Teacher+Feedback+Week+1

**Mudslides** Students in this group started researching about how people are not prepared for disasters. They were looking at tsunamis at first and decided to focus on mudslides since that is a natural disaster that happens the most in Peru.

**Some notes from the presentation:** 10 provinces in Peru have problems with mudslides. 12,000 people are lost communication in Arequipa. Mudslide kills 10 people. Tourists are stuck in Peru. 18 people disappeared under mud. Why mudslides happen. General information. How do mudslides affect the communities? Good information. Mudslides connected to avalanche and skiers? Is that a reality in Peru? Mudslides can produce dengue because puddles created by mudslides are the perfect place for mosquitoes and dengue. How important is this problem?

**Group Work** Students have not been working consistently. They might start fooling around and losing focus as the day goes along. Jorge is responsible and works during class time but needs to improve the quality of his questions and research. They need to get organized better and find how to communicate more effectively. They have conflicts often and need to apply the conflict strategies they learned in the previous unit. Take advantage of the time and the resources you get in school.

**Teacher feedback:** The information Giacomo presented contains isolated facts. Those come from newspaper articles of mudslides that happened in the past. He needs to make generalizations like: - Mudslides kill people, for example in 2010 a mudslide happening in peru… - Mudslides also cut communication off like…. The group now needs to do organize an interview to see what is the government doing about mudslides and prevention. How do the people affected feel? How do they feel about the government helping or not helping them? Find out what are the provinces that are most affected by mudslides

** Group #2 **
**Plastic Bag Pollution** This group started researching about trash. During their research they found out that the most important pollution problem was plastic pollution. Plastic bags are a great part of plastic pollution. They narrowed down their topic to problems caused by plastic bags. They have only had two days to research about this problem. The general information they have is ok, but they still need to be more focused on local information.

**Some notes from the presentation:** Plastic bag pollution is connected to water pollution. Examples given were from Canada. People throw plastic bags because of lack of education. This is too general and needs to have more of a local base.

**Group Work:** Group has been focused and responsible. Alfonso and Dylan watched lots of videos in the beginning of the process and I am not sure how much real and applicable information they got. Thomas is taking the lead on the group. He is very organized and responsible. There have been little conflicts regarding the organization and responsibilities. Isabel and Alfonso need to take more of a lead in the group. **Teacher feedback:** There still needs to be research on the situation of Peru regarding plastic bag pollution. What is the situation of plastic bags in Peru? How do plastic bags affect the Peruvian environment? What is the percent of animals affected by plastic bags in Peru? Give numbers, get statistics. They found out that there are biodegradable vs. non-biodegradable plastic bags. Which ones are the ones we use here? Why? What is the difference in pollution? Students need to interview Environmental Agencies or the Environmental Ministry to see what information they can get about their problem. What are they doing to solve this problem?

Group #3
This group has been working focused on land pollution. As the research went by students realized that there are a lot of problems with the soil. So they decided to narrow down their topic to soil pollution.
 * Soil Pollution**

**Some notes from the presentation:** This is a major problem in Peru. 86% percent of the water is wasted. This is needed for agriculture. If the soil is not effective then we are wasting water when we water the crops. Pesticides and fertilizers seep into the soil. This is a huge problem in the north of Peru. Diseases and short-term effects of soil pollution: nausea, skin rashes. Because people drink polluted underground water.

This group has been working consistently although there have been moments when some members of the group started fooling around. They spent some time focusing on trash as a problem in Lima. Then two members of the group found out that soil pollution was also a problem. They had the job to convince the other two members of the group that this was a worthy topic. They showed evidence and good research showing this. Tomy has taken the leadership role in this group. Zoe has done good research but would like to see more involvement from Cruz and Mirko. Even though Mirko has a lot of information he can sometimes confuse opinion with facts.
 * Group work**

These are some of the questions I suggest for your to continue with your research: Which crops are affected the most? How does that affect the economy? How many landfills do we have in Lima? What kinds of pesticides are being used in Peru? How much does this pollute soil in Peru? Chemicals make soil lose the fertility. How much drinking water is being polluted by chemicals used to help the plants grow.? Have you found information in the Agriculture Ministry. How popular is organic food in Peru? Have you been to the Bioferia in Miraflores? What about asking small farmers there?
 * Teacher feedback**

This group has been working on identifying the problem of education in Peru. So far they have identified two big problems: Reading Comprehension and Nutrition. They have chosen to focus on Reading Comprehension. **Some notes from the presentation:** Javier Arevalo is in charge of Projecto Recreo. This project teaches kids to read by and gives them appropriate materials. Kids are not learning to read correctly. School follows a program called el plan lector. 80% of the kids in Peru do not know how to read. Teachers give students boring books and they do not make the system fun. Students are not used to use higher thinking skills, to criticize, to analyze, etc and this helps them in their education. Some of the texts they are given do not relate to them. Government is trying to solve education problem by giving out money but some of the money does not get to them. The way the problem is being “solved” by the government is not sustainable. Nutrition is also connected to education because children will not focus on their work and will not understand what they read if they are not focused.
 * Education for all**

This group has been highly motivated since the beginning. They have organized and gotten very good research. Alejandra needs to focus in getting more meaningful information. Her information is correct, but she is getting superficial information instead of important facts. Daniel has a lot of information and it has been summarized and synthesized in his own words. He is organized and Alejandra and him are taking the leadership of the group. Candela presented information on nutrition and how it affects children’s health and concentration. Franco presented some information on causes and consequences of lack of education. I would like to see more concrete information coming from Candela and Franco now that they have narrowed down their topics. **Teacher feedback** I suggest you to interview Javier Arevalo or someone from his Project. Do they know about a public school having big problems in Reading. Interview them? Find out how they work: specific problems and interview kids in a poor school about the reading program. How can you make it fun? How can you make kids read? What do teachers do at your school that makes kids want to read? What kinds of texts would they like to read? Talk to the Spanish teachers. Ask them to give you or suggest a text you can make the word per minute test to the second graders. What is the most important problem they have?
 * Group Work**

Group #5
Students have been researching about Child Labor and how it is connected to other problems. They have seen that it is connected to education, nutrition, and poverty.
 * Child labor**

**Some notes from the presentation:** Children work in the streets or in houses. Malnutrition is affecting kids in Peru. Causes of child labor are poverty and education. Why do parents make their children work? How does child labor affect us? There is insecurity in the streets. They steal to satisfy their needs. Education: they are uneducated and they can’t improve in society. Parents do not have education; they do not have a good job and need to send their children to work. Child abuse and exploitation.

**Group Work:** Group has been somewhat focused and responsible. Sabrina and Stefany need to be more independent while working and focus on choosing better resources to get their information. Gabriel is working independently. Excellent presentation from Gabriel. There are almost no conflicts in the group. Isabella has taken the lead in the group and organizes them. I would like to see the rest of the group become more involved in the organization and planning of the project.

**Teacher feedback:** They have a lot of information on general causes and consequences of Child Labor. The information on the situation of children in Peru is very basic. There are a lot of statistics on child labor in the world but not in Peru. Find the situation in Peru and show statistics. Most of the group members repeated information while they were presenting. The group needs to organize the information to make sure that they are not repeating what another person is doing and to complement the answers the already have. Find the following: - What is the percent of children working in Peru? What is the government doing about it? - What are children’s rights? Who is in charge of protecting them? What are they doing? - What problem caused by child labor do you want to solve? Why is it important?

Group #6
**Firefighters** Even though I think this is a very interesting topic and one people can do a lot about, students had difficulties finding good resources about firefighters in Peru from the internet. They have gotten more information now and are in good shape. **Some notes from the presentation:** Firefighters have had the problem of lack of resources for decades. Most of the money goes to repairs. 75% of annual stipend they get from the government goes to fix their trucks. Not enough money to purchase personal equipment. Magdalena worst equipped. 6% of the calls firefighters get are real. Waste of time. It risks other people’s lives. They will only be able to attend some emergencies. They suffer burns and injuries. The Peruvian Finance Ministry for resources gives money. Trucks are an average of 30 years old.

**Group Work** Students have been focused and working consistently. They are responsible and are planning their jobs everyday. There have been very little conflicts although at some point of the research process when they had difficulties finding resources they got a little discouraged. They need to get organized a little bit better and find how to communicate more effectively, especially now that they have to plan interviews and fieldtrips.

**Teacher feedback:** Some questions to think about: Why do people volunteer to be firefighters? Why are firefighters not paid? How do they survive? Why doesn’t the government care? What emotional support do firefighters have? Set up the interview to review problems in firefighter companies and then decide which ONE problem you want to solve. You found out that some companies donate money. Why do they donate? How? Is the Paginas Amarillas project effective? How many people know about it? How much does it help the firefighters?