appropriate skills to work on their own and put forth their best effort,
even without me. My hope for independent work during centers
aligned with the idea that students learn to make decisions on their
own and to monitor themselves regarding their progress (p. 25). I had
to give students the opportunity to do that as they worked
independently.
It is likewise important to be aware that the power of the
instruction that takes place away from the teacher must rival the
power of the instruction that takes place with the teacherJust how
well can the children function independently? What do they need to
learn to function better as independent learners? Most often, children
need to be taught how to be independent. Taking time to teach them
how to be independent learners is well worth the effort (Ford & Opitz,
2002, p. 710). Practice and modeling had to, of course, be put into
place in order to demonstrate how this should be done. Puig and
Froelich (2011) describe the importance of instructing students in a
way that prepares them to work without the teacher, stating that
instruction leading up to independent learning should be intentional
teaching that focuses on teaching students to become critical,
independent, and flexible learners. In other words, we are focusing our
teaching on assisting students to be self-directed, self-regulating, and
self-extending (p. 47). I had to prepare my students for this type of
work, while facilitating their independent work. Katz and Carlisle (2009)