Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Look, but don´t touch! ...Really?

Why to kill the curiosity in Early Childhood?

Exploring and experimenting are key in our first years of life. Our own nature pushes us to learn by seeing, touching, smelling, listening, tasting,... all our senses are needed in this process.


Everyday in my classroom I can see my students enjoying with the hands-on activities, the materials in the workstations,... They always approach the stations of learning and attracted by the materials begin to use them and admired make comments to others. These experiences are precious since they develop many skills as cognitive, communicative, social,... It´s sad when sometimes we hear just at this moment the voice of the teacher/parents/legal guardian to keep silent and to make a line, indicating "it is not worth touching, just seeing".

Many theories of learning tells us that the child's learning in our early years has to do with our thinking levels; it is necessary to keep in mind the object and not only to observe it but to interact with it if we want them to question, reflect, imagine, generate ideas,... The object, by itself in front of the person who learns about it, does not serve as mediator of learning, it is not through a merely contemplative act (visual) as knowledge is constructed, that is, the object is an instrument whose function is to trigger cognitive development. (see my post about Bloom´s Taxonomy)

The first impulse of children when they are in front of an object is to touch it and ask. These are opportunities to foster the intellectual curiosity that surely leads to cognitive development. Touching the object is synonymous with questioning about it. For this reason, the adult must be close to them to answer their questions, to ask them questions, to explain its characteristics.  The role of the teachers (and educators/parents/legal guardians) is to solve the doubts of children, trying to offer real explanations that stimulate their curiosity and cognitive processes.

Learning from the use of objects (Vigotsky, 2000)

Parents/legal guardians/educators should invite children to manipulate the objects and ask him interesting questions that awake their interest and stimulate their expression (communicative skills), reflection and analysis (thinking levels).

In fact there are those researchers who affirm that intelligence is measured by the use of instruments to solve problems, based on the Latin origin of the word: 

inteligere, composed of intus (between) and legere (choose); 

so we can deduce that being smart is knowing how to choose the best option among those given to solve a problem


When children look at an object they immediately have the desire to understand it, and manipulating it is the best way to do it. The work in the classroom must include the contents within natural situations making connections with situations of real life and this implies the interaction of the children with real objects.

To prevent children from mistreating objects, we are only showing our dark side of the teaching. If it is a very delicate or dangerous object for the child, we must help him with care to touch him and explain the reasons for it.

Interact with the reality is the basis of learning, questioning reality and recreating it to understand it is the body, develop cognitive processes and generate knowledge is its maximum expression. Even adults need to touch objects, for example: to show us a shirt  is not enough to tell us it is cotton, we immediately touch it. To ask toddlers/young children not to touch and only observe is to attempt against their nature and their right to learn. 

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Dual-Language Instruction (1)

Este es mi video resumen sobre la instruccion del modelo dual en Houston ISD.

En futuros posts hablare sobre otros puntos sobre "dual language instruction"



Si tienen preguntas, por favor me pueden dejar comentarios.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Love for reading in Prek & Kinder

HOW TO PROMOTE READING FROM CHILDREN?


Early Childhood Education is the foundation of everything, including the love of reading.

Our children love to be read and told stories, but we can do many more for them, such as those proposed here:

To start talking about READING, and they way we can have fun by doing so, we can start with an important general idea: The need of reading ALSO after school.

Why isn't the family going to help with reading?
The family environment is an important factor in helping children with learning, in general. Families can contribute to provide an environment that encourages positive developments in the reading of the youngest students:
  • Talk with your children. Gradually they will increase their vocabulary, stimulate them to ask questions about everything that interests them, surround and answer them. The more words they hear the more words they will know and the more words they can use in their daily conversation.
  • Listen to them and teach them how to listen to others. The more you talk and appreciate what you say, the better you can develop appropriate language patterns.
  • Read them. Every time you read, you are developing your love and interests for books and for reading; by reading you are helping them acquire a more elaborate language, which is ideal for their intellectual development.

HERE YOU HAVE SOME IDEAS THAT CAN HELP YOU TO GET IT

  • Turn off the TV. Make it normal to have it turned off. Turn it on only to see a specific program. Television, in addition to distracting attention, does not encourage reading.
  • With younger children, look at children's picture books and tell stories. Stay alert to what you are interested in each time, to provide books that speak of it.
  • When you start reading, help you choose books of interest. You can ask your teachers for information, in libraries or bookstores.
  • After reading a book, talk about it together. Let him realize that for you the book is an important thing, as it will be for her or him.
  • Often visit the library with your son or daughter. Explain how and where you can get the books, and where you should leave them. Give him time to look at them and read them, even if he does not know the letters yet.
  • Have your daughter or child see you enjoying a book, magazine or newspaper. Tell them what you think about reading and invite them to participate.
  • Read with him or her for at least 15 minutes a day. EVERYDAY. And value these moments as true acts of communication and fun; never as an obnoxious obligation.
  • Take advantage of the moment when your sons and daughters go to read stories and stories with them. Get accustomed to reading a few minutes every night.

CONCRETE READING ACTIVITIES THAT WE CAN DO AT HOME

  • Read to your son or daughter. Show them the various forms of literature through the writings: stories, poetry, comics, comics, journalistic narration, ... Show them also different texts that we can see at home customarily: bills, letters, recipes, cinema, the notes we send from school, and all the written texts you have.
  • The stories are the first contact of the boy and the girl with the books. When you tell or read a story you create a fantasy world that allows you to stimulate your child's imagination. Apart from having fun, they can be used to introduce new vocabulary, to use new expressions of the language, to learn to listen, to attend, to read.
  • The stories that come out on TV replace those you can tell them. The exchange is different. The words read are not directly associated with any image, which causes a freer development of the imagination.
  • Look for bookstores, books, stories, magazines of interest for your child, according to their age and interests. Learn to choose what you like, while you guide.
  • Read a story but skip a word from time to time. Ask him to say a word that fits the meaning of the phrase.
  • Write words on tokens and ask them to associate them with drawings or objects at home. Write several letters in chips and ask your child to make words.
  • Take responsibility for a family calendar where you have to register and keep up with family events: parties, anniversaries, birthdays, trips, excursions ...
  • If there is a computer give your son or daughter the opportunity to use it. Maybe start by putting your names or by copying phrases from your favorite book.
  • Have her look for photos she likes in old magazines. Ask him to cut them and put titles to each one. Make them cut out words from newspaper headlines or commercials. Have them stick on a notebook and draw pictures in relation to those words.
  • Leave some time to sing songs or nanas with your son or daughter. Ask him to repeat his favorite children's songs or those we sing in class.
  • Cut out comic strips from the newspaper or magazines and ask your child to put the bullets in the correct order.
    • Ask her what words she would like to learn. Write them down in sheets and have your child place them alphabetically or by topic in a specially prepared box.
    • While preparing the meal, ask him to help you by reading parts of the recipe or by making a special menu.
    • Before the family embarks on a trip, have your child help with the preparations by writing a list of things to take, reading the road map ...
    • Read a story and ask him to invent a new title.
    • Read part of a story but skip the end. Ask him to come up with a new ending.
    • Constantly ask your son or daughter about the "why" of things, not only about the stories you read, but also about everyday incidents in the home or neighborhood.
    • Ask your son or daughter about your favorite part of the book or story you just read. Tell her.
    • Use the newspaper as a reading textbook. Ask your child to locate certain articles in different sections of the newspaper.
    • When you go shopping at the supermarket, have your son or daughter help you make the shopping list, and then check that you are buying everything.
    • When you receive letters or emails from friends or relatives, let your children read the parts that interest them, and also take care of answering some words.
    • When you go on the street with your son or daughter, read together the posters of the stores, the names of the streets, the commercials.
    • And of course everything that happens to you.
    If your child picks up a story and sits down to look at it and goes through the pages telling it to their shape, they are already taking the first step toward reading. I love it when I see that they do it in the corner of the library.

    Wednesday, March 29, 2017

    Human Brain: How does it work when learning?



    When we study and learn, we pay attention to something in particular, we focus on it. Then, the two parts of our brain start to work, both individually and together too. What do we feel? How do we learn? And why we forget things? This article will give you some answers.

    Let's try some questions I found here: "Do you remember your first day of school? What did it feel like when you were separated from your parents? Did you like your teacher? Did you make friends? The process of creating a new memory and bringing it back to mind years later is a complicated and abstract thing, yet we all do it every day. How does memory work?"

    - Feeling: It is a psychic phenomenon originated by the excitation of a sensory organ, excitation which in turn is produced by a stimulus, and by virtue of which certain qualities of the objects of the external world are known, such as colors, sounds, smells, tastes... or certain states of the organism itself.

    The senses are receptors where the body gathers information from the outside world (colors, sounds,...) and inside the body (state of the viscera, body movements, pain, ...) Sensory receptors are located in different parts of the body:

    - On the surface of the organism. They are the five classic senses.

    - Within the organism; In the respiratory, digestive, urogenital and, generally, in the viscera. Thanks to them we get feelings of hunger, thirst, well-being, etc.

    - In muscles, tendons, joints. They control muscle responses.

    The stimuli are forms of energy that affect the senses (retina, tympanum ...) but in themselves are psychologically silent: neither the vibrations of the air are sonorous nor the electromagnetic waves have any color. Sound or color arise when nerve impulses triggered by stimulation of the tympanum or retina reach the corresponding zones of the cerebral cortex.

    Not all stimuli that reach the senses are capable of provoking sensations. For example, the human eye perceives only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The same thing happens with certain very low sounds or with certain olfactory properties.


    - Perception: The Human Being does not take the information that comes from the outside world in the form of pure sensations: our knowledge of reality does not consist of a cluster of colors, sounds, tastes, etc. We grasp reality as something structured, as objects endowed with meaning. Perception consists in a structured integration of the sensory data, in virtue of which the stimulating energy manifests itself as the world.

    The basic psychological unit of sensible knowledge is not sensation, but perception. It is a sensocognitivo process and is conditioned by learning, past expectations and cognitive schemata, as well as other subjective factors such as motivations, interests, etc; Or social, such as language, culture.




    The laws of perception

    It was Gestal psychologists who mostly studied these laws, especially those related to visual perceptions. This school defends that the form imposes like a figure structured according to certain laws.The most important are the following:

    a) Ratio figure-background
    He states that what we perceive is a figure that is cut out on a background. The figure has its own characteristics such as: shape and defined outlines; Greater structuring; Closer to the subject than the background; Closed and with a surface smaller than the bottom.

    The fund, as opposed to the figure, lacks precise contours; Is uniform; More distant, wraps the figure and its surface is smaller. A curious circumstance is the so-called fund-figure reversibility. The best-known example is the Rubin Cup. In this drawing, either we perceive two faces in dark cut out on a white background, or a white cup on a dark background.


    b) Stimulation grouping laws
    Our perceptions tend, on the one hand, that the form is organized in such a way that the perceived figure is as simple as possible; On the other hand, we tend to perceive the figure as clearly as possible.The so-called good figure or good form is imposed. Some of these laws are:
    • Law of Proximity: to such stimuli, we tend to perceive those who are grouped closer together.
    • Law of Continuity: we tend to group stimuli that have a continuity of form.
    • Law of Similarity: together we tend to perceive stimuli that have similarities to each other.

    This video explains the law of similarity.

    c) The perceptive constancy
    Nothing we perceive remains constant: the wavelengths change according to the variations of luminosity; The size of the objects varies according to our position; Shape is modified by perspective, etc.However, our brain is able to perceive the same color, the same size or the same shape. This phenomenon is known as perceptual constancy.

    If our perception of objects varied at the same time as the stimuli that come from them, it would be impossible to recognize things, since they would be in perpetual change. The perceptive constancy is, therefore, vital for our adaptation to the environment.



    Social and individual influences on perception

    Perception is not a process that is determined solely by the physiological mechanisms of the senses and the brain. Many other elements of educational and cultural origin are involved.

    a) Influences of language and culture
    The linguistic ability to elaborate abstractions modifies the perception of the world. The adult symbolically processes sensory information: the things that surround him and the situations in which he is immersed are perceived as being carriers of abstract qualities. For example, a sports car is interpreted as something more than a pure object: you see success, power, money,... Thanks to language, the world ceases to be a world limited to objects and physical events to become a meaningful world, meaning meaningful.

    But it is not only the language that modifies perception, but also the opposite: the greater perceptive fineness of some peoples towards essential aspects of the environment in which they live, lead them to a better linguistic specialization. Thus, for example, in the Arabic languages ​​there are more than 400 words to designate the camel.

    b) Other influences: motivations, attitudes, interests ...
    Interests or motivations influence perception. Thus, a person who loves the opera will capture an infinity of musical and scenic details in one performance, in front of another that bores him. A student who is not motivated in the explanation of the teacher will tend to capture diffusely what is said in class, while another student who is interested in the subject will not lose detail. If someone is hungry he will more easily perceive an advertisement of food than another who is satisfied, etc.

    Another factor that influences is the previous attitude that we have before certain stimuli. Allport and Kramer conducted an experiment to determine the influence of social prejudices on perception.They selected a group where there were people with racial prejudice and people without prejudice. Subsequently, they screened slides of white men and each member of the group was asked to identify individuals of Jewish origin. The result showed that prejudiced individuals more easily identified Jewish faces.

    - Attention: it is a selective process of perception. When we walk down a street the amount of stimuli that impact our senses is practically unlimited; However, at every moment our brain is only conscious of a limited number of these stimuli. If we are playing cards or chess we will concentrate on the game and we will miss other stimuli that come from where we are. Any student has thousands of subjective experiences about what it means to attend or not to attend in class to the teacher's explanations.

    An interesting phenomenon is perceptual defense. This is a property by which favorable or pleasant stimuli are identified more quickly than unfavorable or unpleasant ones. In other words, subjects especially cater to stimuli motivating significance, while their attention is not triggered, or takes longer to do when they get unpleasant stimuli.

    Many factors influence the attention. Some affect the stimuli themselves (size, color, luminosity, movement, repetition), while others are internal factors of the subject itself (motives, interests, tastes, moral or aesthetic values). Advertising psychology often uses techniques to increase the public's attention for commercial purposes. Among the procedures used are the following: originality (telling amazing stories, posing absurd situations, etc.), spectacularity (special effects, mixing shapes and colors, figures executing impossible movements, staging majestic), word games or Jokes that border what is morally forbidden, sexual claims or incitement, etc.

    - Memory: The importance of memory is vital. Without it, learning would be useless; It would be impossible for us to survive in a changing world and we would not have the sense of personal identity. In it also some of the highest human functions are established: thought, language, the ability to foresee and plan the future, etc.

    Memory is the ability of our brains to store and retrieve information. It is constituted by innumerable components, which are distributed along neural networks that act within numerous structures of the brain. There are many different memories: olfactory, visual, logical, analytical, associative, etc.


    Psychologists often divide memory into three systems:

    a) Sensory memory
    Sensory memory registers sensations and allows us to explore the characteristics of the information that reaches us. It is maintained for a very brief period (just one second). Two things can happen next: either it is transferred to short-term memory or it disappears.

    The traditional example used to illustrate this type of memory is the vision of a feature film. We perceive sequences in motion, although in reality the film is composed of fixed photographs separated by brief intervals of darkness. The sensation of movement is obtained thanks to the sensory memory retaining the vision of each image until the appearance of the next one.

    Specialists believe that there is a special type of sensory memory for each of the five senses. This is how we talk about visual and auditory memory.

    b) Short-term memory
    Some of the information captured by the sensory memory passes into short-term memory. It processes the data that is consciously used to respond to the problems of our immediate present.

    The relationship between the STM and the LTM is directional: part of the STM goes to the LTM to be stored there indefinitely; At the same time, when we need to retrieve information from the past, it is transferred in the opposite direction to be able to use the memories and learnings in our immediate present.

    The STM has a very limited storage capacity: about seven items or units of non-significant information such as letters or numbers. In addition the maximum retention period is also very short: between 15 and 30 seconds. So, for example, when they ask us to memorize a phone number, after a few seconds the number is out of memory, as long as we do not mentally repeat it in order to store it in the LTM.

    c) Long term memory
    It preserves perceptions, feelings and actions of the past. Its storage capacity is virtually unlimited. However, this stored information is not always accessible; Sometimes we are not able to remember, but that does not mean that information has been erased, but the keys to its recovery have not been correctly executed.

    Neuropsychologists do not yet know how to accurately retrieve the information from the LTM, although they do know that its updating depends on how it has been codified (depth and organization) and that the keys we use to remember them coincide with the codes in which it was codified .

    The LTM is divided into:
    - Episodic memory: It consists of events or episodes that have happened to us. For example: the color of a dress, the song heard at a party, the way the teacher explained History at school, etc.

    - Semantic memory: Memory is the abstract. R ational covers the knowledge of the world and language. It allows us to make reasoning, relate concepts, know the meanings of words or grammatical rules, etc.

    ...and how we forget things...



    There are different theories that try to explain the causes of forgetfulness

    a) Disuse theory: if the stored information is not used it tends to fade and disappear.

    b) Interference theory: l new learning will impact negatively on the old ones , so that new information tends to erase one held previously.

    c) Motivational and emotional theories: we forget those events or learning that we find unpleasant or have negative emotional connotations.


    For further information we recommend this article by National Geographic.
    Licencia de Creative Commons
    Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
    Creado a partir de la obra en https://isabelmerinocabanillas.wordpress.com/.
    Licencia de Creative Commons
    Este obra cuyo autor es http://maestrousero.blogspot.com/ está bajo una licencia de Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional de Creative Commons.

    Monday, March 20, 2017

    Motivation & CLIL - How motivation affects Foreign/Second Language Acquisition/Learning

    We know that motivation is a great part of our learning process. This video sums up how motivation affects our efforts and results when learning.


    In the following document you can read about motivation and other aspects, authors and theories that contribute in Foreing/Second Language Acquisition/Learning.



    Why talk when being a toddler or young child?

    Why talk when being a toddler?

    blahblahblah.jpg

    “Early language and communication skills are crucial for children’s success in school and beyond”
    “Children who develop strong language and communication skills are more likely to arrive at school ready to learn and are more likely to have higher levels of achievement”

    Gardner-Neblett, for the FPG study.

    The importance of communication

    Oral communication is an essential aspect for the integral development of the child. The development of thought, memory, imagination, the ability to learn, to know the environment around him, to learn to transform it as well as many other cognoscitive skills.


    The progressive characteristics of the development of verbal language in the different levels of age, are ascribed to the stages of integral development of the child, being closely associated with the following aspects:
    • The maturation process of the nervous system, both central (CNS) and peripheral, correlating its progressive changes with motor development in general and with the particular vocal apparatus.
    • To the cognitive development that includes from the perceptual discrimination of spoken language to the function of the processes of symbolization and thought.
    • And, to socio-emotional development, which is the result of the influence of the socio-cultural environment, child interactions and reciprocal influences


    And why are they so important? Because by developing language and communication skills children can develop different actions that improve their self-image and esteem, since they can understand others and can explain themselves, what make them feel motivated to communicate with others. Communication involves using words, body language, gestures, or facial expressions. Toddlers who develop conversation skills are more likely to succeed academically. Besides, they develop problem-solving skills that help them have higher stages of achievement.


    The interactions that children have with adults have an effect on how children broaden and analyze. Those interactions should start with the family, since parents and siblings talk with the child, and later, at school, with their teachers and classmates. As a result, at school Early Childhood teachers offer them multiple opportunities with interactions which support kid's  improvement. It is important to underline the fact of language instruction in early stages of education: simple sentences, adapted to children’s level of comprehension and checking questions. These characteristics of adult-child communication will help children foster their increase and improvement in language interaction and conversation.


    In this process, adults should use nouns, adjectives, and actions that form part of the child's daily life. This undoubtedly contributes directly and effectively to the development of language, intelligence and other areas with which this learning will be carried out.


    Stages of Language Development



    According to the previous references and taking into account the contributions of different researchers, here we divided the development of the language in two main stages:


    • Prelinguistic Stage


    • Linguistic Stage


    Each of these stages is marking the emergence of new properties and phonemic, syntactic and semantic qualities as the child grows, as we will describe below.


    Prelinguistic Stage (preverbal stage - from 0 to 12 months of age)  



    It is characterized by the expressions with mouth movements and sounds which in itself has hardly any communicative value, most of the sounds emitted are onomatopoeic. During this stage, which covers the first year of life, the communication that establishes the child his environment (family), especially and particularly with his mother, is emotional and gestural. As part of a proper language stimulation, the word should always accompany the gesture and activities of the mother with her baby.


    Lately, neuroscience and neurolinguistics have proved the importance of this preverbal stage, that has a relevant and transcendental value in the configuration of the bases of Linguistic development, since both vocal expressions (sounds or group of sounds of simple signification) and verbal expressions (sounds, group of sounds, isolated words, etc.) influence in a decisive way in the later development of the linguistic communication of the child.


    This stage comprises, in turn, substeps or stages with particular characteristics that are in agreement with the chronological sequence of the integral development of the child, which we describe:


    a) From birth to month and/or two months
    During this period the only expression that is heard of the baby is crying, which is the first sound manifestation purely mechanical or reflective and, as such, undifferentiated in tone, whatever the reason of its state.
    With crying, the baby puts into operation the speech apparatus, allowing him also oxygenation of the blood and the establishment of normal breathing. After this period, usually at the beginning of the second month, crying is no longer a phenomenon or a mechanical and undifferentiated manifestation, but the tone of the sound changes with the emotional content of pain, hunger or other discomfort; that is, the variation of the tonality is related to the state of well-being or discomfort of the baby. With the crying the baby manages to communicate his needs to the world around him and, as he realizes that thanks to crying his needs are satisfied, he will use it voluntarily, no longer being then a reflex or undifferentiated sound. That way the baby is communicating with its immediate surroundings, especially with master, understanding better and better what it communicates to him, although he is incapable of expressing it.


    b) From 3 to 4 months
    At the beginning of the third month the baby produces guttural sounds and vowels that last 15 to 20 seconds. It responds to Human sounds through smiling, cooing or murmuring.
    At this age the baby already distinguishes between the sounds: / pa /, / ma /, / ba /, / ga /. Their vocalizations can already show joy or other feelings. The baby knows how to distinguish, affectionate intonations, reacting with joy, surprise or fear to the tone of voice, especially of their parents. At three months appears the babbling, which consists of the emission of sounds through redoubled syllables like "ma ... ma" , "Ta ... ta" and others.
    In this way the child is progressing and increasing his vocalizations, which are already close to the word and, as such, are loaded with communicative intention with the mother. These varied vocal sounds and phonations close to the word that the child directs to the mother, must be attended to, understood, interpreted and answered by it in a repetitive way, stimulating and thus promoting its linguistic development.


    c) From 5 to 6 months
    The “babbling” (first attempt of communication) extends until the eighth or ninth month, progressing in the fifth and sixth month towards what is called "imitation of sounds". This begins in the form of self-limitations of the sounds produced by the child (circular reaction). Later it begins to repeat sounds that the adult or another child produces.
    In this age there are clearly discernible intonation structures in certain contexts in which it emphasizes and excites.
    The earliest vowel utterances are phonetic realizations that appear in the following order:
    • / a / and variants close to the phoneme / e /, although before they usually emit sounds similar to / oe /
    • Then the / or / and finally appears / i /, / u /.
    The sounds of the consonants appear later in the following order:
    • Labials: p (pa
    -b) m (ma-ma) b (ba-ba)
    • Dentales: d (da-da) t (ta-ta)
    • Velopalatales: g (ga-ga) j (ja-ja)
    In this way the child usually emits the first vowel and consonant elements, being an important progress with respect to the cries and different laryngeal sounds of the first months of life. As the child progresses, he will gradually replace gesture communication with verbal language.
    Here it is important to emphasize the utmost importance of maternal language directed to the child during the middle of the first year of life, in which not only it is convenient to increase vocalizations, gestures, smiles and other expressions within the home, but also verbal communication should be something common among adults and the child.


    d) From 7 to 10 months
    Bruner (1979) points out that between 7 and 10 months the child progressively shifts from the "modality of demand" to the modality of exchange and reciprocity in child-child interactions. The giving and receiving of objects pronouncing the name of each one, while looking at the mother and son face and looking at the object together, manages to multiply and enrich the linguistic and communicative capacity of the child, this "conversation" forming a training exercise for speech , As well as for his nascent socialization. At this age the child performs multiple spontaneous vocalizations, both vocalic and consonantal, and even syllables and diphthongs. These vocalizations next to the word, are those that will soon lead the child to utter his first words. Here the alternating vocalizations between mother and child will allow early access to language.


    e) From 11 to 12 months
    The 11-month-old baby has more than five words in his linguistic repertoire. In this age the child uses the same words as the adult, but does not attribute the same meaning to them. However, as it progresses in this process, the meanings that are attributed to the words are approaching the meanings attributed by the adult.
    In this way the child is forced to simplify adult language, without this meaning that he does not understand, but his expressive capacity is still very limited. However, according to some specialists, at 11 or 12 months the child usually articulates his first words "fingers" direct syllables: "mom", "dad", "poop", "tata", starting the next sentence or denominated linguistic or verbal, progressively sign language and "overcoming" the simplification of adult language as it increases his/her vocabulary.
    With regard to the appearance of the "first word", it should be clarified that this depends on the moment the parents identify him as such, since the units of meaning that the child uses correspond to segments of speech. The child of this age (a year) usually occupies the center of attention of the family, whose actions, thanks and occurrences are usually celebrated and applauded, reinforcing the behavior, which will be repeated over and over again. This is good because it helps the child feel and live their own identity. In addition, the mimic and verbal gesture exchange of his communications with the adult, accompanied by the "giving and taking" behavior, allows the greater development of language.


    • Linguistic Stage



    a) From 12 to 18 months
    Within his lexical repertoire he counts with 5 to 15 or 20 words, and each time he will demonstrate greater increase in his vocabulary by means of the inflections of his voice when he wants to identify something. Einsenson maintains that in this stage the true speech arises and it indicates that the child uses words to produce events or attract the attention of others. In some fairly advanced children, it is usually observed the use of some phrases with two words, mainly objects or actions, without ruling out in certain cases, also, the use of adjectives (qualifiers). However, before being able to make word-finger combinations, he will often continue to use a single word to refer to many objects. This semantic extension in childhood vocalizations will continue to accompany him for a long time. But as you increase your vocabulary and evolve your speech, you will progressively reduce this semantic extension.
    From 16 or 17 months to two years of age, you will increasingly make the use of spontaneous combinations of several words and phrases, increasing the flow of words in its expression.
    At 17 months the child increasingly extends his linguistic repertoire and begins to make combinations of two words. At this age, the identification and naming of objects, figures and different parts of one's body are highly recommended exercises for the development of the child's verbal language.


    b) From 18 to 24 months
    During this period, most children have a vocabulary greater than 50 words, going on to combine 2 to 3 words in a sentence, beginning with "syntactic" speech, that is, the child begins to articulate words in sentences and simple sentences. In their verbal expressions they use nouns (Names), verbs (actions) and qualifiers (adjectives and adverbs). Among these grammatical classes usually establish the following relationships:
    • Between two names/nouns: "Shoe dad" (possessor and object possessed) "soup chair" (fortuitous relationship)
    • Between name and verb: "Open door" (verb and object) "Papa eats" (subject and verb)


    • Between qualifiers and adjectives: "Beautiful doll" (qualifier plus name) "More game" (qualifier plus verb) "More beautiful" (qualifier plus qualifier) ​​


    By the age of two, the child has a vocabulary of approximately 300 words. In their expressions, the use of the personal pronouns "I" and "You" and the possessive "My" and "Mine" are also observed. His phrases express intention and action: "he does what he says and says what he does".


    At this age the symbolic function in the child arises and the predominance of the intelligence-motorist gives rise to the representational intelligence. With the symbolic function the child has the ability to mentally represent things and evoke them without the need for them to be present. With the symbolic capacity, gestures and verbal expressions of the child begin to refer more and more frequently to more abstract realities, becoming more dominant In language. (Significant) symbols come to play a unique role in the development of the child afterwards, since these are the ones that will allow us to construct the codes on which the bases of the higher functions conform.


    Through these codes is that we access emotions, abstract realities, language and convert the implicit explicit. This symbolic ability allows the child to explore and increase their verbal language, expressing interest in hearing stories about themselves or their family, in Which vacapt the sense of the words and sentences of the stories that the parents give.

    Here you can find more information about the importance of language development at the age of two.


    c) From 2 to 3 years old


    There is a rapid increase in vocabulary, an increase that is much greater than what will occur later, reaching an average of 850 words and at three and a half years more than 1200 words (Smith, 1980).
    The child in his verbal expressions already employs auxiliary verbs "to have" and "to be" and gives a certain prevalence to the determined article. In the course of this age begins to use the propositions and the child already has a understandable language use, even for people outside the family, manifesting a mastery of the majority of the grammar of their mother tongue (syntax), so that the specialists pronounce him as the period of "syntactic competence".


    D) From 4 to 5 years old
    At the age of four, the child virtually dominates the grammar, but begins expressing and pointing out. The child begins to use the pronouns in the following order: I, You, He, She, We-you, You; With a vocabulary of 1,500 words and at five years, 2,300 words approximately.


    Among the 4 or 5, the child is usually already trained to answer questions related to the social behavior learned, since their language already extends beyond the immediate environment. This is due to the symbolic capacity of the child and, as such, can mentally evoke and represent things, actions and situations, transcending the reality and the present. This ability and the need to communicate, make possible a greater and rapid development of children's language, Also facilitating the development of intelligence.

    If you are interested in "More Than Baby Talk" with its 10 ways to promote language development, click on here.

    This is a brief summary of the process of verbal language development that occurs in average children, such as evolutionary psychology, psycholinguistics and others describe it. In this process many factors intervene, all closely linked to the development of the child. It should be noted that the development of verbal expression is usually after the understanding of language, that is, the development of the capacity for comprehension is anticipated to that of the verbal expression.

    Tuesday, March 7, 2017

    How to create a comic with basic tools

    The next comic has been done with basic tools:

    - Camera to take pictures.

    - Paint to modify the pictures.

    - Word processor to add titles, bubbles and other comic characteristics.


    First of all, a design of the story is strongly recommended, I mean, what story your students want to tell. You, as teacher/parent/educator, can help them with the topic of the story.
    One idea is to ask for some topics they are interested in and the do a survey with all your students. In this way you encourage them to participate as well as they feel motivated. Once your students have decided what to tell, it is time to organize the story. In my case, I teach them that every story has three mainly parts, remember that it is focused on PreK students: beginning, middle and the end. And please, try to help them with examples of stories they already know (and even better, the most recent stories told in classroom) and let them identify each part.
    The story decided to tell is about the recess time, since today it had rained early in the morning and some parts of  the garden were wet. I tried to help them by asking them how we usually prepare to go to the outdoor learning area. Then, one by one started to tell me how: they are in a line, the students in charge of the doors go to their positions,... other students wanted to share other ideas to use in the story. After that, I looked through the window and everything was wet, my next question was what would happen if you were in the garden. Again, help them, please, with connections to their experiences... until some of them can say something to add to the story; indeed, they gave us some ideas for the story. And eventually we got this amazing story with my "champions".



    If you have a tablet with an ebook reader app you can download this file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4elwj35ibmYNm9mLVFmX0hkMzQ/view?usp=sharing and they can read it.

    Publish at Calameo

    Calameo is a free web that sets your documents as a traditional book. When you and your children finish your comic, you can save it as a .pdf file, then upload it on this web. There, you can have more options to choose and share it with your friends.

    If you prefer to do it by using an app with music, you can use Adobe Spark Video. Open this app and add the pictures that you and your children have selected to create a comic. Besides, you can add some music.
    Have you seen how easy it is? Do you think you can do one comic with your children? If so, it is going to be a good time to enjoy creating a story together.

    If you want to share your beautiful and awesome story, please, leave a comment with your file.

    By Mr Usero.
    Comic-Creator Project.

    PreK and PBL

    Early Childhood Education
    PBL - Project-Based Learning
    21st Century Skills Learning in PreK
    image1.JPG
    The time has finally come for our annual EXPO, a time in which a school wide topic or theme is chosen and broken down by classroom. In the past we have done everything from life cycles, animals, countries, wildlife, etc. This year our school EXPO at Ninfa Laurenzo ECC will focus on Community Helpers.
    In my classroom the students were interested in learning more in about a Comic Creator-Designer. The students with the help of their families, brought comics to discuss with their classmates and identify the parts of a comic: comic strip, bubbles, shapes, and characters.
    This article comes as a summary of what our project entails, the process in which we form our project, and the final outcome  
    Are your students interested in learning? Are the topics adapted to their learning process? Are they active participants in their learning process? Do you take their opinions into account when planning? These questions are some of them that any teacher should ask to enhance participation and motivation.





    What is PBL?

    PBL stands for Project-Based Learning. PBL is an active methodology in which students carry out a research process to answer a complex question, a problem, or a change. Students have autonomy and decision-making ability in the development of projects. During taking so much time to create and complete the project, one might wonder how a project like this can be planned, designed, and developed to enable students to learn core content that align with the district guidelines. This methodology helps our students to develop the 21st century skills and create quality products and presentations along with working on skills such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Through the project based learning, students learn to  work cooperatively and creatively.
    In project based learning, the most important thing is not the product or final result, but the process of learning and the development of the different thinking-level abilities and diversity in the classroom. In order to have a successful project and to achieve the learning goals, teachers should let the students gear their learning in the direction of their interests.

    A little bit of history:
    It emerged in the United States at the end of the 19th century at the hands of educator William Kilpatrick, a collaborator of John Dewey.
    The philosopher John Dewey insists that the best way to learn is "doing." Children have to become protagonists of their own learning and for that nothing better than offering them experiences that help them understand the world around them. The mission of teaching is not to fill the heads of content, but to help the student acquire a global and integral knowledge of the world.

    Kilpatrick elaborated the concept and made it famous through "The Project Method".

    Theoretical Framework
    The Theoretical Framework of project-based learning is mainly composed of three
    pedagogical foundations:
    constructivism,
    Learning by discovery,
    and interdisciplinary learning.

    In addition to these three, depending on the type of project to be developed, others such as Multiple Intelligences may be incorporated, for example.

    Constructivism, based on Piaget and Vygotsky's ideas and works, tells us that knowledge is built as a process of interaction between the information that comes from the environment and the information that the student already has, and from which new knowledge is built by itself. The idea of scaffolding arises from this interaction in knowledge formation, which is the link that allows new inputs and previous information to generate new information or knowledge.

    Decroly's idea is interdisciplinarity in learning. Learning concepts or units are learned together, not in isolation. Therefore, the learning units are formulated in different curriculum areas. It consists of focusing study topics on the students' interests, as their curiosity leads them to investigate and describe the parts of the whole.

    Learning by discovery is Brunner's contribution. This type of learning happens when the teacher presents the learners with all the necessary tools to discover what they want to learn for themselves. Research skills development is put in the foreground and has an impact on problem-solving.

    Basic requirements of PBL

    As teachers, what do we plan to achieve with project-based learning? We hope that this type of learning fosters the interest and motivation of the students and therefore the desire to learn and do will be aroused. In addition, with this new methodology, teachers will innovate in their teaching skills by seeing how everything that is taught and created makes sense to students. From this learning experience, all students' skills and abilities will be improved and developed in an integral way.
    As a teacher if you would like to have your students think outside the box and create a meaningful project then here are some steps to consider:
    • Go beyond the old school

    A project can not cover the same range of content, skills, procedures, and attitudes as other types of methodologies, on the contrary it allows students to  work more in depth into a particular subject and explore the subject thoroughly. Therefore teachers should choose the most significant content, objectives, and skills for the project, taking into account the curriculum and what is most important from their point of view.

    Project-based learning arises from the need to present new alternatives, ideas or innovative experiences. The fundamental idea of this active methodology is to keep students engaged and motivated throughout the learning process, through research. In this way we enter into a learning that stimulates their cognitive, communicative, social and emotional skills, among many others, it is a cooperative learning full of challenges with an interdisciplinary approach.
    • A driving question

    Teachers can motivate this need to know new things and develop the project through an initial activity that arouses interest and gives rise to questions. It could be a video, a debate, a guest in class, a book … Once the situation has been raised, it is necessary to create a question to which the work is directed. It must be clear, have an open response and connect with the skills and knowledge that students must work and acquire. This element is basic and must always be present. An example. If we are working on a topic of contemporary literature: How could we share with our grandparents what we have learned about a book?
    • Autonomous learning

    During the work, the students have to be the protagonists: to decide, to choose and to make the decisions. However, it is necessary to adapt this general approach to the reality of the classroom. So different levels of "autonomy" can be established:
    • Lowest level. Students can be told which subject to study and even how to design, create and present the final products.
    • Intermediate level. Give a series of options (limited) to prevent students from being overwhelmed by the possibilities.
    • High level. All decisions are for students, for example what product to do, what process to follow. They can even choose the topic and the initial question.


    • 21st Century skills

    These skills are: collaboration, communication, critical thinking and use of new technologies. They must be taught explicitly (giving guides, advice, materials) and also offer opportunities for students to put them into practice through the tasks and activities proposed in the project. That is to say, to create a virtual resource (a map for example) we can give the students a tutorial on how to create them but also our project should contain a task in which the students create a digital map that serves to present contents, support some exhibition , Perform a collaborative work ...
    • Explorers and discoverers

    Real research takes place when students follow a process like this: they raise their own questions, seek resources and respond to those questions, they generate doubts and question, review and draw conclusions. This research brings with it real innovation: new questions, new products and new solutions emerge.
    The new doubts that arise must be incorporated gradually. It is all about promoting the generation of doubts, criticism and collaboration.
    • Review and feedback

    While working, they review each other's work by reference to the rubrics and examples.
    It is necessary to teach students to evaluate the work of others by reference to rubrics. We can even use external experts and collaborators to evaluate the work. For example, if we organize an exhibition on health Why not invite medical staff from the medical centers in the area?
    • Show and Tell

    Once you and your classroom finished the project, you should present it not only to teachers and colleagues but to a general audience. It can be done to an exhibition (with the aid of a presentation, a video) in the classroom but also to create a web page or to make an exhibition of works to which are invited parents, students of other centers ...


    PBL and Bloom’s Taxonomy

    Once we put a challenge we can ask so many questions about the development of our students’ skills and learning process. To overcome the proposed challenging task, the students have to find the information, process it, elaborate it and share it. In addition, the students have to apply all this information to the solving part of the problem or challenge. Therefore, all the process will be significant and has a purpose for our students, improving their motivation, attitude and participation.
    PBL blooms taxonomy.jpg
    If we compare this way of learning with the traditional one, we can find more ways of treating the information and our relationship with it, that is, our students can go beyond understanding and memorizing concepts. Indeed, with this active method that implies exploring and discovering, our students will work out their skills to find out information and its source, they will be able to choose, discuss, apply, make mistakes, correct them,... This can be a good opportunity to understand other ways of interacting with their learning process, a more active one.


    Types of learning styles in PBL

    Everything will depend on the characteristics of the class groups with which we work. PBL is effective in all levels and subjects. It is applicable in regulated education but also in other forms of education and training.

    -          Meaningful learning

    This type of learning is characterized by the fact that the individual collects the information, selects it, organizes and establishes relationships with the knowledge that he already had previously. In other words, it is when a person relates the new information to the one he already has.

    -          Cooperative Learning

    Cooperative learning is a type of learning that allows each student to learn but not only, but with their peers. Therefore, it is usually carried out in the classrooms of many educational centers, and groups of students usually do not exceed five members. The teacher is who forms the groups and who guides them, directing the action and distributing roles and functions.

    -           Collaborative Learning

    Collaborative learning is similar to cooperative learning. Now, the former differs from the latter in the degree of freedom with which the groups are constituted and functioning. In this type of learning, it is the teachers or educators who propose a topic or problem and the students decide how to approach it

    -          Emotional learning

    Emotional learning means learning to know and manage emotions more efficiently. This learning brings many benefits mentally and psychologically, as it positively influences our well-being, improves interpersonal relationships, promotes personal development and empowers us.

    -          Observational learning

    This type of learning is also known as vicarious learning, by imitation or modeling, and is based on a social situation in which at least two individuals participate: the model (the person from whom one learns) and the subject who observes of such behavior, and learns it.

    -          Experiential learning

    Experiential learning is learning that results from experience, as its name implies. This is a very powerful way to learn. In fact, when we speak of learning mistakes, we are referring to the learning produced by our own experience. Now, experience can have different consequences for each individual, because not everyone will perceive the facts in the same way. What brings us from simple experience to learning is self-reflection.

    -          Discovery Learning

    This learning refers to active learning, in which the person instead learns the contents passively, discovers, relates and reorders the concepts to fit their cognitive scheme. One of the great theorists of this type of learning is Jerome Bruner.
    This information has been translated into English, adapted and selected from this article about the ways of learning..


    Roles in PBL

    In opposition to the traditional methods of learning, the role of the learning components change:
    • The students don’t have a passive role, but an active one. They don’t wait for the teacher’s speech, they participate actively on high-level thinking like problem recognition, information research, comprehension and interpretation of data, making connections and associations, drawing conclusions and critical revision of their ideas and believes.
    • The teacher is not the source of information, but a facilitator, is a mediator in the learning process, who guides students. He/she can help students solve some situations and difficulties, control time, and observe, assess and evaluate his/her own work, students’ work and the project.
    • The information and knowledge is not a possession of the teacher that the students wait to be transmitted. Within PBL information is searched, must be understood as part of the learning process. This information and knowledge are elaborated by the students by their questions and conclusions.


    7 Steps to Create a Project


    How do we create project-based learning? First of all we must put aside the textbook and immerse ourselves in the wonderful world of research and experimentation. The concerns and interests of our students will be the engines of their own learning, in which they will acquire knowledge and skills in a motivating way.

    1. Selection of the guiding question.

    Part of real situations or that reflect reality.
    Lean on personal or real experience.
    Use sources such as audiovisual media, newspapers, magazines, to get ideas.
    It involves the educational community: teachers, families, students, …
    The more involved they are in the selection of the project, the greater their motivation and participation.

    2. Specify the curricular objectives.

    When designing, be clear with the objectives, skills and knowledge that you want to develop.
    From news or cases to design the project.
    The project can be very motivating and at the same time it updates the curricular contents.

    3. Contextualize the project.

    Relate the project to reality
    Where does the idea of ​​the question guide come from?
    Why is it important?

    4. Establish the curricular areas involved.

    The more areas or subjects, the more enriching the process and the more complete the end result.
    Add an intercultural and multilingual dimension to your projects.

    5. Final product with brainstorming

    Collaboration, collaboration and collaboration: key to the success of the PBL.
    Coordinate with other teachers and experts from the areas you are going to develop.
    Develop a mental map that serves to debug and consensus the project, activities, criteria and evaluation tools and the definition of the final product.

    6. Sequencing of the 4 phases: analysis, investigation, resolution and evaluation.

    It elaborates a project timing, specifying what resources, references, activities and digital artifacts will be used in each phase of the project.
    Give meaning / purpose to all activities and prepare the way to the final product.

    7. Critical analysis on the quality of the project.

    Self-reflection and critical collective reflection on the success of the project and on whether it conforms to the principles of the PBL:
    Does it motivate and appeal to students?
    Is it based on a real situation?
    Is it appropriate to the cognitive and emotional level of the students?
    Are your multidisciplinary goals holistic?
    Does it cover the didactic objectives of the subjects involved?
    Is it well structured?
    Do digital activities and artifacts make sense and provide something necessary to reach the end product?
    Will it require group collaboration?
    Translation into English of the 7 steps to create a project,


    Written by Francisco Usero Gonzalez

    Edited by Angelica Saenz