Circle Time Circus

 

I was observing this morning, and once again am concerned about the desire to sit small children in a circle for circle time. It's done all over the world on the daily. That does not mean it is good ECE practice. 

Why does this concern me?

I've mentioned in the past that this type of circle time usually has a lot of classroom management entanglement. One teacher does the activity and another teacher, or two, are constantly correcting children into sitting properly and staying quiet. It often looks like a 3 Stooges skit, Whack-a-Mole, or herding cats.

The goal, is supposedly the learning activity. 

However, the actual lessons are the skills of:

• Staying in place
• Staying in crisscross applesauce
• Staying quiet unless appropriate
• Paying attention to the teacher
• Not looking around
• Not interacting with your friends

These are all REALLY hard skills to master for small children, let alone comply with all of them at once for an extended period of time. 

When you consider attention span to be 1 minute per age under 5, the expectation of a child under 5 to sit still, in position, and quiet, for much longer than that minute per age, is not developmentally appropriate practice.

Having to work so hard at the basic physical skills, means that most of the children do not have the extra attention to send towards the learning activity. It may catch their interest every so often, but they do not have the attention to focus. Retention is nearly non-existent. 

And as I've tried to reinforce, if they aren't moving, their brains aren't working optimally. So if a child is focused and paying attention, with all the wiggles distraction around her, coupled with minimal engagement, her retention of information, ability to analyze and compare the new information to old, is as nearly nonexistent as the child doing everything BUT paying attention.

The constant correction to sit in the right place, in the right manner, saying only the right things at the right times to the right people, for much longer than is developmentally appropriate, means the child feels frustration and failure. If kept far longer at the task than is comfortable, it can lead to anger, defiance, stress, anxiety, and physically acting out such as hitting a friend. Then, the child is really reprimanded and admonished for behavior that the child was pushed into by the adults.

So, the activity is pure frustration to both teachers and children, and of almost no value. And yet, centers and providers keep doing it.

When does circle time and other large group activities usually occur? As one of the first activities of the morning. This does not set up the day well. Circle time is actually a detriment to the rest of the day in many ways. Classroom management is already in play, tensions are high on all sides, the attempted "fun" was not had, the attempted learning was not accomplished. The bright potential of the day has been dimmed early. 

If it isn't working, why does it keep being done? Habit. Boxed curriculum. Expectation. Often it's the only "teaching" time provided. Easy routine. Sorry to say it, but lazy or in-experienced teaching. 

What to do differently

• Keep it short. Break up something like circle time into small bite-size segments and sprinkle them throughout the day.
• Don't expect young children to sit still, it's not natural for them.
• Don't expect young children to sit quietly and wait a turn for more than a couple of minutes. 
• Make sure as many children as possible can participate at once.
• Differentiate instruction for different attention spans, interests, or capabilities. Not all children have to participate in all activities at all times. 
• Teach the same lessons through play or day. Count the blocks, ask for the red car, spell their name out together as you get something from their cubby. That individualized instruction will stick much better in a receptive mind.
• Make it free-choice to join or leave. 

Children learn so much by just being in the presence of information. They pick up what interests them when they are in the right mind-set to pick it up. Through repetition and exposure, they will pick it up even without direct formal instruction. I've taught a lot of skills from just singing a little ditty about it throughout the day. Children are drawn to music and you'd be surprised what giving them an ear worm can accomplish.

We need to set children, and teachers, up for success. Traditional instruction often puts children and teachers as adversaries rather than a team. That needs to change. No child should ever feel less-than because teachers are asking him to perform at a developmentally IN-appropriate level.