meant to support students to help them understand a concept. Scaffolding is also connected to Vygotski’s theory of cognitive development and ZPD, or zone of proximal development. ZPD is known as what a child can do with your help. Scaffolding is meant to fit into a child’s ZPD, meaning that a teacher is meant to support and guide a child in a level that is not above or below their ability level. The “stretch it” technique comes into play when a student is perhaps not able to answer a follow up question to the correct answer they gave. This gives the teacher an opportunity to guide a child through a concept and eventually the child should be able to grasp the concept and make his or her own connections to the subject being taught.
How will it look?
Currently, I am preparing myself to be a special education teacher in the adapted curriculum. This means that I will be teaching students basic academic concepts largely focusing on life skills. The “stretch it” theory may come into play when I am teaching step-by-step tasks, such as hand washing. When I teach tasks such as this, I will break it up into chronological steps and ask my students to be able to name and perform these steps. When I ask a student “what do you do first”, his or her response may be “go to the sink.” In order to be sure my student is positive that they know they are to go to not just “the” sink but any sink around them, I may ask what they do first if they are at home. This will hit home the idea that this step-by-step concept is not just something that applies to the classroom but to any location that they are at when they need to wash their hands. Instead of just simply asking what the next step would be, I may ask about certain steps out of order so they are able to internalize the process instead of just memorizing chronological steps. Granted, I will not be able to go as in depth with follow up questions as teachers in the general curriculum, but I will be able to ask questions such as “why”, “how”, “who”, “what”, and “where” to stretch the concept I am teaching so my students are able to develop a well rounded understanding of it. One way I could do this would be to have a question cup that my students would draw an expanding question from then have to answer it. I feel like this would be a fun and interactive way to get my students to stretch what they know.