Work by projects

Today I would like to explain, as I said in the previous post, an example of how we can work by projects. The topic I have chosen to talk about it is one that my classmates and I learned at university last week. So today we will learn to organize a project related to fish for first grade.

To start the project, speaking for myself, I think it can be an option if we let pupils decide on what they want to learn (the theme). However, if sometimes we want to teach something more specific we can also choose the topic. In this case, we want to acquire knowledge and new vocabulary related to fish. So what we can do is put inside a box things associated with that animal, as for instance, fish food, a drawing of the animal, but cut into pieces, a small fish tank, among others. Through this way children will have to guess what animal it is. In my own conceit, I think that whether students choose the topic or is the teacher who decides for them both will be  fine as long as the theme can motivate our pupils.

Then, as I explained in the previous post, once we have chosen the subject it is important to ask about the previous knowledge of children. If you ask me, this is the most important step, because we need to know how many things they have learnt about that topic and  the vocabulary they know. It is also important to bear in mind that depending on the age, they will know more or less related to the topic. In this case, however, as it is addressed to children from first grade the teacher will have to guide students by asking questions and helping with the answers. Some of the questions we could ask would be: Where do they live? What do they eat? or What can they do?, among others. And as you will see, it will be appearing many new vocabulary words for them.

Then, as we saw in the previous post too, we have to keep in mind what we want children to learn  and organize different activities to achieve our objectives. At this point, I want to explain them in an original way and that is why I decided to seek resources I would  use to work on fish with children of first grade. I made a collage with them.

  

As you can see, we can find many resources as a rhyme (rainbow fish), some cards to work adjectives (the fish is green, the fish is happy, etc.), a fish diagram or some pictures with the fish food. But I would like to highlight a resource which have been researching about it and I love it. This is the book: Hooray for fish and it takes us on an exciting journey under the sea. Little fish introduce us to his fishy friends under the sea: such as Spotty Fish, Striped Fish, Fish Happy, Grumpy Fish and many more. None of them are the same yet they are all friends. At the end of his journey Little Fish introduce us to the one he loves the most – his ‘Mummy’.

I believe that this resource can help us a lot if we want children of first grade learn adjectives, the habitat and parts of fish and go over the numbers, colors and shapes in English because in the book appear very different fish and we can see its features. What’s more, we can work with our pupils a sentence as a conclusion of the book: “In year 1 we are all different, but we realize that we all have one thing in common with little fish, we all love our mummies”.

Finally, the outcomes (final product) have to be related to what they have been working during all the project. It can be a song or a mural made by themselves. In case we decide to teach the fish through the book I proposed I found this mural done by a teacher with children. I liked the idea, but I have noticed it would be more significant if we include more work done by children in, because we need to remember that the final product is made by children not by the teacher!!

I hope you enjoyed and see you in the next post!!

Working on a topic

What happens when we decide to introduce a new topic in class? The answer is that we do not know what is the previous knowledge students have on this subject. Perhaps there are students who know many things, but nevertheless, there will be others who won’t know anything  or just a  few aspects about the theme. But we do not spread panic!!

In this post, I am going to about three steps we should consider if we want to explain content meaningfully and step by step. These are the following: 1- Where are we now? (Which is the previous knowledge kids have about that topic?), 2- Where are we going? (What do we want children to learn?) and 3- How can we close the gap? (How can we get kids to learn it? and what activities can we do?). Then, I am going to explain these steps one by one and give my opinion about them.

1- Where are we now?  

One of the first things we need to do is asking students: “What do you know about …?”,  ” Have you ever hear this word before?” or “Do you know what it is?” to be aware of the notions that pupils have on a particular knowledge and find out from where can we start. To get that it can be very useful if we do a brainstorming with all the different ideas. Then, once we know their previous information and experiences about the subject matter what we can do is to stick the different notions in the blackboard, so the whole class can see it.

From my point of view, this is one of the most important parts when we try to teach any topic to children or even adults because if we do not discover what they know, we cannot help them, because some of them will understand us, but others do not. In addition, one advice I would like to add is that if children are young, as for example first grade, it is better if we do not force them to read. For that reason, we can make a drawing related to the words or sentences they have said and this will be easier for them. And of course, it is also very important that teachers lead children, asking them questions and helping with the answers if they do not remember some words.

                           

2- Where are we going? 

This second step refers to where we want to go and we can also call it “the outcomes”. So we need to think about twho questions: what we want children learn? and what is the purpose of that learning? We also need to consider a final product that represents all the things children have been assimilating throughout the process. For example, it can be a mural or a poster, a song made by students with the help of the teacher or a video, among others.

 As far as I’m concerned, this step is also influential because depending on what we decide here, we will organize activities in one way or another. Therefore, we must be aware of our aims and these have to be adapted to the age of our pupils. If we want to understand this concept better, we have to imagine it as a way and at this point, we have to decide where we want to  arrive because depending on how far we want to go, we will take a route or another (do some activities or others).

                                      

3- How can we close the gap?

We can answer this question with a single word, activities!! But the main objective of these has to be going from the previous knowledge to the outcomes, as these have to be sequenced from easiest to hardest. In my opinion, it is very important that we choose motivating activities and that we model the tasks, depending on the age of children. We can use different resources to get their attention as for example a story book, a video, a role-playing, through songs or pictures, among others and get them to learn in a meaningful way.

In addition, from my point of view, we cannot forget the evaluation of the final activities and the process. For this reason, it is recommended that teachers going around with a grid and assess by observation.

In my next post, we will see a practical example related to what I have explained today. I hope you like it!!

How can we teach English?

Sometimes when educators think about teaching English, they consider language as one of the most important things. However, we need to be aware that there is much more behind: we have to consider the needs of children, deal with class management and contact with families. In this post, I will focus on two questions that we have been working in class: What do children need to learn? and how can they learn it?. In my opinion, these interrogations can help us a lot as teachers or future educators if we want to introduce content in a creative and dynamic way. Let’s start!

What do children need to learn?

In this cloud of words, I have wanted to write some of the ideas that, from my point of view, are important when children learn a language. I believe it is great that students follow routines and sessions are well structured because in this way children  know what they will do during the lesson and they will not be nervous. Furthermore, pupils need to learn to work in a relaxed atmosphere, being respectful and tolerant with classmates, and we, as teachers, requiere to generate this environment. For example, in the tutoring sessions we can work on emotional education and prepare a variety of games where all children can participate to ensure  relationships between them improve.

Finally, I contemplate children need to learn interesting and useful topics and at this point,  it is true that sometimes it can be difficult to achieve because teachers are forced to follow the book and the topics do not seem very interesting always. However, we need to be positive and if we use imagination, we can create dynamic activities that engage students in almost any theme because children are very curious and they want to learn, discover and have fun.

How can they learn it?

There are many possible answers to this question: through songs, stories, videos, role playing, miming, with flashcards … but the aspect we need to think about it is how we can introduce the theme? For example, if we want to explain the members of the family, we just can say: hello children! Today we are going to learn the members of the family!. Nevertheless, we can  make it more exciting bringing a box to class with objects related to the subject and asking kids some questions to guess what they will learn. We can call this resource “magic box” and it is ideal for kindergarten to Year 4. 

My teacher taught me this methodology and I have to say  it is the one I like most because I agree that children are very curious and through this way we can ensure all of them are paying attention. Moreover, as they will have to ask questions we will be encouraging our pupils to participate and stimulating their cognitive skills (prediction). For instance, they will be able to ask:  it is red?, Is there any animal?,  It is big? or Can you eat it?

Finally, I love it because with this “box” we can have the opportunity to put different resources inside such as dolls, a story book about different kinds of families, or flashcards. And, therefore, we can use them to introduce new content as relationships between family members, clothing or even comparative (grandpa is older than daddy). So we have many possibilities!!

What makes a great teacher?

These days in class we have been talking about different aspects and qualities teachers need to consider if they want to achieve a good working environment. I will explain some of them in this post because from my point of view I think they are essential for the proper learning of children.

What makes a great teacher?

• They are innovative. They engage students and get them to learn through different ways and activities. This type of teachers are not always using textbooks and they organize classes depending on the group of children they will teach. In my opinion, this point is one of the most important because every class can learn in a different way.
• They achieve a good atmosphere in the class. They want to have a peaceful environment in the classroom where all pupils can learn and where they help each other. In addition, they are enthusiastic and concerned about their students.
• They are motivating. They work hard so that all pupils can achieve their goals and  nobody is left behind.
• Creative. They allow kids to paint, create, build, design, imagine and play because there are many ways and possibilities of learning.
• They communicate with parents. They kept a lot of communication with parents, they organize meetings or invite them to come into the classroom to help.
• They are aware of diversity. They are aware that each child learns in a different way and in the class there are students with different levels. For this reason, they want to adapt content and make it accessible to all pupils.
• They know how to get somebody’s attention. Through songs, phrases, magic words or with gestures, but they get grab attention.
• They are persevering and organized. Because it is very important to plan what we are going to teach in each lesson and follow three steps: 1- Where are we now? 2- Where are we going (outcomes)? and 3- How can we close the gap ?
• They ask about feelings. They are interested in how students feel because self-esteem is related to learning and if students do not feel well or they have concerns about anything, therefore, they can not learn properly.
• They show values. They not only teach content, they also show how to be respectful, to be good partners, to share or to take care for the environment.
• They are models. Teachers are aware of it because kids tend to imitate what they have seen so it is very important to act correctly. For instance, if when we ask for something, we always say please and thank you, it is probably that students do too.
• They follow some routines. It is easier for pupils if the teacher follows a routine because they get used to it and they know there is plenty of time for each activity or game during the class.

And how about you? Do you think you are or you’ll be a good teacher?

Related to the topic: how we can be good teachers? I would like to share three creative applications we can use in the classroom to teach English  in a dynamic way. I have learned them in class thanks to a talk given by Ricard Garcia, a professor at the University of Barcelona.

1- Thinglink: We can use it if we are teaching children through CLIL, or if we are doing projects in class. This web page is really useful if we want to enrich images, because we can project the pictures on the digital board. And we can add text, links or even videos from YouTube in them. As far as I’m concerned, I would like to use it with my future class as we can consult different resources while we are explaining and students can relate concepts easily.

 2- Zaption: it is quite similar to the previous page. We can use it to enrich videos. Teachers just need to choose a video from YouTube or other web page and write some questions related to it. When we start playing the video, questions will be appearing and pupils will have to guess the answers. It will be a challenge for them and they will be focused on getting the questions right.

3- Bombay Tv: Although it appears in third place it is actually one of my favourites. On this website, we can find many short videos from Indian series. What students can do with them is to create the dialogues of the characters by writing or recording their voices. I’m sure pupils will love it because they will have the opportunity of become scriptwriters for a day! And who would not like that?

Finally, I would like to say that although there are many points to consider, we must not be afraid because when teachers aim for children to learn in the best way possible, they do many of these actions without realizing. But, in fact,  they are doing a wonderful job.

Classroom management

Be quiet please! Silence! Don’t be so noisy! … There are many times that teachers have to ask children for silence during the class. But what happens when the typical phrases do not work and children are still talking? We have to use our imagination and think of other effective ways to grab the attention of pupils.

These days, in class we have been learning different ways to achieve this objective and I would like to share them on this blog. Lets’s see!

1. Teaching students a three or four – line rhyme:

You have to teach it first and maintain it. Once they have learned, you can say the first line and they can respond with the second and the third or you can say the beginning of each sentence and they can continue. One example could be:

      One, two, three -> Look at me. 

      Four and five -> Do the jay.

      Six, seven, eight -> Concentrate!

2. Singing a song:

Sometimes, when we star the class a good resource we can use to get pupils’ attention is to sing a song.The first time, we need to teach the song and the rhythm but once they have learned, they will start to sing when music starts playing.

A song that we have learnt in class this week has been: Wind the bobbin up. We can sing the usual song and miming with our hands the first times. Once they know, we can change some parts of the lyrics (point to the table, point to the nose) and say other objects of the class  or even skip a few words and see if they are able to remember them .

Fun is guaranteed!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDcAHLuYNjI

Welcome and Creative ways to group students

                   

Hello everybody! My name is Andrea Lluch and I am a university student at the University of Barcelona. This is my fourth and last year there and I have chosen the mention of English because my dream is to be an English teacher. This blog is an initiative created by my teacher of didactics of the English language with the aim that we can collect all the ideas that we learn in class week after week. I am passionate about the idea because writing is one of the things I like to do most, since I was a child.  In addition, I believe it can be an excellent plan because through this way, when we graduate and start working at school, we will have a lot of materials and resources available to be used. Finally, I think that being able to write  on the blog each week will help us improve our written skills and we will be able to learn new vocabulary. All in all, as you can see there are many advantages so I hope, dear readers, that you enjoy reading my blog, as much as I am going to enjoy writing on it!

Greetings,

Andrea Lluch             

Now, you will be able to see my first post about creative ways to group students.                                          

                             

Students love work collaboratively because it becomes funnier and  more meaningful. Teachers also agree that through this way kids can share habilities and knowledge as each member has opportunities to contribute in small groups. They can help each other and classroom climate can improve because they are more aware of the needs and feelings of their classmates.

However, sometimes teachers want to organize any activity by groups but we don’t want to waste much time and we are not sure about how we can do it. Personally speaking, it is good if sometimes we let students decide by themselves with whom they want to work, but not always because our objective is to get everyone working together. For this reason, today in class we have learnt one quick strategy to group pupils. Moreover, I have done a research to find other creative strategies and I would like to share two of them in this blog.

1. Remember your number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …

One of the quick strategies we can use consists on telling a number to each student and they have to remember it. When all pupils have their number, we can group together those who have the same.

For example, if we want teams of 5 students, we will begin to say: number one, two, three, four and five in order and then, all pupils with 1 will work together and the same with the other numbers. 

                               

2. Team maker:

My  favorite way to group students is with the web “Team maker”. Simply enter your student’s names, select the number of groups you would like and in a minute your teams will have been created. In addition, team maker has settings that allow you to choose a team named based on: animals, dinosaurs, cars, birds, among others. I’m sure that kids will love it!!

As an example, if you want to do 5 groups about animals, the web will select different names: Group 1- lions, group 2- elephants, 3- bears, 4-gorillas and 5-cheetahs. In my opinion, it is very easy to use and it can be very rewarding because students can choose the theme of groups and think different names. In this way , we can work on speaking and vocabulary in a fun way!

Team maker: http://chir.ag/projects/team-maker/

3. Book cover puzzle:

Other resource we can use in our English classes is the book cover puzzle. We need to scan and print different covers of books for children. Then, we can laminate them and cut into 4 or 5 puzzle pieces (depending if we want groups of 4, 5, 6…) and give one piece to each kid. 

Finally, students will have to find the classmates who have the pieces of their puzzles and teams will be done.