My primary group are now in their second year, around 7 and 8 years old and anywhere between A1 and A2, all mixed together. And, on top of that: cheeky, rowdy and creative. These have been our favourite vocabulary games this year.
Have you got any…?
Materials: a set of flashcards
Procedures: this game was inspired and very roughly modelled on the popular game ‘Go Fish’. I have already written about it here, in one of its versions. The main aim is to guess what cards the other teams or players have, by asking the appropriate question. I really like using ‘Have you got?’ because it matches pretty much any vocabulary set but there are other options possible. Please check out the post devoted to the Sheep Game.
What have you got for lunch?
Materials: a set of visuals, I use wordwall displayed on the screen, such as those here.
Procedures: the game starts with writing the key questions on the board. In the original form of the game these were: What have you got for lunch? Do you like it? Is it a good lunch for you? The teacher displays the pictures on the screen and asks the students the questions. Some of the lunch options are regular, some are crazy. Some look unusual but kids love them. The main aim of the game is to express opinion and to use the key words.
The first few times we play, we do it together, as a group but the idea is to get the kids used to talking about the pictures in pairs, so that everyone has a chance to express their opinion. This year I came up with the idea of The Cafe -we all sit at our tables, in pairs or threes and we have a little, quiet chat only with out partner, without disturbing anyone. And, surprise, surprise, my rowdy bunch did get the idea!
I have only used it with food so far but a new topic is coming up (clothes, animals) and I am planning to expand the activity with different questions.
Riddles
Materials: a list of words (handouts or displayed on the board) or, possibly, a set of flashcards
Procedures: Kids work in pairs or small groups. The leader chooses one of the words and describes it in three or five sentences. The other students guess which word they speak about. It is a good idea to display on the board the set of all the basic structures that can be used. All ideas are good ideas! Food items can be discribed using some of the following structures:
You eat it.
You drink it.
You eat it for lunch / breakfast / dessert. It is a snack.
You eat it hot / You eat it cold.
I like it / I don’t like it.
It is round / square / big / small.
It is yellow / green / etc.
It is a game that is most effective later in the unit when the kids have already assembled some structures and ideas about a certain vocabulary set and they can really enjoy playing it.
I have already written about riddles on this blog and you can find these two posts here and here.
Similar or different
Materials: a list of words (handouts or displayed on the board) or, possibly a set of flashcards
Procedures: Kids work in pairs and they take turns to choose a pair of any two words for their partner with the same question in every single round ‘Are they similar or different?’. The child answering the question makes a decision and justifies it in a way that is appropriate. All ideas are good ideas! We are now in the unit of food unit so for example the food items can be both lunch dishes, two drinks, two items starting with the same letter, having the same number of letters, having the same colour, being the same category (two fruit) or two things that students like etc.
We don’t play this game in the first lesson with the vocabulary but later in the unit in order to give use a chance to accumulate some additional vocabulary during the unit, just like in the case of ‘Riddles‘. In order to raise the level of challenge, we use each word only once, to make sure that we go over all the words. This game usually has a very slow start but as the kids are adjusting their way of thinking of the words and trying to come with more and more unusual combinations and connections, it speeds up and is becoming more and more fun.
Pairs
Materials: a list of words, a poster or a set of flashcards
Procedures: This is, in fact, a variation of the game described above, however, in this version each student is in charge of their own choices and they have to think of their own way of justifyin why the two words are a pair. All ideas are good ideas, as above, and the players have to play using each word only once.
Starting the lesson, rewards chart, reflection and feedbackand classroom management.
These are the stages of the lesson that did not really change in December. We kept all of the existing elements and we simply kept using them without any major alterations. It is also interesting to look back and realise just that. I suppose that means that our routines are in place and they bring the outcomes as intended.
I continue to take notes about their behaviour and performance in the notebooks and I noticed that they all care. Now and again, I have a student ask ‘Are you going to write in our notebooks this week?’ or ‘Have we got the new notes in the workbooks?’ and whenever we use the notebook for the first time in the week, I have to remember to mentally add a minute or two for them to check the notes and ask questions and so on before we actually get down to what we have scheduled for that lesson. It is also a great opportunity for me to reflect on each child and to follow their progress.
Story and songs
Our main focus of the month, regarding the song was, of course, ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town‘ and it was a fun one, from the methodology point of view. My students are already not so little anymore and not so illiterate anymore. For that reason, we could do a song, just with lyrics, going over the song, looking for the new words and using a page with text during rehearsals…That felt great. I also decided not to create any special dance routine at all. I just told the kids, ‘You are good at improvising. Go on, improvise!’ and they did!
Again, there was no time to do any real story and I am not happy. Again. What I think it calls for is a real plan, with a reading list for us to cover, at least one piece of real literature a month.
Socialising
We had three main events planned for December and all of them involved us working as a team, within the class, within the year and within the school.
Open lessons for parents were an opportunity to show what we can do to our parents and, although it was stressful as an event, it was very rewarding and necessary. And, overall, it went well and even if it did not, I was happy for the parents to see all of us in our natural habitat. As usual, it was an interesting case study because some kids behaved well because the parents were present and some, naturally, were acting up specifically because the parents were watching. There were some, too, who were acting up just because their parents could not attend.
Christmas Fair was a whole school event that we all were getting ready for and, of course, on the day, it did affect our everyday life because the children were excited to see, to share ideas, to share opinions and then talk about everything that happened. But it also went very well and it was a success. I was not personally responsible, I was just a little piece of the machinery. But, nonetheless, I could see how much it did for the team spirint and bonding within classes 2A and 2B.
Christmas Concert for which we were preparing a song and a little dance (‘Santa Claus is coming to town”) and it also helped us bond and work together. And, during the concert, we really (really) rocked it!
our communication lessons (there will be a separate post, eventually)
lots of pairwork
Creativity
We haven’t really created a lot as regards the visual arts. Thinking about it right now, I think our most recent take was in November, with the Turkeys and the Craft Day. However, our life was so eventful that we (and by we I mean, me, the teacher) struggled with making time for the regular, curriculum-bound activities. And we did lots and lots of craft in our extracurricular classes.
But we developed a new hobby, that of coming up with nicknames for us and we spent hours and hours of classtime in character. That was fun.
We also had a lot of fun with the langauge, in all the role-plays, talking about unusual food and decorating our letters for the pen pal project.
Teacher
The teacher in December was trying hard not to go crazy. Trying and mostly succeeding. Because of all the events and kids being tired and waiting for Christmas and the break, we were all tense and a bit on the edge. But, overall, we had a good month.
I was really proud of us taking part in the concert and doing such a great job (and having fun!), working hard and taking part in all the activities.
Things to come…A teacher’s to-do list
a revision of the rules, I am considering a real January Rules Challenge
a revision of the language because the first two weeks will be messy
another soft skills lesson to give us a chance to develop
some tests already scheduled for January
a new Art theme for the month
a new song, a real one
a January book (apart from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that we have in the coursebook)
Welcome to the post about the final Art lesson of the year and, at the same time, the Art lesson that can be (and will be) adapted to different seasons, symbols and styles. I am very happy with it and I am very happy to be sharing it here.
The language
This was our final lesson of the calendar year, done just before we left for the winter break and for that reason our language and content input was heavily focused on Christmas and December. We revised all the Christmas vocabulary using wordwall and riddles and we talked about our favourite symbol of Christmas.
Afterwards, we looked at the presentation (you can find it here) and we talked about the many symbols of the December celebrations and symbols that my students are not really familiar with. I really wanted to broaden their horizons a little bit and to show them that there are different symbols of Christmas in different countries (i.e. mistletoe in the US), different traditions (i.e. Santa bringing presents and leaving them in the Christmas boots in Finalnd), different associations with Christmas (i.e. a barbecue on the beach in New Zealand) or even different holidays that are more visible and associated with December such as Hanukkah and menorah.
As it happened, we also had a chance to extend the topic into our regular English lessons and we had lots of fun with the quiz (‘Santa, where are you from?’) and the bamboozle game about the letters to Santa written by different characters from stories and films.
It’s a reindeer. In case you are wondering)
The artist
We looked together at different artists and how they might have painted a Christmas tree and a menorah. I have chosen Warhol, Kusama, Pollock, Picasso, Mondrian and Dali. Some of these were the artists we have covered since September and some were chosen because they have a style that is easy for children to follow. I have used the images I found online (Christmas tree and menorah).
The real inspiration for the lesson was the set below that I cannot reference. I got it from a friend but there was no real source. Dear author: thank you and I am sorry that I cannot reference you!
The most beautiful picture of them all that actually gave me the idea for the whole lesson
We talked about them a little bit: the most significant details such as colours or shapes and whether we like them or not.
The art
Before the lesson I prepared the materials, pencils and markers and a piece of paper, cardboard divided into 4 sections. I also prepared my own examples of the art: one chosen symbol in four different styles, the regular one and the other ones representing three different artists. For our lessons this time I have decided to include Kusama, Mondrian and Picasso because they are signigifant enough and easy enough for beginners: dots for Kusama, shapes and the colours for Mondrian and asymmetry and colours for Picasso. Each picture was first drawn in pencil and then coloured in as appropriate.
I was really happy with the lesson. The kids were really interested in finding out about all of the traditions and symbols. Now, after we have covered the whole Christmas month, I think that there is enough material to cover all the lessons of the month. There are a lot more ideas for quizes and games. Hopefully, next year we will be able to do all that.
What’s more important, the kids really took to the creative part of the lesson. Most of my students chose to draw exactly the same symbols which they named as their favourite Christmas symbols in the beginning of the lesson although there were some who, on taking everything in stock, went for symbols who were easier to draw. Which is just as well since, this way, they could really focus on conveying the elements of each style.
We were going step by step, with me modelling and highlighting the bits and pieces of each symbol. Kids were working at their own pace, some of them needed more time, some of them were speeding up and taking ahead of the group but they all worked beautifully and they all did their absolute best to incorporate the main features of each style.
I am happy with all the pictures, of course, but it was especially lovely to see the works of my least advanced students. One of them because, although his reindeer is not a perfect rendition, he really did made an effort to represent different styles and he ended up with creating his own style, on a separate piece of paper. The other one, because although she did not attend many of our classes, she took the reins soon after we started painting and right after creating the first picture in the style of the Designated Artist (Kusama), she went on creating in all the other styles, the Smileys Candy Cane, the Harry Potter Candy Cane and, of course, the most touching of all: Miss Anka in four different styles.
The most exciting thing about this lesson is the fact that I will be able to repeat it with an entirely different focus but a similar approach to give the kids an opportunity to experiment with a variety of creative styles. I am considering hearts for St.Valentines, rabbits and flowers for Easter and spring and the summer symbols for the end of the year, as a way of celebrating the whole year of Art.
This article, just as the earlier post here, has come to be as a result of the many (many!) conversations with my trainees and what I observed in my own classroom. It is fair to say that it has become my latest professional passion / obsession / interest. The post that I have written here (‘A balancing act. Non-competitive EFL games for kids‘) is one of my proudest moments on the blog but was just the beginning of the whole story. And one of the top 10 articles on the blog!
The article that I wrote for the Modern English Teacher (Issue 33.6 Nov-Dec) is a continuation of this research anad the search for solutions. It is, unfortunately, only available to the MET subscribed members but I am really proud of it and I can definitely say that the solutions that I came up with and the ideas that I suggest really do work. After a year and a half pretty much all of my YL are now ready to play competitive games. I do recommend!
I decided to put all of these together in one post and share them here in case someone is looking for some try and tested activities. Some of them were done as part of our Art Explorers afternoon club, some were done in class, some were even completed during the long break and we made them just because some students (mine and not mine) wandered into the classroom with ‘Miss Anka, can you give us something to do? You have many interesting things here.’
Meaning? They can be turned into a real, productive lesson, with additional vocabulary and activities and song or they can be the add-on to some regular classes that simply take place in December. It is up to you, dear teacher.
Little angels
My, oh my, this craft activity is about ten years old. I have not invented it myself, I saw it somewhere online or in a book ages ago and I loved it so much that I decided to make my own template. Imperfect as it is, it works and the final result is still pretty. You can find the template here and some basic instructions are included there, too.
You can use some cardboard (if it is thin enough for your printer) but the majority of the angels we made were printed on the regular photocopying paper and they are all pretty and amazing. There are four main elements to be drawn and coloured: the face, the clothes, the wings and the thing that the angel is holding (and these can be also the four main elements that the kids are talking about in the end: I am happy, I am wearing, I’ve got, My wings are..) before the angels are cut up. Cutting is actually the one tricky element and for my youngest students I draw the coloured lines where they should cut. For the youngest of them or those who need help, I was helping with cutting the tricky bits.
In the end, the angels can also be decorated with the glitter glue markers or with the cotton which can be glued on the wings. The finished angels can be hung on the tree or they can stand on the shelf.
Christmas cards
I really wanted us to make the cards that can be given out to teachers, friends or parents and that is how this craft made an appearance. It had to!
There are many many templates for a card and many of them for the specific simple triangle Christmas tree silhouette, like this one here, but I got really inspired by my own friend, Jill, who made those with her son. However, instead of using scotch to form the triangle (I know my scotch likes to stick and destroy the surface), I cut out simple silhouettes in cardboard cards (destined to be destroyed or recycled).
I showed the kids the finished cards, we prepared the working space (the silouettes over the cards) and started to work on our trees. We used a variety of materials: regular markers, acrylic markers and crayons and pencils. Then we took off the silouettes and finished the cards with the glitter glue markers.
The finished cards that you can see were created by a mixed ability group, some were 5 years old and some were almost 9, some were made by everyone in-between!
Christmas garland
It has been a few years now, since I use the garland making as the whole class team building activity. What you need is a lot of glue sticks and lots and lots of strips of paper but because of the task and the volume, here, literally: ANYTHING WILL DO: coloured paper, photocopying paper, ready to be recycled photocopying paper, old newspapers and glossy magazines, all of it, as long as it is cut up into strips.
Modelling is easy, just showing the kids how to make hoops and how to connect them. Then the kids should be divided into groups, if they want to, or allowed to work on their own. This is good, because everyone can work in their own way and at their own pace and what matters is that, in the end, all of the pieces will be connected together to decorate the classroom.
It is a lovely bonding task with the aim (to decorate the classroom) that unites the whole group. I normally do it within a group but in the past I also did it as a cool end-of-the-lesson activity during an open lesson, with the parents helping out and one year, we also did it as a whole school competition, with a time limit for each class. Later, of course, we had meters and meters of garlands to decorate the whole school. Highly recommended!
Christmas tree
It was last year that I found out about the love that Andy Warhol had for Christmas and it was last year that I fell in love with the Christmas tree that he created. We followed suit and made our own last year and you can read about it here.
This year, I decided we would do it again but this time as a team effort. The task is not a small one and it takes time to decide on the theme, the colour and then look for and cut out and assemble the pieces (especially if you really want to stay within your theme), even if your tree is not very big. For that reason and to help build social skills in the group, we went for pairs. Truth be told, I also wanted to have a few trees to decorate the room…
Here are our beautiful trees, the one in red and the other one in blue. We will be making more with the younger group on Monday.
Christmas Marker Printing
This is to prove that marker printing can be adapted to any season and holiday! This year it happened only because the kids asked to do it during the break. We did.
You will need: permanent markers, regular markers, tinfoil, scotch, paper and sprinkler to do it and the more detailed instructions can be found here, in the November post on printing. Here only a few photos (that I will add on Monday).
Christmas in style
Here is another lesson we had in December, devoted to style and Christmas symbols, easy and fun! I do recommend.
Well, miss Anka, you did not do a good job. The classroom management that was supposed to be updated monthly got abandoned. The end of October happened but everything else happened, too so the post didn’t. Here is a two-month reflection then.
Starting the lesson
The start of a lesson has become more SS-centred as I am barely involved. There is now a very interesting role to play, namely the one of the Hello Master. This is the student who takes over the teacher, sits in the centre of the room, starts with ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Hello everyone!’ and asking everyone how they are. In November and December this person is also responsible for changing the numbers on our CountDown to New Year’s Day poster. Apart from that we have two Helpers and two more additional roles, the Game Leader (who helps with choosing the game, divide the class into teams etc) and the Decision Maker (aka the one who helps out with solving any doubts, if we have any). The kids love that and they sometimes ask me to assign a special role to them or they remind me that ‘Miss Anka, I haven’t been the Hello Master for a long time!‘
We still write the lesson plan on the board and the What time is it? and we still sing the Month Song, about how we feel, about the weather and everything related. I started to put up on the board some pieces of language because there is so much language emerging. It is absolutely necessary to keep it in memory, a bit.
It has also become a tradition for us to add a few more names to our list of students on the board. Sometimes our birds feature there (we have a well-frequented bird feeder), sometimes the toys that the kids bring, sometimes even the weird presences i.e. Poor Toe (aka a personalised version of the toe that one of my student hurt). But that means that they kids feel more involved in the lesson and they speak more.
Classroom management and rules
Our rules haven’t changed at all. They are still hanging above the board, we revise them in the beginning of the lesson and we refer to them when necessary but no new rules have been added.
Rewards chart
Our rewards chart is not quite a rewards chart but an activity chart which we use to mark attendance, activity, language production, cases of unwanted behaviour (like before, a simple description) and special rewards for great ideas, fair play, being a good friend and so on. I now simply take a photo of the board at the end of the lesson to use it later on, for assessment or to share with the parents.
We have also started using a greater variety of symbols, stars, suns, flowers, hearts. Yesterday, we managed to get to about a half of the solar system on the board, for different tasks. Basically, one more way to motivate the kids.
Reflection and feedback
These photos and notes are very useful because I have to add marks and note participation in our electronic journal for the parents but I also use them to give feedback to kids.
At the end of every week (which for us is Thursday), I take notes in every student’s notebook, giving them a mark for the week for English, for Maths and for behaviour. This is also my opportunity to thank them and to praise them for something special they did during the week. It is now our tradition to look at these notes in the beginning of the lesson on Monday. I also noticed that I started to comment on these notes during the week, on random lessons for example to praise some students for the behaviour that improved or the behaviour that needs improvement.
I realised that the notes from our tests are too rare and the notes from the electronic journal may not get through to the children as the parents are the main recipients and I needed a direct channel between me and the students. Hence the feedback.
We have been doing it for three weeks now and I know that these notes matter to kids. I keep them secret, written on a page that has been folded etc, but they announce everything to everyone anyway. They do anyway when they have something to be proud about.
Story and songs
To be perfectly honest and depressing as it is, we haven’t had lots of songs recently. We sing the Multiplication Songs from Jack Hartman in every lesson but we haven’t learnt any new songs.
In the same way, we have done lots of reading (fiction and non-fiction) but none of them were real stories. Oh, no! How did it come to that? I have no excuse and I am just deeply unhappy that I let it happen. Sigh.
Socialising
We have been interacting a lot in the classroom:
every English lesson starts with the sight words reading practice which we do in pairs. One student is the teacher, the other is the student and I sometimes ask them to give each other grades.
we did project presentation in pairs and small groups (asking and answering questions about the perfect house)
pairwork games such as riddles
Hello Master is my absolute number 1 when it comes to the favourite parts of the lesson, the one that kids do all by themselves, with the teacher being merely an observer
we have even played some team games and I am really proud of my kids because now they are ready to do it, on most days.
we have also been changing the seating arrangements and pairs since we have had some changes and the group needs a chance to be formed again, from scratch almost.
Creativity
This is the area that I am happy with because we have done enough in that area.
we celebrated the Craft Day (which, apparently, falls on the 16th November, at least here) and that is why we made beautiful monster bookmarks
we celebrated the Thanksgiving Day and we made our Thankful Turkeys, with feathers made of everything that we are grateful for (The list, for my kids, includes: mum, dad, gran, grandpa, brothers, sisters, pets, Adidas and Roblox).
we described and drew our Ideal House and they turned out great, especially that we were getting ready for the project day, reading, looking at photos and talking about all the unusual buildings and rooms from around the world that I could find
we wrote out first article in English about a special place. There wasn’t much creation per se since we wrote about real places but we had so much fun researching that and the final product, our journal, looks amazing.
I have also noticed that more and more of my kids have been wondering into my classroom during the long break in order to do creative things, using all the resources I have in my magic cupboard.
Teacher
Over those last few weeks, I have been a very tired teacher and I did a lot to save the energy and to use it wisely. Listening to music, chocolate and careful choices while lesson planning helped me do that.
At the same time, I have also been a very happy teacher because I could see how much progress my students have made in English and in Maths. This has become especially clear in all the speaking lessons because the unusual houses and rooms really made the children curious and willing to express their views. That, together with all the cool adjectives that we learnt. During our speaking lessons, I would give them stars for participation and beautiful English and it was just beautiful to see how fast my board was filling up stars. They had ideas and they wanted to share them, in English. A truly joyful moment!
I have also been a very happy teacher noticing how my students are growing up and getting better at dealing with their emotions during our competitive games, learning to be in a group, getting over their own insecurities and being proud of their achievements. We are not a perfect group, the picture perfect class (Well, wait, do I even want us to be that?) and we are not even at the OK stage (not consistently, anyway) but we are getting there. I hope.
This is a post dedicated to my trainees and course participants because, as it often happens, good ideas surface while talking to other teachers. Thank you! And I hope you find it useful)
About sight words
If in one line, sight words are those precious bits of the English language that, in a way, are exceptions are they do not follow the rules of phonics and which, at the same time appear in the English language with a high frequency (hence another term used to refer to them ‘high-frequency words’) which makes them very relevant to anyone learning to read and write. ‘Sight words are the glue that holds the sentences together’ (sightwords.com) which makes them a necessary part of literacy development, even if they had to be learnt by heart.
There are two lists of these words, the Dolch Sight Words List and the Fry Sight Words Lists and they are organised either by the year (Dolch’s) or the frequency with which they appear in English (Fry’s).
Available resources
There are lots of resources available for parents and for teachers of the English as L1. Naturally, just like in the case of phonics, we need to proceed with caution as they were created for children who already communicate in the language so the meaning of all of these does not need to presented, clarified and practise. Here are some of the
www.sightwords.com – definitely a place to start reading about sight words and looking for techniques and resources
And, of course, there is twinkl.co.uk with their ideas and handouts.
Sight words in primary EFL (a very objective take)
It is some kind of a paradox that sight words do not make even a cameo appearance in our mainstream coursebooks for primary. Or perhaps it is not, actually. After all, despite all the changes and developments that have taken place over the last two decades (my time in EFL), literacy development over all of the years of primary still falls under the category ‘Areas for improvement’.
Year 1 is usually well-taken care of (or at least it is the year 1 coursebooks that have shown the greatest progress in the area) but the same cannot be said about levels 2 – 4. It seems that once the kids are out of year 1 and once they have gone over the few phonics sets, they are all ready to read and write pretty much everything, as long as it has the appropriate lenght and more or less the vocabulary and grammar that follows the curriculum of the level.
It does not work like that and it is not only my opinion. Every time I run a course for primary teachers and meet teachers from a variety of backgrounds and contexts (bilingual, freelance teachers, state school teachers, private langauge school teachers), they all come with the same problem that could be summarised as: ‘How do we teach the kids to read? My students are in year 3 and they still cannot read. The book does not help. I don’t know what to do.’
Yes, as teachers, we are going to be supplementing, staging and facilitating the process and the kids will eventually learn to read and write but it would be wonderful if this area had more systemic support and attention.
Enough of this whining. Let me tell you how we approach sight words with my students:
Year 1 of instruction is fully devoted to phonics and sight words are put on hold. The reasons for that are simple. First of all, phonics have to have the priority and I don’t want to overload the students who are taking their first steps in English and in literacy. Second of all, I am taking my time to ensure that when we start working on sight words, kids are not complete beginners and may actually know some of the words they are to learn and to practise. This is also the time when we start moving from sentence reading / writing to text reading / writing and these words really do make an appearance. We start learning and practising sight words in year 2.
I divided the words in my own (very subjective) way, according to the categories such as grammar words, adjectives, verbs, etc, to facilitate recognition and memorisation and to enable to come up with meaningful practice activities, something more than just reading. So far I have been using Dolch’s list but I am going to upgrade it, as soon as we get through it. The lists have been colour-coded, printed and laminated and we take one list per week.
Read and put your hand up: the introductory exercise, the children are looking at the list and I read the words, one by one. The kids listen and raise their hands if they know the word. The aim of this activity is for me to understand where we are with the words regarding their meaning. Naturally, if we find something new, we explain them.
You’re the teacher, I am the teacher: kids work in pairs. They take turns to lead the activity. ‘The teacher’ points at the words in the table, ‘the student’ reads them out loud.
Line by line: we work as a team, kids take turns to read one line of the sight words. If the kids are quite strong, they can point at two or three words at the same time.
Knock, knock!: one more copy of the sight words is displayed on the door of the classroom. Kids read a number of words on entering the room (i.e. 3 or 5). The words can also be colourcoded, randomly or by the level of difficulty, i.e. 5 words per colour (depending on the list). Kids choose themselves which colour they want to read.
Bingo!: teacher prepares a set of cards with the words in question and hands them out among students (4 or 5 cards per student). The teacher reads the words in a random order. The child who has the card with a certain word puts it up to signal to the teacher (‘I’ve got it’) and they put the word away. Whoever runs out of their words first is the winner, like in a regular Bingo game.
Make a sentence: this activity requires a bit more than just a list but there is so much potential that I decided to invest time in preparing the resources for it. You will need two sets of cards, one with sentence starters made out of sight words (i.e. I have, I can, I like, I don’t, Do you, I will, I didn’t…etc) and the second set with adjectives (i.e. blue, green, long etc). Kids pick out one card of each and show to their peer for them to make a full sentence made out of these two bits and their own ideas.
Invisible sentence: kids work in pairs, like in ‘You’re the teacher! I’m the teacher!’ but instead of just reading the word, the student who is a student makes up a whole sentence or a question with that word. It takes a few rounds of practising together on the board for the children to get the idea, for example with teacher and one of the students taking turns in choosing the word but once they get it, it is a marvellous activity and, apart from practising reading, the kids also put them into context. If there are still some less familiar words or even the unknown words, this is a perfect opportunity to fish them out and to clarify them.
There are just a few of them but we have just started our adventure with sight words. There is more to come, for sure!
This post here is my response to the challenge set by my teacher-friend Michael. Challenge accepted. Let’s go, 5 steps.
Lesson aim
The first-est step. Always.
The session devoted to lesson planning on our YL course is called ‘What do you want teacher?’ and that is for a reason. Making a decision why we enter the room and what we want to achieve by the end of the lesson is key. Is the vocabulary the focus or is it a grammar point? Or any of the skills? What is the context? Do you want to focus on the language or the most important thing on the day is the work we put in developing social skills or building the routine? It might be something suggested by the book or chosen by the school curriculum but not always. And even it is, there is always room for adjustments and adaptation. At the end of the day, there is the teacher and there are the students in the classroom that matters most. The programme and the coursebooks are to be adapted.
After the aim is selected, there are more follow-up decisions to make, namely the selection of the focused task (aka the main productive activity) of the lesson?
That’s it, done. The main thing is done and it probably took about 5 minutes. The next step will be looking for things that will help make it happen.
Books basics
The coursebook and whatever it contains is already partially included in the previous step. Most of the time, this is what we use, for convenience and just because we can. The coursebook is not the enemy of course and there is a lot of useful material. Though, not all of it.
I presume the main activity has already been chosen and the next decision is regarding all the other exercises, activities, audio and visuals that are there (and in the workbook and teacher resource packs) that either match or don’t our aim and our focused task, or, in other words, our A or the lesson and our Z.
The most important thing to remember and the thing that is on constant repeat during our sessions and in my conversations with teachers is: the book is not there for us to follow to the letter and to cover and to include all the exercises.
Things you can repeat
In every lesson for YL there are certain elements that we can and that we should repeat because they help us construct the framework and the routine. They include either the elements of the routine: the hello song, the how do you feel today, the rules revision, the homework check, the goodbye as well the elements that are short-temporarily fixed: the songs we are singing in September, the games we are playing in the unit of toys, the story we are reading in the chapter on the jungle animals. All of these will feature in the lesson over a month. It is good to included them in the plan, keeping them on the side, in order to be able to use them.
The missing bits
Having got that far in the lesson planning, it might be the time to figure out how much time we have already taken out of the lesson time and how much time we already have left. Then, look at all the activities there are in the coursebook, all ready and waiting to be used, and, only if necessary, to replace them with some other activities, from another sources or self-designed.
Most of the time, the coursebook will do the job just fine.
Something for the balance (bits)
What I like to do at the very end, when the lesson is already ready, to have a quick look at everything, to check it for the contents and for the balance and variety
the ratio of interaction patterns
the ratio of different activities: songs, stories, creative and hard work
the ratio of new and familiar
the ratio of settlers and stirrers
And, when something is off, I fix it. Done!
Instead of a coda
Here are a few words of wisdom from a grandma teacher and trainer / mentor / observer:
we want good lessons to be our everyday but that does not mean that every single lesson needs to be an Oscar-worthy (or a Nobel prize-worthy) unit at the cost of the teacher’s sleep, peace of mind, family life or salary. Yes, I sometimes invest a little bit more into my teaching, in terms of planning, resources and time but, after all these years of experience, I also have lessons that are ‘just regular, no fireworks’.
we sometimes plan lessons and as soon as we get to school, out of the blue, we come up with something entirely different and it is the best lesson ever. Yes, that happens, but (here comes a very subjective line), it is the result of all the brainstorming and thinking that has already taken place. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have happened.
designing your own activites does not have to take ages and it does even require a teacher to be super creative. I personally find it much easier to prepare something for my lesson from scratch, rather than spend hours of looking through materials and resources to match the needs of my group and then, on having found it, still waste time on adapting it to what we (my kids, my course and our lesson) really need (here you can find some of the posts on material design).
our coursebooks have a lot of different resources and pictures among them which can be used in a million different ways with very little effort. A picture is an actitivity and you can read about it here, here and here.
in general, being a lazy teacher has a lot of benefits. You can read about it here.
here you can find another post about the everyday lesson planning
This lesson was a part of our autumn camp, with each day dedicated to a colour. For that reason, in the language part of the day, we worked with the things that are red. We revised and learnt new words and we talked about things that we like and we don’t like. We did some literacy work, too.
The artist
I actually have no idea why it has taken so long for me to invite Banksy into our lessons but it was definitely worth the wait because this lesson turned out to be great.
I introduced the artist and showed the kids a few of his works. We also talked about the graffiti that can be art and the graffiti that is just vandalism (as brought up by the kids). Then we looked at the Girl with the Balloon and we talked about its different interpretations, sad or happy, and variations, with the balloon in red and in black.
I decided to present this work from the point of view of the red balloon and how the artist used it for the contrast and to draw our attention to the most important element. We also looked at the same effect that can be achieved in photography. For all of those stages I used a powerpoint. You can access it here.
The art
The task was very simple: white paper, black marker and a drawing of your choice, with one element of it in red. I suggested using a collage for the red but, in the end, most of my students went for the red marker.
I am really in awe with the results. The simplicity of the task and the basic resources gave the kids an opportunity to focus on the theme and the content (because, let’s be honest, sometimes, the resource and the method can be a bit disruptive) and they all chose their own way of dealing with it.
Among all the pictures created on the day, we have one copy of Banksy (with the author’s decision to make it a sad picture), we have a name logo (Halloween-style), a scene from the forest (in two copies because my student finished earlier and wanted to do the same picture on black paper), a map and a cartoon, on red paper.
It was lovely to see how involved my students were and how their creativity was taking flight, with every next step of the process as our lesson proceeded, how they moved from black on white to white on black or from black on white to black on red.
If you are looking for an easy lesson, with minimal resources and lots of opportunities, here is one for you!
Surprisingly, that is not as random a question as it might seem. Not only because we talk about the adverbs of frequency and my kids ask how often I do mine. I always say ‘Never’, just to make my kids give out the appalled ‘Oh!’ although, really, every day is a homework day because the lessons don’t plan themselves.
But there is more to that. With my older students, I do my homework regulary, especially when it is writing. My letter / story / essay not only serves as a model for my students but it also motivates them to do their homework. We frequently use my writings to learn how to structure the discourse, how to proofread and how to improve it. There is so much to it that I even ran a workshop with the same title a few years ago and, perhaps, a separate post will come out of it, in the future.
I would also like to highlight that, as a teacher, I am all for homework assignments, even with the very young learners, and I have already written about it here. Naturally, if the preschoolers can do their homework, then everyone else can, too and I have just realised that this deserves a post on homework with older learners (mental note #2).
However, today, I would like to write about something else entirely.
Let me tell you about the context
It’s been over a year since I started to work in a slightly different context, a primary school with a bilingual programme (which you can definitely tell just looking at the content here). Last year, in my year 1 group we used to give the kids the homework, once a week, Maths and phonics and we used to keep a journal with my kids, too. I shared the electronic materials with the parents, in order to enable the children to interact witht the content at home. All types of homework were optional, although, of course, I was checking everything that was handed to me and I kept a homework record, just to be able to analyse the situation and to check if there was any connection between the homework done and the progress made. Here is a spoiler: yes, there was.
This year, we decided to change that and to standardise the procedures across all subjects and both departments (English and L1). This year our final, seventh lesson, is a self-study lesson which we devote to additional work in the areas that need that most. I am not sure how the L1 programme teachers make their decisions but I decided to go for flexibility, sometimes it is English, sometimes it is Maths, depending on the day and how the day goes.
Each day we have about 20 minutes (aka one task), the kids work on their own and they are supervised by my T.A. The children work on their own, the task is a written one (at least at this point) and there is always some flexibility and differentation as, naturally, we have a mixed ability group. The task is always an extension of what we have done in class in the morning.
My T.A. always collects the papers and I check and comment on them and give them back on the following day.
What exactly do we do? (aka Examples)
Task type A: Just One More Exercise Like We Did In Class: This is probably the kind of a task that was initially intended for this kind of a lesson. I remember the debates with phrases like ‘what we don’t finish in class’, ‘what we didn’t have time for’ and ‘just some more practice’. This is absolutely very, very useful for the children (more practice!) and for the teacher (easy to prepare) but, admittedly, not the most exciting task type. As I have found out.
Task type B: Find My Mistakes: That is the type of a task that, unlike the one above, I need to write myself. It involves a task that we did in class but there are some mistakes in it. It can be a Maths task (the type we do with Petya and Alisa, our invisible students) that follows on the specific exercise that we already did together with exactly the same procedures and instructions, already completed but with mistakes. The main objective for children is to become a teacher and to check the tasks for potential mistakes. Sometimes all tasks already have a mistake (the easier option), sometimes some items are correct.
It can be an English task, too and in this case the children look for structural mistakes (punctuation or grammar) or factual mistakes, in case the task is based on a song or a story we have covered.
Task type C: Odd One Out or Add Yours: This task type is usually used for English and we used it a lot with vocabulary. So far it has been really handy with all the vocabulary as it allowed for differentation and open-ended exercises or verb phrases or noun phrases as we could practise simple collocations, for example: What goes with this verb: wash: your hands, your face, a book, your shoes. In this particular case, the kids had to find the odd one and, also, add their own option.
Task type D: Make a Task For Miss Anka: This is also a task that is always based on the type of a task we do in class in the morning but in this case, children have to create their own examples for me. It can be a word search or a snake (see photos), it can be their own mini-story or short sentences in English or their own text tasks or examples, for me to solve or to find mistakes. This has become the Number 1 Beloved Task, for all of us. A hit!
Task type E: Miscellaneous: Guess-Related: This is a mix of all tasks, another one of those that I prepare myself and very personalised. It is usually a task for English although it can be Maths, too. We did one when I wrote random sentences about my students (a set of 7 per child) with the adverbs of frequency (‘Sasha always plays computer games’) and children had to read and correct when necessary or give me points for guessing correctly how often they do things. In the Maths lesson on the Roman numerals, I had a set of numbers ‘about me’ and what they mean and the children had to decipher them and match them i.e. the number of meters I can swim = DC and so on.
Why we all just LOVE it?
First of all, I cannot repeat it enough (and in caps): WE ALL LOVE HOMEWORK. I always have, really, but now I am discovering the new levels and reasons for this love but it is also true that my kids love it, too and, when on an ocassion or two, the homework in English did not happen in lesson 7, my kids were simply disappointed. Not to mention that right now we start the day with ‘Miss Anka, did YOU do the homework?’ (or variations: ‘Miss Anka, did you see the homework?’).
Here are the reasons why I love these homework assignments:
my students have an opportunity to do ‘something more’ in English or in Maths, which is the idea of the homework itself and the most precious benefit.
these tasks were also an opportunity to develop my students’ reading and writing skills and, at this point in the game, these are crucial. We are past the basic phonics stage and the simple sentences stage so whatever they read and write, out of their own accord, is a reason to celebrate.
the kids could work in a more independent format, revising everything that they have learnt in the morning, doing it again, moving it to the ‘freer practice’ level, revisiting the task and, in a way, testing themselves
many of the tasks gave the kids an opportunity to make decisions and even to be creative and, for that reason, I love checking the homework, to see where the course of the day took them. I can tell you, easily, almost every morning, I get a hearty laughter and my comments are some variation of ‘excellent’ and ‘I love it’.
these tasks, by design short, flexible and open-ended, are perfect for mixed-ability groups and very often the students are in charge of how much they choose to do. The instructions include the minimal number of examples or sentences they have to do (adjusted to my ‘weaker’ students) but it is great to see that hardly anyone does just that and many, if not all, complete the entire task prepared. Naturally, ‘every little helps’ and I rejoice every single example completed. This approach, however, takes the pressure off the students and is very motivating in itself.
movitation is a huge factor here, as well, and, I’d risk saying that all of the aspects of the format and the task design contribute to it. Some of the children have to leave early (to attend to whatever errands they need to run) but they take the handouts with them and bring them the following day, although it is not obligatory.
many of the tasks are teacher-friendly. I prepare them daily and it really does not take a lot of time. The task type A requires no preparation, apart from making copies. Task type D is even better because, usually, it requires bringing only a piece of paper for each student. Task type C is also very simple as it can be a copy of the exercise done before, only with wrong answers and that, for a high-level speaker of English and a relatively competent Maths user, also – a piece of cake. The other two, type C and E are, admittedly, a tad bit more involving, especially the highly personalised type E, but, looking back at the results and the outcome, they are just SO worth it!
Instead of the coda
I am aware of the fact that we have some advantages because of the format in which we work at my school but I decided to share these activities and the whole approach because of the benefits it has brought us and because I believe that many of these task types can be adapted to, say, a more traditional EFL classes of a language school. And bring about the same exciting outcomes.
It’s been only two months of this particular experiment so there is definitely more to come!
Here are some tasks we have done already
English: Task type C: odd one out and add yours
Maths: Task type D: created your own task
English: Task type D: write your own (based on the story we did in class)
Math: Task type E: Guess (Roman numerals and the notes my student took of her potential guesses)
