This project is being carried out with forty students of 6th grade who are between 10-13 years old and study at Prado Veraniego School ( a government school institution from Bogotá, Colombia). In order to get information about all the intelligences and personal tastes and preferences, a CUIM test was applied to them. It was found that more than 70 percent of students prefer spontaneous activities such as bodily kinesthetic, and interpersonal activities rather than planned ones.
For this reason, this project has the objective of encouraging children to write by using these kind of activities aforementioned. On the other hand, I found out that Writing skills were the main problem into the classroom. Therefore, by using bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal activities, it can significantly increase writing achievement and learning for all the students taking into account that “learning processes have to be organised as door openers that enhance the motivation to learn and lead to a range of further options”. Relationships are key in getting students of all abilities to work together and feel part of a school or classroom community: Teachers need to build trust in order for this happen. For this reason, the focus of my Research project is about teamwork activities through interpersonal and Bodily- kinesthetic activities with the aim of developing a meaningful communication, interaction, positive relationships, genuine empathy to other people’s feelings and emotions, and knowing oneself.
First
of all, Bodily- kinesthetic activities aim to promote abilities in order to
use parts of the body or the entire body to solve problems or challenges. It
requires to coordinate mind with body, and to perform a perfect physical
activity. Athletes, dancers, actors and sculptors are a good example of
people who develop those kind of skills.
On
the other hand, interpersonal activities aim to students learn through
interaction. Interpersonal relations among students from different ethnic and
socioeconomic background would reduce prejudice and improve communication
with others.
The corporal-kinesthetic and
interpersonal activities were taught through competitions, physical
activities or acting. Throughout activities applied into the classroom, I had
into account, the following skills:
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Advantages
- The
activities promote a high participation as well as the creation of
collective imaginaries.
- Students
learn how to work in groups in order to explore different ways of
thinking.
- Many
students enjoy activities that involve movement.
Disadvantages:
- The classroom is too small for so many students. It hinders the development of physical activities.
- Monitoring
becomes extremely difficult into a large class because of misbehaviors and
attention deficit issues.
- Some students do not like group activities. It causes anxiety and isolation.
HOW CAN I REDUCE T HE MAIN DISAVANTAGES I FOUND IN THE CLASSROOM?
This is a great topic for creating interaction in the classroom. What activities would you recommend for a small classroom?
ResponderEliminarI've implemented some physical activities in the classroom. As you mentioned, most of the students enjoy performing these activities. However, I've seen that there is always a small group that does not participate because of shyness or simply because they are afraid of mockery.How do you deal with this type of limiting factors in the classroom?
ResponderEliminarThanks for this information. Another important aspect, when creating group activities, is the perception of the students towards the group working (Kondo, 2010). Indeed, in many cases the students believe that these activities merely aim to have fun; then, fundamental benefits of group working, such as the reduction of workload and helping each other, are forgotten. This is why discussing on this topic (group working), before implementing the activities, is a proper manner to help the students to participate and be engaged in the tasks.
ResponderEliminarReference: Kondo, A. (2010). Students’ perception of group work in EFL class. Nara National College of Technology. Taken from: https://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/contentscinii_110008114742.pdf?id=ART0009639811