A kindergarten type activity for MA students!

Look what we did last week in our teaching language skills class! we were asked to make groups of fours while we all had a paper containing different concepts of education. on the paper it was written:

Many educators believe that any rigorious language learning program is made of components like: Student, Teacher, Parents, Context, Milieu, Theatrical framework, and Curriculum.

We were asked to think about these concepts and describe them in a "Picture"!!!WOW

First we were shocked, because in this level ,(MA), you never expect your teacher to give you blank sheets of paper with crayons and ask you to DRAW a colorful picture! Such a thing is usually done in kindergartens!! right???

Any way, we divided in to groups of fours ...still confused!...and started to think about the concepts. As soon as we started thinking about a good picture and a suitable way of illustrating the concepts of language learning, we found it very interesting and entertaining! many pictures crossed our minds. At last our group decided to show all the concepts in a GARDEN, " Garden of education"....nice!!! Isn't it??!

As you can see in our drawing, we simulated these concepts to trees, soil, sun, river, gardener, and so forth..

And here is a list of our similes:

1. Sapling: Lower level students

2. Tree: Higher level students

3. Gardener: Teacher

4. Sun: Parents

5. Fruit: Knowledge, attitude, self confidence,maturity

6. Fence: Curriculum

7. Soil: Context

8. River: Milieu

9. insects: obstacles in the path of learning

The teacher like a gardener who takes care of the trees and helps them grow, helps the students to grow and become knowledgeable. The teacher facilitates the process of learning. It is obvious that a garden with out the trees is meaningless, just like the educational system with out students. students are the most importand elements in an educational system. They are the central concepts! Soil is the context in our educational garden. with out it, growth is impossible! Parents , like the sun, are out side of the context; but their presence plays a vital role in educational growth. like the sun that shines for the trees, they can shine for their children and motivate them to try harder.Fences of the garden are the curriculum in our educational system, which show us the borders and limits. The river is the milieu that flows naturaly, and since our gardener is a good one, he has made branches of the river in to his garden! A good teacher should use the milieu (The way the world looks at educarion) in his educational program. Insects are harmful for the growth of the trees, just like the obstacles of learning for the growth of the students' knowledge. And at last, the whole picture is our Theatrical framework.

Other groups in our class also drew wonderful pictures with great similes. They simulated the educational system to a FOOTBAL FIELD, and a VEHICLE.

I could never, ever imagine how useful this activity could be until I did it! Now I have a better and clearer picture of these concepts in my mind and I think I can distinguish them much better!

~Special thanks to our professor Dr Mahdavinia~