INFANT EDUCATION
1. The house, by Irene Rey
I teach English in Infant Education, Year 3, Year 5
and Year 6. In Year 5 they were going to the CRIE, so, I could not do anything (on
that moment) with them.
I tried the activity of thinking about more words from
one word (the Chocolate activity we did). I did it with Year 3. We were working
“The House”.
When I proposed that activity they did not understand
me. I had to give them examples till they understood. First, I tried in small
teams. I gave them 10 minutes to think about words with the letters of
“BEDROOM”. It was a chaos. They started talking about who was going to write,
about what they were going to do in the playground… When the time was finished
they started complaining about that it was not enough time, someone was
disturbing another one, etc.
So, I tried to do it again but explaining again what
they have to do and I changed the word. I tried with “BATHROOM”. I gave them
the same time, 10 minutes and it worked better than the first time.
The pupils were focused on the task. They were
thinking and writing all the words they could. They were happy with each word
they wrote although they invented new words.
To check the task and to see how many words they could
find with the letters of “Bathroom”, each team said one word per turn. They had
to pay attention to not repeat any word another team said. They were very
participative and they enjoyed the activity.
I was happy because they knew or remembered words.
They were happy because they were like in a contest.
When they talked to me they made the effort to speak
in English but when they talked to their mates, they spoke in Spanish.
Some children with specific educative needs do not pay
attention if they do not understand. With them, it was difficult to engage
them, but their mates helped.
I will try this activity with the rest of my classes
and with different words.
2. PRONUNCIATION, by Victoria E. Matesanz
2. PRONUNCIATION, by Victoria E. Matesanz
I used this
activity, taking advantage that five-year-olds are eager to read everything. They´ve
already learnt how to read in Spanish, so I introduced reading in English using
easy word families.
AGE: 5/6
years old (last course of pre-primary)
TIMING: two sessions of half an hour each
METHODOLOGY:
After the daily routine, I've used the interactive board to show them some word
families. We´ve pronounced them all together several times. After that, I had
written the vowel for them to read. After that, they came across the meaning of
the word (without translation).
After that,
they did a worksheet. They wrote the word (i.e.: CAT and then draw a picture
next to the word). This was on the first lesson. Each child chose the word that
he/she wanted.
In the
second lesson, we did more or less the same, the opening routine and then, the
word family activity as the previous lesson. This time, the worksheet was
different, I used a worksheet with flowers for them to write the consonant and
to cut and paste the right picture next to the written word.
MATERIALS: Whiteboard with projector, blackboard, chalks, markers, worksheets, white
paper, glue, scissors.
USEFUL
LINKS: https://www.myteachingstation.com/at-word-family-list
I think
this activity is worth a try, but I´ll try to implement it next course during
the last term of the five-year-olds.
PRIMARY EDUCATION
USING PICTURES TO WRITE A STORY, by, Mª Elena Yugueros
I asked my students to write a story. This is a hard task for them because they have to create it, organize their thoughts and use written language to communicate with readers. This can be a challenge for them.
To help children I give them visuals or written prompts that inspire them to think of their story ideas and encourage them to plan before they start to write.
It is important to train students to think, so brainstorming sessions are necessary.
We should start with story ideas and the title should be the last step because it is difficult sometimes to come up with any ideas to go with it.
Brainstorming should produce more ideas than children plan to use.
The organization of the activity will follow some steps:
1. Show the students a picture (visual prompt).
2. Brainstorming to produce different ideas.
3. Write some questions about the picture (written prompt).
4. By answering their own questions they will create a story.
5. Finally they will give the story a title.
Once they find ideas and inspiration for writing a story, the organization of their ideas can be tricky so helping them structure their story from beginning to end is a great way to make the writing process a lot easier.
Step 1: once they have got an idea (picture) they have to create a character and a setting.
Step 2: the beginning.
Step 3: the conflict.
Step 4: the turning point: normally in the middle of the story.
Step 5: the resolution of the conflict.
Step 6: the end.
I am a primary teacher so I had to help my students in some of these steps with some questions such as:
- What is different or special about the main character?
- What happened to the characters once their conflict became resolved?
- Were they able to learn an important lesson as a result?
As I did this activity with two different groups and with two different pictures I could see the different stories and difficulties depending on the picture they had to work with.
1st YEAR
2. BECOMING DETECTIVES, by Cristina Guerra
The activity which I have chosen to do with my first
grade students (6 years old) was a mini spy worksheet of those you provide us
in the course. In this case, it was the one that deals with Mini Spy and Basset
Brown visiting castles.
The first thing I told them was that not everything in
life is always seen at first sight so our task that day was to become
detectives. To make them more efficient, I erased the words of the things that
they should find and I asked them to find the most hidden objects they could in
ten minutes, as a competition. This motivated them because they are very
competitive and they understood really quickly what I wanted them to do.
There were 22 hidden objects. Most of the students
found between ten and fifteen of them. The next step was trying to make them
name them in English. This became a bit hard for them because of their lack of
vocabulary, but I insisted on them to speak as much as posible, even if they
didn’t know the word, giving indications on where the object was. Also their
mates helped them when they were blocked. At last, between all the students
(and a bit of help of the teacher) they found all of them. Finally, they colored
the painting, making the activity even more enjoyable for them.
In my opinion, they enjoyed the activity because it
was a breath of fresh air for them, changing the rythm of the lessons they are
used to. For me, as a teacher, firstly it was difficult to let them speak while
they were making mistakes that should not be done, without correcting them. But
also it was really rewarding watching them speaking in a foreign language (most
of the time, mixing their mother tongue structures with English words). I think
it was really demanding for them to use their oral skills because of their lack
of vocabulary and also because of their low level at English as a foreign
language.
I don’t think I would have done something in a
different way but start doing this kind of activities earlier to improve their
vocabulary and development in the foreign language. I think I should use them next
course from the very beginning of the year.
3rd YEAR, by Belén Domínguez
1. FOOD, by Belén Domínguez
5TH YEAR
1. GIVING DIRECTION, by Elena Pérez
Lesson: Giving directions
6th YEAR
1. FOOD, by Belén Domínguez
Ø INTRODUCTION:
The school is located in a small town close to
Segovia. It is a bilingual school and the activity took place in the class of
3ºB of Primary, with 15 students. Their level of English is medium-low, they
are not used to doing oral activities that involves interaction for a long
period of time. Along the year we have been practicing short questions and
answers to improve their confidence in this area.
Improving oral skills is a big challenge among
students. They are used to speaking and translating in their mother tongue. Any
activity that requires an extra effort when they have to use English, provokes
an emotional shock where statements like “yo no se hablar inglés”, “eso es muy
difícil” are heard in the classroom.
Ø ACTIVITY:
I used the picture enclosed (attached nº1) to carry on
my activity. This picture is one of the materials you show us in the course and
I thought that it was perfect because of the unit we´re working on.
In the unit we are working in the English class, we
are learning about prepositions (in, on, under, behind, between, in front of,
next to, near…) and food (vegetables, meat, fish and fruits)
I showed them the picture in the big screen and asked
them to observe it for three minutes, individually. Then I hand them a piece of
paper where they need to write down all the vocabulary they remember seen on
the picture. Some examples were:
o
Food: potatoes,
chicken, beans, carrots, pizza, onion…
o
Clothes:
jumper, trouser, shoes, tie…
o
School Materials: book, pencil, pen, scissors, bookcase, paper, ruler…
After that, I group them in teams of 5, where they need
to share their vocabulary during five minutes. Finally they have to describe the imagen using
the words in their papers and the prepositions they know. The instructions
given were: “sentences cannot be repeated and you have to use one preposition
per sentence. When time is up you are
going to share you sentences with the rest of the class. For this activity you
have five minutes”. At the end each group share their sentences and we tried
not to repeat them.
Students were motivated during all the activity, they
liked the idea of doing something different from the book. During the first
task students told me that they had already look at the picture along the first
minute, so when I turned off the projector with the picture and gave them the
second task, they had to write all the vocabulary they know. They felt scared
and insecure. However they were engaged writing down lots of words, and at the
end of the activity, they had more words than they realized. It was time to
work in groups, and they felt confident and safe because they had more words
and because of the support of others. They didn’t use English to communicate
but they finished the activity successfully. During the
sharing task they tried to use their mother tongue again to share their
sentences, nevertheless I reminded them that the use of English was mandatory.
Finally they did a good job and they felt happy because they make a huge
effort.
Ø
FEEDBACK:
As
a personal reflection, I was concerned of the over use of their mother tongue
during the whole activity. Although the school is Bilingual, this group in
particular, is not. They are used to learning the vocabulary from the book but
not how to use it in a conversation. I tried not to correct or help them,
because the aim of the activity was to keep out their fears to the oral skills,
to improve their autonomy, to know how to work in teams and improve their participation.
I
think that students were highly motivated with the activity however I was
expecting more English that the one they used. Maybe it was because this was
their first time or they were not confident enough. I would practice these types
of activities more and get them use to working the oral skills as I use to work
another abilities.
They are just starting to learn
English.
5TH YEAR
1. GIVING DIRECTION, by Elena Pérez
Primary
students sometimes find it especially difficult to speak English in class. In
this oral activity, ‘Giving directions’, students can get prepared for speaking
by planning what they are going to say.
Possibilities
and opportunities for oral expression in the classroom include a wide variety
of activities. In this lesson, my students got involved in the activity through
asking about different directions. Communicative language teaching is based on
real-life situations that require communication. Following this method in this
lesson, my students got the opportunity to communicate with their partners.
Lesson: Giving directions
Warm Up
On
the whiteboard display a map. Ask ‘Where is the …………?’ Have a student come to
the board and point it out. Then ask where a few other landmarks are and have
students draw and label them on the map.
Introduce
the vocabulary needed:
-Turn
right/left (at the 1st/2nd/3rd corner).
-Go
straight.
-You’ll
see it on the right/left.
-It’s
across from (the school, the park, the post office)
-It’s
next to (the police station, the playground, the library)
Oral activity
Ask
the students to work in pairs to practice giving directions.
Can you tell me the way to the post office?
Where
is the swimmimg pool?
Can
you tell me the way to the school?
Excuse
me, how can I get to the stadium?
Wrap up
Tell the students to look at the
map. In pairs they give directions taking turns. They follow the directions and discover the
places.
6th YEAR
1. SANDWICHES and adverbs, by María Pérez
MATERIALS
They materials I provided for the session 1 and
session 2 are the followings:
- Flashcards
- Hats
and aprons
- Food
Ingredients
- Cutlery, plates ,glasses, napkins and
tablecloth
OBJECTIVES
I want to promote the use of adverbs and I want them
to get use to elicit and predict instead of correcting and marking.
I want my students to be fluent and improve their
English pronunciation.
At this moment we are involved in a food topic, that’s
the main reason because I’ve chosen the activity of creating a menu but instead
of a menu they had to prepare a sandwich and a drink for their snack time, as
it will be more familiar to them. I divided this session in two days as
it worked really well.
SESSION 1
I got ready many different flashcards related to food
but first of all I want them to make an effort and come up with as many words
as possible. As well I got some adverbs ready in flashcards so they can use
them when talking about their sandwich.
Once we have many words ready in the board I gave them
the different flashcards for food, adverbs and drinks.
In pairs they decided their best option for snack
time, they had to use at least 3 different ingredients and some of the
different adverbs they have ready in the board.
Once they were ready they wrote in pairs how to
prepare their perfect snack and drink for a school day during the recess.
They tried the talking time (speeches) in pairs for
the next day to explain to the rest of the class.
SESSION 2
I got ready as many ingredients as necessary, and in
pairs they had to prepare their snack and drink and give an explanation to the
rest of the class while they were being recorded to post it in the social media
of the school.
REACTIONS
The reactions were amazing as they were very
motivated, surprised and happy because they were involved actively in the
activity, they were cooking and as well they love being in the social media of
the school.
They were willing to do more and more activities
related to cooking. The topic of food is usually very interesting for my
students but this year using the new activity it worked even better.
At this moment I only have to say thank you for
course, it really engaged me to keep on working on new ways of teaching and
becoming a better teacher little by little.
Hope to see you soon in a new course.
2. CHOCOLATE, by Ignacio J. Ortega
2. CHOCOLATE, by Ignacio J. Ortega
I have used for the activity the “chocolate word warm-up”. I am working
on the cooperative pedagogy and I have used this activity as a icebreaker. I
have divided my class into 5 different groups. Each group is made up of four
different members. Each member has a function::
Time: I have programmed
this activity to last for 10 minutes, because I wanted them to build up
relationship and confidence among them, in order words, to create group
cohesion. We have played with different words.
Feelings: It has worked as I
wanted. The students have interacted greatly among them; the first word has
been a little bit chaotic since nobody has respected the roles. On the second
word I asked them to stick to their roles and duties. Definitely the best turn
has been the third one, where everybody understood their mission.
Words: chocolate,
absolutely, achievement
3. RENEWABLE and non RENEWABLE, by Mª Dolores Yugueros
TASK: “ Renewable and non renewable
sources of energy “
Level: sixth of Primary.
Group: twenty students(girls and
boys).
I
realised that I could use two photos from your PowerPoint. They were those
related to the vocabulary of climate and all terrible changes our Planet is
suffering because of that.
They
have to do a project, firstly they speak about the vocabulary and try to
explain each other.
Then
they have to make a mini poster: “Global warming” putting all the words In the right diagram. Finally, they need to
tell classmates different sentences they have thought.
The pupils work in small groups of
4-5. They are used to working this way because cooperative work is one of our
learning strategies.
The
most important point is that we need to explain all the vocabulary before they
start.
And
give them some sentence structures as a help.
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario