3-2-1 TUESDAYS WITH MS NIV

Posted on 23 Apr 2024 by nivedita mukerjee

Issue #198, 23rd April 2024

What thoughts do you wish to create? Does language craft reality? Does learning a second language help us to think differently? Why do schools want students to learn second and third languages? What should be the basis of choosing one language subject over the other? What were your second and/or third language choices as a parent or educator and how have they come to bear over the years for you? What would be your advice to your student/child?

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Three images of the week

Two Thoughts of the Week

A different language is a different vision of life. – Federico Fellini

To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. – Chinese Proverb

One Video of the Week

There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world — and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language — from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian — that suggest the answer is a resounding yes. “The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is,” Boroditsky says. “Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000.”

Guest Expert of the Week

Reading with Ms. Meenu

Reading Decodable Texts:

It is more important for students to blend and sound out a decodable book than learning to look at a picture and guess the word in a predictable/repetitive text. After all, we should allow students time to practice the phonics skills they are learning, and decodable texts enable that. Decodable books provide beginners with practice in applying the grapheme-phoneme relations that they have learned to decode words and to build their sight vocabularies.

It is great to see the look on a kindergartner’s face when he/she shares the news saying MS. I AM ACTUALLY READING THE WORDS!” The joy and excitement are always overflowing. By reading decodable texts they feel confident and successful. By this time they had discovered a skill that they didn’t even know they had.

Happy Reading!

Meenu Gera

Consulting home and school librarian and reading guide.

Dear reader,
I have been a research scientist, a journalist, and an educator for over 3 decades. I read and, I write. With this weekly newsletter, I share what I read, learn, and, experience. At the same time, I engage with students, parents, and teams of teachers across K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and ed-tech organizations.

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