One Morning at the Construction Table

Note: The dialog in this video is primarily in Spanish. For an English translation, you can choose English under the closed caption feature in the video player (above) or click on Transcript (below).

In this video, three boys in a half-day bilingual prekindergarten classroom build with plastic gear disks at a table during choice time. The teachers in this room provide instruction in both Spanish and English. Children can and do use either language during choice time. Several children can build with the disks at the same time. This encourages verbal and nonverbal peer interaction. A child might also work alone on a construction. Having free time to use the disks and to work near each other gives these boys a chance to work out their relationships and solve minor problems as they build. As they do so, they meet several IELDS benchmarks while using their home language.

Construction Problems

When children build something, they often address physics problems related to keeping the structure together.

Aladio (age 4.4) applies various strategies for keeping his tower balanced. While restacking the disks after Jacob (age 5.3) jostles the table, Aladio seems to notice that putting larger disks on top of smaller ones makes the tower unstable. He removes a small disk and tells Jacob not to add another one. Later, when several disks at the top of the tower are off-center, he straightens the stack with one hand, then picks it up and aligns the disks while holding it with two hands.

During the second part of the clip, Martín (age 5) has trouble making parts of his structure fit well. He fits disks into slots in a central disk, but one of them remains loose even though he presses it as firmly as he did the others. He sets it aside and replaces it with a disk from another structure, again pressing firmly. It wobbles. He removes it, stops building, and picks up the structure to show Jacob.

Peer Interactions

Many children will avoid conflict with an older, larger child by giving in during a disagreement. Aladio is nearly a year younger than Jacob, but he speaks up (“Don’t do it!”) when Jacob unbalances the tower by adding a very small disk. Aladio picks up the disk and assertively tells Jacob to look at it. When Jacob responds by trying to give advice, Aladio seems to ignore him, rather than argue. Some older children might then insist that Aladio do things his way, but Jacob turns his attention to Martín. A more serious confrontation is avoided. Near the end of Part 2, Martín tries to get Jacob’s attention to show him a disk construction. Although he persists—even following Jacob and talking to him—ultimately the teacher gets Jacob to interact with Martín. Her low-key intervention allows Martín to hand Jacob the construction. At another time, she might want to suggest other strategies to Martín, such as saying the other child’s name. She might also work with Jacob to help him “tune in” when classmates talk to him.

Such “coaching” can help preschoolers understand that sometimes they must be persistent when they want something from a peer and that help from adults can be useful.

Later, Martín seems to ignore Jacob’s directions when they put the disks away. Even after Jacob tells him to do it one by one (“uno por uno”), Martín tosses them into the box. Rather than arguing, Jacob takes disks from him and sets them in the box. Martín does not object but leaves quickly, and Jacob does not insist that he stay to help. Conflict is avoided, and Jacob quickly completes the task with some input from the teacher.

Home Language Development

The boys speak primarily in Spanish, their home language. However, Jacob’s first comment includes code-switching: He substitutes the English word “mine” for the Spanish “mio.” He is the only one who code-switches, and he does so only once.

In this clip, 5-year-old Jacob speaks more frequently than Aladio or Martín. He uses some complete sentences in his home language, including the long, relatively complex sentence “You don’t have to do it in the same color.” He also asks questions (“Can I help you?” and “Where do I put these?”). His sentences contain pronouns, nouns, verbs, and prepositions, but relatively few modifiers. In comparison, 4-year-old Aladio says very little, speaking just one complete sentence (“Don’t do it!”) and some shorter phrases. Martín’s longest fully audible sentence is the question “Where do you want to put this?”

Note: Having promised parents at the school that the children’s identities would remain anonymous, IEL has dubbed out any mentions of the children’s names in this video. In the transcript and the introduction to the video above, we have inserted pseudonyms for the children.