Anka Zapart

Close Your Eyes sentences

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A while ago YLTSiG IATEFL announced an open call for real ideas for the activities to develop literacy skills with young learners. I described one of the activities we use with my primary kids and I sent it on its way. And quess what? It was chosen for publication. Yay!

This tiny bit of a post was published in the Practitioner Showcase: Developing literacy skills in the English classroom in the spring issue of the IATEFL YLTSiG Worldwide (2023, Issue 1).

Adults learning from kids. Or how I accidentally formulated my teacher beliefs

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I have already been writing about ‘the shock’ of a teacher of YL going back into the adult EFL classroom in an earlier post ‘What an old dog learnt?‘.

A message to the parents

Two weeks ago, after one of the lessons, I sat down to write to the parents about the homework, the upcoming test and some feedback. It was just a lesson and a busy one because we were doing a lot of preparation for the test. ‘Nothing special’ you might say because we didn’t have any amazing activities, no ‘fireworks’ or ‘surprises’, only a lot of hard work and practice. And yet, somehow, the lesson was just beautiful, so great, in fact, that I decided to write about it to my educational parents, too. I just wanted to tell them that the kids were amazing (they are!) and that we had a speaking activity and it all went very well. ‘You know, I wish I could show our group to some of my adult students to show them what communication might and should look like‘, I typed, and it was only then that I did sigh, in awe at my own wording and the very idea.

Oh, how I wish I could do just that.

What would my adults see…

First of all, they would see children of different ages, aged 10 in this group, but also 3 or 17 in my other groups, kids studying together, in groups or individually. If they came, they would be surprised at the level of English the kids already have at this point. Or, rather, as a proud teacher of my kids, I hope they would be impressed. Just a little bit.

I would also hope that they could notice how comfortable the kids feel in their other language version. It is not an accessory that you carry around in your hand, a tool that you try to use although you are not quite sure how to. Nor is it a costume that you have to put on and become something else, a dragon, a princess, a cat, something that you are not. On the contrary, I would love them to see how, regardless of the age and the level, English can and does feel like the second skin. Something that is just you, the other version of you but also the very self that you are.

I would love my adults to be inspired by the open-mindedness and the general attitude to anything that is new and out of the box, especially the readiness to see, to try, to experiment. That does not mean that everything that I bring into the lesson and everything that I dump at them, grammar, tests, exam preparation, all the games are welcomed with the open arms and everyone, but absolutely every single person jumps at the opportunity of diving in. It is absolutely not the case. My kids are ‘normal’ kids who get tired, who have lots of homework, who sometimes, I bet you, would be doing something else entirely, not the things we are dealing with in the classroom. And, consequently, they are looking for the ways out, for the ways of cutting the corners, for taking a time out. Which, to be honest, is something that I secretly admire them for, although I will never own up to it. But, even so, overall, they are ready for a challenge.

I would love to the adults to notice the egalite as one of our rules and standards that everyone has the right to and that everyone has to learn to accept, because, indeed, sometimes this is something that we have to work on, although for kids the reasons are slightly different. The younger kids are developing their social skills for the first time, as it were. The adults hide either behind their personality or good manners or, perhaps, the corporate culture that might be developing the habits in some relation to the hierarchy in the company. Although here, I don’t know, I am just guessing.

Last but not least, it would be very interesting to have my adult students see that the teacher is not some kind of an air traffic controller, deciding who goes next but more of a head chef, the individual, who, although fully present and involved, is only keeping an eye on the process and making sure that the food is made and served or, in other words, that the aims are met. What is more, and very closely related, is that everyone gets to execute their freedom of speech, or in simple and less grandiose words: that people talk whenever they have something to say, not only because the teacher asks a question and when she does it.

I have no idea why but with every word typed up here, it started to feel more like typing up a teaching manifesto, my own teaching commandments almost. I can promise that I will leave it here as it is and I will get back to it in a few weeks to see if it still feels like that and if I still believe in it.

As a result…

The truth is that I wouldn’t really do it. The kids’ need to stay protected, in the precious coziness of our online classroom and without any ‘invasions’ from strangers. The adults, on the other hand, might not appreciate having their teacher suggest that their new role models in communication are some ten-year-olds. Everyone will stay in their own classroom and I will just continue doing my job and learning from observing and reflecting on two different environments and types of lessons.

And using them as a source of inspiration for new activities, like this new series on the blog Discourse Development. Here’s to hoping that staging, scaffolding and practising will lead to automacy and to the development of new habits and even my adults, all my adults, will be interacting with more freedom and ease.

So far, there have been four but I got a feeling that there will be more coming up

There is definitely more to come!

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #52 Discourse development: All your thinking hats

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Ingredients

  • A set of cards with opinions, for example those that have been used with adults or those that have been used with teenagers.
  • A list of the discourse tricks displayed on the board or on the screen (see below) if the activity is done in pairs OR a set of six thinking hats if you want the students to debate in groups of 3 – 6 people. I have created two versions of these here and here. If you are interested in the orignal thinking hats that this activity was inspired by, you can start here.

Procedures

  • Pairs: student A expresses an opinion which, in the earlier stages, can be limited to only reading the opinion off the list or cards) whereas student B reacts to it using one of the approaches. Afterwards, they swap roles. It is good to highlight that student B has to use a different approach in every round.
  • Small groups: student A expresses an opinion (see above) and the other students in the group react in accordance with the hat that they are wearing in this round. Afterwards, they swap roles and the new hats are assigned. In the original activity, in the real classroom, we have been using dice. In the online world these have to be replaced with the wordwall spinner.
  • Regardless of the format, it is better to play the first few rounds with the whole class and with the active participation of the teacher to show the students that it is in fact easy to switch from one hat to the other and that the hats really help to generate ideas.

Why we like it

  • The main aim of this kind of an activity is for the students to develop the habit of reacting to what their interlocutors say and to give them a range to tools (or tricks) to contribute and to develop the contributions of other students. Hopefully, with time, my students will be able to participate in a debate and opinion exchange without any support of the spinner or the display.
  • This activity also encourages the students to listen to what their peers are saying. This has been more useful with the teenagers and juniors who are more likely to space out and start daydreaming in class.
  • The list of all the tricks can be limited to only the two basic ones (I agree / I disagree) and, later on, when the students are ready, further extended.
  • The wordwall spinner in the online classroom was a bit time-consuming for my liking but it turned out to be very beneficial for my shy / withdrawn / panicky adult students because it gave them the additional time to think and to assume the new role. Later on, we were able to switch to a simple list which served only as a reminder of all the options out there.
  • The same goes for the whole class and teacher participation. With some of my adult groups, I had to be involved more in the beginning, to model both the activity itself (to help with the speaker’s block (does it even exist) and, at the same time, to model the ways of getting involved in a debate. Otherwise, they would be just ‘politely’ waiting to be nominated to speak, even at the C1 level.
  • I have been using these with my adult groups and with my young learners, too, with teens and with juniors, when appropriate.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #51 Peppa Pig in the VYL classroom

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Lisbon

Ingredients

Procedures

  • Work with the vocabulary and structures of the unit, here the weather and the clothes
  • Introduce or revise all the weather accessories and all the other key words (i.e. umbrella, hat, warm milk etc)
  • Watch the video, with pauses to ask short questions about the video and the story. These will depend on the level of the children and their ability to produce. In the beginning we often talk about the emotions of the characters and about everything that we can see. As soon as students can use some elements of the Present Continuous or to evaluate the behaviour and the actions of the characters, the conversation really takes off.
  • We follow-up with a speaking activity. The yes / no quiz is an easy version and it is based on the students comprehension and the listening skills. They listen to the teacher and react with a simple yes or no, but, with time they will be also better able to produce simple sentences. The other activity, the reordering, was created for a more advanced pre-school student and we retold the story together, with the teacher reorganising the cards and helping the student produce the sentence. Sometimes it was a full sentence (‘It is raining”), sometimes, the teacher started a sentence and the student finished (‘Dr Brown Bear it talking…’ ‘to George’)
  • The activity can be repeated in the following lesson to give the students an opportunity to participate with more confidence and, hopefully, more language produced.

Why we like it

  • Kids already know and watch Peppa and it is fun to bring her into the English lessons, too.
  • The episodes are relatively short (around 5 min) and it is an amount of time that will not be a challenge for the students and it can be relatively easily included in a typical lesson for pre-schoolers
  • Although the language of the cartoon is not graded and it is possible to find the episodes that will be easy to understand also for the very young students who have just started to learn English as the foreign language.
  • The videos can be shared with parents and watched again at home.
  • In my classes, we use the videos in the final stages of the unit, as one more source of the target language and of the target langauge in context and to create some opportunities for production.
  • Usually, I don’t watch the videos twice in the same lesson. It might have been beneficial for the general comprehension but I am not sure about the effectiveness of such an approach. Ten minutes is a large chunk of a lesson with pre-schoolers and I doubt the kids would be still interested and focused. I prefer to pause and to chat getting the kids ready for a more communicative video-watching. In the beginning, our conversations are quite simple, very often limited to calling out the words we can see in the video or discussing ‘Is that a good idea?’, a phrase that we frequently use in our classes anyway but it helps kids reflect on the story and perhaps predict the events to follow.
  • Some other episodes that we used in class included: Peppa Pig and the Pet Day, followed-up by matching the kids and their pets, Peppa Pig Lunch followed by a Yes / No quiz, and Peppa Pig and the Fruit Day followed by an activity in which we made our own smoothies on our Miro board.

Happy teaching!

How (not) to train a teacher? A personal story

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Lisboa

Here is a post from an experienced teacher trainer and a recruiter looking back at her own teaching career and the beginnings of it. With a tiny little bit of surprise and a dash of delayed horror because, all these years ago, if I had been the one taking me on the job, I probably wouldn’t have offered myself a position, and certainly not on these conditions. I certainly would have had some serious doubts whether I should consider myself as a candidate.

What I would like to see in a newly qualified teacher of YL?

Generally, the experts Sarah Rich (2017) and Sandie Murão (2015) highlight three areas which should be included in YL teachers’ education:

  • the knowledge of the English language
  • the knowledge of the English language methodology appropriate for children
  • the knowledge of child development

These means some specific documents such as university degrees, language exams and teaching qualifications which will largely depend on the law and the education system in each country. On top of that would come all the personal characteristics that a teacher working with young learners should have such as resourcefulness, creativity and enthusiasm. And a real interest in working with children.

What did candidate Anka Z. have to show on her application for the first teaching job?

In short, not much.

I had graduated from the university with a degree in History, having spent the previous three years in the libraries of Wroclaw, leafing through the newspapers and magazines of the 1950s and, somehow, I had managed to pull off getting a masters in History writing about jazz. Something to be proud of and I was. Even today, when I open my MA thesis, I am happy with it and with the distinction that it earned me, although, obviously, there is no way in which it could have been of any use in the EFL classroom.

One saving grace was the fact that since I always wanted to teach, when it came to choosing specialisation, from the two options of a) an archivist and b) a teacher, I went for the latter and, as a result, I did two years psychology and pedagogy (aka memorising theories to pass the exam) and two months of the pre-service teaching practice. This was something because it gave me a chance of spending two months at two different schools, working with real students and being supervised by real teachers and it gave me a taste of what teaching might be about. The methodology of these two subjects, history and English as a foreign language, could not have been different but at least I had a chance to perform in front of a bunch of kids. Officially, I was a trained teacher. Of history.

It was also a happy coincidence that somewhere in-between the historical research fits, I found time to fall in love in English, Hamlet and that I started to read the English poetry and prose in the original version and, eventually, realised that there is something in the world which brings me more joy and happiness, more than history. For that reason, starting from year 3 of my university studies, I started to spend my student’s grant on the English classes in a private language schools and on exams. And even before I got my MA degree diploma, I was already a happy owner of the CAE Pass (B) certificate.

What could also be added on the assets side of the balance sheet, was definitely the state of the educational system in the country, the legislation, the demand for teachers of foreign languages at the time. They had just changed the curriculum for the primary and the secondary schools, English was introduced as the main foreign language from the age of 7 and there were no teachers. At the time when I was starting, the schools were given a permission to recruit university graduates with the relevant pedagogical training and the relevant subject knowledge, which, at the time, in case of the English language teachers was the level of B2+ aka FCE.

This is how I was hired as a full-time permanent contract teacher with all the benefits and perks.

Was I ready?

No, I was not. I had spent two months preparing lesson plans, delivering lessons, reflecting and working with the feedback I was getting. However, getting ready for discussing the ancient Rome with the primary school children and the WWI with the teenagers has got very little to do with getting your head around preparing for teaching the same kids and adolescents to speak in a foreign language.

There is no doubt that I entered the classrooms in my first week and month of teaching absolutely unprepared, relying mostly on my passion for English and on some naive (but useful) enthusiasm.

A teacher is born and raised

When I was reminiscing of the beginnings of my career, already as an experienced teacher and a trainer, I was somewhat surprised to realise that there was no mentoring programme in place. We had the informal head of the English language department, a lovely teacher Gosia who until this day is my dear friend but her help and support were based on her own personality traits, a kind heart and friendliness, rather than on a formal set of procedures. It took the form of the conversations in the teachers’ room and the joint participation in some of the projects, events and workshops.

It was the school policy for the headmaster to observe the teachers but he himself was not a teacher of languages so, really, he could not offer any real support related to the aspects of teaching English.

I survived the first month, somehow and soon enough, on the 1st of October, I started studies on the part-time BA in the English language and literature.

Perhaps it was justified, to some extent, because, when I was starting I had already enrolled on the one of the subjects that we were offered was the EFL methodology. The progress was taking place and, at the same time, my university mentor never had a chance to see me in the classroom, with my students, in action and, although, I did benefit from that, as a trainer, I cannot say that it made a real difference to my teaching. Interacting with my peers and sharing ideas was definitely more beneficial and now, thanks to the university, I had not only the two colleagues at my school but about 40 other teachers from the whole region.

Today, it feels like the teacher was simply expected to manage and to get on with the job.

Where the real learning and development happened…

…was in the classroom, of course. It was by a sheer coincidence that in my first year of teaching I was given 5 classes of year 1 of the middle school (another coincidence with the changes in the structure of the Polish school system), 3 of them divided into two groups. All of these students were of the same level and all of them were using the same coursebook, Open Doors 1, from OUP. That meant that every lesson that I had to prepare I had to teach eight times. It worked amazing well on a few levels.

First of all, this has seriously reduced the preparation time which, for a newly qualified teacher, in the first year of a full-time work, with about 30 academic hours of teaching a week, was god-sent. I could devote time to lesson preparation knowing that I was investing in 8 lessons, not in one and it was definitely much more manageable than planning 30 different lessons.

Even more importantly, that also meant that I had a chance to each the same lesson eight times in a row. Even if I hadn’t wanted, I would have been forced to reflect on how the same set of activities worked with different groups, some of which were bigger, some of which were smaller, some of which were more dilligent, some of which were less motivated, all of which were mixed ability groups, with a different ratio of weaker and stronger students.

Naturally, the lesson plan and the activities were changing and were being adapted as I went from lesson 1 to lesson 8 of the round and it was getting better. It is quite likely that by the time I got to teach it for the eighth time, it was a DELTA-worthy lesson. And even if it wasn’t, it was a much better lesson plan and I was a better, more experienced teacher.

And they lived happily ever after…

Well, I suppose they did. I got my BA in English and I stayed in a state school for five years. Then I left the country and finally got to do my CELTA course in London and then I left to travel and teach here and there and everywhere and to become an ADOS, a trainer, a blogger and all the other things that I am today.

This journey also makes me think of all the happy coincidences on the way and all the things that contributed to my becoming a teacher and staying in the profession. Inevitably, what follows are all the alternative scenarios that could have but did not happen. What if I had got different classes and what if I had to teach 30 completely different lessons every week? What if Gosia had not been there but some other not so pleasant and not so kind colleague? What if I hadn’t started my second degree straight away? What if I had had some horrible students in my first groups? Where would I be today? Just curious)

Happy teaching!

References

Sarah Rich (2018), Early language learning teacher education, in: S. Garton and F. Copeland (eds), The Routledge Handbook Of Teaching English To Young Learners.

Sandie Murão (2015), Play and Language Learning, IATEFL YLTSiG.

Crumbs # 50 Vyacheslav or about getting ready to tell a story

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Ingredients

  • a group of A2 or A2+ kids preparing for the Cambridge Flyers or the Cambridge KET exam
  • a set of the storytelling pictures from the exam writing materials
  • a piece of paper and a pen

Procedure

  • The teacher displays the visuals on the screen and tells the kids that they will be used to tell a story.
  • The teacher asks the kids to look at the visuals and decide what their character is going to be called. Everyone writes the name down on their piece of paper.
  • The teacher tells the kids to write down ten numbers, 1 – 10, and, when everyone is ready, to write ten things that they can see in all the pictures. These can be only nouns or a selection of nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.
  • The teacher asks the kids to decide what kind of a story they are going to tell: a happy story, a sad story or a scary story. Everyone decides and draws a relevant smiley at the bottom of their list.
  • The teacher divides the kids into pairs and sends them into breakout rooms to tell their stories. They have to use the name, all ten words and they have to make sure that their story has the mood they have chosen for it.
  • Back in the common room, the kids give the group a summary of their story (‘It is a story about a boy who…’)

Why we like it

  • The main aim for me in this particular lesson was to show the kids that even such uninspiring illustrations as the ones we used (and sadly, they were really boring this time) can be a start of a fun storytelling activity and that the final product’s quality depends only on the writers that is us.
  • We are preparing for a progress test and a mock test and I am hoping that an activity of that kind will get the students ready for the independent work during the test itself. Looking at the visuals and making the list helped the students think of the words that they see and it helped to assure that they will be closer to getting to the required wordcount (35 words). If they have ten on their list already 30% of the way there. It also gave them the time necessary to really look at the pictures and to start thinking of what might be happening.
  • From the word ‘Go’ the stories became personalised because the character got a name and became six different boys instantly, Fred, Bob, Tom and Vyacheslav among them. (‘Anka, but why Vyacheslav?‘ ‘I am not sure. I looked at him and I just thought he looks like a Vyacheslav‘).
  • Deciding how the story will end in the beginning also helped to shape it. It was the first time we did it and for that reason I only offered three options: a happy story, a sad story and a scary story but that list can be easily extended. We shared how we were planning to tell the story before we went into the breakout rooms and among our six stories there were three happy stories, one sad story, one scary story (mine) and one ‘ill story’ because one of my students decided that his character is going to catch a cold in the end. Anyway, from the very beginning the kids knew where they were taking their Fred and their Bob. They also knew that their partner’s story will be a bit different so, hopefully, they were more interested in listening to it. There was some variety in the group so I could put them up in a pair whose angle was different.
  • It can be easily done in the classroom but it works amazingly well in the online classes and this is how it came to be. I wanted to avoid sharing the visuals and wasting time on opening them.
  • It is easy and it can be a speaking activity in its own right or it can work as a story-writing preparation task as it was in our case. Consequently, a set of three pictures can be used (Flyers and KET writing tasks) or a set of five pictures (Flyers speaking tasks).
  • As a potential follow-up, the kids can write the story for homework.
  • Next time (and there will defnitely be another round of this activity), I am going to add a more communicative element that will give them a proper listening task and that will give them an opportunity to interact with their partner’s story such as retelling the story they have heard in the breakout rooms, creating a title for their partner’s story or continuing it (‘The next day…’). I know that choosing the best story is sometimes suggested with this kind of an activity but, to be honest, I am not a fan. Not everything needs to be a competition.

I am a lazy teacher and why you should be, too!

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Two weeks ago I was invited to present at the monthly meeting of the Teacher – Mentor Learning Community which was founded by Anna Kashcheeva who, over the years, has been my fellow teacher, ADOS, trainer, my trainee and my trainer and supervisor. Oh, what a lovely list))

I prepared a session on laziness, one of my professional passions. The session went well, the audience were amazing and I got a lot of positive feedback. We were not recording but the presentation was followed up by a post on the community’s blog and you can find it here. Once you get there, don’t forget to have a look at all the other posts and materials.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #49 Linking words and developing discourse

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It is actually funny that this particular post makes an appearance as only the third one in the series, although it should definitely be the Number One as I do it with my youngest students and with the lowest levels. That is the Beginning of Discourse.

Ingredients

  • A set of cards with some opinions or statements. These are some of those that I put together for this exercise: 4 Magic words (used with my A2 primary kids), I can speak (prepared for my A2+ juniors) or just a set of topics (used with my B2 teens and adults).
  • With my offline groups we also use a dice with a linker assigned to each number (i.e. 1 = but, 2 = because, 3 = for example, 4 = and, 5 = so, 6 = or)
  • A model sentence for presentation, i.e. It is raining.

Procedure

  • Presentation starts with the model sentence on the board or on the screen and the teacher introducing different linkers with different follow-up sentences, for instance ‘It is raining…’ ‘…because it is November’, ‘…but I am going to the park’, ‘…so I am not going to the park’, ‘…and it is cold’ and so on, for the kids to understand the meaning of the linkers and the differences between them. Depending on the age, the number of linkers can be limited to the most basic ones i.e. because, and, but. The others will be added later.
  • Controlled practice: kids try to come up with their onw follow-up ideas, still working with the same model sentence and different linkers. This is done together, as a whole class, for the teacher to be able to monitor closely.
  • A slightly freer controlled practice activity can go towards students using a selection of other simple sentences.
  • Freer practice is the first activity that is done in pairs or small groups. If this is an online class, one of the students opens the cards, reads one of the sentences. The other student chooses the linker to use and only then the first student continues the sentence. Afterwards they swap. If this is an offline class, the kids work with pairs and with a pile of cards with these sentences and they use the dice to decide which linker to use. The dice is also an opportunity to award points as the number is not only the linker they should use but also the number of points they get in this round.

Why we like it

  • It is definitely one of the activities (or topics) that, for me, personally, are the breakthrough and the first step in the transition from the baby English, pre-A and A1 level towards more linguistic freedom and fluency. Instead of ‘I like apples’, we get ‘I like apples because they are yummy’ or ‘I like apples but I don’t like pears’ or, even the simplest ‘I like apples and bananas’.
  • First of all, it leads to more production since the students are producing two sentences instead of one in the form of a complex sentence and they get more power as regards the profile and the angle of the message. It is not only ‘I like apples’ and it can develop this into ‘I like apples but only fruit. I don’t like the apple pie or the juice’, ‘I like apples so I buy them every week’, ‘I like apples but I didn’t like them when I was a child’ and ‘I like apples but my brother likes watermelon’ taking the entire conversation towards providing details, comparing the present and the past or including other subjects in it.
  • Naturally, sometimes these basic and more complex linkers are included in the coursebooks and they do include great practice activities. However, I like to introduce it early in the game, when the students are ready, regardless of the curriculum. This set of activities allows for a lot of flexibility and it is easy to use with a variety of levels, age groups and topics.
  • I have started including all the key words in the name of the activity for the sake of my online kids working in the breakout rooms, only partially supervised. When we practice in the common room, I leave the key words on the side of the screen or in the chat, for the kids to remember. It is a little bit more challenging in the breakout rooms. But, with the key words in the name, the kids can still see it even in the breakout room. The teacher only need to work a bit on developing the habit on remembering about them and on paying attention to them.
  • The student or the dice making decisions about the linking word to use makes it a bit more challenging but also a bit more fun. It is also a guarantee that a wider range of linkers will be used, rather than ‘but’ or ‘and’ in every single round.
  • The main sentence can be further extended if we ask students to produce not one but two or three sentences or if the other student is required to comment on what they have heard.

Here you can find the two other posts in the series on developing discourse through sentence adverbs and via one-minute essays. There is also one of the older posts on the many ways of developing discourse for the youngest students.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #48 Sentence adverbs and Developing discourse

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Pretty things in Nysa (aka hometown)

This is one more of those activities that is not ‘a real grammar / vocabulary topic’ that is introduced in the coursebook with all the follow-up activities. It is not. It is closer to an activitiy that helps to broaden the horizons and let the students look in a slightly different way at the language they are producing while speaking. It is not only a set of words that you blurt out because you understand the question that was asked and that you have an opinion you want to share. Instead, you take a moment (a very, very short one), one breath and organise the words that are the come out. One of the activities has already been published here on the blog, about One-minute essays. This is the second one in this mini-series.

Ingredients

  • A list of sentence adverbs
  • A story to create a context, any story will do. Once I used the short Alternative Math, once I used the stories of Tom Denniss and Helen Skelton. Once I simply referred to Harry Potter. It can also be any text or any listening that is included in the coursebooks.
  • Some practice exercises or simply, things to talk about. I normally use either these wordwall cards What would you rather do? or a set of opinions that I use in a variety of different activities.

Procedures

  • Introduce the idea: I normally use a set of sentences, related to the topic, i.e. Harry went to Hogwarts, Harry grew up in the house of his uncle Vernon, Harry was given the Marauders’ Map. Afterwards we add to these a few different sentence adverbs and we discuss how it changes the meaning of the sentence and how much more of weight they add to the original sentence. ‘Harry grew up in the house of his uncle Vernon’ is just a simple sentence, without any emotional gravity but once we start adding the adverbs, each of these sentence becomes a story, for example ‘Sadly, Harry grew up in the house of his uncle Vernon’ or ‘Fortunately, Harry grew up in the house of his uncle Vernon’ which can lead to a discussion on why Dumbledore made this kind of a decision.
  • We practise in the same way with all the other model sentences.
  • Practice activity number 1: a freer discussion, in pairs or in teams, about the context of the story in which students try to make their own sentences, with the sentence adverbs of their choice.
  • Practice activity number 2: a follow-up exercise. In the What would you rather do in which the students choose their own option, they provide justification for it and do a lot of speaking. However, it is necessary to start their discourse with the sentence adverb of their choice.
  • Later on, in all the other lessons, the students are encouraged to use these whenever appripriate and, hopefully, in a more natural way.

Why we like it

  • This whole idea and the series started in my teenage classroom (of course!) but I have also smuggled it into my lessons with adults. Successfully smuggled, it had to be added. It is probably more necessary with the exam classes but it can (and it should) be used in the general English classes.
  • Regarding the levels, as usual, I am experimenting on my teens who are now in their B2 but I have also been using it with my A2+ onwards students, even with some of my C1 adults who have been struggling with the spoken discourse organisation.
  • It worked well in class on the day but I have also noticed a long-term impact, like with the other activities of this kind. It has worked as a switch in the way of thinking. And now, when we are starting some other activities, in regular lessons or before the progress tests or exams, it only takes a quick reminder that these tools we already have at our disposal.
  • It was great to see how the students’ contributions became more beautiful and better organised. It was also great to see the change in their attitude and how, with this little and silly exercise, they becamore more aware of the opportunities that this particular tool gives them. They have become more aware and more powerful speakers. They have become more organised speakers.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #47 Our Weather Book

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Ingredients

  • 6 pieces of paper, A5-size aka 3 pages of A4 cut into halves.
  • glue
  • drawing materials: crayons, markers, felt tip pens, coloured pencils

Procedures

  • Introduce and practise the weather vocabulary as usual. This is not our first year of English so we have been using the extended set of words and phrases. Over the series of lessons we have been describing the weather, miming riddles (and yes, I have come up with the gestures for ‘it’s foggy’ and ‘it’s cloudy’, it is not impossible:-) and we have also watched an episode of Peppa Pig, George catches a cold, because it gives us an opportunity to practise the weather, the clothes, some Present Continous and the feelings. Here you can find the set of wordwall cards that we use for the retelling exercises. As you can see, the weather topic became the opportunity to introduce and to revise a whole range of vocabulary sets and structures and it will be reflected in the Weather Book. We are also using the songs and here are our three favourite ones: How is the weather?, What’s your favourite season? and Put on your shoes.
  • First it is necessary to make the book itself. We study online so I asked the parents to prepare the materials before the lesson (six pages, glue, markers), in the offline classroom there is the option of making the book first or the teacher preparing the booklets before the lesson, depending on the age of the students.
  • Making the booklet in class is easy if you follow these few steps: check that everyone has all the necessary materials (‘Have you got the glue? Show me!’), counting all the pieces of paper together etc. Then we draw the line alongside the edge of the paper, page by page and putting the ready pages away. These lines will be help the kids to apply the glue and stick the papers together. The teacher needs to model all the stages and it is absolutely necessary to wait up for the kids, to make sure that everyone is on the same page (no pun intended:-). Afterwards, the teacher shows how to apply the glue (‘Put some glue on the line’) and how to add another page on top, repeating until all pages are glued together into a book (‘Look, we’ve got a book!’)
  • Kids, together with the teacher, number the pages. The numbers will help the teacher and the kids to navigate the booklet throughout the activity. We also write our names on the front page.
  • The next step is to start filling the booklet, one topic per lesson. When we are ready, we put the books away until the next lesson. Once there is something in the book, we start the activity with talking about what we already have got.
  • The topics that we have included so far include: the weather, the emotions (‘It is sunny, I am happy’), the clothes (‘It is sunny, I am wearing a dress’). In the future, I would like to add to it some basic accessories (‘It is sunny, I’ve got my sunglasses’) and some basic Present Continous (‘It is sunny, I am riding a bike’).

Why we like it?

  • There is a lot of potential for craft as the book activity can be extended over a series of lessons.
  • The book also allows for personalising the topic of the weather by associating it with emotions, clothes etc.
  • And, last but not least, it gives us a lot of opportunities for producing the language and, since a large part of the content is revised and repeated over and over again, the kids become a lot more confident at producing it and becoming creative with it, too. After a few lessons, we started to make up silly sentences not matching the weather for the other student(s) to correct the information that they have already heard and have become familiar with.
  • It can be used with a variety of topics, not only the weather, for example food (with pages devoted to fruit, vegetables, drinks, lunch and desserts) or animals (with pages devoted to big and small animals, animals which can fly, swim, run etc) although so far, I have been using the weather book only as a long-term project, with my 1-1 online student. We made the food book with my online group, as a one-off project. It was also a success.
  • There is more flexibility as regards the format, too. We made the booklets and starting filling them in in the same lesson because my kids were ready but it is also possible to divide it into two stages: lesson 1: making the book, lesson 2: start filling it in.
  • The same can be done with all the other lessons. The weather words and the emotions are quite easy to write and adding these in is feasible enough, one lesson (or a ten-minute slot) is going to be enough. The clothes or the accessories might take longer and it can be divided into two lessons to avoid the risk of the activity taking too long and the kids getting bored.

Happy teaching!