A MUST-WATCH film for us as teachers! 98% of children are born gifted and only 2% remain so when they leave school. Something went wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVe5yVMIGqM&feature=player_embedded

NATIONAL BILINGUALISM PROGRAM IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

 

  The Colombian government established The National Plan of Bilingualism in 2004 under the leadership of ex-President Alvaro Uribe Velez. Due to globalization any country which wanted to keep up with these new conditions had to strive to reach the level of the current process.

That’s why Language got a lot of attention; a monolingual community (Spanish) had to learn a foreign language: English.  And what about those minority communities where nor Spanish neither English was spoken?

 

These communities played an important role in this National Plan of Bilingualism; this plan was in charge of 3 sectors: Teaching and Learning English as a foreign language, Teaching and Learning English as a second language and finally; Ethnoeducation (languages ​​of cultural identification, Spanish as a second language, Spanish in boarders and other languages). (Plan Nacional de Bilingüismo, 2004)

 

  Indigenous communities in Colombia began to have the first contacts with settlers since the 50’s when people from Antioquia, Santander and Tolima arrived to their lands due to the violence for those years. The incorporation of the indigenous communities into the national education system with the imposition of unicultural and monolingual Spanish schools in these zones was one of the most significant influences that settlers brought to them with their arrival.

It was only in 1978 when indigenous leaders began to claim for having a bilingual and bicultural education; this became more evident in 2004 with the National Plan of Bilinguism.   The National Plan of Bilinguism has had serious criticism due to the inefficiency of their programs in the real world; it appears to be simple to apply such a policy in the Spanish schools but the results has shown us a very discouraging outlook. This program faces a bigger challenge by hosting other contexts which are much more complex and richer in languages: Spanish in boarders and other languages; the government must deal with a multilingual culture.

 

Nowadays in those regions there are two-language schools ​​with different conditions and status, the teacher speaks Spanish and the student speaks his/her native language; they confront two semantic universes: the teaching of languages ​​(Spanish /native language) and the language of instruction (Spanish).

 

One of the main problems is that government translates the National Spanish program into the native language without taking into account their culture and believes; this is not a bicultural and bilingual education, this is just a translation of the “little brothers academic system”. The problem is even more complex; According to Jurado (2009) the Ministry of Education does not design teaching methods and programs consistent and coupled with the multilingual and bicultural objectives, there is a risk of acculturate the child in the own language.

 

The Ministry of Education is not ready for talking about bilinguism in Indigenous communities because there are several situations that will have to face  before teaching Spanish to those communities;  Trillos (19969)another difficult situation is that just in La Sierra Nevada exists more than 6 native languages, so a child who  speak wiwa, goes to the “bilingual school” for taking classes from a “little brother teacher” who speaks Spanish, nevertheless, there are other child who speaks kogui and other who speaks arawak with him; there must exists an excellent official program for such a variety of language and culture in which must be taking into account the students diversity and the excellent preparation of the teacher; not just in the cultural aspect but also in this rich multilingual context in which he is teaching.

 

Another issue to be taking into account in this pretense of teaching Spanish to the Indigenous Communities in Colombia is that most of those native languages does not have writing system; they are just spoken by the Indies in a 90% and a 10 % is left for a kind of draws and signs. Instead Spanish is taught in its writing and reading system. It is said that this knowledge (writing and reading Spanish) is not used outside the classroom; although they are learning Spanish as a second language they do not have the obligation of speak in Spanish in their social lives because they go home and they continue using their native language for communication. So it demonstrates that children do not use Spanish as a language for communication; it is just a Government Spanish schools requirement.

 

 As a conclusion it can be said that indigenous communities have fought for keeping their native language through news generations; nevertheless they have worked for the bilinguistic change (Spanish/Native Languages) in their schools and community in general. But an adequate and well prepared program is not ready for carrying out this important job. Teachers are not well prepared and the National Program is not suitable for being applying in those multilingual communities.

 

An issue in which The Ministry of Education must know and take into account is that those communities have shown motivation for learning and teaching their own native language, as well as they are working on drawing their own alphabet for each native language and writing rules for being used in the schools. In this way; they can learn new knowledge in their own language avoiding being acculturated, and at the same time those native languages can be expanded and enriched grammatically; opening space for these languages to ​​become stronger and also an official language in Colombia someday.

I never took a test!!

According to Genesee & Upshur (1996) there are many tools for assessing students without test, that’s the best news that a student tired of tests could hear.

As an alternative therapy´s student I got that news; I never took a test!! Instead, for my pleasure I explored other fun tools for assessing me, which definitely ensured my learning so much that I could not forget those lessons even years later, many people would say: that´s because the content was suitable for that.

On the other hand, as an ESL´s student I always had to deal with tests; so, it was clear to me that the tool I choose for assessing depends in highly degree on the content I teach.

Somewhat naïvely I would say that a tool as a journal, a portfolio, a questionnaire, an interview, etc, could be adjusted to teach ESL, or even more to learn ESL; but according to my experience in my early years of learning English I never was faced with other assessing tool but with tests.

Those alternative tools, at least the interviews, were used in classes with a lower degree of significance in terms of grades and when I go back to those days, those lessons are in my memory till today with a highly learning degree; definitely I cannot say the same about tests.

It does not mean that apply alternative tools for assessing students are shaped by my experiences, actually I am totally disposed to do my best in order to assessing without test 40 students in front of me. It would be a thermometer to prove me as a teacher in a regular classroom.

Applying those kinds of tools must bring out the best in me as a teacher; and most of all, what is important is to understand that the logic proposed by Genesee and Upshur (1996) to approach alternative assessment applies to any field, courses, lessons, even activities, etc.  in the same general way.

MUST WATCH!!

What we think we do and what we actually do in the classroom. Thanks to the observation!

It's time to assess!

When I got a job, my first job as a teacher, I didn't have idea  what I was doing, I followed my instinct and started to plan classes and design tests and all about  primary school English classes; and for doing something without a single technique, just common sense and a lot of reasearch; it resulted in a very nice experience.

 

So I remember, assessing my little students during the class, observing them, taking notes, giving them feedback, etc. Because I was more concerned  whit their learning rather than scores,  still I did not know how complicated it was to shed a result.

 

When the school was preparing the week for assessing students, only through tests, I just entered in panic; I knew that kids tend to feel uncomfortable during tests, so I tried to do it in the best way I could, anyway they were in panic too; some kind of pressure and stress takes possession of tests's takers, and I felt sorry for them.

 

I used to design the tests, I did not follow any principle, at least I thought that, and there were moments, I felt irresponsible for doing things that should be done with proper preparation.

At the end I tried to combine my notes, my observation during the process, etc,  with the test score, to give to the school a final result for each student.

 

I am sure that it happens to many teachers and in many schools, I mean, feeling that there is a  better way to do things, but the problema is that in some cases, they don't do nothing about it. This is how I jumped to this conclusión because  our culture revolves around measuring knowledge  through a traditional test, even though they have enough knowledge to also design and apply alternatives ways of  language assessment, but still they don't do nothing neither.

 

Now I realize that the key of assessment is to have at least the intention to do it well, in favor of the teaching-learning process. So, I was not as wrong as I thoght, but still there is space for learning a lot of important theories and principles and why not propose new ones, in order to be professionals in our field.

 

Anyway, the key is the willingness to do so no matter how much knowledge possesses.

Assessment or testing

By way of introduction, I can say the word "assessment" is not very attractive for me, because a number of key issues arise from my mind; nervous, fear to fail, angry to be typecasted or that my potencial could be neutered as a result of be assessed (or more suitable tested). There is a clear distinction between assessement and test, which is actually what makes me feel like that, the thing is that both concepts are mistakenly taken as synonims.

 

For the great majority of people assessment must be presented in any academic context, and after reading to Genesee and Upshur I agree; it seems to me that assessment is like doing research for going a step further in the process of teaching and learning. The gist of the matter is that the objectives of the assessment are limited to get a score to fill an academic requirement at the end of the course, which actually would be testing.

 

To reach the decision making stage, I really want to believe that the teacher asked to his students which got a low score in the test if they were tired the day of the test, or just that he took into account all the different contexts in which each student in his class live, in order to enhance the student learning and his own performance as a teacher.

 

But not, may be it happens in institutions which I do not know, because I have been assessed...or tested... for about 20 years of my life, and no one took into account my context and background when I got a low score. I want to think that those procedures are used for a special case in which a special student has serious problems in his performance. So, I was not as bad as them.

 

When we look classrooms with 40-50 students, it seems to me that commitment must exists not only from the teacher (who is a key agent) but from institutions and beyond, the educational system, not only testing but also and really important, assessing students; and as a result of a good assessment, it can be useful to improve teacher instruction and to enhance students learning process. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi!

Hi! In this blog  I'll be posting my comments about assessment's readings for the next 5 months.