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.
Today is the day: 15 000 views of my blog, almost on the blog’s birthday. Soon it will be three years since I started the life of some funky socks and some dragons. To be honest, I do not have any (as in: ANY) idea whether 15 000 should generate a ‘WOW’ or an ‘Oh dear!’ from me. I suppose, it is something close to nothing compared to millions of views on youtube or TicToc. On the other hand, perhaps, it is not so shabby for an educational EFL blog…I tried to read some clever articles related to the online presence and tools but got bored very quickly and decided that since that is not my bread and butter, earning my keep, but rather my Nutella that I splash out on from the regular salary, I will not bother anymore. Instead, here are some things that I have learned and found out about based during that 3-year-long and 15 000-views-rich journey with the socks and the dragons.
I like writing and I like writing about teaching. This blog has given me an opportunity to publish everything that I want to publish and when I want to publish it, without having to wait for the editor-in-chief answer. As a writer, I have written hundreds of contribution letters and I have received hundreds of rejection letters (actually, a recjection is pleasant, normally the publishers do not reply at all) and it is such a joy just to have the idea, to give it shape and to publish it here.
It has helped to improve my writing. That is easy. The more you do, the better you get and that, certainly, has been the case here. Or so I hope.
I have got a better understanding of the content that I want to publish here. I have also developed the skill of finding the best format (Dare I say ‘the best genre’?) for the things that I want to include. Not all the posts are the same and it is not only about putting the ideas into words.
As a result, it has allowed me to produce some real articles that have actually been accepted by some real editors-in-chief and published, for the joy of having your name in print and, also, sometimes, for the joy of some monetary rewards.
I have made huge progress in the area of proofreading and editing. It is not perfect yet but I have worked on creating a routine and a procedure and I do not hate it as much as I used to.
I have realised that the visual side of the blog is very important to me. I love taking photos for the blog, selecting them to match the posts. I enjoy working with images a lot.
The blog is a fantastic incentive to experiment with the activities, to record the events in the classroom and to keep my eyes open in class. Last but not least, I have improved the way of keeping notes from and organising the materials I produce.
And then – there is my audience. They usually keep quiet, not really commenting but they are here. You are here, dear readers. It is also my guilty pleasure to check the traffic and t find there Canada, Tunisia, Israel, Russia, Spain, Egypt, Malyasia, Australia, Korea, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Belgium, Estonia…I love to find the returning visitors and every comment is like a little Christmas. Thank you for being here.
The top 10 posts (A.D. 2023) are these:
Colourful semantics: about the uses of the speech therapy tools in the EFL world
All you need is…a picture: one of my favourite posts ever written, about the multiple uses of visuals in the EFL classroom with young learners and not only.
The first VYL lesson survival kit: I like the thought that, maybe, thanks to that post, some teachers our there went into their first lesson a little less panicky, a little less stressed and a little less anxious.
Blogging is not quite for free. Once a year I have to pay ‘the rent’ for the privilege of residing here, on this platfrom. Every year, when the day is approaching, I sit down to have a serious conversation with myself along the lines of ‘Are you happy with how it is going?’ and ‘Do you still want to do it? Can you commit yourself to one more year of typing, researching and sharing ideas?’
This is the second part of the post first published in November 2021 with my Top 10 Favourite Wordwall activities. Don’t forget to check it out here! Lots of ideas there!
One or many?
Materials: A set of cards, specifically prepared for this game. This is the one we were using in our Christmas lessons.
Activities: You can read more about it in one of the earlier posts.
Works well with: pre-primary, online and offline, individuals and groups
Song follow-up exercises
Materials: As part of our Christmas lessons, we were practising the basic prepositions and singing Santa, Where are you? from Super Simple Songs. The following set of cards was used in a follow-up activity.
Activities: Teacher sings or asks the question ‘Santa, Santa, where are you?’, with every card. The kids answer, either chorally or individually, taking turns. There is also an option of extending it further, by adding how Santa is feeling or what exactly he is doing.
Works well with: pre-primary, online and offline, individual and groups
Story follow-up exercises
Materials: This particular set of cards was used as a follow-up activity to a video lesson with Peppa Pig in which George catches a cold. It is a great episode to practise the weather words, the emotions and some present continuous, if the kids are familiar with it. I have used the ‘rank the order’ template, with very simple sentences to describe the actions of the story. Here you can find the final version and another one with ‘answers’.
Activities: In lesson 1, the kids watch the video with the pauses, and the teacher encourages them to produce simple sentences about the story. In lesson 2, the student watch the video again and try to retell it by choosing the order of the pictures and describing them. If the kids are not ready, the teacher can support them by choosing the pictures and giving the students all the sentence starters.
Works well with: pre-primary and primary, online and offline, probably easier with individual students or with students taking turns, in a group.
Early reading exercises
Materials: A variety of cards for different activities. The first one was used as a part of the Christmas lessons with my ‘advanced’ pre-primary. The other two, Yes or No and Usborne rhymes were used as part of a series of lessons with Usborne’s Ted in a Red Bed and Fox on a Box.
Activities: In the first activity, the teacher is introducing the kids to the written form of the words. The teacher reads the first sound or the first syllable and asks the kids to continue. Afterwards, the card is flipped. The other two activiites use the target language and the rhymes from the two Usborne stories. The kids are encouraged to see the sentences themselves and say whether they match the illustrations (Yes or No). The other activity is a revision game for the main rhymes from both stories.
Works well with: primary and some of the older pre-primary students who are learning to read.
Draw it!
Materials: This particular set here was used as a follow up of the Usborne Phonics Story mentioned above, Ted in a Red Bed. We were also practising furniture and colours.
Activities: The students need a piece of paper, A4 or A5 and a set of pencils or markers. The teacher demonstrates the cards on the screen, starting from the first one (START: I can see a room, which unfortunately is not always the first one in the deck, I set it up before the lesson and then we go through all the cards anyway, to check that we have included everything). The kids take turns to read the simple sentences and to draw elements of their room. In the online lessons, it is a good idea to ask them to show the card to the camera after each step. It is a great activity that encourages the kids to read and to create. It can be made more complex for those of the students who know prepositions (The lamp is on the table). The same kind of a game was used to practise the school vocabulary, toys and colours (starting with a shelf), things in the park etc. The activity can be stopped whenever necessary, after 5 or 8 cards, depending on how focused and interested the kids are.
Works well with: primary, online or offline, I have only done it with individual students but I suppose that it could be adapted to the needs of a group of primary kids, too. I would start with cutting down on the number of pictures, during the first few games.
Teaching English through Art
Materials: I have found wordwall extremely useful in creating materials for my Art Explorers lessons. They can be simple flashards that use traditional photographs and paintings to introduce a new set of vocabulary for example Animals in Art. It is also easy to find beautiful materials such as these Pumpkins which we use to express opinion.
Activities: Pumpkins are displayed on the screen, one by one, with the teacher or one of the students asking ‘Do you like this pumpkin?’ and the group answering. It is also possible to include some other elements ie the colours, the basic adjectives, the numbers to encourage kids to produce even more language. I would like to encourage everyone to use paintings to introduce and practise vocabulary even if you are not teaching English through Art. And not only paintings! There is such a beautiful variety of visuals that can be used – photographs, drawings, clip art, paintings, symbols and so on. This will help develop symbolic representation and the general visual intelligence. And it is fun!
Works well with: pre-primary and primary, both online and offline, individual students and groups.
Pairs
Materials: We used this set in the unit devoted to weather, with the aim to extend it beyond the single words or even simple sentences, for example to talk about the things we do when it is sunny, when it is raining etc.
Activities:
Works well with: pre-primary, online or offline, individual and groups.
Only 7 new entries here but worry not! I am still working, I am still creating and I will be adding things here. I am sure. Until then!
These three activities were brought about by the calendar, this title by the title of a wonderful Christmas (?) book by C.S. Lewis. The lion just found itself.
A square aka ‘The Winter Wonderland’
This is a lovely activity that was found on Instagram by one of my colleagues, Larisa. The original, created by @kardasti.saz was a lot more intricate and a lot more complex, too complex in fact for my online classes.
The activity starts with a square of regular A4 photocopying paper. It is folded diagonally, to create a triangle, twice and opened. The kids are asked to trace one of the lines, from one corner to the other. We then draw the pictures above the line: the trees, the snowman, the presents and, finally, the snowflakes. It is very important to stage the drawing carefully, element by element, modeling and pausing for the kids to follow. This way, even the younger kids will be able to create such drawings.
We trace the line along the fold, from the centre of the square to the corner, on the bottom part of the square. We cut along this line, until we reach the centre point. We put the glue on the top of one of these newly-created triangles and we put the triangles on top of each other and press.
We have done this activity online so I had to limit the materials to the simplest and basic ones but in the classroom or if the kids have it, there is more potential for the cotton snow or 3-D figures in the little yard.
A circleaka the Rocking Santa
Circle is the best shape ever and this activity has be yet another piece of evidence to prove this. I have found it online, on the Noreva Project channel but, again, because we did it online, the instructions and procedures were simplified – only the regular A4 paper, white, which, in case of the triangle, was simply coloured red in class. The parents helped with preparing the materials (a circle and a triangle) but, again, we did everything ourselves and because we went slowly, step by step and line by line, the students could follow and create their own Santa. All the instructions are in the video.
We combined this craft with the song from Super Simple Songs, Santa, where are you? and we used to practise the prepositions (in, on, under) in a guessing game in which students hide Santa somewhere in the room and we keep guessing where it is (Is it on the table? etc).
Some scotch aka the Coolest Christmas Tree There Is
This piece was a present that my niece, Mishka made for me with her mum @_mad_alen_ and I can’t repeat it enough: it is simply amazing. It would be too much to try to pull off in the online classes but it is perfectly feasible with the offline groups. I have certainly done craft that involved the same level of pre-lesson prep work.
What you need is a piece of cardboard, with the cut out shape, a few strips of scotch taped to the back of it, sticky side up and a selection of things to decorate with: sequins, buttons, pompons. I suppose there is some potential for less professional ingredients (crayons or coloured pencils shavings, sand, scraps of coloured paper) or even food (buckwheat, seeds).
The scotch here makes it a bit more manageable (no glue!) and the card can be displayed in the window to let the sun shine through it. Or simply used to check how different sources of light change the picture. And there is an opportunity (and a need) for a health and safety training on not eating craft materials and handling small objects.
Not to mention that Mishka’s Christmas Tree has been elected the Christmas Tree of the Year.
A set of wordwall cards with the vocabulary such as Christmas words, fruit or animals or the physical cards such as those used here in the unit on farm animals.
Procedures
The teacher introduces and practices vocabulary first and make sure the kids are familiar with them.
The teacher shows the kids different variants, introduce the idea of ‘one’ and ‘many’ or ‘one’, ‘two’ and ‘many’.
In the offline classroom, the teacher shuffles the cards, looks at one of them in secret and says: ‘I can see some pens. One pen or many pens?’ with the gestures.
The kids are guessing and after a while the teacher shows everyone the card and asks the question again: ‘One pen or many pens?’. The kids answer and if the card shows ‘many’, they also count how many exactly.
If the game is played online, there is side A of every card that presents the word and side B with the actual visual with the answer. When the kids have shared their guesses, the teacher flips the card and asks the question again.
Why we like it?
It is a simple yet effective activity that helps to practice any vocabulary. We usually use it in the second or third lesson of the new unit.
It is a real game as it includes the element of luck and anyone can guess it as well as the element of logic if you try to remember which cards you have seen (there is only one of each).
The number of items can be adapted ie only a set of five words, with two (one pencil, many pencils) or with three (one pencil, two pencils, many pencils) variants for each word.
We use gestures to clarify the meaning, to support production or, even, to answer, as some kids use words and gestures when they guess. I have used the following gestures: one – the index finger up, two – the index and the middle finger together up, many – all the fingers of one hand, up and moving.
It is not competitive as we never count the points for the correct answers and its pace is so fast that the kids do not have the time to focus on the cards that they got wrong or didn’t guess which also helps them to learn to win and to lose.
It can help practise singluar and plural forms of all the nouns and structures. So far, I have used it to reinforce the knowledge of the vocabulary only, there is some potential for adding structure here, too, for example is / are.
This game can be used to practise the plural form but we have actually learnt and used the singular and plural forms through playing the game. This concept was not introduced separately before.
It works well with individual students as well as with groups as all the kids can guess at the same time before the teacher reveals the card. I have been using it with my pre-primary students but, I suppose, the younger primary would enjoy this activity, too.
The game is open-ended, it does not have any specific number of rounds that have to be played or a definite end. The teacher can stop it at any given point, before the kids get bored.
The physical cards can be easily produced, using the google images and clip art and copying and pasting. To make them more effective, I used to glue them on some coloured paper, in order to make them more durable and to make sure that the kids can’t see through the pictures. It is important that all the cards have the same size and that they have the same colour.
Last but not least, my students really like it and this game has become one of our Bread and Butter set. We play it in every unit, with new vocabulary)
A beautiful train with carriages or a tractor with trailers, with one animal on each trailer.
A set of colourful cards, with a set of riddles following the same framework and the set of structures in each riddle.
Procedures
Students take turns to choose the colour of the card.
Teacher reads the description of the animal. Kids listen and guess the animal. Teacher uncovers the picture to check the answers.
Why we like it
First and foremost, this kind of an activity helps to develop listening skills in very young beginner students and focus as they need the information from all the sentences in order to guess the name of the animal.
At the same time, since all the riddles use the same framwork and the same structures, this game is an opportunity to practise all the key structures. The set of these will depend on what the students are familiar with and can be simplified or extended.
We use this kind of a game to prepare the students to produce the language, too and after playing the game for a few lessons in this very format, with the teacher reading and the kids guessing, we move on to the following stage with the students producing a set of sentences to describe an animal.
Last but not least, with time and with the development of the literacy skills, this kind of an activity can also help develop reading skills.
The game is pretty and colourful, made with colourful cards, beautiful visuals from google. The students are usually curious to find out which animals are hidding on the trailers. The format of the presentation can be adapted, too. In the past we played with huge present box (partially inspired by Rod Campbell’s Dear Zoo) and with houses in which the animals were hiding and the miraculously appearing thanks to the funcion of ‘bring to the front’ or ‘move to the back’ on Miro or any powerpoint.
It can be used with animals or with any other topic with the appropriate adaptation of the phrases ie toys (It is big. It is red, with the assumption that we refer to the visuals that the students are familiar with) or transport (It is big, it is fast, it is quiet) etc.
If you are interested in riddles, please have a look at this post, too, where I write more about riddles for the older and more advanced students.
Yes, the Halloween was approaching and my English+Art lesson was on the day. Yes, I was just googling random things hoping that if I find something interesting, I will have a Halloween-ish lesson and if I don’t find anything, well, we will go in a different direction. At this point we have done colours, we have done leaves and, ideally, I was hoping to find some cool artist, some pumpkins and some technique that we have not tried before yet. Last year, around that time, we went to Ilya Mashkov as we tried to recreate his still-life with the magnificent cucurbita pepo but it was last year (aka we have done it already) and it was offline (aka it was more manageable)…I needed something different.
Surprisingly, googling ‘pumpkin in art’ can get you when you want to be)
Enter Yayoi Kusama. Until last Monday, I had never heard of her. Since last Monday, I have been a great fan. Her art is exploding with colour and with energy and she makes me feel like being a part of the Wonderland, Alice in the real world, easily available, at hand. And she loves dots and dots are circles aka the best shape ever that can be easily used in class (here is an earlier post about that).
We met Yayoi and found out about her favourite things and we looked at some of her paintings in our gallery as is now our habit. We also talked about the paintings we like and don’t like.
Yayoi Kusama and her favourite things
Our gallery in Miro
The language
In this particular lesson I wanted to focus on practising expressing opinion using ‘I like’ and ‘I don’t like’ and that is exactly what we did. We looked at Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins and said what we think of them (P.S. We like them!), we looked at a range of creative pumpkins and said what we think of them and we enjoyed the variety in which pumpkins can appear (photos, art, real pumpkins (yes, these were present) and, finally, the Surprise Pumpkin that I have brought. See below)
We looked at all the pumpkins, Kusama’s, the realia, the creative pumpkins
I presented the ready made product making sure that the Surprise Pumpkin is a proper surprise (‘Look, this is a pumpkin. But it is also a surprise. Are you ready? 3…2…1….’)
We went over the necessary materials with everyone (‘Have you got the paper? Have you got the pencils/markers/crayons?’)
I was making one more copy together with the kids. I am drawing on the regular paper, holding it in my hands, on a thick pad. Going step by step, slowly, pausing and waiting for the kids to complete every single step. This is absolutely crucial.
We folded the paper, stopping after every stage, showing the page to the camera. There are four essential stages: 1) show the A4 paper 2) fold the paper in half, widthwise 3) press at the crease / fold 4) fold the top flap outwards (show the kids how the edge of the paper touches the crease / fold in the middle 5) press at the crease / fold
Draw the pumpkin on the folded paper, that is at the 1/4 flap folded outwards and the 1/2 half at the bottom simultaneously, draw the stem and the leaf as well as three lines for the ribs. Don’t forget to pause at every stop, wait for the kids to complete every step and show you the result.
Open the paper and place it flat on the table. Draw the edge of the top half (‘Let’s draw a zigzac’)
Draw the edge of the bottom half (‘Let’s draw a zigzac here, too’)
Draw the mouse step by step: the oval for the body, two lines for the nose, the ears, the eyes, the whiskers, the tail and the hands.
Leave the colouring for after the lesson.
Play a bit with the surprise pumpkins that everyone prepared. My students simply recreated the ‘presentation’ that I gave at the beginning of the lesson, of their own accord, just like that.
Some final notes
Most of my students deal very well with the folding bit. Only one of us struggled a little bit and we needed mum’s help at the very beginning. It might be a good idea to let the parents know ahead of time and ask them to be at the ready, just in case.
As regards the materials, absolutely anything goes: coloured pencils are great, crayons are great, markers work, too. I am at my personal happiest drawing with markers and colouring with crayons or with crayons and markers, for the extra shine and glow.
Kids are amazing and they really can recreate the drawings or, rather, they can create their own versions of it. The only thing that is really necessary is the proper staging, going step by step, modelling and pausing, to give everyone time to complete the drawing.
It does not matter how big or how small the mouse is. It will all be hidden in the folds of the paper.
There are many variations of the craft. You can find some of them online. Below you can see what we have created ad hoc, just because we did everything that we needed and I could extend the lesson a bit. The pumpkin with a cat and the apple with a caterpillar were the result. These are only a few of the options!
When I look back at the two and a half years of the MA programme at the University of Leicester, I am thinking of a marathon (a prolonged period of strict routine, extensive emotional and physical expenditure and obligatory one-track-mindedness). Actually, five marathons in a row. But when I look back, it is also the time when one could revel in reading and research, having access to the treasures to the university libraries of the world.
Apart from going through piles of studies and articles to find out data for my assignments and thesis, I also started to make up a list of pieces to share with my teachers and my trainees. Jerome Bruner’s (et al) and the study of the role of tutoring aka scaffolding is already on the blog here and, I am happy to say, for a very long time, it was one of the most popular posts. It still stays somewhere in the top 15…
Today, part 2 of the same series. Enter: professor Marianne Nikolov.
A personal role model
There is something very touching about the career of professor Nikolov (PhD, Professor Emerita at the University of Pécs, Hungary), who after years and years of regular and everyday school teaching started to work as a researcher and, who, eventually, switched into the academia. This very research which is described in the article was her first long-term research, as she says herself, it is in many ways imperfect mainly due to the fact that it was carried out by someone who was, back then, an inexperienced researcher. So much more precious because of that and so much more inspiring for all of us, teachers and trainers, to get our own classroom projects started.
The presentation on the recent research into early years that professor Nikolov gave at the 1st Hellenic Conference on Early Language Learning in Greece, in 2013 is, in my humble opinion, a must for all the VYL teachers, as a crash course into the early years EFL.
‘Why do you learn English?’ ‘Because my teacher is short’
This gem, unique and unforgettable, is the title of the study that I would like to introduce you to and encourage you to read today. And, frankly, could there be a better title to an article devoted to early years and young EFL learners? I seriously doubt it.
It was published in 1999 and it is an account of a long-term study of a group of Hungarian children, aged 6 – 14 and analysing their motivation to learn English at school. Professor Nikolov gave out the questionnaire to her students, which the kids filled in (in their L1) and which was followed by a feedback session with the kids.
Without risking that I would deprive anyone of the pleasures of reading the article, I would like to share here my own main take-outs:
all the reasons to learn English have been divided into four groups: the classroom experience (aka the activities), the teacher (‘my teacher is short’), the external reasons (aka the parents and the grades) and the utilitarian reasons (aka the future) (p. 42)
all these were present in the answers given by different ages but it was possible to distinguish three sub-groups: grades 1 – 2, grades 3 – 5 and grades 6 – 8
the attitude to English (one of everyone’s favourite subjects) was compared with the attitude to the other subjects
a whole range of favourite classroom activities was revealed and a range of nobody’s favourite activities such as tests, acting out and (this one made me laugh) boring stories
in response to the final question (‘If you were a teacher, what would you do differently?), some kids suggested abandoning tests, some felt that the teacher should be stricter while dealing with different classroom management issues but many didn’t want to change anything at all.
the connection between the school grades and the motivation. On the one hand they are the extrinsic motives, on the other hand, as professor Nikolov says, ‘achievements represented by good grades, rewards and language knowledge all serve as motivating forces: children feel successful and this feeling generates the need for further success‘ (p. 46).
A source of inspiration, no metaphors
When I first found the article, I wanted to read it precisely because of the title. It made me smile because this quote is perfect and it reveals a lot of how the kids see the world. Plus it is a fantastic way of drawing the attention of the readers-researchers whose passion are YL. Then, I started to read, curious what I would find them. Finally, it struck me that I did not know what my students would say and that is because I had never asked them.
I was mortified that, in a way, I had taken my kids for granted. Yes, we had been studying together for years, their parents had been bringing them, year after year and there had been no issues, we had fun and we had made progress. But I had never actually asked them.
Naturally, I decided to change it and professor Nikolov’s research was my inspiration and my guidance.
My research took two directions:
a) I prepared a questionnaire for kids and I used exactly the same questions that professor Nikolov used with her students. I wrote them in English and in Russian and the kids were told that they were able to use whichever language they wanted. The funny and the most amazing thing is that some of my A1+ kids tried to express some of their thoughts in the target language.
b) I prepared a questionnaire for the parents, too, partially because some of my students were 4 y.o. and beginners and, partially, because I wanted to find out what kind of an impact the home environment has on the kids’ motivation. The parents were asked to answer the following questions: Do you do anything in English at home? Does anyone else speak English? Before starting to learn English, did you have a conversation with your child about it? What did you talk about? Do you know what your child likes and doesn’t like about our classes and about their English classes at school.
‘How come I never asked before?‘
…is something that I still keep asking myself. Apart from an opportunity to exercise my almost non-existant researcher skills, this questionnaire and this adventure gave me a fascinating opportunity to see the bigger picture and to become more aware of everything that might have an impact on how my students see the language learning process.
Here are are few insights:
most of my educational parents admitted to chatting to their kids about the reason to learn English, although sometimes the kids, due to their age, were not quite interested.
some of the preparation was done in a rather informal way as English as a means of communication entered their lives anyway since they had an opportunity to travel abroad, they were visited by parents’ friends from abroad. They could also see their relatives use English at work or at school.
some of my younger kids already expressed some of the utalitarian reasons (‘he wants to work for Lego or Hot Wheels’), this was a lot more common among the older students
the most interesting fact was that for many of my students English was not only a subject, something that belongs strictly in the school. Rather than that, it was a family thing, something you do with mum or dad or with the siblings, younger or older, although, none of the kids came from bilingual families.
as for the kids, their reasons could be divided into the four groups highlighted by professor Nikolov: the external (‘My mum told me to’), the utilitarian (‘I will travel to different countries and cities’), the teacher (‘Because of Anka’) (insert a million hearts here) and the classroom (‘Because I like it’)
The follow-up?
Raising the awareness and finding out is only the first step and it highlights the importance of a few processes. Naturally, the teacher has no influence on the background of the students or on the family social status and their ability to travel abroad for example. However, the teacher can make sure that the parents are involved in the classroom activities and classroom life, to the extent in which it is possible and, at least, those parents that wish to be involved. This can be done through helping to take English out of the classroom and extending the exposure by sharing songs, games, activities and keeping the parents informed.
There are also some opportunities to bring the world into the classroom, especially nowadays, in the post-covid, zoom world by using the real life materials, traditional stories, guests, virtual guests, pen pals etc. This way, even without travelling, kids will see the connection between the coursebooks on their desks and the world out there.
There is a lot that the teacher can do as regards including the age-appropriate activities, finding out what the favourite activities are and working on building the community even if only by learning the kids’ names, celebrating birthdays and creating the new, group-specific traditions and ‘traditions’.
The first step can be reading about professor Nikolov’s study and running your own research and finding out why your students like to learn English…
Happy teaching!
P.S.
Fun fact? This blog was created as my reward for completing the MA programme. I submitted the final version of my dissertation around midnight on the night of the 1st and 2nd of March 2020 and, on the 2nd of March, during the day, when I did catch my breath a bit, I got my funky socks and my dragons in line…
Bibliography
Marianne Nikolov, ‘Why do you learn English?’ ‘Because my teacher is short’. A study of Hungarian children’s foreign language learning motivation. Language Teaching Research, 1999:3:33, p. 33 – 56
Welcome back to this autumn’s series and, before you go on reading this post, I would like to invite to have a look at the introduction and to the first part, the materials that were designed and came to be only because I found a new resource that I really (really) wanted to use in class.
The episode here is going to focus on the well-known activities that were too good not to be smuggled into the EFL lessons, with kids but also with adults.
Noughts and crosses
This is one of my personal favourites. Admittedly, it is used more frequently in the offline or in my 1-1 or small groups with the online groups and that is due to the way it was adapted, with the option of the points each box, revealed only at the end of the round. We also use noughts and crosses to tell stories and there is a post, too.
MadLibs
MadLibs is a great party game and if you are lucky you can find some ready made ones, appropriate for young learners (or just kids) or related to one specific topic to match the theme of the lesson or the unit. However, pretty much any text can become a MadLib (or a MadLib in reverse) since what you need is a) a text and b) some missing words which we guess and then the world really is your oyster. We use the approach with my exam preparation classes, especially with the tasks such as FCE Listening part 3 in which the exam paper is a ready-made MadLib and which you play to predict the potential answers. We use it also with my Flyers kids as a preparation for the story reading in Reading and Writing part 5. The same idea can be used with any sample writing although here the teacher has to remove some words first and then think of a category for them.
Pelmanism
First and foremost, this is probably my favourite tool to develop the early literacy skills in my primary and pre-primary kids, both online and offline. The main idea: find the two pictures that constitute a pair. With the pre-primary kids, we play to find the two identical card and to call out the word or to produce a full sentence or, similarly, in the flashcard – word card pairs.
The range is much wider and the tool much easier to prepare for the literate students as the pairs may constitute, from the easiest to the most complex: a picture and a picture, a picture and the first letter of the word, a picture and a word, a word in a simple structure and a word in a simple structure, a word in an affirmative structure and a word in a negative structure, a set of questions with various structures and a set of answers and, finally, halves of sentences. Seethe samplehere for ideas.
The activity can be used with the older and the more advanced students and it can be made a lot more generative by asking students, for example, to find the phrasal verb with the definition and the question in which it is used, which they later answer ie take up (start a hobby) and ‘Why do people take up different hobbies? Where do they find the inspiration to do that?’ or a phrasal verb and its definition with the question that they have to create themselves.
In the online classes, the cards on wordwall can be used (we add numbers using the zoom notes or we simply count the cards for the teacher to open) and recently this option has been added to the upgraded bamboozle. This game is also very easy to create on the Miro board or even in a simple powerpoint (in the design mode, without the presentation).
Go fish
This is the most ridiculous case because, up to this day, I really have no idea how to play it. I do remember reading about it, in one of the methodology books, but the instructions were a page long and I gave up after a few lines only. The only recollection that stayed was the following: you have a set of cards, you keep them secret and you have to ask for these cards. Today, we play it as ‘Can I have?’ or, with my younger kids as ‘The Sheep’.
Riddles
If we had a different set of categories, that would definitely be mine ‘something old’ that recently I have had a chance to rediscover with two amazing people and the most recent post on that topic ishere.
And there are many, many more and I am going to include the links here, just in case if you are looking for ideas: General Kutuzov, a lazy role-play and our fruit salad.
Now, off to writing the final part of the series: things that started from the most important people in the process: the kids. Soon in cinemas near you!
I went into this lesson on my toes, slowly, cautiously, almost unwillingly. On the one hand, I was curious, as with all the Art project. On the other hand, I was just not so convinced. On the one hand, there was a new group of kids, I did not know their levels and we were supposed to try doing online what we did face-to-face before. On the other hand, I started to look for all the Miró animals and, randomly, I typed in ‘Miró and a toucan’ and found just that. And it made me burst into laughter, just because it there was an occasion when Joan Miró held a hornbill (aka almost a toucan). I knew I would do it all anyway, even if only to find out whether I can, but I was a bit anxious.
Our Gallery in Miro
The Before
Introduction of colours, a variety of songs, wordwall games and Miro games
Working on building the routine and getting used to the online format
Introduce the artist of the day and his arts. We focused only on the animals and on the colours. We ‘visited’ our MiroBoard Gallery and we tried to guess the animals and match Miro with photographs
And, finally, we tell and listen to ‘Elmer’ for the first time (I have actually only used the video, muted, and I told the story myself. We also included some gestures to involve the kids).
It is necessary to add that this year, due to the fact that we meet online with my Art Explorers, our classes have a slightly different format and we work on two-lesson basis. In lesson A we introduce the vocabulary and the artist, in lesson B: we revise and focus on craft and creation. The activities mentioned above were also executed over a period of two lessons.
The photo of the materials sent before the lesson
The While
Get all the materials ready (a glue stick, a marker, a piece of white A4 paper, some coloured paper or pieces of colourful pages of newspapers and journals), send the list to parents ahead of time
Check that everyone has everything (‘Show me your paper’, ‘Show me your glue’ etc)
Show the kids your coloured paper, call out the colours.
Ask the kids to show you theirs, call out the colours.
Show the kids how you tear off a strip of each colour, show them a ready bunch. Wait for them to get theirs ready.
Draw the elephant step by step. Start with the body, then the legs, the tail, the head, the trunk and the ear (by the way, the full shape of an ear is here only to help the kids visualise the elephant, a part of it will be covered by the coloured paper). Show each step to the camera and let the kids copy. Ask them to show you the paper after they have finished each step. Put the marker away.
Open the glue, spread the glue all over the elephant, evenly, while holding the paper to the camera. Close the glue and put it away.
Tear off a piece of one of your colourful stripes, glue it on the elephant, and then a few more. Invite the kids to do the same (‘Now you’). After a while ask them to show you their copies or ask what colour they are using, only to check how they are doing.
Continue until the elephant is ready.
Take the marker again and draw the eye, a small black circle. This way the creation will be easier perceived as an elephant.
Put up your elephant for the kids to see. Ask them to show you theirs.
The drawing. In one piece and in the puzzle version
The After
Introduce your elephant and describe it: ‘This is my elephant. He is green, blue, yellow and black’.
Ask the kids to do the same.
Watch Elmer, the video again, and, as before, pause and re-enact it with your elephants.
We finished with singing ‘Walking in the jungle’, with our elephants, too.
Comments
I am really happy with how the activity went. Initially, I was worried that preparing the elephant will be too difficult for my kids (but they all could follow me in drawing the elephant, step-by-step, with pauses and modelling) and that preparing the patchwork will be very time-consuming but the magic happened here, too as the kids quickly realised that they were in charge of managing how big the pieces of our ‘patches’ were. The older ones were more dilligent and more accurate with the smaller pieces whereas the younger ones opted for bigger pieces and we all finished at the same time. The patchwork part took about 5 minutes. Only one of my students needed more time (as she does every time) and for that reason we started to watch the story without her elephant to give her a little bit more time. She was watching while finishing and she introduced her elephant and it worked very well.
Overall, the amount of language produced was not quite on the amazing side but this was only our third lesson of the course and I am happy. Last but definitely not least, my kids were happy and very proud of themselves and their patchwork, Miró elephants. There is definitely more to come.
