#VYLteacher

I am easy to prepare and very necessary in the classroom. What am I? A riddle!

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Dedicated to Monsieur Alexander (6 y.o.) and Mademoiselle Victoria (3 y.o.) with big thanks for reminding me how important riddles are even if you speak the language very well.

Why? Because you simply must!

  • Riddles are an opportunity to develop focus and listening skills: you are required to listen until the very end as all the elements of the riddle are important and they can help you figure out what the answer is.
  • Riddles help to develop cognitive skills while you are guessing as you are required to put together different pieces of information, to understand, to synthesise and to analyse.
  • Riddles help to develop cognitive skills even more when you are creating your own riddle as you are required to apply and to evaluate the information you providing to make the riddle challenging and achievable at the same time.
  • Riddles are something that we use and enjoy in our L1, from the early childhood and it is only natural that we will try to bring them into our EFL lessons, with kids and with adults.
  • Riddles help develop creativity.
  • Riddles are fun and they create plenty of opportunities for bonding, in a pair or a group.
  • Riddles, in L1, help the kids develop the awareness about how the language works, how the hidden meanings, the homophones, the collocations and this can also be transferred, at least partially, into the EFL or the ESL
  • It is obvious that the context of the EFL and the ESL does not always allow for the riddles and their benefits to be used fully and completely even if only due to the limitations of the language level which, in case of some of the young learners, might be as low as A1. This does not mean that they cannot be used. On the contrary, they can be introduced from early on.
  • Riddles, regardless of the context, are an opportunity for the students to speak and to produce a mini-discourse.
  • In the EFL/ESL classes, it is relatively easy to choose the vocabulary range and the structures for the students, depending on the level and the topic. This range can be easily extended.

How to? Riddles in the EFL classroom

  • The simplest version of the game can be played with preschoolers and we usually start simply with guessing ‘the secret word’ which is the card that the teacher and then the students choose and hold close to their chest and the class are guessing. This version is used to introduce the very idea of the riddles. When the kids have become more familiar with the format, the level of challange can be raised and the production maximised by asking the kids to describe the card they are holding in the simplest of way i.e. with the colour, operating within the colours of the objects on the flashcards used (‘It is green‘ or ‘It is green and red‘). With time, more adjectives can be added (‘It is big’, ‘It is small’), the categories (‘It is a toy’, ‘It is a pet’) or even opinions (‘I like it’, ‘I don’t like it’). There is a post devoted to one of the ways of dealing with riddles with the youngest learners. You can find it here.
  • The primary (or the more advanced pre-primary) students can start adding simple categories in their discourse (‘It’s a toy’, ‘It’s an animal’, ‘It’s in the schoolbag’) and start describing the word using the relevant structures. For example, with food, we use the following four: ‘It is cold’, ‘It is hot’, ‘You eat it’, ‘You drink it’) and these are the structures that the students know and will need anyway and these particular four can be supported by a relevant gesture. The same goes for the animal riddles set: ‘It is big’, ‘It is small’, ‘It can run’, ‘It can fly’, ‘It can swim’. I also like to add ‘I like it’ and ‘I don’t like it’ even though it does not quite provide enough information for the children to guess the object as the class may simply not know what one of us thinks about it, it gives the student making a riddle an opportunity to express opinion and to make it all more personalised. With the youngest students the teacher can assist production in the beginning by asking questions such as ‘Is it hot or cold?’ or ‘Can it swim, fly or run?’. This set of structures can be developed and extended depending on the students’ age and level.
  • As regards the more advanced and older students, the riddles can be made more extensive and more resembling the riddles that the adults and kids play in English as their L1 or the riddles they play with their L1 with the use of simple homonimes or homophones, a wider range of vocabulary or structures or complexity for example by making a list of words not to use when to describe a certain word, describing it with associations (i.e. kids, fun, outside to describe the word ‘playground’), with metaphors (i.e. ‘It is the brain of the computer’ for ‘hard drive’ or ‘It is the opposite of a mountain’ for ‘a cave’) or, even, by a mixture of these (‘Tell me what it is and tell me what it’s not’)
  • As regards the material and the support for the teacher one of the following can be used: flashcards, mini-flashcards, a page from the book with words and words and images, a poster, a set of wordwall cards, a list of words.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #41 Let’s look for pairs! A vocabulary game for kids

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All the pairs. Somehow the penguin, the gorilla and the mouse got left out.

Ingredients

  • A set of pictures of animals, flashcards or on Miro. That’s it.

Procedures

  • Revise the vocabulary and ensure that all the cards are displayed at the same time for the kids to be aware of all the options
  • Model by choosing a pair of animals and putting these cards aside and justifying your choice. With my pre-primary kids, I like to use the first person statements (I’ve got 4 legs etc) as this is what we do with the younger kids (to enable the kids to talk about themselves and the animals without having to introduce the additional structures and to keep it coherent with the songs that we use ie Little bird or As quiet as a mouse). I also tend to vocalise the language ie I’ve got 4 legs (for the cat), I’ve got 4 legs (for the elephant).
  • Invite the kids to take turns to make their own pairs and to describe the rationale behind it.
This is what our Miro board looked like before we started

Why we like it

  • An opportunity for the kids to use and to develop the higher order thinking skills in the EFL context
  • The students are in charge of what they want to talk about and what they can talk about. It is appropriate for mixed-ability groups.
  • Little or no preparation as the flashcards are already there, the physical cards in the offline classroom or the set of pictures on Miro which, once prepared, can be doubled easily and used only for that activity.
  • A great variety of structures that can be revised and some opportunity to learn the new ones as the kids might have the ideas that they cannot express in English yet and this game can be the springboard which will help to introduce these. If the teacher speaks the kids’ L1.
  • Lots of opportunities for adaptation and using them with different sets of words such as toys, fruit, food, transport and, naturally, the relevant structures. I like to start this game with animals because of the range of easy structures that even the very young beginner students can use in order to complete task and because of the variety of topics that can be included (the colours, the number of legs, what animals can do, what they eat, where they live etc)
  • The level of challege can also be easily adapted, for example, the set of cards can include only 8 items or the teacher can focus on putting the animals into pairs basen only on the colours or the size which are probably the two most achievable categories, both cognitively and linguistically.
  • This is a neverending activity because the cards and the animals can be grouped and re-grouped over and over again to let the students create new and less obvious links between the items. Conversly, it can be shortend as needs be.
  • As regards the interaction patterns, this activity can be used with groups, with kids working together, at least in the beginning, or in pairs if we have the appropriate number of sets of cards as well as with 1-1 students, both online and offline.
  • There is also some potential for adaptation in the area of materials. The most obvious choice are the flashcards, the mini-flashcards or the Miro board. The teacher can also create a handout with the animals pictures and/or names which the students can colour-code as they are putting them in pairs. This might be a good solution for the kids to work in pairs in the offline classroom.
  • Last but not least, this activity is an opportunity for the kids to develop the listening skills (as they want to find out the justification for their peers’ choices) and the speaking skills (as they want to present their own reasoning, too). I simply love to observe how my students start with the simplest and most obvious connections and how they venture out into more and more creative ones.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #40 A fruit salad

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Ingredients

  • Fruit, washed and cut up into manageable chunks. The most basic set includes: apples, bananas, pears, seedless grapes, seedless oranges.
  • A plastic plate for each child, a plastic cup for each child, a plastic spoon and a plastic knife.
  • A set of tissues and a set of wet tissues.
  • Optional: a set of fruit flashcards and the video of the Super Simple Song ‘Are you hungry?’

Procedures

  • Start with presenting the idea of the activity to the parents and agreeing on the list of fruit to be used. It is absolutely crucial that the parents are aware of the procedures and the ingredients and that they approve. In my offline classes, I normally send a message to find out whether the parents approve and then I send a list of specific fruit that I would like to use. I look for seedless oranges and grapes. The list of fruit does not have to be very long. It is going to be a great lesson anyway, even if only the basic fruit are used. Although, of course, the salad will look very appealing if we include more colours and adding some citrus such as orange will be beneficial as regards the flavour, even a little bit of the lemon or orange juice will bring out the flavours of all the fruit and it will blend them nicely. But it is not obligatory. In my online classes, the parents prepare the fruit that the kids really like and it might happen that our sets will vary.
  • Wash the fruit and pre-cut them into pieces and chunks or ask the parents to do the same at home.
  • Plan where (in the school or in the classroom) you are going to set up your salad production station. Ideally, it would be done in a separate room, where everything can be prepared before the lesson and where the students can relocate half-way through the lesson. In the online classroom, the kids can relocate to the kitchen or cut things up on the table in front of the computer. In the classroom or in the kitchen, prepare the working top first: wash the tables, cover them with a plastic tablecloth.
  • Set aside the time for hand-washing. Line the kids up and go to the bathroom, wash the hands, dry the hands and go to the classroom.
  • Give out the tools while pre-teaching the names and while introducing the basic health and safety rules i.e. a plate – it stays on the table, a cup – it is in front of the cup, a knife – be careful. It is a good idea to stage the giving out of tools ie: first the plates and the cups, then the first fruit and the knives, then clean up the plates and give out the teaspoons etc.
  • Take out the first fruit, call out its name. Demonstrate how to cut it up, for example using the following set of instructions: 1) take a piece of apple, ‘Apple, please’ 2) put it on your plate 3) cut it up carefully 4) put the apple into the cup
  • Repeat with the other fruit. Throw away the plates. Give out the spoons.
  • Stir the fruit in the cup carefully.
  • Start eating.
  • Game 1: What’s this?: it is a fun game that involves eating and guessing which fruit we have fished out. Teacher can demonstrate how to play it: take some fruit from the cup, eat it without looking or even with the eyes closed and try to guess what it is. If modelled properly, with the teacher asking question ‘What is it?’ and trying to guess ‘It’s an apple’ etc, the kids will follow and will be playing in the same way.
  • Game 2: Singing and eating: Play the song and pause at every fruit and ask the kids the same question ‘Are you hungry?‘ ‘Oh, look (name the fruit in the salad). Yum, yum, yum’. The only thing to remember here is to make sure that kids finish eating before we play the song again and to continue singing.
  • Clean up, throw away the rubbish, clean the hands with the wet tissues.

Why we like it

  • It is a great and relatively simple way of making the language real and meaningful. We learn about fruit and we do something with the real fruit. With many other topics creating this connection between the classroom and the real world is a bit more complicated, fruit (and food in general) is easy. After a few basic precautions are taken, such as the allergy check, the parents permission, clean hands and a safe working environment.
  • It gives kids a great sense of achievement despite the fact that in the eyes of an adult that might look simplistic. One of my groups called it ‘a cooking lesson‘ and after the first salad, they kept asking for more of those.
  • It is an opportunity to develop social skills (we are taking turns and waiting for everyone to finish), focus (we are cutting fruit slowly and carefully), fine motor skills (we are working with a knife, we are manipulating small pieces of fruit).
  • It is an opportunity to eat in class and that is always fun but it is also something that we do together, as a group and, as such, it can be repeated regularly, although not necessarily with the salad every single time. It can turn into some ‘teatime‘ aka a lesson when we just have a little snack together. That name and the idea is also something that came from one of the groups.
  • It is not an activity for the first lessons with a group
  • If done properly, the lesson can lead to a lot of production. The ‘What’s this game’ was something that just happened in class, just because I really could not recognise one of the piece of fruit in my cup. I fished it out to taste it and I was simply blabbling to myself. The kids were watching and quickly followed suit. Together we turned into a real game and, since then, I played it with all my groups. The other game, based on a song, was something that we played in class for a few lessons, with our set of plastic fruit and it worked very well. The kids liked giving out fruit and pretending to munch on them. Moving onto the real fruit and the salad was a natural next step.

Happy teaching!

Five ways of using craft in the pre-primary classroom

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Before the craft.
A set of quilling paper strips

This is the second part of the Craft ABC series. You can find the first part here.

The main activity and the target language practice

This is a craft activity that features in the lesson to provide opportunities for the target langauge practice. As an example I have decided to choose our beloved jellyfish that is the first craft activity that I do with my first-year students, in one of the first weeks of the course. This is the time when we learn and practise colours with flashcards, colourful blocks and realia in general, with simple stories, videos, wordwall games and songs. A craft activity is yet another way of ‘recycling’ the target vocabulary and of giving the students an opportunity to be exposed to it and to use it.

The jellyfish is a super simple craft and even the youngest kids can draw the eyes and the smile on the head (which can be a semi-circle cut out by the teacher or a half of a paper plate) and then to attach the tentacles to the back of it. Kids are really motivated to make their own jellyfish and to drill and call out the colours and to ask for the following one, in a very simple way (‘Blue, please’). As a result, lots and lots of language is produced and everyone leaves the classroom with a creature they made herself. What’s most important, the jellyfish looks good even with the most crooked smile and the most inexpertly glued tentacles. And even if there are only three or four colours used, with the youngest kids.

The follow-up of a story or a song

Craft in this case is an opportunity to reinforce the ideas, concepts, vocabulary and structures introduced in a song or in a story. Or, to put it differently, a story or a song is not introduced only as a starter or a side dish but it becomes the topic for the entire lesson.

The three examples in the photos come from the lessons taught based on the Playway to English 1 by Cambridge University Press. The first one is a flower we made together while retelling the story from unit 7 (The Little Seed which you can also find here) and although we were not able to use all the original story lines, the kids could use the basic ones such as It’s sunny, It’s raining. The little seed is sleeping (at the beginning), The flower is growing (while making the stem) and so on.

The second example is everyone’s favourite Very Hungry Caterpillar which is a storybook we use in year, to accompany either unit 7 (Weather / Spring) or unit 9 (Food). You can find more information on this version of the caterpillar here.

Last, but definitely not least, is a simple craft that was a follow-up of the amazing Super Simple Song called ‘Are you hungry?‘ and it can be used either with the topic of fruit (Playway to English 1, unit 3) as it goes nicely with the theme of the song of monsters sharing fruit with their hungry friends or, in a wider context, with food in general (Playway to English, unit 9). The craft activity becomes the more palpable and 2-D version of a song and it can be used in a mini-role play, sung or spoken, depending on what the kids are ready for.

Props preparation

This type of a craft activity does not have a lot of potential as regards maximising production although the kids are quite likely to use some functional language, the staples of craft (Are you ready? Let’s sit down, Blue, please etc). This type of a craft activity is also quite short, compared with the ones mentioned so far but that is exactly the point. The craft activity is only a prelude. Everything important is to happen later with the finished product used as a tool.

The best example here will be our magic wand. It is simple and easy to make and can be used as a part of a shapes lesson (though, really, there is only one shape involved). The abracadabra TPR activity (Abracadabra, 123, you are…) is a game we play from the very beginning of the course. When the kids are ready to take over, we make a wand for each other and use it in a game and at this point, the kids get to lead the game for real, waving their own, freshly-produced wands and we all mime whatever there is to mime. The langauge is produced and lots of it (Abracadabra, 123, you are…swimming, dancing, flying…OR you are a cat, a happy cat, a hungry dinosaur…) but it is not directly related to the making of the wand.

A part of a Science, Maths or Art lesson

Craft can be also a part of a CLIL lesson or a Maths, Science or Art lesson, depending on whether we are dealing with the EFL or the ESL or bilingual programmes. In this case, the craft activity will create an opportunity for the students to put into practice or to reinforce the real knowledge or skills they have acquired in class, making it more practical, kinesthetic and hands-on.

Below, three examples of such craft activities.

The first one is a Maths lesson in which we were learning about and practising measuring. Apart from working with the rulers and measuring tapes and checking how long our cars, teddy bears, desks, noses and fingers were, the kids also got a simple handout with a section of a certain length and it was their task to measure the strips of paper with rulers, cut of the appropriate piece and glue it underneath.

The second one is one of the lessons devoted to animal habitats which we studied in our Science class. Apart from categorising animals and talking about the habitat, we also did a craft activity in which we created the habitat (here the polar region made of a sheet of blue paper, waves drawn, ice made of cotton pats and the animals glued on). After a series of lessons we had a set of habitats.

The third piece here is one of the activities we made as part of the Kids in the Avangard. In this lesson Paul Klee was our artist of the day and we created our own version of his Cat and Bird.

The non-linguistic aims

Sometimes craft activities have a non-linguistic main aims. Because of their obvious relevance to kids’ lives and the excitement that they generate, they can be used to help kids develop as humans and this can be the reason for their inclusion in a language lesson.

The first activity here is one of my favourite craft activities ever. It can be used in many different thematic lessons but its main advantage is that because, due to its design, it requires a detailed micro-staging and, on the one hand, it can help kids work on their ability to focus and to follow teacher’s instructions in order to be able to turn their circles into cats, dogs, frogs and bees. On the other hand (and it has worked absolutely every single time), it brings an immense sense of achievement and confidence in kids’ own skills since a random circle can become so many things.

The other activity presented here is an example of a festive craft that finds its place in the classroom as part of the seasonal celebrations. Despite the fact that sometimes this vocabulary will be used in class only in a year, when the holiday comes up again, it connects the lesson to the celebrations at home and in kindergarten and it is the easiest way of bringing these festivities into the EFL classroom.

The final activity, our solar system was a wonderful activity that we all enjoyed and one that helped us produce lots and lots of language. However, believe it or not, that was not the reason why we did it. This was our first real whole class project because the kids got an opportunity to work on something together, sharing resources and sharing the space and we produced one huge poster that nobody would be taking home in the end.

Happy teaching!

Craft is…what the VYL world is all about

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Just one of the shots taken in the middle of a working day, before a craft lesson…

Craft has been present in my classroom life for as long as I can remember. Looking back, I can see all the pieces I made with my superstars in Moscow over the last thirteen years, the robots we constructed at the summer camp in Tuscany in 2009, some 3-D houses we made with my Navarran babies in 2008, or the magazines I put together with my cousin, my first student ever, somewhere in 2000…What’s more, craft has been present in my life since my own primary school. I loved the Art lessons, I loved the Craft lessons. I even loved the Technology classes, although craft then involved: weaving a mini rug, building a birdfeeder and making a chair for a doll.

You could say that the foundations for my future career have been built pretty early and that I have had a lot of opportunities to perfect my fine motor skills and to fall in love with craft (truly, madly, deeply). No wonder that I would try to smuggle it into my lessons.

It was only a week ago, actually, while preparing yet another session for a teacher training course, that I saw craft with a fresh pair of eyes and I saw it for what it really is: the VYL world (or the pre-school world) in a nutshell, everything that is beautiful about it, everything that can be enjoyable about it and, inevitably, everything that can go wrong with it, too.

The simple truth is that: kids love craft

Craft lessons and craft activities are these parts of the lesson when kids can do something for real, not the coursebooks, not the handouts or worksheets, not the time when you need to stay focused but the creative, the beautiful, the fun part. And, one more important factor – something that is different every single time!

If you add to it the variety of materials that are included, the variety of techniques and that, more often than not, you end up with a real product, a book, a house, a puppet or a collage, which you have created yourself and which you are allowed to take home, it is not a surprise that kids love it.

‘Ah, we haven’t done anything for such a long time‘ was something that I heard one of my students mumble to herself when she saw me reach out for the coursebook as soon as we sat down at the tables. As a teacher, I was taken aback. Because we did DO things! We sang songs, we read stories, played with flashcards and we did have good lessons. In my student’s eyes, however, all that meant nothing at all, because, indeed, somehow a long time had passed since the previous craft lesson and that, at least for this one student, was the real thing, the something!

If you want to read more on why kids need craft activities, have a look here.

The simple truth is: many teachers don’t like craft

  • A craft lesson takes a long time to prepare.
  • It is messy, both during the preparation stage (see the photo above) and during the lesson.
  • The teachers might not have a full access to all the resources necessary, even the simple ones so they end up buying these themselves
  • Classroom management is a bit more tricky in the craft lessons, as there are more elements to manage and the kids might get too excited.
  • If not planned properly, craft lessons can turn into a mayhem, with kids not producing the target language or even not completing the task.
  • Craft activites are not very well taken care of in the mainstream coursebooks and in the teachers books and so there is no resource to learn from.
  • If the craft activity has not been chosen properly and if it is too complex for the students or if it is not planned properly, students might struggle with completing it or they might destroy in and in such a case there might be tears of a child in despair or tears of a disappointed child.

Craft is what the VYL world is about

Teaching pre-schoolers, compared with the other age groups, will require more of your time in the preparation stage and it will be more demanding as regards the class time. It might require you to include the things that teachers, as adults, have no interest in and which they will still include because that is what can be beneficial and effective with students of that age. In the same vein, some things will have to be excluded even if teachers love them, also because of the age of the students, they will simply not work.

There is only one thing to be done…

…and that is: careful planning and Carol Read’s MADFOX (Management, Appropriacy, Design, Flexibility, Outcomes, Excitement) which you can read about in the ‘500 Activities for the Primary Classroom‘. It is a wonderful tool that will help prepare for a craft activity in the EFL or ESL lesson, primary and pre-primary. Actually, this framework will work well with any type of an activity or a set of materials, stories, songs and games.

One of my earlier posts (and my first acronym W.O.R.L.D🙂 might also come in handy while choosing a craft activity for the pre-primary EFL /ESL lesson.

The most important thing to remember everything gets better with time. The lesson planning become easier and less time-consuming. The kids know the teacher, the lesson format and their peers better and that is an important factor contributing to the success of the activities and, last but not least, if you decide to reuse a particular type of a craft activity for the second or third time, the students will also be able to deal with it better as they will have done it before.

There is hope))

This post is only the first part of the Craft ABC series. You can find the second part here. Don’t forget to also have a look at all the posts in the craft section on this blog.

Happy teaching!

When the magic happens…

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The magic of Louisiana

Let me tell you first what this post is NOT about:

It is not a post about any specific activity, resource or solution for the classroom.

It is not a report of a classroom research task or an experiment.

It is not a compendium of useful links. Or stories from a trainer’s life.

Not today. Today I want to write about the classroom magic and, in all honesty, I doubt anyone can find it of any use. Really. This is solely for my writer’s and teacher’s well-being.

The magic of Lousiana

When the magic happens OR When kids become communicators in L2

Maximising production is definitely a professional obsession.

Although a) it is probably better to call it ‘my professional interest’ and b) you have probably noticed, if you have been reading my posts (It not, you can find the chapter here). This is what I have on my mind while planning my lessons. This is what I think about while looking at the coursebooks, illustrations, stories and games. ‘How do I get my kids to speak?’

The magic of Louisiana

If you are a teacher of young children, you are a bit like a gardener.

There is a lot of digging, a lot of watering, some weeding, and, above all, lots and lots (and lots) of waiting before you get a chance to even hope about any real fruit or flowers. Or any real communication, in our case. Which does not mean that it is boring or uneventful! Quite the contrary!

It is a wonderful journey, filled with treasured moments, from the very first steps into the classroom and any signals that we have exchanged ideas and understood each other. Cautiously walking in, on day 1, a bit uncertain but also very curious what this new auntie (that’s what I have been referred to, in Russian, in Spanish and in Portugues) has to offer. Pointing at the right flashcards, nodding in lieu of a yes, lining up because the teacher asked for it, picking out for the red crayon in a colouring dication or replying ‘Hello’ to your ‘Hello’ Drilling and reciting all the colours and so is confidently shouting out ‘Cat!’ to correct the teacher when she shows you a picture of a cat but, somehow, she says ‘It’s a dog!’ (though with this special elfin smile and a spark in her eye)… All of this is priceless, amazing, magical. And necessary.

The magic of Louisiana

Then comes the plateu.

Yes, a language learning plateu. In case of the primary or the pre-primary language learners it has got nothing to do with reaching the intermediate level (quite often the level associated with the concept of plateau), quite the contrary, but, it does happen with the little kids, too (and yes, this is just the idea that I got right now and decided to use it in this post).

So, taking the level aside, what do I (very subjectively) see as the language learning plateu in early L2 learning?

  • kids feel confident in the classroom, with its routines and traditions, the teacher, the coursebook, the lesson and the course framework
  • kids feel comfortable with their peers and the bunch of kids starts resembling a group and a team
  • kids are curious and easily learn new words (aka single words) and they can reproduce them on teacher’s request, the action – reaction, teacher – student or teacher – students goes very smoothly
  • kids produce some simple sentences, depending on the curriculum and the programme
  • kids know and produce some phrases related to the repeated activities during the lesson

The first two points here are not directly related to the actual language production but due to the age of children, they are of the utmost importance and for that reason they have found their place here. This is the point in the course when the age-related characteristics stop being an issue and teacher and children can focus more on the language learning itself.

Finally, the learning happens, we move from unit to unit to unit. We go from unit 1 (colours), to unit 2 (school), to unit 3 (fruit), from level 1 to level 2, the kids are growing, the kids know more, they are under control. The kids are happy and the teacher is happy. The only thing missing is ‘They lived happily ever after’…

Don’t get me wrong. I am not UN-happy with the classes going beautifully well. I am not picking at the seams here. This is the state that we, as teachers, dream about. However, this is also the dangrous plateau because we may want to stay there forever. And we should not. Not moving forward equals staying in the same place equals regression. Things going well is a signal that the time has come to do something new, look for new challenges or think of ways of extending the Zone of Proximal Development.

In the very specific context of maximising language production in the VYL world it might mean helping the kids move from ‘the action – reaction’, ‘teacher – student’ and ‘teacher – students’, one word or one sentence production to the next level: a discourse (or a mini-discourse), student – student, student – teacher and spontaneous production aka I say things when I have things to say (and ‘Not because my teacher, the adult asked me’).

The magic of Louisiana

The most beautiful day is when the magic happens

There is no way of getting ready for this day, marking it in your calendar and making it your aim. It is when, all of a sudden, it happens – kids say things outside of the framework that you have prepared for the day, outside of the pattern they ‘should‘ be using according to the book. Or when they try to say things that are, clearly, out of their range (yet) but which they need to say. Sometimes it is fully expressed in L1, sometimes partially.

Examples? Yes, sure! Let’s go.

Case study #1

One of my 6 y.o. students, still in pre-school, about to go to school in a few week but have have been using the primary level books since January. She has always been a very active child and an eager students but recently, over the past few weeks, she has just skyrocketed. The magic happened!

We are studying online, she is in her natural habitat, at home where she communicates in Russian. However, during the lesson time, she started to use more English while talking to her brothers. Sometimes, it is fully in English, for example calling him from another room, to join us in a game (‘We are playing! Come!’), sometimes it is a mix of Russian and English (‘Sasha, go, do your thing!’). Sometimes, the baby brother wanders in, during our lesson and he also gets his portion of English, because I welcome him in English and his sisters babbles to him in English, too. Sometimes. We are in our little English bubble while in class and she is really making an effort to communicate in the target language then. Although, not only then, actually! I know it from her mum, that she sometimes plays with her teddies and that some English happens, then, too! Some of them must be English-speaking teddies.

I also noticed that when we play together with the older brother, she really listens to what he is saying and she picks out the useful words and then tries to use them, like, in the same lessons the phrase ‘everyday’ or ‘every day’ and, almost immediately, enjoying the variations such as ‘every minute’ and ‘every second’…

This ‘magic’ goes beyond the immersion in the context and the language creativity and experimentation. My student also started to attempt to maximise the amount of language produced.

Last week we started to practice Present Simple (Do you go swimming?) as a follow-up on the simple ‘Do you like?’ which we have known for quite some time and we were interviewing each other, not as ourselves but as the chosen characters. The main aim was to practise ‘Do you do something?’ and I did not even plan to insist on using ‘at the weekend’ or any other day of the week, leaving it for later. However, in class, my student just started to speak and it was a wonderful experience for me to see how far she would go. First, she’d say ‘do you’, then pause, choose the verb, pause again, choose the object, pause again, choose the preposition of place, pause again and, finally, add the day of the week…

Do you draw on your homework every day? Do you dance in your classes on Fridays? Do you sleep in the school?

I could not keep up with her in my note-taking, because there was so much language and, yes, because I was laughing out loud. Not only because her sentences were great but also because I realised that, this time round, I managed to notice, to seize the moment, in a way.

The magic of Louisiana

How to make sure that the magic does happen?

  • Let the kids lead the activities (‘Who’s the teacher?’)
  • Start introducing pair-work as soon as the kids might be ready
  • If possible, include free play slot in your lessons
  • Show curiosity, ask questions, even if they seem to be above the kids’ current langauge level
  • Model
  • Work with the emergent vocabulary but for that it is necessary to be able to speak or at least to understand the kids’ L1 and to provide the word they want to use, even though it is not a part of the wordlist for the level and to keep bringing it back
  • Be clever and welcoming when it comes to kids’ way of using L1 in class. Apart from the teacher showing respect for it (please, please, please avoid saying ‘DON’T speak L1’ or ‘NO L1’), there is a way of working it. Not all L1 appears because kids don’t want to speak English. Using L1 is one of the communication strategies and it can be a signal for the teacher as to what the kids want to talk about and what they need the vocabulary and structures for.
  • Be clever and welcoming when it comes to kids’ way of dealing with code-switching (aka ‘mixing’ L1 and L2). This is one of the communication strategies and it is the a step towards and an attempt at L2-only communication
  • Create the English language environment and provide the exposure with songs, books, games and stories.
  • Think of extending this exposure and taking English out of the classroom (aka get the parents, the grandparents, sisters and brothers on board!)
  • Continue reading this blog for more ideas:)

And wait. Stretch out and wait. Like in a song by The Smiths…The magic is bound to happen, eventually.

Happy teaching!

The magic of Louisiana

DIY peer observations aka Where to find videos to observe VYL teachers in action

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During our teacher training courses, I try to invite teachers to my classroom, for an observation. However, even in the online / offline / hybrid era it is not always possible. For that reason, to balance the theoretical and the practical we watch a lot of videoed lessons. Over the years, the teacher training department at my school has managed to compile a whole library of those, for different age groups and levels and now we have a lovely resource to use in our training sessions and workshops. I do recommend setting up this kind of a library at your school!

However, while making these videos, we received the parents’ permission for the internal use. The videos are not on youtube and we cannot make them public. For that reason I can never share any of them with my trainees or readers. Instead, I decided to put together a list of those youtube clips that we often use in our sessions hoping that you find them useful, too.

A few tips from a trainer

  • Choose a focus for the observation: classroom management, behaviour, staging, storytellings, songs, chants, literacy…
  • Think of yourself as an observer, look for the strong points and the areas to improve. There is always something!
  • Be a kind observer! Remember that no matter what you are watching, the teacher WAS on tenterhooks because the lesson was filmed and that the whole filming adventure might have affected the teacher’s and the kids’ behaviour.
  • More than anything else, please remember that whatever was filmed, it is only a part of a lesson and we have no chance of finding out what happened before and after.
  • Think about your particular context (your institution, your group, your classroom, your country and your culture), would this activity and this approach work? Why? Why not? Can it be adapted?
  • If possible, watch the video again, after some time has passed or after you have had a chance to use some of the activities or approaches in practice. Are your impressions the same?
  • If possible, watch it with some other teachers, too! It is fun to find out what others think about it and sometimes we learn more from people that we disagree with!
  • I have tried to include a variety of contexts and countries of origin.

Now the videos

  1. Wow English with Steve (from Steve and Maggie), with a big group in a kindergarten in Prague. I am guessing it is the first lesson and the first meeting with the kids.
  2. TPR with Herbert Puchta and Helbling English and Revision of words with Herbert Puchta, for those of you who want to see the author in the classroom:-)
  3. English clothing song for kids from the Magic Crayons, as an example of a simple and genious (and presumably home-made) clothing song
  4. ESL Story for Kids ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ from Scott Reeve, because this very (very) short clips wonderfully shows what can be done with a storybook used in the EFL/ESL context
  5. Kindergarten Teaching in China from Michael Roxas and almost 30 minutes of a lesson
  6. Teaching ESL in China from Teacher Jeus ESL, a big group of 5-6 y.o. and 25 minutes of a lesson
  7. The first lesson with 3 y.o. from a kindergarten in Poland from Piotr Wilk, this one is an interesting example because of the ratio of L1 and L2 (TL in English, all the explanations and ‘Why’s’ in Polish)
  8. A lesson with 5 – 6 y.o. from a kindergarten in Poland with an introduction in Polish, but the rest of the lesson is in English, the actual lesson 4’30 – 30’14. Apart from that, the video includes the introduction (in Polish, no subtitles unfortunately) aka the lesson overview and the follow-up, with a discussion on the changes that were introduced in the lesson which is supposed to serve only as a starting point.
  9. A lesson with 4-5 y.o. from Alena Fedan (Dniepropetrovsk, Ukraine), some L1 but lots and lots of production in L2)
  10. A lesson from a kindergarten in kindergarten #278 in Moscow, Russia, 20 minutes and a selection of activities.
  11. A lesson from kindergarten Rozvite, in Samara, Russia, the first class with the older pre-schoolers
  12. We learn English with teacher Sandra from Valencia, only 5 minutes but with very young kids, in the classroom and in the yard.
  13. Class routine with pre-school from Baranain, Navarra, 8 minutes, but a lovely start of the lesson and some literacy activities
  14. A lesson of English with pre-school with Graziela Leonardo (Pirai, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), 8 min, the start of the lesson and the introduction of a new set of vocabulary and a simple whole class project
  15. A lesson of English with pre-school from teacher Lara from Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

If there are any other videos that you know of and which you could share, please leave the link in the comments below!

Happy teaching!

How to choose a storybook?

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Seven. This is how many storybooks I own at this point in my life. To be honest, seven is a huge downgrade from these three shelves that I used to have a few months ago: one full shelf at the office, one full shelf at home and one, half-full shelf in the school…

I sigh and I try not to think about the absence of these shelves and, instead, I am thinking of my books circulating in the world, stuck all over the other, guest shelves, my storybooks out of reach but bringing joy to someone, somewhere. On a really good day, I can almost see myself as a fairy who sprinkles not golddust but beautiful pieces of literature.

The thing is, one cannot stay too far away from storybooks. Whether you want it or not, they start piling up, slowly, cautiously but still. Starting from scratch but I already have seven new books. Although ‘new’ should be taken with a pinch of salt here. I do recycle a lot, when possibly, and pick the gems to my collection in all the friendly charity shops. And some of them in my favourite book shop.

How do I choose the storybooks?

Oh, look, my unit 1 vocabulary! I buy the books to teach the lexis

In a perfect world there would be a library in which I would have a storybook for every unit (or for every set of vocabulary) that I am planning to teach. From colours, numbers, pets, transport, shapes to Christmas, Halloween and insects. This is probably never going to happen due to that inability to stick to a shelf for longer (see: Introduction) but it is good to daydream at least.

But I am trying!

When I choose storybooks, I like to look through the illustrations to see to what extent I will be able to use them with a specific topic. Sometimes I read the text, too, but I have also learnt to completely disregard it. The story can always be retold or adapted, graded to the needs of the people in the classroom and the lexis that they are working on at the moment.

That is why I bought Nick Sharratt and Sally Syme’s Something Beginning With Blue (yes, to teach colours!) and Debbie Harter’s Walking Through the Jungle, which has an amazing set of animals, habitats and verbs and which I will be also able to use alongside Walking in the Jungle by Super Simple Songs.

Grrrr! I buy the books to introduce and practise the structure

Because there is more than words, there is also the structure and sometimes I choose the books with the grammar that I will be able to introduce or to practise using a particular story. Oftentimes, the illustrations play the main role here (because, again, the story can be retold and adapted) although the story itself can help, too!

This is how Copy Cat by Mark Birchall landed in the bag and on the shelf. The adventures of the two friends, a cat and a dog, have a lot of verbs which means that I will be able to use it to practise Present Continuous or the Past Simple. I was also thinking of some functional language because the cat and the dog already talk a lot but they can talk even more in the future.

Say it again! I buy the books with repetitive language

Having read those two paragraphs, you might think that I buy the books not to read them but to look at the illustrations. It is not quite true. I use the text, too, but bearing in mind that my students are EFL kids, beginners, with somewhat limited exposure to the target language, I have to be selective as regards the text. At the same time, there are many amazing storybooks which can be used with a beginner child learner and that is because the language is repetitive and, even if it is above the child’s level and even if it has to be introduced, it is a good time investement because it appears throughout the entire story. Some good examples of that could be ‘I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet’ in Dear Zoo (another favourite) or ‘What do you see?’ in Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?.

The story mentioned above, ‘Walking Through the Jungle’ took a similar approach. The entire story is told through the following exchange: ‘Walking through the jungle, what do you see?’ ‘I think I see a lion chasing after me‘.

I know this story! I buy the books with traditional stories

It is great to see that traditional stories are making a comeback into the EFL VYL world. They are not the easiest material to work with, especially with the younger students, because the language is usually complex albeit beautiful, but they have one great advantage – the chances are that kids will be already familiar with them, the characters and the plot, because they are quite likely to have heard them before. At the very least, these are the stories that we can start with while taking the first steps in the traditional stories for pre-schoolers or primary.

That is why I picked up Alexei Tolstoy’s and Niamh Sharkey’s The Gigantic Turnip at the bookshop. I am hoping we are going to have a lot of fun with it, especially that the illustrations are beautiful and there is some repetition in the way the story is told.

Hello again! I buy the books I used to have

The list of the storybooks that are important and close to my heart is long, very long, indeed. The list includes Elmer, Barry, the Caterpillar, Gruffalo and many others, all of the books that I love, that I have been using in class for ages and that I could just take out of my bag and have a lesson with, without any real preparation. The trialled and tested. The best friends forever. The personal top ten, twenty, thirty.

However, when I start recreating the shelf, I do not start from this list, although, perhaps that would be a good idea. Making a fresh start brings with it an opportunity to find new treasures and that is what I like to do, I am on the look-out, I keep my eyes open and when I bump into a title that I know and love, I just get it.

Only when I get to the point of ‘Oh, how I miss Elmer!’, do I go online and just order all of these staples.

This time, my oldie but good is an Oliver Jeffers’ book, Lost and Found which I love for his illustrations and stories.

Guilty pleasures. I buy the books beacause they are just beautiful.

To be perfectly honest, I have to be double reasonable when it comes to this particular category because it is very easy to lose control and to end up with piles and piles of beautiful artifacts that I cannot really use in class. Self-restraint, moderation and temperance are not my favourite words but I have to make an effort, from time to time.

Once in a blue moon, however, comes the day when I am allowed to forage the shelves and the boxes and pick out publications which are (mainly) appealing visually. They are those that are to be used in my art lessons to develop taste, visual intelligence and symbolic representation in children.

This time, the two books that I picked for that very reason were Lauren Child’s Beware of the Storybook Wolves (for the trademark produced-by-a-child-like illustrations) and Kazuno Kohara’s Jack Frost (for the monochrome in black and in blue which will be a starting point for a lesson on the importance of colour). Or Lost and Found…

Most importantly…

It does not really matter why you buy the books as long as you buy them!

The stories that I could tell you of the books that were no one’s favourite and on no one’s wishlist but they came with other treasures or there was a really good price on them or they simply got donated and thus they made it to the shelf…True, they had to wait for their turn, for the inspiration to come, for this special lesson. Every dog has its day. Every storybook has its audience and its lesson.

Go, get the books! Bring them to the classroom!

Happy teaching!

P.S. The only problem now is that it is the middle of July and I already have a head full of new ideas and still – a good few weeks of waiting before I can put them into practice…

How do you know that you are ‘an experienced teacher’?

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Based on real events.

This week’s story

I am on the move, resembling Snufkin from the Moomins now more than ever. It did so happen that this week I was asked to teach a demo lesson. While on the move.

Here are the details, just to give you a full picture

  • The lesson was supposed to last 30 minutes
  • The kids were 5 years old
  • There were eighteen kids in the group
  • I had not seen the kids before
  • I did not know the level of the group
  • Since I was on the move, I had no resources of any kind, no flashcards, no ball, no dice, no magic wand.
  • What is more, there was no flashcards at the school and I was not aware of any options related to the access to any electronic resources. I had to assume that there were none.
  • My laptop with its screen was just not good enough for such a big group.
  • Buying any new resources was absolutely out of the question
  • I could not consider any written work or craft for the same reason, no photocopying and getting enough markers and so on.
  • My performance was supposed to be evaluated. Of course.

There is a happy ending to this story…

…is probably the next thing that I should say while telling this story.

Desperation came first. And how else? I had a lesson to teach, a lesson that I wanted to teach but no tools to do it, no tools whatsoever. None. I could not use anything that I had ready and, because of my crazy timetable, I could not really set aside any time to produce the flashcards or to wander about a new city to look for resources… So, it started with desperation and anger and the foulest of mood followed. And then I just gave up.

Not on the lesson as such, although, of course that was an option, too. I could have just called and, in an attempt to be a reasonable adult and a professional, I could have called it all off (‘My apologies, that is all just plain impossible, I will have to say no.’) and forgotten about the whole business.

However, either because I do rejoice the unreasonable or because I did enjoy the idea of a challenge, I decided to go on with it. As soon as I ‘gave up‘ (on the resources, on the safety blanket of the experience so far, on the idea of a traditional lesson), I calmed down and things got interesting.

The first thing I did was to make a list of all the available resources or rather ‘resources’ aka junk, stuff, things that could be used in class and to come up with a topic, an aim and a set of activities that would match them.

The list included:

  • my magic trousers (red genie trousers with purple elephants, a sovenir from Portland, Maine)
  • my toy hen, Angelina, who travels everywhere with me anyway
  • and a set of random objects which I have gathered around Ola’s flatt (a shell, a towel, a straw hat, a storybook, in Polish) and my rucksack with a water bottle and a few coins.
  • the Invisibles and Intangible: the experience, the charisma, the presence

The thoughts accompanying me in the taxi, in the morning were of the following kind: ‘It’s either an amazing challenge or an attempt at the professional self-destruction’. I would want to say that I was nervous or anxious because it was really difficult to predict the outcomes here, it could really go one way (aka the success) or the other (aka a complete disaster).

But I was calm. So calm, in fact, that I started to suspect myself of having given up on the entire project and of sabotaging it subconsciously by not preparing meticulously.

While in the taxi, I was on life support from my best friend and in response to my list of resources, I got a comment along the lines of ‘The magic trousers and Angelina? That is a killer combo!‘

I arrived at the kindergarten running…

…almost late. I washed my hands, I kicked off the trainers and there I was, on the carpet, with a bunch of kids, left to my own devices and to my random resources. It turned out that the killer combo is just that. We had a great lesson.

I decided to go for the topic of the beach and things we do there, to introduce a few verbs and chunks in the Present Continous and to be able to use them in a game of the actual going to the beach and playing on the beach, to focus on TPR and movement and to avoid any handouts or paper altogether. The language was presented through realia since the five-year-old kids are ready to make a connection between two coins and ‘I am eating ice-cream’ or between a towel and ‘I am swimming’. I carry all my songs and chants, real and made-up in my brain and I do not hesitate to use them and it was great to have Angelina and have her help me keep the lesson in shape.

We had fun, we ‘went to the beach’ and we produced the language. The lesson aims were definitely met. I would also like to say that I love the fact that now I can say that my most fun job interview (because that’s what it was) involved me lying on the carpet with a bunch of kids. We were sunbathing, after all…

If anyone wants to look at the lesson notes, you can find them here.

To be perfectly honest, I am aware that apart from the Invisible and the Intangible that were obviously there, I was lucky: the kids were old enough and I could at least hope that they would be behaving more like students in the context of the classroom. Plus, the novelty value did work to my advantage, this crazy lady, in colourful pants, coming in, talking for herself and the hen, laughing a lot, that is enough to keep the kids interested for thirty minutes. I also had the safety blanket of the impossibility of the set-up, the reasonable trainer would always be able to say ‘What did you expect? That would never work’…

Only it did.

Conclusion: How do I know that I am ‘an experienced teacher’?

I know it because, when faced with an impossible challenge, I do not panic and I am able to get over the initial and the unavoidable discomfort, I can focus on planning, without bending over backwards but rather taking stock of what is available and making do, in order to meet my aims and keep the standards where I want them.

I know it because, when the conditions are favourable, I am willing to experiment and to go for it, in order to push myself, on the one hand, and in order to push the boundaries a little bit, if only possible.

What about you?

Somewhere through this post I realised that this conclusion is a very personal and a very subjective one. What is more, the answer to this question will be changing because I myself would have answered it differently a week or two ago. I caught myself thinking that I am unbelievably curious about what my fellow teachers think. I decided to ask and this is how this post got really interesting.

It quickly turned out that there are as many approaches as many people and the answer to this question is and will be very subjective, personal and precious. It can be measured in the number of years worked but only in the eyes of our employers or according to the labour law of your country and it has got nothing or very little to do with what we think of our own skills and abilities.

Here are some of the ways in which you can get the bagde of honour. You can call yourself ‘an experienced teacher’ because…

  • ‘when the lesson plan works’, not necessarily beacuse the lessons have to go plan but because it can be taken as evidence that we understand the group and their needs and because we can prepare activities for this particular group of kids
  • you can teach a good lesson even when you do not really have enough time to plan. It is not because being experienced gives you a green light to take the preparation lightly but because when it is really necessary, you can get by with the Invisibles and the Intangibles and still do a good job. You can handle it even with zero prep whatsoever in case of a last minute cover or some class details confusion.
  • you are observed by a senior teacher and you get a great feedback
  • you are observed by a peer and you get a great feedback
  • when your students start using the new vocabulary and grammar in class, especially when it is not in the tasks directly related to this grammar point and without the teacher’s reminders to use these
  • when your students get great results in the external exams or in their regular classes or in any context that could be labelled as ‘outside of the classroom’, especially, as Maegan said, because the fun in the EFL classroom translated and transferred into progress in a more traditional approach in the school
  • ‘not sure about that’ was also one of the answers that I got. Perhaps this is something to work on, perhaps not. I will just leave it here.

While chatting about with Maegan we also bumped into the idea that this feeling of ‘I got this’ is not a long-lasting one and perhaps it should not even be. On the one hand, because, at least partially, it is based on the external factors. On the other hand, due to the fact that we live in the moment, in every single lesson and every single activitiy, focusing on that is a lot more interesting than the constant feeling of pride and confidence. I am also thinking that perhaps this is how we protect ourselves from feeling complacent. Perhaps.

If you have something to add, any comment, question, story, please, pretty please, add it in the comments section below! I will keep asking and researching)

Happy teaching!

Big thanks to my contributors: Irina, Michael, Vita, Maegan, Anastasia, Nina, Aleksandra.

A lesson, in structures. Notes from the classroom

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The academic year has just finished.

We had our final lesson, we learned and we had a little online party, with snacks and dances. The final reports and the diplomas have all been sent out and it was only a few days later that, during a walk, I caught myself thinking that we have had a very good year in the classroom and I am really happy with what my kids have learned and how they have progressed.

I am here basically taking notes of where we got by the end of the year, not to forget how many structures and how much language can be squeezed in a lesson. Obviously, that is not everything and there is always room for improvement. Obviously, adaptations have to be considered for the younger, the older, the smaller or the bigger groups, the longer or the shorter classes…

Here is my group: 6 kids, (mostly) in their second year of learning English, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6 and 6 years old, for 60 minutes once a week (or 45 minutes when online), amazing parents included.

Here is my lesson, in structures…

Getting in

  • Hello, how are you? (I’m ok)
  • Where are you sitting? (A blue table and a pink stool (while putting the books down and while sitting down)
  • What have you got today? (I’ve got a spider (in the online classroom, showing us what they have brought or what is lying around)
  • Are you eating or drinking? (I’m eating. I’m drinking (online)
  • What are you eating / drinking? (I am eating cherries. I am drinking water (online, they bring snacks to the lesson)
  • Do you like bananas? (Yes, I do (an activity we played while walking into the classroom, they used to do it in pairs, the one entering and the one right behind them in line, with the flashcards they picked from the pile)
  • How many students have we got today? (Six. One boy and five girls. One teacher (before the hello song. Sometimes we also add: Who is not here?)
  • Where is Sasha? (Sasha is not here. She is ill) Here, it was the students who started to ask about the missing kids and for that reason we introduced the question. The kids were asking, the teacher was answering).
  • Who is it? (It is Sasha. It is Misha) This was something that we did only in the classroom and it was our reaction to kids coming late. Even in the classroom we could hear the main door bell (or answer phone) ring and we started to play the game trying to guess who might be coming through the door next. It was especially fun when a few kids were being late and, of course, we could play it only on some days:-)
  • Did you do your homework? (Yes. (online: we check the homework together, taking turns, classroom: there is more 1-1 interaction as we check the homework as the kids are walking in)

Hello circle

  • How do you feel today? (I am very happy, a little angry and very, very sleepy (online: we use the presentation, I am arranging the icons for each child, classroom: we use our faces flashcards, at this point we have about 12 in active use. Btw, at this point the kids are asking these questions to each other)
  • What’s the weather like today? (It is sunny (online: the presentation, classroom: we look outside of the window)
  • Who is wearing a t-shirt? (Not me / I am. I am wearing a blue t-shirt (online: presentation, classroom: flashcards)

Revision

  • What’s your favourite colour / pet / fruit? (I like green / cats / bananas (online: presentation, classroom: flashcards)
  • How is your mum? (My mum is happy (online: wordwall spinner, classroom: flashcards or dice, we usually do three family members)
  • What’s my secret? Look at me (It’s a car! It’s a train (used for the revision of pretty much any vocabulary, with the teacher and then the students miming their chosen word and the other kids guessing)
  • What’s my secret? It is big, it is loud, it is fast, it is red (It’s a rocket (used for description riddles, online: we use symbols on the chart to remember what to talk about or the discourse clock, offline: we use flascards. The aim here is to encourage the kids to make riddles, too, but with this particular group we haven’t got to the stage of the SS-led game)
  • Cat, how do you get to school? (I go to school by train (online: we use miro, the kids are producing the language, I am moving the images, the cat is actually getting on thet train, classroom: we use flascards, the kids put the animals on the transport)
  • I can see two cats. Yes or not? (No, I can see three cats (we use one picture, the teacher is producing, the kids are listening and correcting)
  • I can see a black cat. (I can see an orange cat (here we use two different pictures and we are looking for differences, the teacher describes picture A, the kids, in turns, describe picture B)

Songs and movement

  • Which song do you want to sing, Baby Shark or Old McDonald’s? (Let’s sing Baby Shark (while choosing the song, when we could choose)
  • Are you sitting or are you standing? (I am sitting. I am standing (while choosing what we want to do during the song)
  • Do you like the song? (I like it, I don’t like it (to ask after a new song is introduced. It is another activity in which the structure can be used but it is also good to find out if they like the song or not)
  • What’s your favourite shark / farm animal? (I like mummy shark (a short personalisation activity after a song)
  • Mummy shark is green. Yes or no? (No, mummy shark is pink (and more follow-up task, that can be used with pretty much any song)
  • Is it easy or difficult? (It’s easy. It’s difficult (another idea for a follow-up after a song, it works best with the more active songs such as Move, I am normally the one that struggles with some of the actions and the kids adore them)
  • Abracadabra, 123, you are a cat (Kids don’t really respond here, their only task is to mime a cat. However, the main aim here is to let the kids lead the game as soon as it is possible and once they do, they start producing a lot of language. The other variations include: You are a happy cat. You are a big happy cat. You are dancing. You are a cat and you are dancing)
  • Anka in the circle. Katya in the circle. Who’s next? (Sasha in the circle (classroom: we are getting up and making a circle before starting the first song. There is a follow-up: Let’s make a small circle. Let’s make a big circle.

Focused task

  • Are you ready? (Yes, I am) or I’m ready (I’m ready) (as we are sitting down in the classroom or as we are settling down in the online classroom)
  • I’ve got my book (I’ve got my book) (again, in the online or the offline classroom as we are getting ready for the task. We use it for the handouts in the online lessons, too. In the classroom, I would ask one of the kids to help hand these out. They would be saying: ‘One of Katya. One for Sasha’ and so on while giving them out. Only afterwards we would go ‘I’ve got my paper’)
  • You need one colour / three colours. What colour do you want? (Blue, please) while we were getting ready for the task, applicable in the offline classroom)
  • I’m taking blue (or, when appropriate: My car is blue) (I’m taking green. My car is green) We use these in the online lessons or in those lessons when the kids are given their whole set of markers or crayons to use. Sometimes we use ‘I’m taking’ when we only connect the dots, draw lines etc. When it is used for colouring, I prefer the describe the final product as it seems to be more natural in that case)
  • I’ve finished (I’ve finished) when the task or a part of the task is completed)
  • Close your books. Put the markers in the box.
  • There are also many specific task or specific craft-related verbs and instructions but it is impossible to add them all here.

Storytelling

  • Which story are we going to read, this one or this one? (This one) This is applicable only when we have two stories to choose from
  • Who is it? What is he doing? Is he big or small? Is he happy? Is he at home? (It’s a boy. He is sitting. He is big. He is sad. He is in the park) We talk about the character of the book, usually looking at the cover page. However, sometimes (like in case of Barry and the Scary Monster) it is much better to use one of the inside illustrations as the cover page reveals too much, you can see the monster and I like to keep him a surprise until a bit later in the game)
  • Do you like the story? (I like it / I don’t like it) This is the question we always ask at the end of the story)
  • Are you happy? How do you feel now? (I am happy) This one is also a follow-up question and it gives the kids a chance to express their emotions at the end of the story. Sometimes I use it during the story. It might be a good idea to pause and to gauge the audience to check and to ensure that the kids are not getting scared (re: Barry and the monster) or too sad (re: the little mouse in Playway 1. This is a topic that would perhaps deserve its own post, dealing with emotions in storytelling lessons, but when the character is getting too upset, I comfort him (It’s ok, mouse, don’t cry) or I suggest that the kids can close their eyes or look away)
  • What’s your favourite fish? (I like this one. I like the blue fish) one of the simpler follow-up activities)

Goodbye

  • Let’s sit down: we have homework, goodbye song and stickers (while we are getting ready for finishing the lesson. By the end of the year I am only counting on my fingers and the kids are enlisting what is left to do. I only need to correct the order, sometimes.)
  • I’ve got my homework (I’ve got my homework) only applicable in the offlince classroom when the homework is not in the book).
  • How many stickers are we getting today? Are you taking a sticker? We have got farm, sea animals and space. Which one do you want? (Three stickers. Yes, please. No, thank you. Farm, please) This is only applicable in the classroom. With my online pre-school groups we haven’t started giving out the online stickers and, although we shifted online half-way through the year when the kids were already used to stickers, they did not mind, they did not ask for stickers. I did not want to introduce the online stickers because we had too many new things at this point due to switching online. I did not want to add up to that.

Notes

  • Interaction: in most cases, kids answer in a messy choir manner (I am giggling because I have just come up with that term) and that is: they respond to the question in their own time, to produce the language, more or less at the same time. I am keeping an eye and sometimes I have to call out those that missed the moment and did not produce. We have been studying together for two years so by now this type of interaction has become a routine. There are also situations, especially with the new structures or in case of a very important message (well, you know:-) when I call them out one by one. However, since there are six of them it cannot be every single time. There are also questions and structures that the kids lead and they choose one of the other kids to answer.
  • L2 and L1: most children, most of the time reply in the way that is the preschool teacher’s dream: in a full sentence and in English. However, kids are kids and they are beginner learners so of course that would not happen in 100% of cases. Sometimes they use single words (because kids do) and sometimes they thrown in three other sentences to tell me why their mum is happy today and that is just the way it is. I am doing my best to promote English only in the classroom but my kids are 4 or 5 and it does not happen overnight. But it does happen eventually.
  • Activities: I do not use every single activity in every lesson but I do like to repeat them in order to ensure that the basic structures feature more or less regularly
  • Outcomes, before and after: This is our regular lesson in level 2 which is the middle level. As regards my level 1 students – they have been exposed to some of these structures from the very beginning and, for example, in December, after only four months of studying, they already had about ten adjectives to describe emotions at their disposal whereas all the other structures were introduced gradually and, as can be expected, the main aim for some of them was only the exposure. As regards level 3, we managed to expand the range of these structures, make them natural and get to the point when the kids would be using them spontaneously.

Happy teaching!