I had an amazing week! Why did I have an amazing week? Well, mainly because I got to continue this wonderful project, which brings me so much joy.
I went to visit a teacher that works with a method I had already heard about but never truly seen it being practiced - the method of João de Deus. So I was very curious as to how it worked in reality. I knew the theory, I heard about it in university, but our teachers never really got into it, because it was seen as a very traditional approach and my university prioritized the more modern philosophies, so that was what we worked with most of the time.
So this week I went and observed this teacher's classes. She works at the same school where I used to work here in Cape Verde and she is currently teaching first grade, so I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to see how she introduced reading and writing, given that these are the more challenging areas, in my opinion, and the ones that have more different possibilities as to how you introduce it to your students.
Her class had 29 students and she had around 5 or 6 students who could already read fluently; 4 or 5 who close to reading fluently (they could read small words, but still had some trouble connecting the words in a sentence) and then she had kids who knew the consonants but still had a hard time putting them together to form a word and others who couldn't even identify all the vowels correctly.
So this was an extremely heterogeneous group (aren't they all?).
Basically, what the method implies is using a very old book called Cartilha Maternal - which was created in 1878 - and each day the teacher would give a different lesson to small groups of children. These groups would be no bigger than 5 students, and they would be organized according to the level where each student is. This approach respects the students learning rhythm, which means that at a certain point you might have children who can already read, while others are still trying to recognize vowels and/or consonants.
I went to visit a teacher that works with a method I had already heard about but never truly seen it being practiced - the method of João de Deus. So I was very curious as to how it worked in reality. I knew the theory, I heard about it in university, but our teachers never really got into it, because it was seen as a very traditional approach and my university prioritized the more modern philosophies, so that was what we worked with most of the time.
So this week I went and observed this teacher's classes. She works at the same school where I used to work here in Cape Verde and she is currently teaching first grade, so I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to see how she introduced reading and writing, given that these are the more challenging areas, in my opinion, and the ones that have more different possibilities as to how you introduce it to your students.
Her class had 29 students and she had around 5 or 6 students who could already read fluently; 4 or 5 who close to reading fluently (they could read small words, but still had some trouble connecting the words in a sentence) and then she had kids who knew the consonants but still had a hard time putting them together to form a word and others who couldn't even identify all the vowels correctly.
So this was an extremely heterogeneous group (aren't they all?).
Basically, what the method implies is using a very old book called Cartilha Maternal - which was created in 1878 - and each day the teacher would give a different lesson to small groups of children. These groups would be no bigger than 5 students, and they would be organized according to the level where each student is. This approach respects the students learning rhythm, which means that at a certain point you might have children who can already read, while others are still trying to recognize vowels and/or consonants.
After the students learn their lesson - which basically consists on learning the grammatical rules of a given letter - they need to read the words that are listed in that page and form phrases, orally, where they put that word in context. The words are written in two colors, so the students can identify the syllables that form said word.
When students start approaching the end of the book, they start copying basic texts and doing dictates, where the teacher says the letter, syllables, words and lastly phrases that they will write.
This of course is spaced in time, so that the students start with simpler structures and progress into more complex ones, thus creating an understanding of their own language and the structures that make it what it is.
This method is different from the ones I've used, and seen, not only in language class but also in math. In each lesson, the students need to work with materials they can touch and feel and manipulate in different ways, as to get a deeper understanding of the concepts they are working on - geometrical shapes, sizes, colors, weights, edges, vertexes, addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc... These are made with Papy calculators, Multi-basic Calculators, Geoboards, Cuisenaire Bars, Froebel's Gifts, Logic Blocks, Tangram and many other materials, that the teacher should have available at any time. (Details on how to use each of these materials will follow in a future post.)
When students start approaching the end of the book, they start copying basic texts and doing dictates, where the teacher says the letter, syllables, words and lastly phrases that they will write.
This of course is spaced in time, so that the students start with simpler structures and progress into more complex ones, thus creating an understanding of their own language and the structures that make it what it is.
This method is different from the ones I've used, and seen, not only in language class but also in math. In each lesson, the students need to work with materials they can touch and feel and manipulate in different ways, as to get a deeper understanding of the concepts they are working on - geometrical shapes, sizes, colors, weights, edges, vertexes, addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc... These are made with Papy calculators, Multi-basic Calculators, Geoboards, Cuisenaire Bars, Froebel's Gifts, Logic Blocks, Tangram and many other materials, that the teacher should have available at any time. (Details on how to use each of these materials will follow in a future post.)
Given the lack of resources at this school, the teacher chose to teach math using other techniques that didn't involve so many materials.
There are only around 50 schools that use this method and they only exist in Portugal, as João de Deus was a Portuguese pedagogue from the 19th century. They all follow the same principles and so the results are very similar between its students. The absolute priority in this philosophy is language, math and science, which is taught from 9am to 5pm, with small intervals for lunch breaks, snacks and some physical activities such as PE, arts and crafts and music class. But these are, by no means, priority subjects at these schools. This is something I don't agree on, which makes it to be a philosophy I won't follow religiously, but I am thrilled that I finally learned how to use the Cartilha and that I got to know so many materials with which I can develop math games and activities for my students. I cannot wait to try them out!
As I have said throughout this research, there are always specific aspects in each philosophy or method with which I don't necessarily agree, but I am very happy that this has given me a deeper knowledge on different techniques I can use, when I have a student who is struggling with the approach I am using.
And I think this is exactly what makes teaching to be such a fun challenge! When you have the capacity to try out different things, to design various activities based on several ways of reaching the same goal, you are enriching both the learning and the teaching process.
There are only around 50 schools that use this method and they only exist in Portugal, as João de Deus was a Portuguese pedagogue from the 19th century. They all follow the same principles and so the results are very similar between its students. The absolute priority in this philosophy is language, math and science, which is taught from 9am to 5pm, with small intervals for lunch breaks, snacks and some physical activities such as PE, arts and crafts and music class. But these are, by no means, priority subjects at these schools. This is something I don't agree on, which makes it to be a philosophy I won't follow religiously, but I am thrilled that I finally learned how to use the Cartilha and that I got to know so many materials with which I can develop math games and activities for my students. I cannot wait to try them out!
As I have said throughout this research, there are always specific aspects in each philosophy or method with which I don't necessarily agree, but I am very happy that this has given me a deeper knowledge on different techniques I can use, when I have a student who is struggling with the approach I am using.
And I think this is exactly what makes teaching to be such a fun challenge! When you have the capacity to try out different things, to design various activities based on several ways of reaching the same goal, you are enriching both the learning and the teaching process.