START TOGETHER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

The educational program "Starting Together" (internationally known as "Step by Step" ) has been implemented in primary schools in the Czech Republic since 1996. It is an educational program emphasizing the approach to the child, the partnership between the school, the family and the wider society in the field of upbringing and education. The building blocks of the program are 4 principles:

• common education for all children
• active involvement of the child
• learning in contexts linked to real life
• involving the family in the school program and cooperating with them

 

 

 

Structure of the day:

Morning block

• Morning report (letter) - usually relates to what awaits children that day, serves to motivate further activities or serves to practice the material covered.
• Morning circle - is an opportunity to develop social competences, a place for rituals. Here children learn to communicate and listen to others, to follow jointly agreed rules, to express their feelings and opinions. Children sit in a circle with the teacher, greet each other, solve organizational matters, share experiences, "wake up".
• Trivium so-called literacy - the first teaching block is used by the teacher to introduce new material and consolidate it. Children practice the curriculum both in the form of didactic games and with the help of workbooks and sheets.
  The curriculum is discussed according to the given grade. Children learn either by the classic frontal method or using various didactic activities, or they work independently, but in pairs or groups of various sizes. These are learning activities where the class works on a common assignment.

Break
Children have a snack, rest, and play.

Work in activity centers
Activity centers (CA) create a stimulating learning environment that allows children to learn through experience, activities in context. Activities in CA are connected by the topic being worked on. Children work on different tasks in several CAs at the same time.

• Reading Center
• Writing Center
• Mathematics Center
• Center for Science and Discovery
• Art studio

The classroom space is divided into smaller workstations, which are clearly demarcated so that children have privacy and it is clear in which center they are working. We assign tasks to the centers so that they lead to repetition and deepening of the discussed subject matter or to derivation of new subject matter. The level of difficulty of individual tasks is planned so that children can master them independently, cooperate with each other and look for ways to solve them. The teacher acts as an observer and helps those children who need support.

Evaluation circle - here they have the space to appreciate others, give recommendations, exchange experiences, and thus learn from each other. There is a final evaluation of the whole day's work. Children evaluate what they have achieved and vice versa. They learn to reflect on their work. In addition to continuous feedback from the teacher, we emphasize children's self-reflection and peer evaluation.

 

Specifics of the educational program

• The child learns through their own practical activities. The teacher acts as an observer and helper.
• Parents can participate in the organization and running of the class. They participate in extracurricular activities or organize them. They can freely enter the lessons, the teacher works closely with them. They are important partners for him in finding educational strategies.
• The classroom environment is organized into activity centers.
• The curriculum is organized thematically into time units of varying lengths, called projects. They are selected according to the children's interests and at the same time, it is necessary to fulfill the school educational program.
• Regular use of the "circle" organizational form leads to a gradual transition between the home and school environments, open communication between children, and also the resolution of problem situations in the classroom.
• The norm of children's behavior in the classroom is the RULES created and signed by them. These are hung in a visible place in the classroom and are a daily part of the class's work, guiding children to self-discipline.
• The assessment is based on an individual norm. Children are not compared with each other, but each is assessed based on a comparison of their own current and previous work results.

In the Start Together program, students must meet the outcomes of the framework educational program in the same way as students in a traditional class, thus ensuring the child's eventual transfer to another class or school. The Ministry of Education has included this educational program among the approved alternative teaching methods and supports its development.


As part of this project, students learn to read using the Genetic Method.
 

WHAT IS THE GENETIC METHOD OF READING?
This method was conceived in the 19th century by the Czech teacher František Kožíšek and was revived a few years ago by PhDr. Jarmila Wagnerová, CSc. Dr. Wagnerová first created her own worksheets for this reading method, with which she then practically verified the method in selected schools. The aforementioned procedure for initial reading training appealed to many teachers with its simplicity and rapid reading progress.

WHAT IS THE BASIS OF THE GENETIC METHOD?
Instead of composing letters into a syllable and then individual syllables into a word, here children compose a whole word from individual letters, omitting the formation of syllables. The only exceptions are the groups di, ti, ni, dě, tě, ne, bě, pě, ve, mě, fě, which children learn collectively (globally).
In this way, some children try to read on their own already in preschool age. They observe large print letters in shop names or on posters, learn to name them and compose them into words one by one without syllabifying them. In this way of reading, it does not matter whether the words contain open, closed syllables or clusters of consonants.

HOW DO YOU PROCEED SPECIFICALLY DURING READING LESSONS?
At first, students first learn gradually (only one new letter is added at a time) to read only the letters of the large print alphabet, which, as already mentioned, compose into words without syllabifying them. They first visually break down the written word into letters - that is, they read the individual letters aloud - and then aurally put them together into the whole word.

Let's give an example with the word KOLO. Students read: KOLO = KOLO
Notice how complicated the syllabification method is:
K+O = KO, L+O = LO, KO+LO = KOLO.

When young readers have mastered all the letters of the uppercase alphabet and have already mastered the reading technique, they gradually move on to lowercase letters, taking advantage of the fact that the vast majority of lowercase letters are similar to uppercase ones.

Only then, when reading is mastered, does the teaching of writing begin.