My Operawhy classrooms, why lessons... why not books?
Sunday, April 8, 2007 9:44:34 PM
The more I think about what is possible in Cambodia, the more I wonder why the two classrooms are not like those in Reggio Emilia.
We could have classrooms that buzz with activities and teach English and technological skills, etc as part of an immersion exercise. We might want to think about how we set up the room and try making it like a room in a western house? The activities that Mary Taguchi had for the kids learning Japanese were genuinely valuable educational activities and incidently,almost, the kids learned to speak and write Japanese - a feat for anyone!
How many words do the kids learn a week? Would it it be possible to have them learning as many without 'teaching'? How many of the kids can speak sentences spontaneously about topics they have not learned? ie without having to repeat things they have learnt from a book? One of the things that happens in language learning is that we hear or read words we don;'t know and we have to assimilate them into our repartoire - to learn them.
I am constantly thinking about books - making books would have to be the best way to get to like books and every word in a child's own book is sure to be a word they know. Couldn't we have lots of paper and some folders so they can see their books grow?
We could have classrooms that buzz with activities and teach English and technological skills, etc as part of an immersion exercise. We might want to think about how we set up the room and try making it like a room in a western house? The activities that Mary Taguchi had for the kids learning Japanese were genuinely valuable educational activities and incidently,almost, the kids learned to speak and write Japanese - a feat for anyone!
How many words do the kids learn a week? Would it it be possible to have them learning as many without 'teaching'? How many of the kids can speak sentences spontaneously about topics they have not learned? ie without having to repeat things they have learnt from a book? One of the things that happens in language learning is that we hear or read words we don;'t know and we have to assimilate them into our repartoire - to learn them.
I am constantly thinking about books - making books would have to be the best way to get to like books and every word in a child's own book is sure to be a word they know. Couldn't we have lots of paper and some folders so they can see their books grow?
