The ongoing practice of writing and reading

The ongoing practice of writing and reading, plus the related work, can cause a variety of activities that could lead to work and investigate on a greater number of subjects related to aspects such as:

         -Listening as a conscious learning method.

         -Listening in the daily work in the classroom.

         - Who listens to who and for what in the classroom.

         -Knowing how to appreciate and listen to oral interventions.

         -Listening to a foreign language and wanting to learn better its structures and its role as a cultural                mean.

The resources for the development of these activities should be varied and close to the daily reality of the student:

      -Family and school context.

      -Media used.

      -Academic models that could be used as references.

Assessment criteria for the learning processes

To value this group of contents, and others developed and set by every educational team, should be done through a continuous observation of their attitudes and behavior patterns as listeners, in their different levels (singular, dual and plural), always taking in account the possibilities and abilities of each one. The respect for the interlocutor, the person they listen to, and the content of what they listen, are guidelines to consider equally. Likewise, the attitude towards the value and variety of existent languages (including the specific forms of the immigrant population, Spanish-speakers or not). The ability to understand the general meaning of the oral texts listened in different contexts and whether they are capable of identifying the most relevant information will be also valued. The same way, the ability to memorize oral texts from their structural elements and contents will be taken in account equally.

Knowing how to listen

Knowing how to listen in the classroom means, on one hand, to pay attention to the teacher as the group organizer, teaching guide, and cultural and educational reference. On the other hand, it means to listen to the students as the receivers and main actors of a dynamic and practical learning, taking in account the diversity of origins, knowledge, ethnic groups, cultures and curiosities. Only by listening one can consolidate the collective building of knowledge and the personal enrichment.

In addition to the previous contents we should tackle particularly:

   -Knowing how to listen with respect the linguistic forms in all its varieties.

   -To recognize and know how to listen the diversity of languages in the media (radio and TV).

   -To recognize when listening the relation between the linguistic form with the Spanish from America,      and also other linguistic forms rooted in our autonomous communities (language of the gypsy ethnic)

    -To continue with the knowledge of the oral tradition in its different levels of expression (flamenco,        folklore...) started in the previous stage.

Suggestions about the methodological line and using of resources.

For an appropriate achievement of the skills related to listening, we should first work with keeping a significant level of attention to the messages sent out by other interlocutors, and seek to ensure the respect to the specific characteristics of the speaker. At the same time, or afterwards, one will work the receptive attention and memorizing of basic texts. Finally, or at the same time, one needs to work with the basic and middle comprehension of messages with an increasing level of complexity according to situations or textual methods (to tell, to describe, to give an opinion...).

Working your linguistic abilities

One needs to be specially responsible when working linguistic abilities as a way of promoting the equality between people of different sex, race or ethnic groups; between people that requires special attention: elders, children, economically disadvantaged, people with special educational needs; in order to eliminate or prevent conflicts of different levels of complexity, and finally, in order to improve the relations with other citizens.

Essentials of basic skills:

What and how to listen?

Educational meaning and importance of the essentials.

Listening is the linguistic skill that, on a daily basis, occupies most of the time of our communicative exchange. It has the distinctive feature of being a skill that it is already sufficiently developed (spontaneous, simple and concrete) when the child starts his/her basic education, and that later should tend to reach higher levels of complexity and abstraction. It shouldn't be understood as an isolated communication skill, because it keeps a direct relation to the other three skills, and at this age it works as a necessary starting point for the appropriate acquisition of the other ones.

Difficulties and relevant contents

The most appropriate development in the school setting should achieve active listening within a large context. The classroom, and the school itself, should be a space for living together, respect, exchange of information and knowledge building.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Educational meaning and relevance.

In the mandatory high school education, the acquirement of communication skills, understanding and expression, should be understood as the motor for individual learning, for gaining knowledge and for the autonomy in the future learning process and the integral development of the person.

What belongs to the subject of Language and Literature and to Foreign Languages, is preferably, the development of the four linguistic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, including a functional approach to the conscious and reflective use of the language, as well as the knowledge of literature as an artistic and cultural phenomenon that needs to be respected and preserved.

All the faculty, from any area and level, should promote linguistic communication as an essential mean to assure an optimal learning, to learn how to think the language as a family and social phenomenon and as a privileged way to build relationships based on respect and cooperation, essential for their development as adults.

Therefore, to communicate, in this period, becomes essential in order to be a young man or woman that prepares for the adult life. Someone that thinks about defining his/her own autonomy with the support of the family and learns with others how to live within a society that should be based on respect and the coexistence of a diverse group of people with common goals of progress. All of this should be achieved by making use of language in a non discriminatory and non sexist way, promoting a real and effective equality between genders.

Thoughts on Typography

It is very common for people to use typography, letters or type of letter to reference the word Font. The distinction between Font and Font Family or Font Group is not done in spoken language, mainly because professionals or those working in specialized fields use this jargon. To avoid confusion and speak in a more precise manner, it is convenient to have this small glossary at hand so you don’t develop the Babel syndrome in the land of literature.

Font Family (or Font Group)

These represent, “the grouping of varieties, classes or series of a type that are assembled under a common name, differentiating it from other groups”. A Font Family is composed of many fonts, all variations of a same design. Martinez de Sousa adds, “ The Garamond regular, bold or italic, constitutes a Font Family. Not all Families are composed of these varieties; they could hold more or less varieties. Most will have Bold or Italic versions, but perhaps you will not find some having semi-bold, oblique, condensed or bold italic, but just having a regular font group”.

In modern typology, we make an effort to differentiate font from font family, but the word font family has been used in what we call style: the classification of fonts in groups, depending on the similitude of traits and general characteristics in design. In this sense, the most famous classification was proposed by Francis Thibaudeau using “ as a base for distinction the shape of the letters, and establishes that there are four fundamental families: Helvetica, Didot, Times New Roman or Modern”.

In this blog, we will proceed with the first definition for the term Font Family or Font Group, and the later description will only be used to determine style, so that there is no confusion.

Font

The term Font in typography means, “the different varieties of letters that were elaborated in a smelting workshop by melting and casting a type (letter), then to be later employed on the printing press”. Martinez de Sousa indicates that what is currently translated as Font literally means, “melting”.

Its most current meaning is, “a grouping of letters and symbols with a particular name, based on a particular design which allows the writing of a text”. In our modern world, dominated by computers and digital writing, the word font refers to, “the same characters with a complete body (grouping) of characters that allows us to write texts with that particular character”.   

In current terms, we call Font each of the digital archives that are installed in programs of our operating systems and that can display particular character designs as we type with a keyboard. The most popular archives being, Tru Type (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf), which can to be used on any platform (Macintosh, Windows or Linux).