Dewey´s Influence

Community Helpers Project

I am working on a learning project with my transition students. It will be presented in November, in two months. This project will be an excuse for students to deepen their knowledge on a topic they have covered. My kids are taught in English; that is, no instructions are given in their mother tongue. Instead, all dialogue that takes place in the classroom is in English. Obviously, some of my students speak to me in Spanish, but I reply to them in the target language, asking them to translate what they have just said, with my help. To recap their prior knowledge on the topic, I will write briefly about the related activities they were involved in before starting this project.

About two months ago, one of the units I covered was about important places in the community. So the vocabulary focus was bakery, post office, park, hospital, police office, and fire station. First the kids learned a song about a group of students taking a field trip in order to learn about these places. For a week, during the first 10 minutes of each class, they listened to the song. Then the lyrics to the song were displayed on a flip chart, and the kids followed the lyrics. Eventually they learned the song. Second, they explored what services were offered in those places. They matched sentence strips with pictures. They also answered questions about ways to send letters or buy cakes. Finally they acted out a play in which a person was asking for directions about different places in the community.

Our goal is to make stands in which kids give information about community helpers by acting, giving presentations, or answering questions.

Last week, we started working on the project. Kids were shown a video about jobs and occupations. Then they chose the job they wanted to work on. They formed groups by interests. They picked the following jobs and occupations: pet shop owner, veterinarian, waiter, doctor, butcher, construction worker, and auto mechanic.

Today each group was handed a piece of paper with five sentences describing the duties of the workers. The members of each group had to represent one or two sentences with a picture. Consequently, they made a sketch describing the sentence. Some of them did not understand what the sentence said, so they asked me what it meant.

Next week, students will finalize their pictures and sentences and paste them on a big poster that will be part of the stand.

To conclude, I know more learning events must be planned in order to make the most of this learning experience. As kids create through language, teaching ideas will flow. For example, after the big group poster is finished, kids may take turns to orally describe what their duties as workers are. They may look at their drawings and say, “I am a veterinarian. I can diagnose medical problems.” Then they can add, “Last week, a boy came to my room crying. His dog had been whining for the last days. I checked the dog and he had an injured leg.” Of course, the last version of what the students will say must be discovered on their own. They can go around school asking adults who have dogs why they whine. They can also ask their parents. In the end, learning is more meaningful to students when they construct their own knowledge. Teachers can always help students to formulate questions and ways to find the answers, but teachers should not give the answers to the students, preventing the students to be exposed to meaningful learning situations. That is how I perceive constructivism and John Dewey´s teachings.