It's getting real !

I have seen that these days children (age 8 yrs and above) prefer realistic stories like adventures or exploration (like Bribal-Badashah or Famous Five etc) as compared to make-believe stories (like when animals talk or wild things happen).

A librarian confirmed my hunch when she said - over the years the pattern of books borrowed by children has changed towards realistic books.

If this is true then its sad, as children probably aren't exercising ability to imagine or believe in things - as a thought experiment. They want it 'as-it-is'. May be they will lose out on model building or imagining scenarios.

[ I think Cinderella and Harry Potter exceptions are created by media. They are selling more, not as books, but as advertised products . ]

Quality of visual channel

If I were to write text on the board and ask them to copy it down (which is the mode they prefer instead of dictation), I find them merely copying word by word. So the quality of this visual channel is very poor mostly like - cut and paste.

We seem to learn fundamentally differently when we hear something and when we see something - the topic may be the same.

Shutting down listening channel

I was surprised today that children refused to write down text as I dictated the text. They wanted me to write everything on the board which they were used to copying. Again it seems that they prefer visual channel rather than auditory channel.

Obviously some were finding it difficult to construct spellings from spoken words. I had to repeat parts of sentences three times, as many were unable to hold even short sentences in the short term memory and write.

It is as if - they know individual words but are failing to comprehend the integrated sentences, their meaning or sense.

Story telling

Primary school children prefer story-books with pictures in it and demand to see the pictures. This interrupts the flow of the story as children rush to see the pictures.

I have tried encouraging them to imagine the scenes with not much success. Its as if they are used to ready made pictures and find it difficult to imagine a scenario through language.