From: info.taalvormingeuronet.nl
Date: Sat Dec 18 10:09:35 1999

How do I tell it the others

Whole Language in group 4 (7 and 8 year old children) of a 'basisschool' in Amsterdam

The children enter the classroom and look for a place in the 'tellingcircle'. They look at me full expectation. I am sitting on a blue office chair turning a bit around. One of the children starts: "I know you, do you know about that little pig that was going to fly?". "No", shout another, "that where Frog and Toad who where gonna to fly" I ask when it was, and where. "We where in group 2 and we where going to work with stamps and coloured inkpads, and you where reading the story of Frog and Toad for us, do you remember?" Suddenly I remember the beautiful birds the children where stamping. I ask the children if they know one word again out of the story I read two years ago. All the names of the animals out of the stories are mentioned, but I am not satisfied. "Tell me with one word what happened in those stories". "Flying", "Baking cakes, no, eating cakes". "Falling on the ice". They shout as their words are tumbling over each other. "And what where you doing yourself when I was with you?" "Whe went printing our stories with stamps and stencils and using red colours with our rollers"
The 'tellingcircle' is about how you look when you are getting a red colour yourself. "When you are shy you are getting a red head" "Also when it is very cold" "I am not redding, I am whitening when I am going cold" a Surinam girl says. "I grow red when my father is turning the shower to high". "And I get a red head when I am standing on my head" "Show it", I ask. The tables are putting aside and hop, there is one standing upside down. I am holding her legs a bit otherwise it will go wrong. We are doing: "who can hold his breath the longest time?" and watch how red we grow.

How will I tell the others that the children just had a language lesson with nouns and conjugate verbs. That they learned meanings while standing on their heads or holding their breath in the group. That they learned to use a single word to describe a whole situating?

Not so long ago I bought "Laura's stories", written by Laura Ranger, a eleven year old girl from New Zealand. One of the stories of Laura Ranger is telling about two girlfriends who are making fuzz for the boys. "In the schooldisco they wear high heels and a tight dress, and in front they stuffed tissues under their clothes for breasts. When they wear the false breasts in the swimmingpool the tissues were soaked and fell out. The boys laughed at them". And so the story goes on about the cosmetics they use and the many candy's they eat and their strange mother who is cooking bad tasting food. While I am reading aloud, I look carefully around to notice how the story is falling. I ask: "Cosmetics" what is that? At once there are lots of stuff mentioned. Again I am not satisfied and I want to know what you are doing with the stuff. It goes about dirty clay masks and mascara, how you brush and comb one's hair. "Who is stuffing tissues under one's sweater?" A moment the girls hesitate, but then the stories are coming. How they doing it at home and at school while dressing after the gym. About mandarins under your T-shirt and about belts and high heels.

How will I tell the others that a story, written by a child in New Zealand of the same Age as our children, can tell about fake breasts and fake nails and lipstick, without the group grow hilarious. That it is very good possible to talk about a subject like this without boys shuffling each other of their chairs out of shyness and the girls crawling giggling together. How will I tell the others that there is no need to keep particular subjects away from them. How will I tell the others that there is a atmosphere of trust in the group and how that happened. And what I mean with "A safe language situation".

The children are writing lists of things according to making yourself beautiful, tart yourself up and the spots where you do so. Than follows a twinspeach about one word out of that list, I ask the children emphatic just the write the important part of the story. Not that long introduction, but at once to the point, what was going on. The reading of the stories goes almost independent. The children wait for a good moment, and stand up to read their story. Without hands in the air and groaning: "Now I want". When I heard all the stories I notice that they can write more concise. I ask them to underline those fragments. It works and we read those fragments fast after each other. The fragments are beautiful. Now I ask if they want to rewrite the underlined sentence and write a follow up. It is allowed to look like the first story, but it is possible to add new things. Now the children get really the taste of it and they write red-cheeked . Writing gives you a red head.

How will I tell the others what the value of this lesson is by "zooming in" a text. What there has to be to understand in the story. 'Nouns, a pronoun used attributively, verbs and irregular verbs', but those notions we do not use. The value of rewriting and not being satisfied with the first scribbling with of without spelling errors. We are developing a linguistic feeling which takes care that a experience grows into a text, and of course, in the heads of the children. And there it stay's as a nice adventure, put away in a safe place.
How will I tell the others what it is to write a 'experiencetext' and at the same time practising all kinds of language exercise without the children noticing that they have a 'languagelesson'.
How do I tell the others what Learning a language really is? About the rich language environment in this lessons.

This time the reading goes with 'Quackers'. One of every five children has a wooden duck or a toy duck in the hand. That is the 'speaker' or the 'Quacker' as the children call it. The speaker is the one who reads a story and find someone else to read. In every little group of five there have decision's to make about different questions. The little duck is the sign of who has the turn of leading the subgroup to a good performance. Out of every story I write one word in a certain column on the blackboard. "Which word belongs is what column?" The column of the cosmetics is the longest. Also the line of the clothes and of the spots where you take a shower and brushes your hair. There is a column of things you eat and a short one in which there are the words 'laser gun' and 'disco'.
I go and sit outside the circle while the children are questioning each other about the words on the blackboard. I like them to put a question in a complete sentence and the answers should be likewise. I am sitting outside the circle because I like the children to direct themselves to each other instead to the teacher. They do so, only a few are turning their heads towards me to look what I think about their actions. I like the round of questions very much, but the children know that themselves very well, there is no need to hear so from me, is not it?

How do I tell the others that there is a possibility for the group to teach each other, that they do not need the teacher? How do I tell the other teachers and schoolmasters that they can stand back a little without fear for lack of discipline. That as the children have a sense of real freedom, they have no need to disturb the peace in the classroom. Oh well, almost not.

After the break on the playground I feel the red cheeks of the children. They are ice-cold. Their foreheads are sweated. You get a red colour by playing in the cold. When they eat and drink I read some poems of Laura Ranger to them. I am astonished about the intense way the eleven year old Laura is looking at the things around her. It is the same way our children do. Intense observation is good for Whole Language.

Our language lesson is going on. The children are writing and drawing on sheets of paper on which there are a number of little squares printed. They choose words from the blackboard and make little drawings inside the squares. They do not draw the subject but the things which are connected with the word. To trousers: a belt, dress and button, mascara and a eyes. It is not so obvious as it likes to be. They are used to draw the object itself. This time they have to ad something to it. After that they have to 'read' the drawing, making a sentence in their head while looking at their little drawing. To read words you have written before is easy, reading a drawing is another question. As they have the feeling of it the sentences are coming easy. It is time to make more of it, to do more with the form and content. I ask for more information in it. In stead of "My shoes in the cupboard" is "I put my shoes in the cupboard" better. Are there more ways of getting your shoes in the cupboard? The children know it: "Kicking", "Smashing", "Throwing" "Putting away". We talk about the way every thing goes at the hairdresser. A girl tells: "At the hairdresser I am going to cut my hair" I ask them if it is like this, that the hairdresser is sitting in the corner to look how you are cutting your hair yourself? The children are laughing: "Of course not" Yet they are using "going to" in that way. They agree that "I am going to the hairdresser to get my hair done" is better. The same happens when a boy writes: "I am sitting to play football" Again the children are surprised. They do not play the game while they are sitting, everybody knows so" The Surinam children do the same with the word "setting" They use it instead of putting in the sentence: "I am setting nail polish on my nails" But also instead of making in the sentence: "I am setting a pot of tea".

How do I tell the others that it is possible to read aloud from a drawing. How important it is for a teacher not to easy to say: "Just make a nice drawing to your story" How important is to understand that drawings are 'language' as well, with the same rules as language with words.
How do I tell the others how proud and happy the children are to read from their own writing, even when they hesitate at first.
How do I tell the others what I experience when a child with red cheeks standing beside me, reading and seeking for an even better sentence or an other word. I am proud and happy when they do it all the same.

At the end of the lesson I like the children to look back on what they have done this morning. I ask them what the most difficult part of it was. "Nothing was difficult, everything was fun". "The easy part was listening to the stories of the others" But what was strange or ridiculous? "The most funniest part of the lesson was that with the stuffed paper in our sweaters". That's the way a evaluation goes.

How do I tell the others that it is a good idea to end a lesson like this instead of " Take your coat and be quiet in the hall".

When the children are gone I talk with the teacher about this lesson. We agree that it was a happy lesson and that we are proud of our children. That there is no need for any blanks exercise. How difficult it is for a teacher to get the right ideas at the right times. How difficult it is to explain the essence of a way of working to a colleague who was not present.

How do I tell the others what Whole Language ('Taalvorming' in Dutch) is and that you must depend on your own expertise. That it is not necessary to follow a language method and giving away your own ideas. That it is impossible to work with Taalvorming in a programmed way, with programmed themes. That there is no need to do so in order to reach the language aims.
How do I tell the others that there is a difference between giving a language lesson to pupils, and working together with children on their language. That it gives you a good feeling to do so and to launch your creativity for it.
How do I tell the others that there is a additional value to Taalvorming.
The texts the children are writing are unique and come out of their own experience in staid of out of a course book. Feeling for own texts and a own language and each others texts and language is developed.

I have to look very often and very closely to children to tell others what Taalvorming (Whole Language) is.

Henk van Faassen