School In Spain

Teaching Math from a Constructivist viewpoint

2009-03-15T10:50:00.003+01:00

That is one of the classes I'm taking this semester, and it's a doozy. It's required because my certification will allow me to teach as a regular Primary teacher as well as an English teacher. Anyway, the class is 7 credits (the normal amount for a semester-long course is 4.5) and it is a huge amount of work. For one thing, outside of the class syllabus, we also have to master (be able to do and explain) everything in the Primary math curriculum, and while obviously it's not as complicated as higher level math, it has also been a loooong time since I've had to do any of this. Long division is a distant memory (and here they do it differently than I was taught...) and a whole bunch of other stuff will require a lot of brushing up on.

And of course, math from a Constructivist standpoint is a lot more complicated, because not only do you have to be able to do the stuff, you have to have a much deeper level of understanding as to how and why things are done the way they are done. Still, it is interesting. I was working with Pedro this morning on operations with "decenas y unidades" (basically, tens place and ones place) and we were using Legos to do it, which was fun.

Anyway, I will finish student teaching very soon, so hopefully then I will be able to dedicate more time to the numerous assignments of my classes this semester, and to Dani as he is becoming more and more mobile!

More on textbooks

2009-02-26T22:55:00.004+01:00

I thought I'd update with another post about textbooks and teaching. I have been looking over the program for 1st grade Art where I am teaching (here teachers have to develop the "programación" for the whole year in advance-- not step-by-step lesson plans, but an overview of each unit and what the objectives, methodology, and evaluation criteria are.) According to the program, there is a whole lot more to it in theory that is not actually being put into practice. They start from the textbook, which actually has a framework for a whole lot of engaging, significant learning experiences. The cutting out and assembling paper models, coloring, etc, are mostly supposed to be complementary activities, or "extra." So if the program were actually put into effect, even though it is textbook-based, I think it would be a whole other ball game, so to speak. I don't really want to go into why the program is not being implemented as envisioned-- there are some good reasons, but it's still unfortunate that it has to be like this. But I did think I should rectify on here a bit-- I don't think the textbook itself is really the problem.

I haven't seen the Music plan in detail, but I suspect that it is a similar situation.

And, after talking to the classroom teacher some more, I have a better understanding of why that class is run the way it is (meaning, the science/math/reading parts.) I still am not convinced by the way the reading is set up (everyone reading the same material and doing the same activities, despite some significant differences in ability), but I don't really know what the solution to that is, either.

And I am not writing much on this blog about the student teaching, for reasons of discretion/confidentiality, but I did want to say something positive about my observations so far. I am really impressed with the way the classroom teacher handles conflicts/ relational or emotional issues that come up in the classroom. She is very willing to spend class time on working through things, and I think the students feel heard and respected. She clearly belives-- and I agree-- that for first graders especially, learning how to get along with others and manage their own feelings is just as important as the more academic stuff.

Textbook mania

2009-02-19T21:49:00.007+01:00

There are a lot of things I want to write about regarding my student teaching experience-- reflections, thoughts, stuff I'm learning, etc. Not necessarily on here, but somewhere I need to get it down. There's a list of things to be recorded, but right now I'd like to discuss textbooks, and I think this blog is the right place to do it.

When I was in elementary school (public school in a well-funded district, way back in the late seventies, early eighties) we had textbooks, but they were owned by the school and only lent to the students each year. I don't remember when we started with textbooks in earnest-- there were always reading books and math books, but I'm fuzzy on the other subjects. I do remember that in fifth grade we had a big unit on the weather, and for that we copied notes from the board-- maybe the same for the digestive system unit in fourth grade?

We had Art once a week, and for that we went to the Art Room and did all sorts of art projects using paint, paper-maiche, oak tag, etc. For music we went to the Music room and learned songs from the history and folklore of the US, as well as some basic musical notation, used different kinds of instruments, and other more popular and recent songs. Periodically we had Assemblies in the Auditorium with performances of different types to watch (one I remember was "Germs", a play about hygiene).

At the school I'm in now, and probably in many others, the kids stay in their classrooms for Art and Music, and the teachers come to them. So certainly the types of activities that are feasible are more limited (no paper maiche, for one thing.) But there is another limiting factor in classes of all subjects. The textbook.

Although Spain supposedly uses a Constructivist approach to education (as evidenced in their laws and statutes), and we have been learning about these methods and precepts in the university where I am getting my teaching degree, in practice it seems that textbook learning is the norm. (This is not to say that use of textbooks incompatible with Constructivism-- of course that's not true-- but at the elementary level, such dependence on textbooks is not necessarily to the students' advantage.)

It's not to the parents' advantage, either, because here even in the public schools, kids have to buy all of their textbooks and only in some circumstances is it possible to use books from another year, say a brother or sister's old ones. Yes, there are subsidies for families who meet the income requirements, but many--or most?-- families aren't elegible. I have ranted about the textbook industry before, but it is a firmly-entrenched institution, (i.e. big business) with millions of schoolchildren needing to buy new books every single year.

What are these textbooks like? First of all, each subject usually has at least two different books-- one of them is a workbook, and the other one has other types of activitites. The workbooks are often, well, worksheets. So far I have seen two music classes with my first grade class, and they have done color-cut-and-paste activities about sounds that are high and low (in this case, animal sounds) and a "color the pictures and number them 1, 2, or 3 to show the order they come in during the song." The song in question had played in the background on both days while they colored, and they also sang along (words are of course in their "class book") and seemed to enjoy that, but still. Personally, color-cut-and-paste isn't my idea of a particularly interesting or useful way to teach music. True, I have only seen two classes and flipped through the books, but I look fondly back on the music classes of my youth when we did things quite differently.

Art class also has two books, and I have seen four art classes so far. They have only used one of the books, which features paper models to assemble and stuff to color (like a mask for Carnival, and a pirate hat.) Frankly, each hour of wandering around watching kids coloring and assembling premade paper models has been boring me to tears. The other art book had some interesting projects in it-- instead of coloring they pasted in lentils to fill in the middle of a sunflower, or pencil shavings and toothpicks for a forest scene-- I can't remember what else. But it seems to me shame that the kids just buy the books at the beginning of the year and dutifully work their way through them, leaving little room for other types of projects that don't fit in a book.

I guess my beef is that first graders don't really need to have books for everything, do they? Where's the spontaneity, the adapting to the students' interests or teacher's talents or to other factors outside of a textbook? Art and music, especially. I realize it's easier for the teachers, who have several different grade levels to teach, and don't have their own rooms full of materials and space. Still, it seems (to me) a shame.

And of course once the parents have spent the money on the books, they want to see them get used. So, there is a pressure to "get through the book."

As for other subjects, I can see the benefits of using a textbook. For Science and Social Studies, I don't think it's necessary in the early grades, and it does limit what gets presented and how. However, a textbook also provides a certain guarantee, since it is carefully planned and researched as far as content, presentation, layout, exercises. And it is a way to reinforce reading and writing skills in a methodical way, as well as higher-level skills such as getting information from a written text. It also ensures that all the classes who use the book are getting very similar input.

My school is using a globalized method, which means that they have one Class Book (actually they get a new one each trimester) with language arts, math, and science content grouped into multidisciplinary units. I like this approach quite a bit. They also have separate math and language arts workbooks for more practice, and a reading book.

But still, I'm not entirely on the textbook bandwagon here. What are your thoughts? Anyone?

(I will say that I recognize the apparent irony in the fact that not long ago I was lamenting--sort of-- the lack of textbook use at the university level, but actually I think that is an entirely different situation.)

Miscellaneous

2009-02-14T07:51:00.003+01:00

Just a few bits and pieces here.

First, student teaching is going well, and at some point I will post about it on here, but right now I'm just getting used to not having any free time until after 9pm, by which point coherent thought is in scarce supply. But I will get over it, I hope, or this doesn't bode well for my future...

Second, the lovely people at Lycos Tripod have announced that they have been saved at the last minute and will continue their free web hosting service, so my web page on building an intercultural classroom will continue to be available. Which presents a bit of a problem, actually-- since it will be up indefinitely, I need to change a few parts of it and I can't remember how to do that, and probably won't have a lot of time to figure it out. But anyway.

Here is a site that will allow you to create text for kids to practice cursive writing. You put in the text, the font, and the size, and it will arrange it on a pauta (the guide lines for writing) on one line, then leave the next one blank for copying. Since here kids learn to read and write using cursive first, it is a good way for them to practice using a story that they make up or whatever text you want. OS needs to work on his writing, and it's more fun this way than buying a typical libro de caligrafía.

And finally, I still have a few more classes to write about in my series on the Spanish Magisterio Lengua Extranjera degree (I'm sure you are waiting with bated breath for that...), and I do intend to get to that soon. So, watch this space-- eventually I will post again.

Construyendo un aula intercultural

2009-02-04T10:18:00.002+01:00

Just a note to say that the web page I created for a class I took the first year of my studies is going to be deleted soon. It was done on a free hosting site that will no longer be offering this service, and as of Februray 15th the page will be gone. I don't have time to figure out how to save all the files and look for a new hosting site and upload everything again, so it will be gone. I'm no computer wizard, and the page is pretty simple. It's also in Spanish, but again, probably not too difficult.

I mention it because I think (I hope) that it might be of interest to some of you (maybe not, because I think most of the people who land here are not teachers but are expats looking for information on schools in Spain- imagine that!). It's in Spanish, and it is called Construyendo un aula intercultural, or "Creating an intercultural classroom." I'd love to hear your reactions or thoughts. And I thought I'd give it one last hurrah before its demise.

(Note: I loaded the page correctly a few minutes ago, but now when I went back again I got a page load error message (problema al cargar la página). If you get this message, please try again later, because it should still work until the 15th.)

...still more on that degree program...

2009-02-02T22:51:00.001+01:00

I forgot to mention that starting next fall (I think), students entering Spanish universities will be under a new plan, so what I'm describing here will be somewhat different. Currently the teaching degrees are 3-year degrees, whereas things like Literature or Psychology or Architecture or what have you are 5-year degrees. Next year, everything will be four years, to bring the Spanish degrees more in line with a common European Union standard to ease mobility and recognition of credentials between countries. I suspect that there will be more student teaching and obviously, more of a lot of other stuff, too, to fill out the extra year. This won't affect me because I will be finished after I do my last student teaching in the fall, but I thought I should mention it anyway. I wish I knew where to find the information about what will be included in the new plans, but that may very well not even be dteremined yet.

And I forgot one of the English-specific courses, so I'll add that in here:

8) Investigation in the Foreign Language Classroom. Semester-long course, taught in English. As always with this instructor, the notes were clear and well-presented. The course discusses different types of research that can be done, and focuses on Action Research. It's still a pretty basic overview (for example, it doesn't go into any detail about interpretation of statisics, which is too bad because throughout the degree program I have come across articles reporting findings and I am always at a loss as to the statistical parts-- I could have used a crash course or basic introduction. Also it would have been nice to see a discussion of how to design a questionnaire, etc.) Really, the course is meant to encourage future teachers to think of AR as something they can and should be doing in their classrooms, even without a lot of technical knowledge, which is probably a good thing beacuse otherwise most people wouldn't bother. So it serves its purpose well. No exam-- instead you have to carry out an AR project and write it up, or if you don't have access to a classroom (and are too ethical to use made-up data) you can do a research proposal and a critical review of two published research articles. This was a good class, but still, didn't delve deeply into the subject matter.

In fact, that is a common characteristic of all of the classes I've taken for the degree, with a few exceptions. I'm sure that college-level classes at most US universities (and actually, from what I hear, for other degrees in Spanish universities) require much more work. Magisterio is seen as an easy degree, and my impression is that it is likely quite a bit easier than an Education degree in the States. I am still quite curious about what courses are required or offered for US Ed degrees.

Now, on to the non-English classes required for the foreign language degree (because the degree will also allow me to teach as a regular classroom teacher in bilingual schools, so we still need to get the basics of general ed.)

8) Physical Education. Semester-long course, taught in Spanish. Since this is online, we don't do any actual physical activity for this-- there were a couple of sessions I think at the jornadas, but I was pregnant and couldn't go to them. The class was not as boring as I thought it would be, though parts of it were very technical and/or dry. It also gave way too much emphasis, IMHO, to the history and evolution of Physical Education, as opposed to more practical and useful stuff. In any case, Physical Education in schools is taught by specialists (though this university doesn't offer that particular specialization) so it's unlikely that a regular classroom teacher would actually be in the position of teaching Phys. Ed. But we study it anyway.

9) Knowledge of the Natural, Physical, and Social Environment. Semester-long course, taught in Spanish. This subject shares the same name as a subject area taught in Primary school that is basically Science and Social Studies. Our class focused only on the science part, and was intended not to teach you how to teach science, but instead to make sure that future elementary teachers have a basic background in science. This subject is one that is often taught in English at bilingual schools (as is the case at my kids' school.) The class was interesting enough, but I've already forgotten much of what I learned in it, and will need to refresh my memory with a textbook if I ever have to teach it. Given that, I would rather have had a class more focused on teaching science-- I think that would have been much more useful. Oh well.

10) Art and Music Education. Semester-long course that consisted of two different parts. It really should have counted as two separate classes, based on the amount of work required for each part. The music part requires you to read music, keeping the beat and using correct rhythm while saying the correct name of the notes as you read them. The actual pieces of music they used on the (individual) exam were given to us at the beginning of the semester so we could practice them, and the music wasn't that difficult, but for some reason it took me way more time to get it down than I had anticipated-- I really struggled with this. Also, they use the "Do-Re-Mi" system of note names. The second part of the music exam was playing the recorder-- we had to learn how to play it and had a selection of 8 songs to practice for the exams (reading from the score, not memorized.) I got through this pretty well, after a lot of work, and I suppose it is good background for a well-rounded education professional to have. Not to mention the fact that both reading music and learning to play the recorder are required activities in many Spanish elementary schools, so in that sense it is relevant, though the regular classroom teacher would not be the one teaching Music.

The Art half of the class (and again, it was easily enough work to qualify for its own 4.5 credits, dammit) was great. I'm not a particularly crafty or artistic person, and in fact not only am I not good at it, I don't even enjoy it. But the class was very interesting. I even liked the part on history and trends in art education. Also good was the topic on evolution and interpretation of children's drawings-- especially interesting to me since I could use my own kids' artwork for comparison purposes. In addition to some annoying--to me-- art-making assignments, we had to do a Power Point on an environmental artist (loosely interpreted-- could be someone who makes art out of recycled materials, whose art has an ecological message, or even just shows a very strong sense of place etc.) and then create our own artwork inspired by that artist. I choose Andy Goldsworthy, who I had never even heard of before this class so getting to know his work and watching this amazing film was enough to make the whole class worthwhile for me. In any case, the notes were very well put together and complete, and assignments were relevant and engaging. The class is very relevant to the FL degree because in bilingual schools, Art is another class that is typically taught in English. Unfortunately, after learning about all these neat approaches to teaching art, it may come as quite a let down when you receive the English-language textbook (yes, a textbook-- maybe workbook is a better term-- for art class) that you must use to teach the class and see how unimaginative it is (at least that is what I thought of the book my son is using for Art this year.)

Hmm, this post is getting long. I think I'll end here for today and continue on again tomorrow...

Getting a teaching job in Spain

2009-02-02T13:45:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd interrupt the course descriptions for a moment to talk a bit about the hiring process for Primary school teachers here in Spain, since a couple of people have asked about it.

First of all, there are three types of schools here: public, private, and concertado (semi-private.) The concertado schools are mostly, but not all, Catholic schools, and are not run by the State. However, they do receive State funds, and because of that they must follow certain rules. One of the rules is that all elementary teachers must hold the Spanish Elementary Education degree, or an officialy-recognized elem. education degree from another country. (Getting a foreign degree recognized is a huge PITA.) Another rule is that they must use the same admissions criteria as the public schools for students, and also I think that they may not require students to take religion classes (meaning that an alternative is offered for the time that religion is being taught for those who don't wish to take it.)

The private schools can hire anyone they want to, I believe.

And the public schools do not have any say at all in who they hire as teachers. If you want to opt for a public school teaching position, not only must you have the Magisterio degree, but you must also pass a difficult civil service exam. Those who pass are ranked according to their score, and then they get to choose from the available job openings based on their position in the ranking. Usually the positions that are open to those who have just passed are the least desireable ones, but once you have been in the system longer and have built up points for seniority etc. you can request a transfer, again based on your relative ranking and the available openings.

If you pass the exam but do not score high enough to qualify for a post (i.e. there are more people who passed than available jobs) you are put on a list to be an interino, which means you will be offered jobs as they become available due to a maternity leave, extended medical leave, etc. This is only a temporary posting for you, but it earns you points toward the next exam.

Those who get a full post basically have a job for life with lots of benefits, so it behooves degree-holders to take the exam and try to get a post. However, it is also difficult-- it is common for people to spend an entire year studying full-time for the exam-- so some people prefer to work in one of the other types of schools. Also, when you first get a post, it may well be in another city, so until you build enough points to transfer, it is not necessarily very convenient.

Still, I will probably take the exam. Unfortunately, the next time it is being offered when I will be elegible is in June of 2011 (if things go as planned and it is actually offered then). This presents a bit of a problem, because I will complete my degree in Feb. 2010, but if I plan to take the exam, it might behoove me to spend the 2010-2011 school year studying instead of teaching, which would delay my entry into the workforce for quite a few more years. So, I'm not exactly sure what I will do. Right now, I just want to finish my degree!

Degree program, continued...

2009-02-01T17:20:00.001+01:00

Oops, I guess the "Education in the European Union" class is only for the English specialization. And of course the two blocks of student teaching are required for all the programs, but I will get to those later.

I also wanted to say more about the online program. A friend of mine did the program online at this university a few years ago, and things have changed in many of the classes. Now less work is being required, and more rides on the exams. I assume this is due to the exponential increase in online enrollment-- even with assistants, the instructors can't keep up with the grading. It is one of the few online Education degree programs in the country, and it is popular among those who have day jobs but want to change careers, those who may already have one teaching degree but want to add another specialization to be more competitive, those who are already teaching and are working against the clock to get certified so they can keep their jobs, and people--especially English majors-- who see in the rise in popularity of bilingual schools a chance to find a good job. From the university's perspective, the online program is a good way to make lots of money with little investment-- they may have to pay more teaching assistants, but enrollment is not limited by classroom space or infrastructure. In any case, the students who are actually attending classes on campus may be getting quite a different learning experience from the same instructors.

Also, I forgot to mention that there are several Saturday sessions (jornadas presenciales) throughout the year-- not quite one every month, but almost-- where you can go and meet your instructors, ask questions, etc. These are not required, but are recommended.

Right now I have in front of me my course requirements and also those for the General Primary degree, and I will talk about the classes that are for the English degree-- some are also included in Gen. Primary, but not in the other programs.

1) English Phonetics. Semester-long course. Taught in English. On the whole this was pretty useful, I'd say, and the notes were well put-together.

2) Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics. Year-long course, taught in English. Also well done, and relevant to the degree.

3) History and Geography of Anglophone Countries. Semester-long course. This was not taught in English, and it covered an enormous amount of material. Really, a huge amount. Luckily the exam was not too difficult, and the notes were very well organized. Again, I suppose this is necessary background for an EFL teacher to have.

4) Philosophy of Language. Semester-long course. This was taught in Spanish, and was pretty interesting, though fairly basic. It covered topics like What is language? Can we consider that animals (especially apes) have the capacity for some sort of language or intentional communication? When did language use evolve in humans or protohumans?

5) English and American Literature. Full-year course, taught in English. This is interesting, though so far the first semester is over and all we have studied is an introduction to Anglo-Saxon literature (think Beowulf) and to literature in the Middle Ages (a bit on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Canterbury Tales.) We only have to read the fragmnents of text provided in the notes, not whole novels or books. The class is supoosed to cover up to the present, a brief overview of British and American literature, but at this rate I think we will be covering only a fraction of that.

6) Linguistics. Semester-long course, taught in Spanish. This was a bit strange, because a chunk of it was devoted to stuff like grammar, syntax, and morphology, which are covered in detail in another required course taught by the same instructor in the same year of the program. The rest of it was theory, and a pretty basic overview. It didn't get into any interesting questions or delve deeply into any of the particular theories or schools of thought. Still, good background information to have, I suppose.

7) English Teaching, I and II. These are both full-year courses, taught in English, and should be where the bulk of our preparation comes from. However, both of these classes were huge disappointments, as neither provided much at all in the way of practical, relevant, and necessary information about teaching English. I can honestly say that the only thing of value I got out of these classes was in doing the required term papers, because then I was able to investigate some of the topics that I need to know. I don't want to go into any more detail, but suffice it to say that I am furious about this situation. Luckily I did a "Teaching Young Learners" course at International House back when MS was a baby, so I have plenty of notes from that to help me through.

This is getting too long, so I will continue with the non-English-related classes in another post.

Looking back on my degree program

2009-01-31T23:19:00.000+01:00

Next Saturday I have my last exam of the semester, and then on Monday I start student teaching. I only have four subjects this semester (two of which are year-long courses, so I already have a pretty good idea of how they are going), and then one more student teaching block in the fall, and I will be done.

In anticipation of the student teaching (I will be in a first grade classroom at a Catholic school) I have been perusing teacher websites with discussion forums, and it has been interesting to see a bit of what Education programs are like in the US. I thought it might be interesting to review my experiences with the program I'm in. I have to say I'm underwhelmed, though it's not terrible. A quick overview:

First I should mention a few things. For one, the program I'm doing is online (except for exams and student teaching), which obviously impacts the way the classes are taught. Perhaps I would be happier with some of the classes if I had attended them in the on-campus versions. Second, the program is pretty rigid, in that most of it is predetermined (only two electives, and there were very few options to choose from in the online program.) In fact, I believe that the program is pretty much the same in every university as far as required classes, so my particular university does not necessarily have much leeway to decide what classes to offer.

There are also 21 "free" credits that can be taken in any subject at all, and the people in my program just have the corresponding number of credits transferred from their prior studies (the online program is only open to people who already hold degrees of some sort.) Instead of trying to go through all of the hoops necessary to have credits transferred from the US, I just took a few extra electives and classes from other degree programs, so I will discuss those separately.

Another thing to keep in mind is that universities here don't seem to use textbooks-- it's all based on handouts and the notes you take in class. (Okay, maybe not all universities work this way, but this one does and from people I've talked to, it seems to be the most common way.) Since in the online program you don't actually go to class, the input is all based on the notes that the professors provide online (Though they also provide bibliographies for further study, and are available to address questions or respond to comments via email.) Obviously this presents a number of challenges, and the quality of the class depends in large part on the instructor's ability to create clear, relevant, well-organized and well-written notes, and to propose assignments that are useful and engaging. It will probably come as no surprise to hear me say that some of the instructors are quite good at this, while others are pretty poor at it. Fortunately, most fall into the "acceptable to very good" range, but differences among them are apparent, and it matters more than it would with typical textbook-based learning.

Finally, I should explain that the Primary education degree is available with different "specializations." My university offers General Primary, Foreign Language (English), Special Ed, Early Childhood (this means 3-6 year olds), and Speech, Hearing, and Language Specialist. As a FL degree holder, I will be elegible to teach elementary students as either their regular classroom teacher or as an English teacher who teaches different groups at the same school. The people who get the General Primary degree have to take a semester of English teaching as well, plus a whole bunch of science classes.

I was going to group the subjects by which year you take them in, but it makes more sense to group them by type, so that's what I'll do.

Classes required for all of the teaching specializations:

1) Special Ed. Full-year course, probably one of the best and most useful of the whole degree. Excellent instructor.

2) General Didactics. Full-year course. Also practical and interesting.

3) Psychology. Full-year course, but it was divided into two thematic blocks. First semester was Psychology of Education, and second semester was Developmental Psychology. Everybody complained about this one, because of the enormous amount of material it covered, but that was one of the reasons I liked it. It was almost like having a textbook (in fact, it was like having several textbooks, because most of the notes were taken from actual textbooks.) Anyway, the material covered in this class was also highly relevant and useful.

4) Theories and Institutions in Contemporary Education. Semester-long course. I understand why this is required, and I suppose it is important background to have. Still, it wasn't particularly engaging-- mostly just a lot of stuff to memorize.

5) New Technologies Applied to Education. Semester-long course. This one was interesting. It included media literacy, visual literacy, and also different types of multimedia applications that can be used in teaching, and how to evaluate them for effectiveness, etc. On the whole, pretty useful, I'd say.

6) School Organization and Administration. Semester-long course. This was about as (un)interesting as it sounds. I could probably just repeat my comment for number 4, and in fact there are several classes for which I could probably use that same description.

7) Sociology of Education. Semester-long course. I had high hopes for this class, but in effect it was another number 4. It was a pretty basic introduction to sociology in general and as applied to education, with brief explanations of several different theories and authors, but again, not particularly engaging or interesting. Lots to memorize and forget.

8) Education in the European Community. Semester-long course, which I haven't started yet. From what students from other years have said, it basically involves working with a group of other students to fill in a table about aspects of education in a particular EU country, then sharing the information about your country with all the other groups. Based on that description and other students' impression, this class is basically just a big Pain In The Ass. I get to find out soon...

Okay, I'll continue some other time with the classes specific to the Foreign Language degree, and the electives. Once again, I have no idea who, if anyone, is reading this (I do have a site meter but I'm too lazy to look up my password to check it, and it doesn't give info about search terms or geography or other stuff like that anyway). But, I am quite curious about what Education degree programs look like in other places, so if anyone cares to comment about that or anything else, I'd love to hear it!

What makes a good teacher?

2008-12-12T09:51:00.000+01:00

Interesting article from the New Yorker, via aldaily.com. Though I confess I skipped the football metaphor paragraphs-- time is at a premium, internet-shortened attention span, and all that.

It does mention some examples of typical preschool behavior, and how some teachers don't recognize what's developmentally appropriate, though in this example it's girls.

The Trouble With Boys

2008-12-11T12:36:00.000+01:00

Have you heard about this book? It has garned a fair amount of media attention, as did the Newseek cover story on the same subject, which the book grew out of. I was very curious about the whole thing, both as a mother of three boys and as a teacher-to-be. Well, I just put up a review of the book at my other blog, and instead of cross-posting, I'll just direct you over there. If I possibly can (despite projects due, upcoming exams, and most importantly the upcoming school vacation which whittles my work/blogging time to pretty much nothing) I'd like to discuss it more in depth.

In the meantime, here's a video from the Today Show that features an interview with the author, Peg Tyre, about her findings, and also shows some programs being put into place to help boys succeed. It's only 15 minutes long, and wuite interesting.

The part where she talks about preschool is especially interesting considering the way Spanish preschools are set up. I'd love to hear from other parents and what you think about the issue.

But for now, I'd love for you all to click over to the review!

More on accents and bilingual kids (mine!)

2008-12-04T10:47:00.000+01:00

This one is the last repost, and is not directly related to school, but it is related to the topic of the previous post, accents.

So it just dawned on me a couple of days ago that MS was using his own version of the accent technique. I've noticed this a few times now: when he is speaking to me in English and either doesn't know or can't remember the word he wants to use, he will say it in Spanish with an English-speaker's accent. This is somewhat more interesting to me, as the only native English speaker he ever hears speaking Spanish is me, and while I do have somewhat of an accent, (people have told me it is a hard-to-place accent) it is most definitely not anything like what MS uses in these situations. That means he is applying English phonetics to Spanish, all on his own. I bet some of you are thinking that my accent is probably more noticeable than I think it is, and of course the most logical explanation would be that he is imitating me. But I really, really do distinguish English /t/ from Spanish /t/, for example, and that was one of the phonemes that he substituted. Of course I may slip ocasionally, and maybe he heard my English-speaking family saying a word or two in Spanish on this visit (he does have a very good auditory memory), but I don't think that would be enough to account for his accent.

I also realized that I do my own version of imitating the Spanish accent at times-- when I am in a pharmacy or restaurant and asking for a product whose name is in English, I usually pronounce it the Spanish way instead of the correct English way. This is mostly to make sure that the person understands what I am asking for, though it is possible that at times I underestimate their ability to understand. It's funny, though, that I often have a really hard time understanding what people are saying when they try to talk to me about American actors or singers or place names. They expect me to know exactly what they are talking about, since of course I am American, but half the time I am nodding politely while frantically trying to figure it out.

I also remember a Saturday Night Live sketch (from the eighties, probably), about American newscasters trying to outdo each other with their "authentic" pronunciations of Spanish words like "Nicaragua." It was pretty hilarious, and just goes to show that in some situations, affecting authentic pronunciation just sounds, well, affected and artificial.

Bilingual Education

2008-12-04T10:40:00.000+01:00

Bear with me for just two more reposts from the other blog, then I will get into some new stuff. I would love to hear some insights if anyone out there cares to share. Please chime in!

We just had a wonderful visit from family who only speak English, so when they were around my husband was speaking a lot of English. On the weekend, when we were all together, he interrupted his usual role as Spanish-speaker to the kids in our OPOL system (one parent, one language: each parent speaks his/her native language to the kids) and spoke to them in English. When OS answered him in English, I noticed a new phenomenon. OS was speaking English to his father with a Spanish accent, one he never uses with me. Apparently he was transferring the principle of speaking differently to each parent to include accents!

Then yesterday we were talking about it, and OS said that kids at at school pronounce "lettuce" as if it were Spanish, "leh- tooth- ay." He said he didn't want to say it the wrong way, because then he might forget how to say it the right way. Apparently the conundrum of "speaking correctly because that's what comes naturally" vs. "speaking like everyone else in my class" has begun. He said the teacher even says it wrong: Let- toos. I asked, and he said that this was not his regular English and classroom teacher (who, much to my disappointment, has left the school) but someone else. To be fair, this someone else might not be an actual English teacher, just someone filling in while they look for a replacement.) Luckily, school will not be the kids' most important source of input in English, and the fact that it is a bilingual school (meaning that they have some of their subjects in English, plus English class) means that they will be getting lots of extra exposure to English, written and spoken (regardless of the pronunciation.)

It does make me wonder, however, about the wisdom of using written language with such young learners. They are still consolidating their reading skills in Spanish, and it seems to me that maybe it would be better if they still worked mostly orally in English. Obviously the lettuce mispronunciation is due to them reading the word as if it were Spanish, which indicates to me that they are learning it incorrectly. On the other hand, when I have heard kids speaking phrases that are mostly used in class (open the door, quite please, etc) and also songs and chants, they seem to do much better with the pronunciation, probably because they are reproducing oral input rather than working with written words.

Of course, I am not an auditory learner, and I would find it difficult to remember vocabulary without a written support-- not to mention that without that (or a substitute like a CD to listen to) I wouldn't really be able to study. I don't know what the answer is. To be fair, I have seen the English book they use, and it is pretty heavily-weighted toward pictures rather than text. They do also have a companion book which is for reading and is more text-heavy. If they are going to be using English as a vehicular language for other school subjects, they really do need to learn how to read it well, too. I really don't know much about teaching English to young learners who are still learning how to read and write their native language as well. Anyone have any insight (or book recommendations?)

Biliteracy... Our Experience, Part II

2008-12-02T12:01:00.000+01:00

This post was written at the end of October of this year:

Last year, in the 5-year-old class of Educación Infantil, the kids learned to read. They start out very slowly at 3 years old, and at 4 they begin to pick up the pace slightly (so far, as far as I know, they are still just working on the vowels in MS's class) but by the end of the last year of Infantil, the kids are reading. Of course this is a somewhat easier task in Spanish than in English, because in Spanish the written language corresponds very closely to the sounds of speech (meaning that a given combination of letters most likely has only one possible pronunciation, unlike our bough, cough, enough, though... you get the idea.)

It did take a lot of work on OS's part (and his father's part, as his father worked with him quite a bit) but he did it. I didn't want to start in with reading English at the same time, so as not to overwhelm or confuse him, so I didn't try to do any formal teaching. Now, though, OS is reading in English, too-- on his own!

While we haven't done anything formal, the groundwork was laid in various ways. First, of course, I have been reading to the kids in English from the very beginning. Also, they have watched lots of Sesame Street, and we have a Between the Lions DVD. I have made it a point to talk about sounds in different words as they come up in reading or speaking (lately, especially things that differ from Spanish, like silent "e" and not-silent "h".) And finally, since OS enjoys playing on the computer, I have encouraged him to play games that involve reading, like Super Why. Probably we've done other things, too, but only in short doses. But the upshot of all of this is that he has successfully transferred his reading skills in Spanish to reading in English, despite the many differences in pronunciation.

Oddly, though, he has a Spanish accent when reading in English, even though he doesn't have this accent while speaking. I'm assuming it's only temporary, while he consolidates his skills, but it did give me pause. I imagine it is due in part to the act of reading itself, as he applies his Spanish reading procedure (since it's a phonetic language, they basically teach by phonics, as opposed to a more whole-language approach) to English. And possibly some of it is influenced by the accents of his teachers at the bilingual school he attends. I know he can really read, though, and is not just sounding out the sounds. One indication of this is the fact that the other day we were playing Bingo (instead of numbers, with words for OS and pictures for MS). When OS was in charge of reading off the cards, he was able to do so confidently and without the accent. Maybe because they were isolated words and not a longer text?

Anyway, I thought that was interesting, and the whole reading-in-English thing was something I was concerned about (how to go about it, etc.) So I'm sharing this about how it worked out for us in case anyone else is interested (and I'd love to hear about your experiences as well-- even if you've never commented here before!)

Biliteracy... Our Experience, Part I

2008-11-30T22:00:00.000+01:00

Okay, I do want to go ahead and post here, now that I said I would. But I'm kind of pressed for time right now, so the new stuff will have to wait. I thought I would post a little bit about our family's experience with the kids and learning to read (mostly pulled from the other blog, so I'm sorry for the repetition.) Anyway, the oldest is now 6, in first grade, and also in his fourth year of formal schooling, since that starts with full-day preschool at age 3 here (though schooling is not obligatory until first grade.) He is already reading in both languages, and his 4 year-old brother is now learning vowels, and can write his name-- a new development in the past month or so.

Part I is from a post I wrote at the beginning of the school year last year, when the oldest was in his last year of Infantil (I did edit a bit.) First, though, I will post links to the posts immediately before it, because they also fit in with the "School in Spain" theme and provide some background:

Kindergarten Curriculum, Math Edition
Kindergarten Curriculum, Reading Edition

And now, the post:

Someone commented on my last post asking how/whether I am teaching the kids to read in English, and if it is confusing to them as they are learning Spanish. Very good question, and in fact I asked something very similar to one of the expert linguists at Multilingual Living Magazine. (It was in the Jan-Feb 2007 issue, and there was also an article about biliteracy, so anyone who is a current subscriber can check it out in the archives.)

The experts seemed to think that it is usually best to let the child learn to read in one language first (probably the community language) and then those reading skills will transfer over to the minority language when the child is ready to learn. They caution that it may indeed be confusing for the child to be taught two different systems at once, and not really necessary.

However, our kids have not been at all confused by the fact that the letter "A" has one name in Spanish and another name in English. They already know that they speak two languages and that there are at least two different words for the same thing, one in each language. I have been singing the alphabet song with them since they were tiny, and they have watched a lot of Sesame Street, so they are familiar with the alphabet. I started teaching them to read the letters, not in any formal way, but just as it would come up, quite awhile ago, and Santi has done the same with the Spanish alphabet. OS knows his letters in both languages and MS knows some of them. I think they just assume that if the person speaking to them is speaking in Spanish, the /ei/ sound refers to the letter "E" and if it's an English speaker, they mean "A."

I have also done a lot of nursery rhymes, pointing out rhymes when they occur in books or in real life, and talking about sounds. With this last I don't make a big point of associating the sound with the written letter, though we took advantage of OS's Superman stage by associating the letter "S" with the sound /s/ and talking about different words that start with that sound, in both Spanish and English (since that is one letter whose sound is pretty consistent between the two languages.)

But, other than general phonological awareness stuff and the names of the letters, I am not consciously trying to teach him (OS) to read in English. English is such a confusing language to read because of the different sound/spelling combinations that I really do think it would confuse him. Better that he get reading Spanish down first, as that is a very transparent language, and then when he's ready, we can work on English. (On the other hand, if he starts to ask about writing in English or show particular interest, then I would go ahead and start with some easy stuff...)

And, if I hadn't been working on this stuff all along, I wouldn't just start on it right as he's learning the letters and sounds in Spanish. On one hand, it seems like the logical time to start, but on the other hand, if it's new to him as a concept, I think it would be unnecessarily confusing to try to do both at once.

So that's my experience, though I am not an expert, and obviously different people will have different experiences.

I'm back...

2008-11-27T15:36:00.000+01:00

No, I haven't given up on this blog-- I just got busy! I do want to get back into it, though, now that I have some more interesting issues to explore. For one thing, I will be starting my student teaching in February, and while I won't be blogging about specifics due to confidentiality concerns, I will probably have lots to say more generally. Also, I want to talk a bit about bilingual education, and teaching EFL to kids, and at some point I will be reviewing Peg Tyre's The Trouble With Boys. I just got it in the mail and have read only a few pages but I'm already eager to discuss it.

And I'm eager to have some discussion in general, so I hope that those of you who have been stopping by will come back and participate, now there there will actually be some new content up. I imagine I will have to go searching you all back out again (or wait until your searches land you back here)-- or maybe some of you will see this pop up on your feed reader, if you haven't purged un-updated blogs from it in about a year or so.

Yes, I see from my tag list that there are labels for four-year-olds and two-year-olds-- but now I have a four-year-old and a six-year-old (and a nine month old, but he's not in school.) So, time to update! Please stay tuned.

Is anybody with me????

Resource for EFL/ESL teachers

2007-10-01T12:28:00.000+02:00

Hmm, the future of this blog is uncertain. I'm leaning toward deleting it and just writing about school and education on my other blog, which is what I've been doing lately, anyway. But I did want to share this first.

I was contacted by the owner of the site ESL Printables, who told me about the site and asked me to pass it on. I had actually seen it before, when searching for materials for various projects, and I liked the idea of it. You can register for free, and then you can download ten printables (lesson plans, worksheets, etc) for every one you contribute. The idea is to be a place where teachers can share what they've done with other teachers. I didn't end up joining at that point, since I had nothing to contribute (and I was on some tight deadlines) but I will definitely keep it in mind for the future.

On Teaching History

2007-06-06T12:13:00.000+02:00

A great article (or actually, Commentary), from Education Week. I get their weekly newsletter so I'm a registered guest, eligible to read two free articles a week (I mention this because I'm not sure whether the link will allow you to go directly to the article.)

And I am mulling over the question of values in education, and a post is in the works about the Spanish ed system in this respect (they mandate certain values as part of the curriculum.) But it may be awhile before I get to it...

Answering my own question

2007-06-04T18:23:00.001+02:00

As I was going to get the boys from school, a solution (to the question below about ability grouping and attention to diversity) occurred to me. Instead of fixed reading groups, each with a different textbook, (like we had when I was in school) everyone could use the same text. The activities could be done in flexible groupings-- sometimes mixed ability, sometimes same-level. The same-level groupings could be composed of different students at different times, according to each situation. They could be used so that those who need extra practice with a particular aspect could get that, while others could work on some kind of extension activity. The mixed-level groupings could be used at other times so that students could help each other and learn cooperation skills etc. Of course, in this ideal classroom, they wouldn't be limited to a textbook, but rather use it as a jumping-off point for further exploration.

I think that this approach is what fits in best with the attention to diversity focus, because all students are getting the same curriculum, but with adaptations when necessary. The teacher would have to work a lot harder, though, to make sure that this approach was actually meeting everyone's needs...

Equity in Education, among other things

2007-06-03T23:13:00.001+02:00

This is a repost of something from the other blog, but is in fact quite a bit longer and more involved, so if you've read it over there, you can just skip down to the line of asterisks to read the rest.

Have you seen this article in the NYT Magazine about when to send your child to kindergarten? I had a little window into this question as I listened to (okay, read) the moms on a discussion group I belong to discuss their thoughts on the issue and decisions about whether to send their kids this coming year or wait. (It's an Internet group for parents of kids born in summer 2002.) Here it was never really an issue, as most parents send their kids to preschool at age three, when the public school system begins (though it's not obligatory until age six.)And the cutoff is that you must turn three in the calendar year in which you start, so that means the ages can range almost a full year, with some kids born in January and others born in December.

Of course, the article brings up the important point that for some kids, cutoffs that involve waiting longer to start school put them at a real disadvantage. While well-off families can afford quality preschools or other programs, kids from families who are economically strapped may end up having to, in the words of a literacy specialist quoted in the article, "spend one more year watching TV in the basement with Grandma," thereby falling even further behind their peers. I was shocked to see the mention of a "$10,000-a-year preschool." And also this tidbit, which may come as no surprise to some of you, referring to the US:

In 49 out of 50 states, the average annual cost of day care for a 4-year-old in an urban area is more than the average annual public college tuition. Yikes.

So I am grateful that a) daycare is not that expensive here-- at least, where we live; b) The kids can start school for free at age 3; and c) Public universities here are nowhere near as expensive as my alma mater, a state school that I just looked up. Even my private university here is much less expensive.

But actually, after reading the article, I am feeling extremely fortunate for having had all of the privileges I have enjoyed, beginning at birth, that have allowed me to fully (?) develop whatever innate aptitudes I may carry in my genes. And of course it begins before birth, doesn't it, with adequate prenatal care and nutrition and non-exposure to toxic chemicals...

Which relates to something I've been thinking about lately, also. In a book I read awhile ago (and wanted to blog about, but never actually did), I learned that one of the Nordic countries (maybe Finland?) has no private schools at all, so that the well-off parents concentrate their efforts on improving the public school system instead of migrating their children out of it. This has been on my mind, because next year we are putting the kids into a semi-private school, which will lead us to be seen, in some circles, as raging right-wingers. The truth is that the public school closest to us does not seem to be very ethnically diverse, and in fact does not seem to be all that economically diverse, either, but probably will be more so-- on both counts-- than the new school. We were very happy with Pedro's public school, and our reasons for changing him have much more to do with convenience in location than with any desire on our part to provide the kids with an elitist education, but the reality is that that is probably what they are going to get.

*********************************************************************

One of the approaches we have studied is cooperative learning with heterogeneous groupings, in which students of differing abilities learn from each other. This approach, combined with certain techniques in managing the groups, can help insure that successes are more equitably shared in the classroom, so that the same students aren't always getting all the props, so to speak, while others don't have the opportunity to get recognition from the teacher or their classmates.

This certainly sounds like a valuable strategy that can be used in different contexts, and actually can be used in conjunction with ability grouping-- some activities in heterogeneous groups and some in same-level groups.

The larger questions, though, are what's puzzling me. Obviously what's better for some is worse for others. Then there is the question of what is better for society-- having everyone achieve a similar level so that no one is left behind, or allowing for some individuals to achieve more even if that means that others won't get their fair share? (No, I'm not going to go all Ayn Rand on you all, I promise. Just thinking out loud, and obviously the situation is much more complex than I'm making it out to be. It's hard to even know how to formulate the questions.)

Building an intercultural classroom

2007-05-27T11:40:00.000+02:00

That's the name of my website (well, the translation of the name. The website is in Spanish.) I'm almost done with this first year of classes-- just a month of exams and a few more assignments. I haven't been writing much here lately, obviously, and in fact I have been thinking about deleting this blog. I may, or may not, but just in case, you might want to save any links you may use from this page. Also, if anyone actually does read this and thinks I should continue, please let me know-- especially what exactly you are interested in seeing more of.

But on to the webpage. I have had a few technical glitches, but except for the midi sound files, it is now up and running here: Construyendo un aula intercultural. And because I'm in a hurry, I'll just copy and paste an explanation from my other blog:

The class I did this for is called "Applied Informática" (I guess that would be "computer science?" They borrow the term from the French, who invented it by combining "information" and "automatic") and the focus is not so much on learning all the technical details as it is about how to use the shortcuts (like FrontPage, where you don't need to know html) to create educational materials. Basically the class consists of doing a PowerPoint presentation (though more than a presentation, a simple multimedia application) so I did that on Sports in English (go vs.play... "go biking, play football"... and vocabulary) and the website.

The website had to be on one of the transversal topics, which are topics that have to be woven in throughout the curriculum. They are mostly attitudes and values, and include issues like the environment, gender equality, conflict resolution, and interculturalism, among others. It has been interesting to see how these topics have been included in Pedro's classes. Lots of good stuff to choose from, but I ended up with interculturalism. Since that is a huge topic, I needed to break it down, and I wanted to contribute something that could actually be useful, and not too generic.

I chose to focus on how to choose intercultural educational materials (the difference between multicultural and intercultural will have to wait for another post, though the borders are very blurred.) I think this is important because there is a lot of stuff out there, but not all of it is culturally sensitive/ appropriate/ non-promoting of stereotypes, etc. The title of the page is "Building an Intercultural Classroom," and it was a bit strange to set myself up as an authority, since I am only in my first year of school and I haven't had any experience in constructing any kind of classroom yet. Still, I do think there is a need for this, so I chose to go ahead and gear it towards teachers rather than students. I think the best part is the links, which send the reader to stuff written by people who are experts on the subject. I also think my position as a cultural outsider gives me a different perspective. For example, the Conguitos chocolate thing, which as that article points out, most Spanish people don't even think about because it's something they've seen their whole lives. Also the "I is for Indian" thing (here's a good article on that.)

Really what I'm hoping for is to get people thinking about these issues, and that some of them will click through the links for more information. Of course I realize that choosing the materials is only one part of the equation, but I think it's enough to focus on for a small website.

Learning to read

2007-05-04T12:04:00.000+02:00

I haven't been posting here, but that is due more to a lack of time than to a lack of things to say. I am in the final stretch of the semester, and hardly have time to breathe. I'd like to come back and post on a few more topics, but for now just a quickie:

In the Developing Language Skills class, we are on the last unit, devoted to learning to read and write. I have to analyze a method, and in the one I am using I found one explanation of why kids here learn to read in cursive: the cursive form of the letters prevents difficulty for dyslexics, because the b and d and p and q are all suficiently different from each other. I still wouldn't choose this approach myself, but so far it's the only explanation that I can really see the value of...

And now, I slip away again!

Constructivism

2007-03-05T22:24:00.000+01:00

Susan asked for more information about Constructivism in Spain. So, I will attempt to oblige, but the truth is that I have very little experience with how it actually plays out in the schools here-- so far, all I really know about is OS's school experience, which was last year at 3 and this year in the 4-year-old class. And even that knowledge is very limited, as I am not actually in the classroom. I know that when we were looking at schools, someone said that one of the schools doesn't use textbooks in their Infantil (ages 3-5) program because "they're Constructivists." But actually, you can still use textbooks as Constructivists (which incidentally, all public schools are supposed to be, as laid out in the Educational Reform.) You probably wouldn't rely on them exclusively, and in fact they might not be the best way of achieving your educational goals (especially at the Infantil level), but you can still use them.

All of what I know about Constructivism comes from the classes I'm taking, which deal with how we should teach, but until I do my student teaching I won't know to what extent the precepts are followed in actual classrooms (and I suspect that varies widely from one school to another.)

So, here goes my minilecture...

Constructivism is a model of learning that grew out of the Cognitivist (sorry if I'm botching the translation here) paradigm. The Cognitivist paradigm grew out of a dissatisfaction with the Behavioralist paradigm, which considered that all learning takes place due to conditioning, i.e. an association between a stimulus and its effect.

This site sums it up:

The constructivist theories take on a variety of forms just like the behavioristic and cognitivistic. The basic distinction, however, is that while the behaviorists viewed knowledge as nothing more than passive, largely automatic responses to external factors in the environment and the cognitivists viewed knowledge as abstract symbolic representations in the head of individuals, the constructivistic shool views knowledge as a constructed entity made by each and every learner through a learning process. Knowledge can thus not be transmitted from one person to the other, it will have to be (re)constructed by each person. This means that the view of knowledge differs from the "knowledge as given and absolute" views of behaviorism and cognitivism.

Googling "Constructivism" has confirmed what I was going to say, which is basically that it represents a very broad conceptual framework that includes many different approaches. Often mentioned as founders are Dewey, Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky, but I don't think that most schools here base their instruction on pure discovery-based learning. For example, we had a unit in Psych about David Ausubel's idea of Significant Verbal Reception, which means that students can be actively constructing knowledge while listening to a teacher speak or while reading a textbook. The key is in three points: First, the student must possess some prior knowledge that is somehow related to the new knowledge that s/he is expected to acquire. In order for a student to really learn, she must make adjustments to her mental framework in order to accomodate the new information. If there is no relevant prior knowledge, there is nothing to accomodate the new stuff into. So the first step is always activating students' prior knowledge-- finding out what they know, what misconceptions they have about the subject, etc. This is referred to as "psychological significance."

The second aspect is making sure that the material to be learned is organized and presented in such a way as to facilitate the accomodation/assimilation/construction of knowledge process. This is referred to as "logical significance."

The third point is that the student must be willing to undertake the task of learning this particular content. This is referred to as "disposition." Since we are not talking about mere memorization or rote learning, the student must take an active role-- not necessarily active in the sense of physically doing things, manipulating material, etc, though that may be the most effective way of learning certain types of material, and some Constructivists argue that it is indeed necessary. That would be Discovery-based learning, Inductive learning, etc. and may involve a fairly "hands-off" approach from the teacher. This kind of interpretation is probably what the PRI report was concentrating on. However, Ausubel's model focuses on the activity at a cognitive level.

Awhile ago I got a book out of the library which was about a Constructivist approach to teaching kids to read and write, developed by a group of teachers here in Spain (the book was put out in conjunction with the Ministry of Ed) and I have been meaning to write about it here. It was actually a series of books, and I was most interested in the stuff aimed at 3-5 year olds, since that's the age of OS and I wanted to compare their approach with what he was actually being taught. Obviously there's a whole lot to say about this (a whole other post...), but even the fact that they were doing these writing activities with kids so young shows that it is not all a free-for-all, do-whatever-strikes-your-fancy kind of approach. The kids are being creative and exploring and having fun with language, but the teacher is guiding and observing and suggesting and giving feedback and structuring etc.

OS's school uses a textbook (worksheets) for practicing making the letters and recognizing the sounds in different words. It's not just drills-- the worksheets involve different techniques and seem fun-- but it is not the approach in the book I read. On the other hand, the workbook is just one part of what they do in class, and it is likely that there are other approaches being used as well. I do know that Pedro often will write down some random letters and then ask me what it says-- he is clearly interested in the process and understands that we use letters to make words. If he's writing his name and gets to the end of the page before he finishes, he might go back and add the rest of the letters to the left of the first letter of his name, so he obviously hasn't yet gotten the whole concept down, but it's a good start.

Anyway, I don't really know much more than that at this point. I am curious to see what things are like in the school I do my student teaching at, but that won't be until next year...

Multiculturalism Revisited

2007-02-27T12:32:00.000+01:00

So, I finally wrote and sent the letter (email) to the teaching magazine. I had sort of given up on the idea, first because I was starting to second-guess myself, saying, "What right do I have to tell Spanish people how to treat multicultural issues, when it's not even my country?" Then, I got caught up with exams, and now the March issue of the magazine is about to come out, so it seemed too late to comment about something from January. But then I read this post over at ReadingWritingLiving and I thought to myself, "You know, it may not be my country, but I live here, my children are growuing up here, and I am going to form part of the education system here, so of course I have a right to express my opinion. Even if they ignore my letter, it's worth sending." Thanks, Susan! So, here is what I wrote. I'll paste in the original, then translate it below:

¡Hola y saludos a vuestro equipo de redactores!

Estoy estudiando primer curso de Magisterio, y estoy encantada con la revista. Sólo querría hacer un comentario respecto al calendario de enero. En él, aparece un dibujo para conmemorar la instalación de la base española en la Antártida, en lo cual un esquimal toca una guitarra. Dejando a un lado el hecho de que los esquimales son nativos del Árctico, y no de Antártida, me ha chocado mucho la imágen.

Soy de los EEUU, y en mi país un dibujo así, con rasgos muy estereotipados (tono de piel amarillo, ojos excesivamente alargados, dientes sobresalientes) sería considerado como una caracterización racista y muy ofensiva.

Por supuesto reconozco que la intención del artista era buena: acompañar la fecha con un dibujo lúdico y colorido para atraer la atención de los alumnos. Al incluir la guitarra, elemento que también juega con un estereotipo sobre los españoles, seguramente querría aludir a un intercambio positivo de culturas.

Sin embargo, aún cuando nuestras intenciones son buenas, imágenes de este tipo realmente pueden hacer daño. Es una caracterización de una persona asiática como una figura de burla, poco atractiva, y muy "otro." Desafortunadamente, en EEUU desde la propaganda antijaponesa de la segunda guerra mundial hasta ejemplos menos malintencionados pero aún así racistas de la cultura popular, hemos visto imágenes similares, y sí que tienen efectos sobre el autoconcepto de los niños asiáticos y también sobre las actitudes de los niños de la cultura mayoritaria.

Evidentamente, España es un país con contexto histórico-cultural propio, y con sus propias formas de vivir el en encuentro entre culturas. No se trata de importar formas de lo "políticamente correcto" desde otro país, pero sí creo que es importante hacer una reflexión partiendo de la realidad española, cada vez más multicultural.

Como inmigrante, madre de niños en el sistema educativa española, y futura maestra, me preocupa mucho la cuestión de como podemos reconocer y celebrar las diferencias culturales sin caer en estereotipos o mensajes negativos. Me encantaría que en un número futuro de vuestra revista tratéises el tema de como educar para la interculturalidad.

Atentamente,

Translation (on the fly, but here's the gist):

Hello and greetings to your staff!

I'm in my first year of a teacher-training program, and I love your magazine. I just wanted to comment on the calendar in the January issue. In it there is a drawing to conmemorate the establishment of the Spanish base in Antartica, in which an Esquimo is playing a guitar. Aside from the fact that Eskimos are native to the Arctic, not Antartica, I was disturbed by the image.

I'm from the USA, and in my country a drawing like that, with such stereotypical features (yellow skin, slanty eyes, buck teeth) would be considered racist and very offensive.

Of course I understand that the artist had good intentions: to accompany the date with a fun and colorful drawing that would attract kids' attention. By including the guitar, which plays off a stereotype of Spanish people, probably s/he wanted to convey a positive interchange of cultures.

However, even when our intentions are good, these types of images can really be harmful. It is a characterization of an Asian person as someone to be made fun of, unattractive, and very "other." Unfortunately, in the USA, from the anti-Japanese propagande of WWII to other examples, less malintentioned but nonetheless racist, in popular culture, we have seen similar images, and they do have effects on the self-concept of Asian-American children as well as on the attitudes of children from the majority culture.

Obviously, Spain is a country with its own historical-cultural context and its own ways of experiencing the encounter between cultures. The point is not to import "politically correct" forms from another country, but I do think it is important to reflect on the issue, from the perspective of a Spain which is becoming increasingly multicultural.

As an immigrant, mother of children in the Spanish education system, and future teacher, I am very interested in the question of how we can recognize and celebrate cultural differences without falling into stereotypes or negative messages. I would love to see your magazine, in a future issue, address the topic of how to educate for interculturalism.

Sincerely,....

***********

I'll report back if I hear anything from them.

In the meantime, here is a link to an article about how racial caricatures perpetuate stereotypes . Also, The National Resource Center for the Healing of Racism, which has a set of links for educators K-12, among other things.

English Teaching

2007-02-19T09:50:00.000+01:00

I've just added a great new blog to my blogroll-- apparently it hasn't been updated since November, but a quick browse turns up all sorts of interesting posts, regardless...