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VisitDate: 00/00/96
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Date: 21 Nov 1996
Time: 17:51:02
Remote Name: tsb-60.ucsc.edu
Hi Valerie!
That's wonderful that Nela was able to take the information/knowledge she gained by working with you and share it with someone else. That's what learning is all about huh? What good is having knowledge if it can't be shared. :) It's been said that we enhance our own understanding of something after having taught it to someone else. It would be interesting to know how or if Nela's skill at playing the game has improved since. What do you think?
The fact that Nela doesn't speak very much, if any english. How have you assessed her understanding of the game? You mentioned you don't think either of them can read english, then how would you explain their ability to type the words correctly? Does their ability to do the task mean they understand it? I'm asking because I've worked with Nela on a reading/matching/memorization game (MY FN#3)that was also written in English and I was confronted with this same issue. Do you think language masks evidence of learning? In your example it didn't seem to, they were able to do the task despite it being in english. Interesting.
You said, ".. young girl came in and was playing the lion king. she didnt really know what to do so she was just clicking on the songs. i went and sat by her but she didnt say anything so i went back over to calixa."
What, if anything, did you say to her when you went and sat by her? You said she did not say anything so you went back to Calixa, were you expecting her to ask for help? Had you ever worked with this girl before? I wonder if sometimes kids really do want to ask for our help but sometimes they don't know how to ask, or they may want us to just offer. It's hard to know. Many times I've sat down next to a kid and said nothing because I was unsure how exactly to offer assistance, without making them think I think they don't know what they are doing.
Its funny to see all the similarities in our experiences with the kids. There seem to be certain key things that continue to come up.
Nice field note. Christie