March 10: Word Collection Day #2

Today was the first day where we spent the entire day collecting words. The groups working through the folders of related semantic domains got the full experience of how everything works. For the most part, they seem to be doing a thorough job of collecting the vocabulary that is relevant for each topic. By the end of the day, the total word count was approaching 2000, which seems to be a reasonable expectation for the end of day two, as I look back on the various workshops I've been involved in.

Representing the 1860 words collected pictorially



Word-collection group #4 at work

As we looked at the statistics at the end of the day to see how things were going, we were a bit concerned by the amount of time the word-collection groups are spending on each semantic domain in order to collect the words. If we don't find a way to help them pick up the pace, they will only complete about two-thirds of the topics. So tomorrow I plan once again to use the image of a baby learning to walk to motivate them to move a bit faster. The analogy goes like this:

When you're learning to do something new (such as a baby learning to walk), it is expected and perfectly normal that you don't do it perfectly at first. No one learns to walk without falling down many times; that's part of the learning process. However, as time goes by and the baby becomes more accustomed to walking, he becomes better at it and there is more forward progress and less falling. Before long, he is walking almost without any falls at all, and eventually he is able to run, only with the occasional misstep that sends him sprawling. In the same way, the first day of the word-collection phase of this workshop is like a baby taking his first steps. A lot of mistakes are made, but there is a lot of hand-holding and close supervision by the workshop leaders to help keep the falls to a minimum and to help the group get back on its feet when a mistake is made. The second day is analogous to the infant who is still somewhat unsteady on his feet, but who is able to walk for some distance before losing his balance. The third day should be like a child who is comfortable walking, but not yet ready to run, and by the fourth day, groups should be "running."

In that light, I plan to encourage word-collection groups to feel confident of their abilities in this new activity and begin walking with vigor, some of them maybe even beginning to run a bit today. But all of them should be walking confidently at a good pace today.

5 of the 6 glossers/translators

I spent quite a bit of my time today helping Thomas with the record-keeping. At the end of the day, I looked over what he had done and I found that he had done an excellent job even when I wasn't helping him, so tomorrow I should be free to spend more time helping others. Pam, Ernest, and Alphonse have been a big help in monitoring how things are going and helping those who get stuck or simply have a question.

Thomas - record-keeper