A play as a Service Learning project

Nora Fernandez Fernandez 

Next Thursday, December 15, the Vicálvaro Early Childhood Education class will represent 'Peter Pan' to the boys and girls of the Madrid neighborhood. The initiative arose from Professor Beatriz Álvarez Tardío, who proposed to do a play for children as part of the Learning and Services (ApS) projects developed by the URJC.  

The maximum capacity of the work is 70 people and admission is free. The work will begin at 18:30 p.m. in the assembly hall of the departmental building on the Madrid campus and will last approximately 45 minutes.   

According to Álvarez Tardío, "this activity combines the practice of general skills with those specific to my subject." In addition to the planning and organization that such a project requires, the students have made an effort to meet the main objectives of the ApS projects, applying them to the context: “promote the enjoyment of theater among children to look beyond the screens; improve their language and, also very important, have the experience of entering the university so that children from 4 to 6 years old can imagine a future here”, comments Álvarez.  

The entire class as a whole, approximately 50 people, has worked on the project through different commissions. For its preparation, several consultations have been carried out with early childhood education teachers from the Vicálvaro neighborhood, and thus be able to detect the needs of the very young students and apply them to the work.  

In this way, the future teachers have prepared an adaptation of 'Peter Pan' that aims to "cover in children that lack of learning that the pandemic has caused them, and that, also because of the mask, has generated more difficulties in speech ”, says Pablo Castillo, coordinator of the project on behalf of the students.   

"The choice of Peter Pan has been because it is a well-known work and everything is easier if the children recognize it," says Castillo. He himself tells us that the work is planned with linguistic exercises to promote the development of oral language; “We wanted to make a dynamic work to make the children participate, to respond and interact with us doing different language and oral expression exercises, but through the story”.  

The result they expect is "satisfaction, both on the part of the children and on our part, to see the fruit of the work done." “We are happy because it is a precedent in the university, since there is a theater group but it had never been considered as a Service and Learning project. It is gratifying to be able to meet the needs of children and offer this service to the community while we are training as future teachers”, Castillo points out.  

Finally, the student coordinator of the project wanted to thank "everyone involved for their dedication and work, since it has been difficult to organize all this. In addition, the Office of the Vice-Rector for Students and the Dean of our Faculty have helped us a lot and have made it a little easier, despite the fact that it was the first time that a project like this had been carried out”.