Piaget y Vygotsky hablan español T2P Module 4

Every new mommy that ever took a psychology class loves Jean Piaget and his stages of cognitive development.  When you have your baby, you get to see the textbook come to life.   Look!  My baby is sensorimotor! Wow! My son just  developed object permanence and knows his toys haven't gone anywhere.  For me, it was a little depressing as the mother of a child on the autism spectrum when she didn’t hit the milestones the way other children did. 

During my high school classroom hiatus being a mom to two toddlers, I taught 2 year olds Spanish.  Talk about cognitive development in action! That drove me nuts- you think they aren’t listening because they can’t sit still and you ask them a question and they smile or ask for juice.  Later during free choice time you hear them singing a song you taught them that morning or labeling objects in colors in Spanish.  Never think that they aren’t listening, they are.

While the mommy in me loves Piaget, the teacher of teenagers in me is a Vygotsky woman. Pouring the liquid from glass to glass is cute.  I am sure my students have concrete operations.  I want to hear them work out together how to ask for more water in Spanish. 

Lev Vygotsky believed that people in a child's world supported their cognitive development-it wasn't just happening to the child, the culture and social life were involved. He also believed in the "zone of proximal development" -this is the area where children can't solve a problem alone.  Children need to work together to find an answer.  As a teacher, I need to make them struggle a little to find that answer. This is what Vygotsky called "Scaffolding."  Once they have an answer, I give them another question, and scaffold them again.  

Whether you prefer Piaget or Vygotsky or a combination of both, it is all about experience and working together.  How can you work together if you are sitting in nice little rows copying notes off a board?   The only thing that is good for is laughing about at the 20^th reunion.  Twenty years later I want my students to speak Spanish, not laugh at my mood swings…Ok, maybe they can do both.

I prefer Vygotsky.

I like noisy teenagers.

Some Spanish teachers give a participation grade, I give a collaboration grade.  Collaboration to me means everyone at the table is playing their strengths.  It does not mean one person does all the work while another one copies.

I have found that as they sit in groups and say the words to each other or work on the projects together, they remember more.  Sometimes this could be a dialogue-where they act out a scene with a partner. This could also be grammar based- when they help each other learn the difference between ser and estar.  These can be simple flashcard drills or more advanced conversational questions.  The point is, they are working together to find the answers.

Anything they can do to interact with each other improves the Spanish content internalization and application.  This was the best thing about my online course.  My students had their coursework- a calendar of activities that they technically could have done alone, but twice a week we met to work together.  The majority of them preferred to speak and practice together.  It changed the dynamic of the course when they had classmates to interact with in the online live classroom.  The best part was no bathroom pass writing for me.

Always remember this as the teacher....

NO matter how perfect your lesson, exciting your activity, or innovative the technology, kids will be kids.  You have to teach the artist and the athlete.  You are working against the latest fight in the cafeteria.  Some of them can’t sit still to save their lives.  What is a brilliant idea to you is just work to them, and they would rather be gaming, playing ball, or making out with their girlfriend of boyfriend.

Sometimes I think getting them to stick with me is my zone of proximal development....

Keep scaffolding me, Lev.....