WHEN THE TREASURE OF LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE COMES FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Teacher: Angélica Aparecida Galego
School: Associação de Educação Terapeutica AMARATI
City: Jundiaí - SP
Country: Brasil
Project: Swimming against the tide and overcoming limitations

The bottom of the sea guards important treasures. We aren’t referring to the treasure chests sunken at the time of the great explorers and pirates. We are referring to the fantastic biodiversity of the underwater world.

It was by discovering life underwater that mentally handicapped special education students found an easy and fun way to learn to read and write.

The project was created by Angélica Galego from AMARATI – Association for Therapeutic Education in Jundiaí in the interior of Sao Paulo. The kids were motivated to participate in the activities with the help of educational technology solutions, because the software and the Alphabet Learning Panel promote accessibility, removing the barriers that they normally face in their everyday lives.

Angélica started out by identifying what each student knew about the bottom of the sea. Then they watched the movie Nemo, as a fun way of presenting the different species that inhabit the oceans.

With the educational technology resources the children researched about the animals that appeared in the movie. The learning table, for example, was fundamental to working with the reading and writing of the animals’ names. Another important activity was the setting up of a natural aquarium where the children were responsible for naming each fish.

To set up the aquarium they had the volunteer support of an aquarium specialist from the Zoonosis Center who taught them how to set up, clean and maintain the aquarium. To give continuity to the activities done at school, a virtual aquarium was created with the Kid Pix software.

These activities achieved impressive results. The kids showed important progress in their oral language skills and motor coordination. Nevertheless, according to Angélica, the greatest progress was in written language. The children’s excitement made it so each one overcame difficulties in learning to read and write. This was proof that the greatest force of the human body does not depend on the joints and muscles. It is the force that is born in the depths of each and every one of us: a treasure called knowledge.