Since August, I have been giving weekly workshops with the elementary teachers at my school. Every Friday afternoon, the children go outside to play, and we meet for an hour and a half. In these meetings, I share different techniques and materials with them, and then their job is to implement the new methodology in their classrooms. So far I have been focusing on literacy and attempting to convince the teachers that my pedagogy works. I always like to give as a motivation to my teachers the example that to pass Kindergarten in the United States, you must be able to read and write. I then proceed to say that I refuse to believe that American children are naturally smarter than Paraguayans, so what is missing? The answer? Good teaching, commitment to education, and high standards.
The traditional way of teaching reading is by using syllables. A consonant is tacked on to each vowel and the children are supposed to memorize the 5 syllables. For example, ma-me-mi-mo-mu. As students go along reading, they say the names of the letters and then their syllable. For example, for the word "mamá" m-a-ma. m-a-ma. mamá. This technique is painfully terrible. It is not practical, efficient nor effective. A hilarious example of flaws in the Paraguayan school system was in a joke I found in a newspaper using the words for grapefruit; in Spanish, "pomelo" and in Guarani, "grei fu." It showed a picture of a grapefruit and a child reading the word "p-o-po. m-e-me. l-o-lo." The teacher then asks the child what is the word and the child says "grei fu." Thankfully I am leading my teachers away from the syllabic method. We have now put abecedarios (alphabets) in each classroom, and the teachers are now teaching literacy by individual letters and their sounds.
Although this is a mammoth step for the education of Paraguayan children, it is only one small part of teaching literacy. Knowing letter sounds helps for decoding words, but ensuring that children actually understand what they are reading and even more, thinking critically about the material they digest is an entire different process. I feel that I have arrived at the point with my teachers and with the students at my school where they are ready to move to this next step. They are anxious for more stimulating ideas, and it is plain to see that the children are in need of more support to continue advancing. The next step in my plan is to start a comprehension initiative and show teachers the importance of using all different kinds of reading and writing in the classroom. But every time I sit down to start planning my workshops, I am faced with the same problem: there are no books. How are we supposed to teach reading if there are no books that we can use?
Back in July, along with the women I work with in the Supervision office, various members of the community, and the future mayor (she just won this past Sunday!!), we formed a Pro-Library Commission to build a public library in Natalio. Plans are in the works; we already have the plot of land and are discussing with the architect. We are currently planning our first fundraiser - the Miss Natalio Beauty Pageant, which will be held on November 27th and is usually extremely successful. (And should be hilarious.)
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, one part of my job is to connect people with resources. Seeing as there are lots of organizations and embassies that have large quantities of books just begging to be donated, my job in our Commission is to contact these agencies to begin requesting books. While the most important component of my projects is sustainability, teaching people how to self-motivate and encouraging resources and development to come from within the community, at the same time, I know I have lots of dear family and friends back in the States wondering how they could possibly support me and my community. As I have been highly impressed by the participation and motivation from my community, I think it would be only appropriate to make this library project a collaborative effort between my Paraguayan network and my network in the States.
So, en este momento, I would like to invite you all to be a part of my library project by donating books.
Logistics:
- books should be IN SPANISH
- for any level
- books should be mailed in a package to me, as a gift to me, and then I in turn will donate "my" books to the library (My address is to the right.)
- I will continue to accept book donations until the end of my service in April 2012.
- For large-scale book or monetary donations, please email me at lizzie.greer@gmail.com so I can consult Peace Corps regulations and can work out a way to receive your donation.
With the support and dedication from the community along with your help, I believe that this project can and will be made a reality. It is my goal, my dream, to see classrooms where instead of copying off the board, students are reading, writing, learning, laughing, living. I want to close with a quote from a poster that is in my office at the Supervision.
Con ilusión empecé
Con esperanza seguí
y con esfuerzo llegué
a la meta que soñé.
With illusion I began
with hope I continued
and with strength I arrived
at the goal that I dreamed.
