Remembering What We Learned

Author: Scott Lee

Eugene and I teach a class in a pre-k program. We both try to add new things to our lesson plan each week we go there. One of the things that we decided to include was some of the things we covered a couple months ago. We went to the preschoolers and started our lesson like usual. We asked, “What is it called when we are loud in music?” They would scream, “Forte!” We asked them what is the musical term we use for being soft and they responded in a whisper saying, “Piano”. We cover these two most days but the rest of the lesson was for the stuff we haven’t covered in a while.

We then asked, “What is it called when we are slow in music?” Expecting we would have to explain it and then give examples, but before we could give a hint a girl shot her hand up and proudly said “Largo.” Eugene and I were so stunned the preschooler could remember that far back.

We didn’t know what to say. It was an amazing feeling being part of someone’s learning experience. We underestimated how smart these students were. From that day on we haven’t been surprised by how smart these students and how much information they can absorb from our lessons. We now plan lessons on how we can challenge them.