I had to read Vygotsky aloud to really understand what I was reading. At times I felt like I was just spewing psychological jargon not even in sentences. The examples in Vygotsky were interesting and helpful in understanding what I was reading. I found myself wishing they were videotaped to see them myself.
The main idea was play. Children learn through play and really never stop learning through play. Vygotsky felt that there weren’t stages or benchmarks that children passed through, but instead it was a more fluid process that could start at any stage and move from there. Playing was the process of understanding their environment. They often re enact parts of their world around them. When I thought of play I thought of children playing house or school at recess, and couldn’t see how you would apply this in a classroom setting. During our class we talked about how play is much more, than just “house”. It’s an opportunity for students to become the role they are learning. It went along with Situated Cognition and Authentic Activity, we need to provide out students with real activities that they can experience in order to learn.
Play is perfect for learning a language. Most of what I teach (Spanish 1) is very basic and normally things native speakers would learn in pre-k or kindergarten. My students play through different situations to practice the language and normal conversations that would occur. For example, we are learning clothing vocabulary this week, and my students playing as Fashion Designers. They are designing outfits and discussing them with each other.
I know from experience that it’s easier to just hand out a vocabulary list. Have the students define the terms and write them in sentences, but the reality is this is just busy work. They aren’t learning anything from this, writing the term “la bufanda” (Scarf) and creating a sentence about it does not in any way apply to their real life. However becoming a Fashion Designer and adding “la bufanda” as an accessory to their outfit is more realistic for them.
While I am still learning I feel like I am constantly changing the way I do things in my classroom for the better. I am even hearing positive reactions from my students. (Especially 8th grades who are already with one foot out the door!) I feel more accomplished each day.
Hi Mel! I experienced the same thoughts and feelings while reading Vygotsky. At first, I couldn't get past all the psychological terms and references. However, when I got to the parts about play is learning and the ZPD, his theories began to make so much sense to me. Also being able to discuss this theories in class helped to alleviate my confusion. I love how you create situations for your students to engage in "play" to learn vocabulary. I took three years of Spanish in High School and learned vocabulary the way you described (vocab lists and defining sentences). Without putting the vocabulary into a situation I could relate too, it was just rote memorization. Most of which I cannot recall to this day.
ReplyDeleteThank you for saying that it is "easier to hand out a vocabulary list." Because it so is!! Teaching a language is hard - harder than many people would assume. And GOOD language teaching? Man, it is a TON of work. But the rewards are worth it. I'm glad you are seeing success with the alterations you've made to your program. :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you connected play to language development. If you look at how children learn their first language it's not through vocab lists but through play. They babble, they call everything with 4 legs a dog, they put together words that don't make sense, all while laughing, giggling, and having a great time.
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