I also know that if I someday use Words in Color and the language charts I should see how they are used in a real classroom!   So what better place to go to fulfill these needs than the pre-eminent school in North America fully dedicated to using Gattegno’s approach, The Bronx School for Better Learning.

This blog will document briefly some of the experiences and learning I had there.  Out of the many different activities I observe each day I will highlight the ones that apply most to the teaching approach and tools of Gattegno.

Monday Jan 25^th

I arrived on Monday morning just as classes were starting.  I was invited to sit in on a grade 1 class.  When I arrived they were working with shapes and blocks at group tables – a sort of free play with blocks and other shapes– and obviously busy and having fun with the task.  After some time the teacher asks them to come over to the carpet area and sit quietly.  Once they are settled and quiet he asks each in turn what they did with the materials they were using. Some made patterns, stairs,  many made spinners, one girl described building a castle to protect the King and Queen.  I noticed that they were very attentive to the teacher and each other during this time.  They wanted a turn to say what they did and hear what the others did also.

The Spanish teacher arrived to give a 30-minute lesson to the Grade 1’s using the Spanish charts.  The teacher used the Fidel to help the class say some of the vowel sounds and other word charts for numbers.  The kids were very excited to be using their Spanish words and often shouted out answers and repeated their answers several times. While the class was working on some Spanish numbers, one group of kids started using their knowledge of Korean numbers and started a discussion on that!  While it was all a little less “orderly” than some lessons, the level of interest and engagement of the students was very high and many were working hard to learn to say the words well.

During two visits to grade 1 classrooms to see English language arts lessons, I observed students who knew the color rectangle chart very well.  From the teacher’s silent direction of pointing to a sequence of colors, they were able to say the words.  The lesson was handled on an orderly way; each time the teacher pointed to a sequence, many hands went up, all excited to tell their answer.  Next, some students came up to point to the colors to show the word they wanted the class to know.  The teacher did not tell the student they were right or wrong but asked the class for a vote.  This seems like a clever way to delegate responsibility onto the class for deciding on correct answers.  It was very energizing to see the teacher and students using the charts so comfortably!

At the end of the day I was fortunate to participate in  a seminar for new teachers on using the language charts.  Two teachers, new to the school, had some questions and concerns about how to use the charts effectively.  They suggested the charts were difficult and possibly confusing to use with some students.  One question asked was about the order of the words on the charts and the order of the charts themselves.  There was also some concern about the order of letters on the Fidel.  Rather than addressing these concerns directly, the seminar leader simply led them through the approach that they could use with the materials.  He started with the “quay” (pronounced key) and led us through the steps of how to say it correctly, then showed us using a table and wall what it a “quay” was.  We also worked on how to pronounce “blackguard” using the Fidel.  The point I believe, is that the colors help them through the process of how to say some words.  They can then be asked to use the words in sentences to show meaning, and so on.  The colors (the Fidel) help them solve the problem or the challenge of learning English.

We then worked on using the Fidel to say the sounds, sliding our arm/pointer down the column of different spellings for the same sound as we did so.  The leader of course did not once tell us how to say any words or sounds correctly.  He did not “model” the sounds!

This was only the second time I had seen how the charts could be used to advance vocabulary with correct pronunciation. Although I came to this seminar just to observe, I found myself eagerly particpating in the learing process.  At the end, we all had a more clear idea of how use the charts and a better sense of their rational organization.

Looking forward to the next day!…….