Suzanne asked:
Alice, how much time for and access to the computer do the students in the village have? What percentage of this camp will be technology based? ..............do you envision grouping students so that some are on computers, some reading or writing, some doing hands-on work...and then switching to the next activity?.......Is this what they have already been doing?.....................I am not familiar with their time schedules (if you can call it that) down there. How much time is spent with chores as opposed to school?...........Thanks
During the school year, which ends around mid-June, school lets out at 1:30pm. Kids seem to go home for lunch and chores at that point, and then often show up at Caiman House around 3 or so and hang out for several hours. This is probably negotiable and flexible, and if we serve them lunch I'm sure we could have them right after school.
Once term ends, some families go to their farms outside the village, some stay behind, and the place really empties out in August. So there is definitely a recruiting job we will need to do in advance of your arrival. But I'm not worried because we are not looking for any big numbers. This is pilot development time. A goal could be to establish a way of working that could be replicated as an afterschool program in September.
We currently own a total of 9 laptops, though I am looking for ways to increase that number by the time you arrive. In fact I will probably ship some to each of you and ask you to carry them into the country (they are duty-free items).
I have no preconceptions about how you might organize the class, whether using whole group, sub-groups, alternating sessions (like a morning group and an afternoon group, or a MWF and TuThSat). Obviously we need to know more about numbers to decide that. I will be getting our librarians (both young women) involved in this when I return to Yupukari (in less than a week).
Hope this helps a little.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Be there for them (:
Some thoughts about teaching ESOL successfully - Begin with your Philosophy of Education! Here, I share some of my ideas:
*The purpose of teaching is to enlighten individuals and to prepare them for the next steps in their lives.
*The classroom should be conducive to relaxed learning through an atmosphere of acceptance.
*Basic facts should be presented clearly and reinforced with relevant examples.
*Being prepared, yet flexible, and being happy to teach is everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The high school ESOL students that I have worked with benefited the most when they knew that they could “try again”. Non-English speakers are often very quiet at first, hesitant to speak or write for fear of making mistakes. Constant encouragement creates positive results. They need to be praised for opening and using their duel-language dictionaries.
Understanding reading development helps instructors teach these major areas of reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Each skill builds upon the other. Students who arrive in our classroom with little, or no, English vocabulary must start with the basics. I have to sound out the letter-sound relationships in words, and pronounce blended sounds. When students have had sufficient back ground in education, they usually have a smoother transition than the youth who have been working in the fields or at home after very limited schooling. The class always has a variety of levels working at different paces.
A very important strategy has been keeping writing journals. Daily thoughts of the day, or questions, must be responded to. The change in grammar and sentence structure over time is sometimes amazing. Most students look forward to the correcting, and/or, praising comments.
One really interesting approach to combining reading, writing, and oral skills is to use the Scholastic Action Magazine stories and articles. The plays are particularly attention grabbing. Students enjoy having speaking parts. Even the shy students (who you have to help read word for word) like being included. After discussing the vocabulary, the play
is read, with pauses for clarification. Then, students answer questions and do some short written response work.
Using different mediums, like the computer software program, The Rosetta Stone, is very important. Students need differentiated instruction, since not everyone learns in the same way. The Rosetta Stone allows students to listen to correctly spoken English vocabulary, practice speaking it, transition from pictures to words, and practice typing.
Having plenty of visual language and print helps reinforce vocabulary. Making “word-jars” is a hands-on project that helps students have ownership in their learning experience. Students are given a large jar shaped poster paper that has a specific title, for example, “Sports”. Students will look up and write as many words related to the topic as is possible. Then, they may decorate their work. The jars will be part of a class word wall.
Well, as you know, there are many strategies and projects that help increase students’ language skills. Knowing you are there for them is certainly a main ingredient.
(:
*The purpose of teaching is to enlighten individuals and to prepare them for the next steps in their lives.
*The classroom should be conducive to relaxed learning through an atmosphere of acceptance.
*Basic facts should be presented clearly and reinforced with relevant examples.
*Being prepared, yet flexible, and being happy to teach is everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The high school ESOL students that I have worked with benefited the most when they knew that they could “try again”. Non-English speakers are often very quiet at first, hesitant to speak or write for fear of making mistakes. Constant encouragement creates positive results. They need to be praised for opening and using their duel-language dictionaries.
Understanding reading development helps instructors teach these major areas of reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Each skill builds upon the other. Students who arrive in our classroom with little, or no, English vocabulary must start with the basics. I have to sound out the letter-sound relationships in words, and pronounce blended sounds. When students have had sufficient back ground in education, they usually have a smoother transition than the youth who have been working in the fields or at home after very limited schooling. The class always has a variety of levels working at different paces.
A very important strategy has been keeping writing journals. Daily thoughts of the day, or questions, must be responded to. The change in grammar and sentence structure over time is sometimes amazing. Most students look forward to the correcting, and/or, praising comments.
One really interesting approach to combining reading, writing, and oral skills is to use the Scholastic Action Magazine stories and articles. The plays are particularly attention grabbing. Students enjoy having speaking parts. Even the shy students (who you have to help read word for word) like being included. After discussing the vocabulary, the play
is read, with pauses for clarification. Then, students answer questions and do some short written response work.
Using different mediums, like the computer software program, The Rosetta Stone, is very important. Students need differentiated instruction, since not everyone learns in the same way. The Rosetta Stone allows students to listen to correctly spoken English vocabulary, practice speaking it, transition from pictures to words, and practice typing.
Having plenty of visual language and print helps reinforce vocabulary. Making “word-jars” is a hands-on project that helps students have ownership in their learning experience. Students are given a large jar shaped poster paper that has a specific title, for example, “Sports”. Students will look up and write as many words related to the topic as is possible. Then, they may decorate their work. The jars will be part of a class word wall.
Well, as you know, there are many strategies and projects that help increase students’ language skills. Knowing you are there for them is certainly a main ingredient.
(:
Hi group.
Please create posts instead of comments when you have content to introduce. You need to log in (at topmost right) with your Gmail name and password, and then you can post, not just comment. Suzanne would you log in, copy your comment into the Post window, and "Publish" ? Lots in there people need to read and comment on.
Thanks.
Alice
Please create posts instead of comments when you have content to introduce. You need to log in (at topmost right) with your Gmail name and password, and then you can post, not just comment. Suzanne would you log in, copy your comment into the Post window, and "Publish" ? Lots in there people need to read and comment on.
Thanks.
Alice
Thursday, January 11, 2007
In which Alice gives an overview of something she has never seen, but that hasn't stopped her yet
Hi all.
This is an attempt to create a roundtable for our far flung group of participants, advisors and interested parties: Queens University students and volunteers Maia Lawson and Kate Dickson, QPID Coordinator Katie Pasic, past Guyana/Queens Univ. volunteer Derek Brine, high school ESOL teacher Suzanne Krom, Rupununi Learners Foundation volunteer-in-residence Mike Martin, myself (Foundation director-by-default Alice Layton Taylor), and a number of others, including Yupukari residents, whom I hope to draw into the discussion over the coming months.
The goal: To design an experimental prototype of a program that will develop computer skills, English language skills and stimulate reflection and expressiveness on the topic of growing up female in Yupukari, via various media, which may include but are not limited to digital photography, digital video, audio recording, web or desktop publishing, bookmaking, other arts, et al. (We have access to all of these tools.) Since our 3 implementers -- Maia, Kate, and I hope Suzanne -- all happen to be female, I have dubbed this a "Girl Power" program to take advantage of that fact and to address a very real need in the village.
Yupukari girls (I'm saying 12 to 16, but that's flexible) have shown interest in computers but have a hard time wresting them away from the boys. They need English in order to read for life, pass exams and access opportunities. And they are under considerable cultural pressure to become sexually active at a young age, to become mothers early and often, and to relinquish to males the limited available power roles. As mothers they pass this matrix down to the next generation as an inevitable norm. Village girls typically do not go to high school, do not read well, and have few employment or life choices. Macushi women do not generally hold positions of power or influence in the community, the region, or the state.
Bias Disclosure #1: I venture to assert, despite considerable peer pressure to pay p.c. lip service to indigenous cultural traditions, that this situation is not OK. The assumptions that drive the work of the foundation I started, the Rupununi Learners Foundation (http://rupununilearners.org/) , is that education, creativity and choice are adaptive processes of inherent value. If we lack access to any of them we are disadvantaged, even crippled, from reaching our potential to benefit ourselves and others.
Bias Disclosure #2: At one time I intended to train as a psycholanalyst, but I was waylaid by social work and the opportunity to be useful to others in real ways in real time. I approach this work from a therapeutic framework. I understand "learning" to be essentially the same thing we mean by "change": when we learn we replace one way of seeing and understanding with another. (Hence the name I chose for the Foundation.) The very process of learning, especially if we are granted opportunities to reflect upon and give expression to our experience, has a therapeutic impact. We continually rediscover what we think, what we feel and what we want; we appreciate our talents, strengths and potential, and usually, we come to appreciate others' more as well. My wish for this program is to facilitate this process for these young women: to support them through learning experiences to value themselves and to seek better opportunities and choices.
Carl Rogers said, "We heal, not with our techniques, but with our attitudes." My attitude is that people carry the solutions to their challenges within themselves. We are not there to tell them how to live or what to think. But they do need skilled and supportive facilitation to discover the answers for themselves. New social settings, new thoughts to think, and expressive tools -- what I call "learning" for short -- release people into new ideas of self that disclose doors in what looked like brick walls before. That's what I would like to see us build together in this program, for these girls.
Welcome to my first-ever blog post. (See, I like to learn, too.)
Please post: ideas, reactions, links, what-have-you. This is the get-to-know-you and brainstorming part. Tell us what you think you can contribute, your strengths and interests, what part inspires you and what part worries you... For starters, how much time and when, Maia, Kate and Suzanne, are you thinking of spending in Yupukari?
This is an attempt to create a roundtable for our far flung group of participants, advisors and interested parties: Queens University students and volunteers Maia Lawson and Kate Dickson, QPID Coordinator Katie Pasic, past Guyana/Queens Univ. volunteer Derek Brine, high school ESOL teacher Suzanne Krom, Rupununi Learners Foundation volunteer-in-residence Mike Martin, myself (Foundation director-by-default Alice Layton Taylor), and a number of others, including Yupukari residents, whom I hope to draw into the discussion over the coming months.
The goal: To design an experimental prototype of a program that will develop computer skills, English language skills and stimulate reflection and expressiveness on the topic of growing up female in Yupukari, via various media, which may include but are not limited to digital photography, digital video, audio recording, web or desktop publishing, bookmaking, other arts, et al. (We have access to all of these tools.) Since our 3 implementers -- Maia, Kate, and I hope Suzanne -- all happen to be female, I have dubbed this a "Girl Power" program to take advantage of that fact and to address a very real need in the village.
Yupukari girls (I'm saying 12 to 16, but that's flexible) have shown interest in computers but have a hard time wresting them away from the boys. They need English in order to read for life, pass exams and access opportunities. And they are under considerable cultural pressure to become sexually active at a young age, to become mothers early and often, and to relinquish to males the limited available power roles. As mothers they pass this matrix down to the next generation as an inevitable norm. Village girls typically do not go to high school, do not read well, and have few employment or life choices. Macushi women do not generally hold positions of power or influence in the community, the region, or the state.
Bias Disclosure #1: I venture to assert, despite considerable peer pressure to pay p.c. lip service to indigenous cultural traditions, that this situation is not OK. The assumptions that drive the work of the foundation I started, the Rupununi Learners Foundation (http://rupununilearners.org/) , is that education, creativity and choice are adaptive processes of inherent value. If we lack access to any of them we are disadvantaged, even crippled, from reaching our potential to benefit ourselves and others.
Bias Disclosure #2: At one time I intended to train as a psycholanalyst, but I was waylaid by social work and the opportunity to be useful to others in real ways in real time. I approach this work from a therapeutic framework. I understand "learning" to be essentially the same thing we mean by "change": when we learn we replace one way of seeing and understanding with another. (Hence the name I chose for the Foundation.) The very process of learning, especially if we are granted opportunities to reflect upon and give expression to our experience, has a therapeutic impact. We continually rediscover what we think, what we feel and what we want; we appreciate our talents, strengths and potential, and usually, we come to appreciate others' more as well. My wish for this program is to facilitate this process for these young women: to support them through learning experiences to value themselves and to seek better opportunities and choices.
Carl Rogers said, "We heal, not with our techniques, but with our attitudes." My attitude is that people carry the solutions to their challenges within themselves. We are not there to tell them how to live or what to think. But they do need skilled and supportive facilitation to discover the answers for themselves. New social settings, new thoughts to think, and expressive tools -- what I call "learning" for short -- release people into new ideas of self that disclose doors in what looked like brick walls before. That's what I would like to see us build together in this program, for these girls.
Welcome to my first-ever blog post. (See, I like to learn, too.)
Please post: ideas, reactions, links, what-have-you. This is the get-to-know-you and brainstorming part. Tell us what you think you can contribute, your strengths and interests, what part inspires you and what part worries you... For starters, how much time and when, Maia, Kate and Suzanne, are you thinking of spending in Yupukari?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)