Engaging Students: Imitating the Experts

Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #12

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Charles Caleb Colton

Is imitation a useful tool for teachers? It’s an inevitable fact; children like to imitate what others do. This is not something you can stop, nor should you. Imitation is an important part of children’s early learning skills. We witness children imitating Mommy or Daddy from a very early age. Small children will attempt to sweep the floor like Mommy, or hold the fishing rod the way they see Dad doing it. Human beings are hard-wired to learn through imitation. It is written in our DNA. We have the so-called “mirror neurons” that ensure we can learn by observing alone. This is survival equipment we are born with. We don’t even have to teach our children to imitate; they are born to do so.

How can teachers use imitation as a tool to foster student engagement? As we mature, we actually get better at imitation. Young athletic hopefuls often imitate the form and style of the super stars of the sport they intend to conquer. Artists study the masters to gain inspiration so they too can become the best in their field. What if we look at a specific area of learning? Let’s take composition as an example. To become proficient at writing, why not imitate the best? We can even break it down further.

Let’s take one part of writing: using descriptive language. This is often a difficult concept to teach. To keep things simple, let’s use an example from the book, Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White (co-author of Elements of Style).

I would suggest reading this example aloud as students follow along. Then have students move into small groups and read it again silently. When they’ve completed reading, have them discuss in their group which descriptions really “jump out” at them. Which senses are used, and how this written piece contributes to their vision of what the barn is like.

From Charlottes Web, by E.B. White

The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell- as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world. It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope. And whenever the cat was given a fish-head to eat, the barn would smell of fish. But mostly it smelled of hay, for there was always hay in the great loft op overhead. And there was always hay being pitched down to the cows and the horses and the sheep.

The barn was pleasantly warm in winter when the animals spent most of their time indoors, and it was pleasantly cool in summer when the big doors stood wide open to the breeze. The barn had stalls on the main floor for the work horses, tic-ups on the main floor for the cows, and sheepfold down below for the sheep, a pigpen down below for Wilbur, and it was full of all sorts of things that you find in barns: ladders, grindstones, pitch forks, monkey wrenches, scythes, lawn mowers, snow shovels, ax handles, milk pails, water buckets, empty grain sacks, and dusty rat traps. It was the kind of barn that swallows like to build their nests in. It was the kind of barn that children like to play in.

To play devil’s advocate, you could write a contrasting description on the board, such as:

“It was a big barn. It had lots of stuff in it. It had different kinds of smells. Many animals lived there.”

Then, you could ask students to discuss in their groups, or with their partner, how the two descriptions differ, which they prefer, and why.

Students then break down the elements and features White uses as he describes the barn. This would lead into an assignment where the students describe something they are familiar with; their classroom, their bedroom, etc., imitating E.B. White’s style of writing.

"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing."Salvador Dali

Ready to take imitation to the next level? Next week’s posting will get you there.