The first grader’s individual educational tool

Anahit Harutyunyan

The educational programme “Fun of Knowledge” is being implemented at the Primary School of Yerevan “Mkhitar Sebastatsi” Educomplex. The education here is project based according to the educational calendar. The learner’s everyday school life includes different forms of teaching-learning activities: reading, oral Mathematics, swimming, going on educational trips, drawing, technology, dancing, singing … During the school year, the learners use different educational tools: tablets, netbooks or notebooks, bicycles, chess and they study and work in the school, yard, school garden and at home.

During the 2016-2017 school year, a big group of first graders used tablets as an educational tool. The tablet is convenient to use, because it is easier, doesn’t occupy much room, and it contains all the necessary programs for organizing the educational process. At first, the tablet was used as a tool for drawing and playing.        

The tablet as a tool for reading and writing: the tablet as a reader

The learners can download different types of Paint drawing programs from Play Market and draw the heroes of their favorite tales. This work is for spelling. It trains to develop sound-letter connections. This work was used to be done only orally. In the next stage we needed a program which would allow us to type just on the picture. Autodesk Sketchbook enables us to draw and type words and short texts on our pictures. Little by little, we created our readers which were published and became obtainable for other learners. We are going to meet the learners of the North School and the six-year-old learners of the College to create reader pages together.          

Up till now, we have created the following readers:

Readers made by groups of learners

·         A word by me and a word by you

·         Three tails about a fly

·         A tale about the crooked tree

·         A tale

Readers made individually

·         Sargis Sahakyan Hovhannes Tumanyan Flowers

·         Edmon Sahakyan  H. Tumanyan The Dog

·         Victorya Hayrapetyan H. Tumanyan The Mountain and the Cloud

Mobile Readers

·         Vache Gevorgyan

·         ՎաVache Hovhannisyan

·         Gagik Ghazaryan

·         Ruzanna Nersisyan

Now we are reading different books for children which are published either in the teacher’s blog or on the website Bzez. For example, the learners read Gianni Rodari’s tale Bottomless Sack. After reading the tale we discuss our impressions and explain the new words. The learners think of possible continuations trying to answer the question: what else can there be in the bottomless sack? The learners draw and type their continuations.      

Autodesk Sketchbook program is used by the learners to type their own continuation. The works are collected and a reader is compiled. Then they try to perform a theater play in which they explain what there is in their bottomless sack. The tablet is used here as a photo camera and a video recorder. We also organize outdoor lessons.

Here is my conclusion after summarizing one-year activities:

·         The learners acquire media skills by using tablets which make the teaching-learning process easier.

·         The learner uses the tablet as an educational tool and it becomes an inseparable part of education.

·         The learner acquires certain rules of working with tablets concerning hygiene and health care.

·         The tablet gives the learners an opportunity to work online and have an access to their friends’ ideas and share their own ideas and works with them.

·         The tablet promotes the learners’ self-development and individualizes their education and makes it more interesting by meeting the learners’ own interests.

Anahit Harutyunyan's video lesson: