WHY PRIMARY TEACHERS FROM FINLAND DEAL SO
SUCCESSFULLY WITH LITERACY IN THE PRIMARY YEARS? SOME IDEAS
In that Country there is
the idea of children learns by doing. We can see a class where the children are
working separately and the teacher helps them in some specifics moments.
In early ages they don’t
learn at the same speed at others. For example, in the video, we can see that
there are lots of different levels in the same class.
Some of them are written a whole book with 6 pages and now they are doings
their covers, and others are still working in their stories. Some of them have
papers books with corrections and they are writing them in the computers to
print them after, and other ones are writing directly in the computers.
In the curriculum the
reading and learning skill are reflected in different kinds of text. They were
seeing poems, information texts, stories and jokes. Also, the actual activity
is focus on creativity and the aim that they can express themselves (not
important only for writing but also for oral expression)
Different spaces at the
same time. The have freedom to move into the class to the library upstairs.
There isn’t a unique class with only a teacher, and a unique task.
Telling stories: all the
children do their own hand puppets to work with drama for write the stories
after. Furthermore, telling stories is a routine in the everyday school.
The organization of the
day class: They start by making a circle, a good way to introduce the children
to the school day with some sounds and rhythms to make they calm. They manage
the idea that all the children want to say something talking in a small groups.
With this idea the teacher encourage the time to communicate. This activity
finish with some fed-back for the whole class (one child of each group say what
were they talking about).
For the activity of making
books they started by doing a magazine where everybody could include stories of
their own. Now they can put all their own stories into one book. They had have
the change of develop imagination
When the children finish
the principal project they can move it for other story. In the library they can
play games about reading and writings skills (opposites, read newspapers…)
Key factors: resources,
personality education, and less people with lower abilities. Also, the society
in that country appreciates education a lot. They are focus in learn other
languages at very early stages. For that you have to know very well your own
language to learn another one. They give the story-telling and playing a lot of
importance in child’s growth.
The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), written by Hanif Kureishi, won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel. It has been translated into 20 languages and was also made into a four-partdrama series by the BBC in 1993, with a soundtrack by David Bowie.
The suburbs are "a leaving place" from which Kureishi's characters must move away. To Karim, London—even though it is geographically not far away from his home—seems like a completely different world. Therefore his expectations of the city are great.
