The assembly was created in order to provide a welcoming space for all children within the classroom. It is a specific place in the classroom that is intended for the meeting of the class group to discuss different interesting issues for the children or other more unpredictable aspects that may occur in the school. It is done daily, therefore, it can be said that the assemblies are included within the activities of the child’s daily life.
With this classroom routine, the aim is to build complicity relationships with the children, so that the teacher and the students get to know each other better and thus stimulate a more active participation in the knowledge construction.
However, the assemblies that take place in infant schools are usually developed through the performance of different individual micro-activities.
Therefore, it can be said that, at present, assemblies maintain an appearance of group activity when in fact they have a totally individual approach.
The activities required within an assembly can only be carried out by a specific child and are limited, among other things, to learning how to set thedate, tell a personal experience or observe the weather, reducing the possibilities of active participation by the rest of the students.
The rest of the classmates limit themselves to listening and observing what the other child is doing.Portillo (1997a;1997b; 2000) was one of the pioneers in our country in defending the usefulness of assemblies in the infant ́s stage.
According to this author, assemblies are a unique opportunity for children to develop their linguistic, social and civic competence, but she also states that attention should be paid to the organisation and usefulness of these kinds of routines, as they can also become a double-edged sword and be carried out in a way that is not appropriate and does not provide any educational value to the child.
As we mentioned earlier, the assembly is an activity that takes place every day in schools. This fact can cause it to become monotonous and repetitive, which can make the child lose interest in it and reduce the possibilities for him/her to develop certain communication and social skills, and therefore lose its educational usefulness.
So, the teacher must try, on the one hand, to create an atmosphere within the assembly that allows the civic and social development of the child and, on the other hand, to manage the communication of the group by creating opportunities that allow all the children to express themselves freely.
References
Portillo, M.C. (1997a; 1997b; 2000). La asamblea de clase en EI: Un espacio para aprender a hablar y para construir(nos). En Sánchez Rodríguez, S. y González Aragón, C. (2016), La asamblea de clase en Educación Infantil: Un espacio para crecer como grupo(pp. 137-138). Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura. Facultad de CC. de la Educación. Campus Río San Juan. Universidad de Cádiz. Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Andalucía. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación. Recuperado el 15 de noviembre del 2020 en: https://rieoei.org/historico/documentos/rie71a06.pdf
Authorship
Carlota Argos Bolado y Laura Jiménez Carrancedo, 2020.