| Paul Palmer |
| Debora Ortega-Maldonado |
|
| Paraguay |
|
The purpose of our first workshop, Slow & Steady, is to promote literary comprehension amongst the deaf student population in Paraguay through the use of the classic text The Tortoise and the Hare (La Liebre y la Tortuga). In this workshop, we encourage students to think critically about the text and explore the deeper meanings and themes such as arrogance and perseverance. In addition, we have adapted the Pre-Text methodology to better serve hearing-impaired students through the implementation of physical games and activities as well as focus on textual comprehension over language skills. Students will leave with the tools to apply these themes to their daily lives in media, in careers, or in society at large. This workshop will start on June 26th. The workshop for the deaf students was part of an Instituto Desarrollo program for the Deaf. They are studying Sustainable Development, and they are college-aged and up.
- In our second workshop, Exploring English through Literature, we will aid undergraduate students at the Instituto Desarrollo with English textual comprehension as well as English language skills. We will be using Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven as a lens to explore complex themes and sentence structures. Instead of using prose, we chose to focus on poetry to compliment Paraguay’s rich tradition of poetry as well as retain student’s interest in the text more than straightforward prose might. In particular, The Raven possesses a significant amount of symbolic language, resulting in many layers to the poem for students to examine. In future workshops, students will be the facilitators and bring in their own texts to be analyzed by the class. This course appeals to a broad spectrum of English learners, enabling beginners to even advanced learners of English to either broaden or sharpen their language skills. This workshop will take place June 24th through the 28th.
- Third workshop, Thinking Outside of the Box: A Pre-Texts Workshop on Problem Solving, is a leadership based workshop on problem solving intended for high school students. We aim to develop critical thinking skills that can be applicable to aspects of everyday life as well as various societal problematics by analyzing literature that investigates alternative solutions to longstanding issues. In this first workshop, we will use prison abolition as a lens through which we can look at alternative solutions to long-standing issues; however, in subsequent workshops, students will be able to facilitate the workshops on their own and bring in their own texts. We aim to build critical thinking to improve problem solving abilities that can be applied to any educational/career pursuits. Furthermore, we believe that this alternative methodology will inspire students with a new sense of open-mindedness and encourage them to find new ways to answer problems in society. We will have two sessions of this workshop. The first will take place July 8th through July 12th, and the second will take place the following week.
- Regarding the public schools: we l we evaluated and took part in a pre-text session in class at Escuela Básica N° 162 Vicente Ignacio Iturbe, and we interviewed the director and the academic coordinator of Escuela Básica N° 617 Virgen Stella Maris.
- Along with the three workshops we have planned, we have also been updating the Pre-Texts manuals to be more clear and concise for teachers. The teachers had expressed some confusion with using both the manual and website as they found certain discrepancies and contradictions between the two which left them with uncertainty on which route to use. Our updated manual combines the two while still keeping the 5 step program and more directly encourages teachers to modify the routine to meet the needs of their students. In addition to working on this updated manual, we have also been going on visits to public schools that are using the Pre-Texts methodology in their classrooms. We have evaluated and participated in several public school pre-text workshops giving suggestions and praises to the facilitators. Through these visits we were also able to learn from the facilitators on different ways to modify pre-text methods to work within a more standardized curriculum which has been helpful for our own workshops. Our current workshop is a leadership workshop with high school students at the Instituto Desarrollo. Our focus with this workshop is developing critical thinking skills and developing alternative solutions to problems in society. So far, we have read and discussed prison reform, cybersecurity and social media, and volunteerism. This workshop lasts five days (July 8th – 12th).
- Readings being used:
- Deaf community workshop: The Tortoise and the Hare by Harriet Rosenbloom
- English Pre-Texts workshop: The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
- HS Leadership Workshop: Reimagining Safety and Justice by Victoria Law
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/reimagining-safety-and-justice
Regarding the public schools, we watched an implementation in class at Escuela Básica N° 162 Vicente Ignacio Iturbe, and we interviewed the director and the academic coordinator of Escuela Básica N° 617 Virgen Stella Maris. Unfortunately, I do not believe that either of these schools have websites. The workshop for the deaf students was part of an Instituto Desarrollo program for the Deaf. They are studying Sustainable Development, and they are college-aged and up.
Our current workshop is a leadership workshop with high school students at the Instituto Desarrollo. Our focus with this workshop is developing critical thinking skills and developing alternative solutions to problems in society. So far, we have read and discussed prison reform, cybersecurity and social media, and volunteerism. This workshop lasts five days (July 8th – 12th). We have attached pictures below. Please, let us know if you have any additional questions.
