Learning About Learning

One of the things I did for myself during this trip was purchase some books in Spanish.  Some of theses book were in both Spanish and English.  I am finding this very useful because I can look at the sentence structure in both languages.  One of the things I struggle with the most is when and how to use the little words such as is, was, of, the, etc in translation from English to Spanish.  By having the same sentence side by side in both languages it is easier to see how this works.

I felt like this was missing in our Spanish classes.  Most of what we went over in class was the conjugating of verbs.  In the activities at the end of each day we went over nouns.  While I do know words in Spanish now I do not feel like I am much better at putting them together into sentences.  This is an example of where it would have been helpful if our teachers had used more of our native language in explaining concepts.  I felt like I received more of an explanation in this area in my homes that in the classroom.

I know that my feelings in our classrooms were very similar to that of many students that I will be teaching.  I needed to know how the new information I was getting related what I already knew. (Background knowledge anyone?)  I also needed to know how to use the information.  This is similar to the age old question many students have of when am I ever going to use this.  If a person does not know how or when to use the new information it is not relevant and is likely to be lost.

Another point that was made painfully clear to me during this experience was how important authentic learning and material are.  This is a concept I was already aware of but one that is always helpful for a teacher to have reinforced.  If I was able to actually use the new information as I was learning it my retention was much higher than just plugging words I was given into a loose formula and repeating them.  Having a group take turns around the table saying what they do and do not like is not nearly and beneficial as having a conversation with our mama tica about breakfast that morning.  The activities we did in afternoon were good in theory but not so good in practice.  Going to the market and reading a script was not nearly a useful as if we had actually gone to the market and done a bit of shopping.

Finding a way to bring this type of learning into the classroom will be a challenge but I think it is doable.  It can be done in little ways such as making a silt model with glitter and water for a discussion on flooding along the Nile.  It can be done in bigger ways such creating a small market for your students to purchase items in the classroom to teach economic principles.  These types of activities will benefit native speakers and language learners alike.  It just takes time and organization on the part of the teacher to put them in place.  After that I think the students will run with it.