Piaget in My Classroom

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, felt that all people pass through four stages of cognitive development in basically the same order. The students I will be teaching will most likely be in Piaget's Concrete-Operational or Formal Operational Stages.

As I teach my Spanish classes I am going to try to keep Piaget's development stages in mind so that I can teach at appropriate levels.

For example:

When I teach direct object pronouns I will be aware that this concept will naturally cause disequilibrium because Spanish direct object pronouns are used quite differently than English direct object pronouns. To help my students assimilate I will build on what my students know about direct object pronouns in English. I will do a Whack a Mole assessment to see how much my students already know, then I will review subject-verb-direct object on the whiteboard. I will make use of different colored pens as I diagram (not literally) direct object pronouns in English. I will give the students opportunities to determine direct objects in sentences and then make up their own sentences with direct objects.

Then I will ask the students if they know how to say "it," "me," "you," "him," "her," "us," or "them" in Spanish. After they either come up with the answers or I show them the correlating Spanish pronouns they will be able to see how Spanish has some similarities with English.

Then I can show them how Spanish differs from English so they can accommodate and learn a new way--the Spanish way--for using direct object pronouns.

I will then introduce "lo,"  and "la." We will play a simple game with "la pluma" y el "lápiz." We will pass the pencil around the room and I will ask, "¿Quién tiene el lápiz? and the students will respond appropriately using the direct object pronoun:  "Alex lo tiene." and for the pen: "¿Quién tiene la pluma?  "Sara la tiene." I will have the students play lots of games using direct object pronouns so it is FUN AND they get LOTS OF REPETITION!

I will also have the students (possibly in groups or with a partner) classify and group objects under the appropriate pronouns making sure to watch out for and classify correctly masculine and feminine and singular and plural nouns.  

For my students in Piaget's formal stage I will still do the above activities, and I will maybe add a quick project where the students can work together to design a new way (technology, art, music, role-play, creating a game)to teach this concept to someone who still might be struggling. The students can then present their mini-projects to the class, which will reinforce learning on multiple levels.