Giving kids the gift of independence

I know I've said this before, but being with Year 2s I'm always amazed by how quickly they pick up new skills.  The progress they make and the milestones they reach almost daily is so rewarding.  There are somethings that go outside the conventional curriculum that I thought would be worth teaching.  A little while ago I heard someone say that through teaching they don't prepare their students for the year level ahead, they prepare them for life.  I decided that this is a motto that I should live by.  I though about the skills that children (and adults) need no matter what path they choose... independence came to mind. Having the skills to independently solve problems when something goes wrong or just working through a process independently (just giving it a go) before asking for help.

Considering that I'm teaching Year 2s I couldn't just hand over the reigns completely but I could start giving them these skills in small steps. There are the usual put your book bag where it needs to go and put away your reading book, but that wasn't enough for me.  I decided to get them to start proofreading their writing. I don't mean just look at it and say yes I'm done. No I mean really proof read!

I sat down with my children and asked them about the things that I usually correct in their books.  We came up with the following list: spelling, fullstops, capital letters, adding missing words and asking questions to get the kids to add more writing. I then asked them, "which of these things could you try checking yourselves?" We came up with another list that then went on our wall. This is how the Proofreading Wall came to be.  The idea behind it is that the children can go somewhere quiet to read over their work and go through our checklist.  While they were there they could see other children who were working on the same step and swap books to read each other's work.  This is our wall in action:

At first (and on the odd occasion now) I had to remind my kids to read over their work.  In general though my students diligently check their work without me. They check their spelling words in dictionaries (another skill I had to teach them, and they picked it up really quickly), they add full stops and capital letters.  My expectation of them now is that they do not come to see me for a conference until they have gone to the Proofreading Wall and read their story with a buddy.  The results I'm seeing in their writing is pretty impressive.  They are not waiting for me to give them all the answers. Those who know how to use a dictionary teach the others. Those who understand full stops and capital letters coach their buddy.  They are being true collaborative learners.

This proved to me that we cannot underestimate our students. I went in with the mindset that if my senior had trouble doing this then how could my little people. Well guess what? I was wrong! They can do it, and they can do it well! If they can't, then it's because they haven't learnt how to do it yet.