[gcompris-devel] Xprize

[Emmanuel Charruau]

Hi everybody,

I thought again about the aim of the XPrize, learning basics of reading and
writing then basic maths.
I had a thought about what we teach in our class in France when kids are 5,
6 and 7 years old and yes that could be adapted to a tablet without teacher.

To teach the basics of reading writing I am using a method written by a
team leaded by Roland Goigoux what I do in class can be adapted to a tablet.
This method prepares kids to read and write by making them recognise sounds
in a word. Kids must first be able to cut the words in sylllables, then cut
the syllables in phonemes (the smallest sound you can recognise in a word),
then code these phonemes into grapheme (the corresponding letter to the
sound).
As the tasks proposed are very repetitive and the aims of each lesson of
this method is quite easy to follow and fun to do (we play a lots with
pictures) a tablets would be adapted to this work.
And a part of the activities we would need are already in the reading
section of GCompris.

Then there would be some work on rimes and on the beginning of the words,
but there we need a real english teacher to lead us, and tell us what songs
he uses.

The book where you can all that is this one :

http://www.amazon.fr/Phono-Grande-section-maternelle-d%C3%A9but/dp/2218750961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411658109&sr=8-1&keywords=phono

We would have to create an activity which looks really like the one you see
on the XPrize presentation site. The one where kids write cursive on their
tablet.

Then finally because reading is a matter of real texts we need to have
activities based on real text.
There is this method which is great :

http://www.amazon.fr/M%C3%A9thode-lecture-CP-Cycle-Livret/dp/2210656745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411658462&sr=8-1&keywords=rue+des+contes

Maybe there is also a open source method

Here are real text which at the beginning are based on a few sounds then
which become reacher and reacher.


On the mathematical side we can follow the work of Remy Brissiaud, who
teaches numbers through calculation instead of counting one by one. There
is also there a lots of manipulations which could be ported to tablets. He
does follow the way asian people learn to count and not the american way
(you can look at Rochel Geleman who the american principal in words) which
he believes is part of the cause of the poor result of a part of the french
kids who are confusing numbers (as how you see a number on a sport t-shirt)
and quantity.

The manipulation exercices can be found in this book

http://www.amazon.fr/Vers-maths-Maternelle-Moyenne-Section/dp/2909295540/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1411658153&sr=8-2&keywords=vers+les+maths

http://www.amazon.fr/maths-Grande-Section-Ga%C3%ABtan-Duprey/dp/2909295559/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1411658153&sr=8-3&keywords=vers+les+maths

and in this one

http://www.amazon.fr/Japprends-maths-GS-Martine-Riou/dp/2725622689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411668868&sr=8-1&keywords=j%27apprends+les+maths+gs

There again in GCompris we have the basics to recreate on a tablet what is
described in this book.

So for basic reading/writing I guess the challenge is possible. For
mathematical, geometry is feasible, and I am 100% sure that for
calculation/counting our method would be 100 times more efficient than what
we do in a class today in France, because it would allow kids to go to
their own pace.

For french readers, the books I stated are huge best seller in France, if
you are interested in them lots of school have them. I am sure you could
find somebody who would lend them.

Regards,

Emmanuel