September 10, 2010

Based on that excellent clip I just posted about Sugata Mitra's work with child led learning, I decided to do an experiment of my own.   The children know they are expected to learn a second language.  Henry chose Italian and Riley chose ASL. Fine.  Yesterday I told them, in lieu of formal lessons, I wanted them to work together to learn their languages.  I told them they had unlimited access to the computer which would not count toward their daily screen time (normally 2 hours.)  They are expected to work together and help each other.  Beyond that, I don't care how they do it, which language they work on first, what resources they need, or how long it takes them.

Today they decided to start.  They spent perhaps an hour working online.   Then I interrupted them for lunch.  At lunch they chattered at me in ASL, in a rather naughty way I was delighted to note, since I had not the first clue what they were saying.  But they knew.  And just as Sugata Mitra noticed, they kept chatting about their work -- the sign for this word or that.  Which is to say, reviewing their studies like the solid good scholars they are.

1 comment:

Cecelia (CC) said...

thanks for bringing such gold nuggets into our lives.