The first two monts in school

My first two months at the school, I’ve been in the 1st grade of Primary School classroom under the supervision of Mª Amparo, my tutor. The group is composed of 17 students (9 boys and 8 girls), in which we can find different learning paces. Especially, there are 3 students (2 boys and a girl) that are unable to do the same activities that the rest of the class since they have not acquired yet the necessary literacy. So, they don’t follow the textbooks as their classmates, but the teacher prepared for them materials adapted to their necessities, mainly focused on the learning of the letters, syllables and some short words, the knowledge of the numbers from 0 to 20 and the main operations like addition and subtraction.  

As you can imagine, Mª Amparo’s job is not easy, as she has to attend these kids, while she also attends the big group. So, when I arrived she asked me to sit down with these three kids and work with them the communication skills. And this has been basically what I’ve done during these two months.

At first, it was a hard task for me, since I didn’t know how to make these kids learn to identify the letters with the sounds, and to join them to make words. So, I helped them to do the textbook that they follow named “Ven a leer” (Come to read). This book consists pretends to make students learn the letters and the syllables by the repetition of some words with the same sounds. For example, papa, pipa, pupa, pila…

This picture is an example of the basic structure of the book. As you can see, first of all students have to cut some words and paste them under the picture. From my point of view, this is an unhelpful activity, since they only have to compare symbols, and they don’t need to know how to read the word to do it. So, what I did was to work deeply each one of these words, by separating them into syllables, combining them to make new words, etc. To do this, I used an alphabet made with wood cards so that they could play with it, combine the letters, etc. Normally, I started by taking a consonant, and join it with all the vowels to make syllables. For example, with M; ma, me, mi, mo, mu. After that, when they were able to identify each syllable separately, I started to join them to create words like mimo, mama, mima, etc.

It was not easy for me, because my expectations were too high. I thought that with my help they were going to do a big progress in a short period of time. But this did not happen, and we had to repeat always the same things, since they forgot all what we had seen from one day to another. So, I started to feel very frustrated because I didn’t know what could I do to help them, and I thought that the work I was doing was totally useless. Sometimes, the kids also felt frustrated as I asked them too much. Finally, I understood that we have to settle down real objectives for us and for students to avoid frustrations.

The real problem is that these kids don’t receive all the attention they need, as there aren’t enough teachers to cover all students’ different needs. They receive support from the Therapeutic Pedagogy and the Support teacher every day, but there are some times during the day when they are not properly attended because of the lack of teachers to do it. And the situation is getting worse with the new law, as the ratio per classroom has increased to 30 students. So, if it’s impossible with 17 students, I cannot imagine with 30.

Schedule

This is not the only measure of the LOMCE (the Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality) that affects directly to the correct development of the lessons. I’ve checked how the 45-minute lessons are impossible to carry out, especially in the first courses of Primary School, so teachers have decided not to follow them strictly, and to organize the time by themselves. But, the specialties like Music, English or Physical Education are the worst affected, as they need to follow the schedule.

Turning to the subject of my experience at 1^st grade classroom, and talking now about the big group, I’ve detected a general lack of reading comprehension. I think that this ability is not properly developed, and that some teachers don’t give it the importance that deserves. The textbooks don’t help since most statements are confusing, and the activities are always the same and organized the same way, so they don’t promote the reading comprehension. In Maths, for example, we also find a lack of problem solving exercises.

Despite all this, they have a reading corner with a lot of books, but they only use it when they finish the activities, so normally they only have time to see the pictures. They also take a book home every Friday to read it during the weekend with their parents. On Monday, they have to hand a very simple record card where they only have to say if they have liked the book or not, and to do a little summary. This is a good way of creating a reading habit (if parents help), but I think that they should do at least one hour a day of aloud reading in groups in class, and oral exercises of reading comprehension about the lecture.

I would also like to talk about the hegemony of textbooks in schools. I think that following a textbook from such a young age is not recommended, apart from unnecessary. And it’s not only because most of them are not well planned and don’t propose good activities, but because using them determines the methodology follow by the teacher. Normally, it is a traditional methodology in which the teacher is the knowledge transmitter, and students are just passive receivers. So, ultimately, the success or the failure of the process depends mainly on the teachers’ skills and personality and their ability to attract students’ attention and confidence. It’s also a very unfair way of teaching, as it doesn’t consider students' different levels and learning rates as they have to do the same things at the same moment.  

However, there are thousands of recourses and materials more appropriate to reach a meaningful learning, but that implies more time of preparation, and a greater commitment from teachers, who are not always disposed to spend some of their free time to create and adapt new materials.

Another resource that could be very useful, if it was used right, is the use of the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). Regrettably, although the school has enough material resources to do it (interactive whiteboards, computers, etc.) they don’t make a good use of them. For example, the interactive whiteboard acts as a projector of the textbook. It is, as I’ve already mentioned, because following a text book determines a methodology, so at the bottom everything remains the same.

Learning to make a good use of the ICT is something essential for the future generation. The Internet is a new source of resources for learning that we are not taking into account yet in the classrooms, because children develop better the ICT skills at home with their tablets or their parents’ mobile phones than in class, where the only thing they do is to look a screen and, sometimes, play interactive games.

Another problem of the introduction of the ICTS in the classrooms is that, sometimes, they don’t work properly, slowing the pace of the class. Furthermore, most of the teachers are not enough prepared to use them and, therefore, to teach them.

Finally, I would like to highlight the importance that the social background and families have in the correct development of children. I’ve checked how, in most of the cases, children that receive support from their families and that have a balanced and peaceful social background have better results that the ones who are not as lucky. School is supposed to mitigate these social differences, but there are certain cases in which this work is very difficult or even impossible. For example, there is a kid in 1^st grade classroom whose parents, are separated and he lives one week with his mother and another with his father. The week that he is staying at his father’s house, he arrives to school awake, concentrated, clean, with a snack for the playtime, etc. But the week that he is staying at his mother’s house, it is the opposite. Some days his mother falls asleep and he arrives late at school (if he arrives), he comes dirty and with the same clothes than the day before, sleepy, etc. So, that week is very difficult to work anything with him.

In conclusion, these two months have made me reflect about a lot of important topics related to Education, and have made me more aware of the reality at schools.

 THE CLASSROOM