Regarding to the experiences with very young learners and based on the observation and notes we were taking we can conclude that:
October 22, 2009
Related to the first module that was named “Ican play”: Very young learners used words while they are playing, for instance, in the park. They are using in their oral interactions and games different words such as walking, running, hop, climbing, up and down. They acted the actions singing the song, and making groups with their peers as well as using the elements in the park. Besides, they asked the teacher about the way to say, for instance, lanzar el frsisby, empujar al amigo etc…
Once we were in the park and the children had the opportunity to play whatever they want. One girl asked for the teacher if it was possible to play "Simon Says" the teacher said of course and she was in charge of the game. She said "Simon Says everybody climbing", "everybody jumping", everybody running" and their classmates followed her instructions.
After the development of the module, the students made a short presentation about their works. One of the kids said "este niño está running", "ella está swinging", "ellos están sliding".
It can mean that Children are very motivated to use the vocabulary they are acquiring from this module and the most important, they are using the vocabulary and acquiring new one.
October 29, 2009
According to the implementation of the new module, the ones about the school objects, and the observation we are doing, we conclude that this module provide to very young learners new meaningful vocabulary that encourage them to use new words in their speech naming the realia they can find in the classroom, for instance, a student named the pencil, the table, other named the marker, the chair while they are coloring in their worksheets from other subjects; another student raise her hand and told to her teacher that she did not have scissors to cut a picture from magazines. Besides, a student repeat different sentences from the song about school objects such as stand up, sit down, can I have a pencil?, can I have a ruler, please? Stan up, sits down, stand up, sit down, be quiet children. And something nice was that when the children started to repeat these phrases, the whole group started to repeat and sing the song from the module they already worked.
Besides, after the development of the module, teachers took students to the interactive white board to display the page where they listened to the vocabulary related to school objects. Teacher realized that most of them said the name of the objects before the web page. For instance, one boy said in a louder voice "table", "scissors","colors", and one girl got angre because he didn't give them the chance to speak. So, the teacher listened to her and she answered the rest of the school objects.
This can mean that the students’ outcomes showed us that the created modules using the blended environment are helping children to acquire new vocabulary and encourage them to use it in the classroom with their friends and their teacher.
November 5, 2009
Regarding to the module No. 3 called "the amazing world of the colors" we can say that kids had a positive attitude during the introductory F2F section since a girl raised her hand to ask about the song she will learn and other children started to raise their hand to ask about the game they will play at home using the computer. After the development of the activities we noticed that students named colors in English while they were, for instance coloring in their notebooks. One of them said, "yo voy a colorear la casa de brown con red" and his peer answered "en cambio yo la voy colorear de green con black"
Since they are organized in the classroom in groups of three because of the tables’ shape, a girl took her colors case and started to ask to her peers to ask what color is this? And the others answered correctly, for instance, green, another said “me gusta el green”, other said “ no, me gusta el orange” then, the girl took another color out and asked them again what color it is?, and the oter from the other group answered purple, then she took out another one and asked the same question and a boy said, “ red, como el balloon the la canción, balloons are red, balloons are red” and they showed happy while they are using the new vocabulary and remembering what they did at home related with the activities from this module, in this case with the song about colors.
During the free games time, they loved to imitate her teacher. One of the girls stood up on a chair and asked to the rest of the class "what color is this" and her friends answered "black, red, green, pink, yellow, blue, orange, brown, and gray, purple". All of them participated actively and showed a high level of acquisition about colors vocabulary.
November 12, 2009
Well, the implementation of this module was also amazing since students asked about the song, the game and the things they will do at home with their parents. One of them said “ y vamos a jugar en el computador? And other said, “si, no ves que es del aula virtual”. When they observed on the interactive white board the images, the song’s video for the song and the links they had to follow, they were vey attentive to the instructions listening and observing about what they had to do with their parents at home. Before the implementation, a group of girls asked to the teacher if they can perform the ten little Indians and they made a line and sang “one little, two little …..”
During students conversations the teacher realized that they used vocabulary related to numbers, for instance, a boy said “tengo four carritos en mis juguetes, porque mi papito me los regalo” and when they were coloring, they had their colors case and a girl said: “yo tengo two yellow colors” another said, “yo tengo two” and the other said “y yo no tengo two”. It is important to mention that learners developed a creative way to use and to improve the new English vocabulary: In the classroom there was a bulletin board about the numbers. A girl organized a chair next to the board and pointed out the numbers. She asked to their friends “what number is it?” and about the half group answered “two, three, and so on” and the rest of the class was playing with toys. This showed us that they were very motivated to use the new vocabulary they learnt from the modules they were developing in the blended environment.
November 19, 2009
Introducing module number 5: senses
Related to this module, the teacher took the students to the audiovisual classroom, before that, one of the student said " vamos a ir al salon del tablero màgico" and the teacher asked "which is that ?" and the students answered " donde jugamos al aula virtual" and the group of students left the classroom and ran as fast as they could to arrive there.
The students were expectant while the teacher introduce the module showing happy faces and asking about the activities that they will work at home, for instance, "¿ Toca colorear algo?, Què juego vamos a tener? ¿ El cuanto es del lobo de Caperucita?" among others.
Moreover, students also showed interest to know about the links they had to follow at home. The teacher asked them who wanted to pass at front to touch the board in order to activate different links related to the new module and all of them raised their hands shutting, “yo, yo , yo quiero”. So, they showed motivation towards technology as well as English since they enjoy participating in the virtual room.
During the F2F session and after the development of the module related to five senses, the teacher sang the Barney’s song about five senses, the teachers said: “with my eyes I...” and the students answered “see”, then she said “with my ears I… “And one of the boys answered “hear”. She continues singing “with my hands I can…” and one girl said “touch”. They participated actively during the “red riding hood story”. The teacher elicited about the characters and the topic of the story. For instance, she said “what part of the body the wolf use to see the little red riding hood with? and a boy answered “big eyes”. Then, the teacher said, “Why did the wolf have big ears? And one girl said: “to hear”. After that, she asked: “why did the wolf have a big nose” two boys shouted “to smell”. Finally, she asked” why did the wolf have a big mouth?” and a girl said: “to taste”. They showed a high level understanding about the reading and about the vocabulary. During the short presentations, they showed their worksheets and explained them. For instance, one of them said: “la flor es para see, la manzana es para taste, el perfume es para smell, y el balón es para touch.”
We concluded that children were very motivated since they all showed a good understanding of the new words and English vocabulary acquisition in a functional way. Besides they were starting to make early English production.
We concluded that children were very motivated since they all showed a good understanding of the new words and English vocabulary acquisition in a functional way. Besides they were starting to make early English production.
November 26, 2009
Developing the last module: Body parts
Taking into account the last module, we felt that we accomplish the main aim of the project since we realized that children acquire new English vocabulary from the created modules through the blended environment. During the implementation of this module in the F2F section kids showed interest, motivation since they also asked about the work they had to do at home and they were very attentive to listen to the teacher.
After the implementation of this module, we noticed that kids made a relation between the modules about senses with the one related to body parts. Since children sang “I can see…” and the others answered “with my eyes”. Another student said “I can touch …” and the others answered “with my hands” and so on. So, students use the senses and the body parts at the same time showing that they acquired English vocabulary from the both modules.
Based on the procedure, the teacher introduced the topic askign the kids to take their clothes off and she painted the very young learners' bodies. Children participated actively in the activity while they were listening to the song and acting the hocky pocky song. Most of the children were interested to know the names of their body. They asked " ¿Cómo se dice hombros, cabeza, estomago, espalda etc..) ? and the teacher answered each questions and they repeated all what the teacher said.
After they worked on this module at home, the children arrived at the classroom very motivated and the teacher asked them about their experiences and most of the children raised their hands and said that their parents helped them to sing the song "keep moving, keep moving, keep moving.. " so, the teacher invited them to sing the song and most of them performed it without any problem. They sang, acted it and showed very active and happy with their teacher.
Finally, the students shared their products about body parts and give to the teacher the documents with the work they did at home wiht their parents' help and guidance.
During this week we were observing the children during their free games and something very interesting is happening with them when they play with their friends. They are using vocabulary related with the modules we applied on the platform, for example, one of them said: vamos a climbing, lugo a sliding. The other students answered: yes, y luego running and walking and the classroom con teacher. These types of productions are happening in a natural environment among students. It shows us that the way we are implementing to develop early literacy in these children is good and it is helping them to enrich their English production.
Moreover, we can see that the level of comprehension from kids following directions and developing activities increase. The teacher gives them the instructions one time and they immediately follow them without any problem. Besides, every Tuesday they arrive very motivated with their products and love to share them with their pairs and teacher. Besides they share experiences related with the topics and the way they develop the modules, most of the cases they told us that they develop the modules with their parents help and guidance and that their parents played with them the games we suggested to practice the topics.
References
Children playing. Google online images. Retrieved on November 7, 2009 from http://defencedebates.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/children-playing.jpg
