Deliberate / targeted practice

Deliberate / targeted practice

Deliberate / targeted practice

not rote repetition

as a default.

While helping my 8 year old

with his spelling 听写 and composition writing 作文,

I noticed that he can't always tell

when to use 这 vs 着

so I took a few minutes

to create a little activity in our sketchbook using dot stickers from @petrinatherock

with some examples

to help him clarify the differences!

Later that night,

I found a good time

(when he was not tired,

hungry or stressed)

to present the activity.

Learning was done

in less than 2 minutes!

From now on,

he'll likely not be confused anymore,

and be able to use these characters accurately.

I wasn't testing his ability to write,

because he can already write them,

so I did the writing instead.

I sneaked in an element of

control of error

(inspired by sharing by @3mm.montessori @miraculove_sg and @sgmontessori)

where the exact number and type of stickers were provided,

so that at the end of the activity,

he will know if he got them right.

With this incident,

I'm reminded again of

the power of DELIBERATE PRACTICE,

or TARGETED PRACTICE,

instead of wasting valuable time, effort and energy,

over ROTE REPETITION as a DEFAULT strategy.

Deliberate practice takes some observation,

and reflection,

maybe some resourcefulness

and a little creativity,

but it pays dividends!

(That being said, rote repetition

definitely has its place in learning.

Memorising the times tables together

with my eldest has given him

so much more confidence in Math,

and it's so cool to

learn about patterns in multiplication!)

Do you find deliberate practice valuable?

Share with us if

you've used this strategy

in your bilingual learning too!

Join us as we support our primary school kids

in their bilingual journey!

#SGPrimarySchoolChinese x #funplaywithchinese

@mystorytreasury

@2mamas4kids

@forthekidsg

@jaschinese4kids

@mrsahgohgoh

@ourhappylearners

@playbymelissa

@tiffany_basket

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