#wewantmorelanguageproduction

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

The one phrase to teach your students. From the series: We Want More!

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Since we are going through the quieter period of the year, there is more time for looking back and for reflection and this is how the idea for this mini-series of post came from. Just because we started to use those and each of these phrases or words was like a key that opened many, many doors in our communication and not only.

The one thing to teach your kids is ‘because‘…

…and the whole thing can* start in primary, and maybe even in pre-school. It is a powerful world that invites the kids to build a simple discourse and to go beyond one sentence or simple sentence production, even in the most everyday situations.

We start with extentending the answer to ‘How do you feel today?‘ which is a part of our class routine and the question which I ask and which the kids ask in every single lesson. As soon as they have a good number of adjectives to use in response (you can read about it here), I try to encourage them to elaborate on their answers, both modeling (I’m happy because it is sunny) and by inviting them to continue. ‘I’m happy.‘ ‘Because...’

Of course, the sentences the kids produce are quite simple, very simple, in fact, and sometimes partially in their L1 but with time, they are becoming more familiar with it and they are improving and, as a result, are able to say more and more and more. In English. Not to mention that as we go through the course, there are more and more situations in which we need because, for example to explain why we like Friday and not Monday, why we didn’t do the homework, why the kids in the pictures look happy or sad or why they did something in the story.

The same can be done with pre-schoolers, with certain adjustments to their age and the number of years that they have been studying. Thinking about my groups in the previous academic year, with the level 1 and the level 2 groups I was more focused on the full sentence production and it was too early to introduce any linkers. The level 3 children, however, were ready the unit ‘I’m scared’ (Playway to English, CUP) was a perfect opportunity to talk about the things we are scared of and to explain why. Or, more frequently, the things we are not scared of. ‘I am not scared of spiders. I like spiders because they are beautiful.’ and so on.

I often tell my students (especially those new ones, and yes, also the adult ones recently) that I will always want to know ‘Why?’ and that even if I forget to ask, they should always imagine this word written all across my forehead and answer it anyway. To help the kids in the everyday lesson and to make it easier on myself, I used the idea I got from Herbert Puchta, only mine was not any error correction technique and it stayed displayed proudly on the wall for a good few years. In the beginning, I really had to do a lot of pointing and waving at the word, later, the habit was developed and the kids (yes, as early as in year 1 of primary!) started to use the word without any reminders whatsoever. They were producing the language and lots of it!

My two favourite because-related moments from the classroom have been those:

  • when we talk about things, someone is telling us how they are and I, somehow, forget to ask ‘Why?‘ or I am just too slow with it, there is always a voice (or two or three) taking over and kindly suggesting ‘Because…‘, with this perfect rise in the intonation, the voice trailing off in an invitation to continue. I wonder where they got that from!
  • when we talk about pictures or we retell the story or we describe something that happened at school on the day and, by accident, I want to take over and move on and, in response, I get my own because back, in an interjection, and again, with the intonation perfectly matching the purpose (‘I have NOT finished yet‘) and I am thinking to myself: ‘Oh dear, I cannot shut them up!’ which is, by far, my favourite teacher’s complaint.

*) ‘Can’ or ‘must’?:-))

The one thing to teach your kids is…’I think’.

Initially, I wanted to have a pretty post, ‘one phrase per age group’ but I realised that I simply cannot NOT mention ‘I think’ and the impact it had on my primary school students.

Unlike the previous item, here I cannot even remember how it came about and how I first introduced it. It has always been in the air. I know that I use it a lot to slow the kids down and to signal to them not to rush through tasks (i.e. ‘Think and write’) or to encourage them when they are struggling (i.e. ‘Think about it’ when I know that they do know it and it is only necessary to rack through their brains). We had used it a lot in different stories (‘Elmer was thinking and thinking and then he had an idea!’) and a while ago we also introduced ‘Thinking time’ as an official preparation stage for projects and role-plays. Thinking has been with us, only it is not quite clear for how long.

For the reason, when we got to practise expressing the opinion in winter last year (around the middle of A1 / Movers), I did not even bother to check the meaning of it and the question ‘What do you think about it?’ and the answer ‘I think it is interesting / boring / exciting etc’, the adjectives were the main aim and the focus. For me, at least.

What my students took out of this lesson for the rest of the course (and life!) was the little ‘I think’, which is essentially only an introduction and which is slightly unnecessary even. An opinion can surely be expressed without it. ‘Maths is easy‘ expresses the same view as ‘I think Maths is easy.’ Or so one would think.

I noticed, in the lesson in which we used it consciously for the first time and in the lessons afterwards, last year and this year, that my students began to start adding ‘I think‘ everywhere. ‘I think it is beautiful’, ‘I think it is easy‘, ‘I think he is sad‘, ‘I think it is a cat’ ‘And I think it is a dog‘ and so on. ‘I think’ gave them an opportunity to personalise the message, to signal the autonomy of that message (since by making it subjective you kind of accept that other people will have or may have a different view) and, I suppose, by doing so, it made the message more adult and more serious. And they simply and visibly adored it. Maybe because they were only 7 or 8 or 9 at the time.

As I said, I don’t quite remember the start of that adventure and I am not quite sure when the good time to introduce really is. What I know, though, is that the next time I am starting the group, ‘I think’ will be on the list of things to think about.

The one thing to teach your teens is…’What do you think about it?’

There are many phrases that were shortlisted for this paragraph because of the difference they made to the way my teens interacted with the world in the English lesson, ‘I agree‘ and ‘I don’t agree‘ or ‘On the one hand…on the other hand‘ among them but the real deal-breaker was ‘What do you think about?‘

This phrase, especially with a special stress on ‘you’ (‘What do you think about it?’) has become the wonderful phrase that helped my teens really get engaged and communicate in a really interactive way, not only expressing their opinion, agreeing and disagreeing but also to boomerang the conversation properly by involving the other participant or participants. I mean, truth be told, I know that they did it mostly to avoid making too much effort and producing extensively and this line has become a fantastic and polite tool which they used to dodge the ball. Of course, they produced, too but I just had a lot of fun observing how by trying to be super clever they were involved in a conversation that would give them some high marks during the speaking part of the FCE exam.

The one thing to teach your adults is…’it depends‘.

Especially if your adults are shy, not naturally very talkative and a messy A2 level. Especially if they have already experienced some failures and disappoinment while learning Engllish and when they current progress is closely related to the promotion at work. Or the lack of. Especially if, due to all the factors mentioned above, they reply with single words (the teacher sighs) or when they just say, in their L1: ‘I don’t know what to say’ (the teacher sighs again).

‘It depends’ came to us by accident. It was not a part of any text, a listening task or a functional language phrases lesson. It was a part of the emergent lesson but because I take notes of that and send these back to the students, it stayed with us. And what joy!

I can say with all the confidence that my students, in this one (1) group have wholeheartedly adopted the phrase and made it theirs. First of all, it is this gold key that opens the discourse. You cannot just answer with ‘It depends’ and stop there. You have to continue and explain at least the two different ways at looking at the issue. Especially if your teacher is raising her eyebrows and nodding encouragingly. What’s more, I have noticed that they like using it consciously as a natural time-bying tool that gives them the benefit of a few precious seconds to come up with an idea and a way of formulating it in English. Oh, what a find, this phrase!

The one thing to teach your teachers to use and to remember about is…’but’

This one is here as a joke only. I don’t need to teach my teachers any English, of course, but, as a trainer, this is the one word that I would like them to remember to use whenever they consider the theory of child development and the methodology of working with young learners. Or even while going through the teacher’s book and adapting the activities. This little but powerful word is everything you need to be equipped with to ensure that they always keep thinking of all the exceptions to all the rules and that the most important point of reference are the people in the classroom, not some non-existent ideal students or typical five-year-olds and all the other YL cliches.

Happy teaching!

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!

The diary of a lazy (VYL) teacher: Five songs that have become games

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‘The hills are alive with the sound of music….’

Hello! My name is Anka and I am here to tell you how to be a lazy teacher. ‘Lazy’ here is to highlight ‘no preparation‘ although that does not mean ‘doing nothing at all‘. That never happens in the pre-school classroom.

All of the songs featured here are the favourites of my students and that is one of the two reasons why we turned them into games. The other one is the fact that all of them contains the most precious structures and an opportunity that I could not just miss.

One disclaimer that needs to be included here (and the most important one here) is that things do not happen overnight and these are not the games that we play in the same lesson in which the songs are introduced. The song games are the freer practice activity, the follow-up, the spontaneous production opportunity and the fun opportunity, yes, but we start playing them strictly only when the kids have become entirely familiar (‘borderline bored’ even) with a song. All due to the age of the students and the way they process songs and the world.

This post will be about our (mine and the kids’) Top Five Songs, those which brought us most fun. If you are interested in the logistics, please have a look at the older post in which I describe the stages of un-singing a song in more detail. You can find it here.

Do you like broccoli ice-cream?

If, by any chance, you are not familiar with the phenomenon of broccoli ice-cream, it is definitely time to catch-up. This is the song that my own personal ‘un-singing’ started with and I have safely say that since I found this song, this has been the only tool I have been using to introduce and to practise ‘Do you like…?’ with both my primary and pre-primary students.

We start with singing and talking about food, we created our own most random, disgusting and delicious, food combinations and then we slowly move towards the non-culinary questions, too.

What do you like to do?

When I was first introducing this song, I was in two minds. On the one hand, the song was very tempting – lots of useful verbs, a beautiful complex sentence with a linking word ‘but’ and lots of fun. On the other hand, my 5 year-old preschoolers, beginners and all these verbs…I could not imagine all of these being pre-taught all together. We would have to have a whole separate unit, flashcards, two weeks of practice and then the song itself. I didn’t want to do that.

And I did not. We turned everything upside down and inside out and we started with just watching the video, for the fun of it and for pleasure. The practice and the speaking, started with these few verbs that we did know already such as ‘dance’, ‘ride a bike’, ‘cook’. They were the main focus and everything else was acquired, bit by bit.

When we create our own ideas for things we like and don’t really like to do, the kids first tend to change only little details, for example ‘I like riding a bike but I don’t like riding a dinosaur’ instead of the original ‘shark’ or to use the ideas from other verses, for example ‘I like reading but I don’t like reading in the air’, instead of ‘upside down’. But the important thing is that they speak and the song helps them produce complex sentences. The really amazing thing happens later on – the more we play, the more creative and original these contributions become.

As a teacher, I am mostly interested in maximising production, of course, but there are some hidden bonuses here. The kids know that it is the creative part of the lesson and they are really looking forward to hearing their friends’ ideas (aka ‘we work on the focus and extending the attention span’), they listen (aka ‘we develop one more skill’) and they react either by just laughing or expressing opinion when their own view on riding dinosaurs or drawing on the moon differs from that of the author (aka ‘we develop interactive skills’).

As quiet as a mouse

As soon as I found this song, I knew that I would be singing it with all my students. After all, conditions are perfect: a yummy piece of a structure that wonderfully lends itself to language games, the theme of the animals, some great adjectives (a most recent obsession of a VYL teacher) and, last but not least, a few music genres that were chosen to represent different animals. What’s not too like here?

I liked it so much that I decided to introduce it ‘just because’, not waiting until the next animal lesson or the next adjectives lesson. Actually, at this point, my ‘advanced’ pre-schoolers got bored with all the hello songs (of which I was informed) and so this has become the new hello song or the piece that we start our lessons with now.

And then we play, making new sentences about the animals (‘as beautiful as a lion’), ourselves (‘as happy as Anka’) and all the impossible and sarcastic combinations (‘as big as a ladybird’ and ‘as little as a giraffe’). With lots and lots of laughter.

I’m rocking in my school shoes

This is the only song in this set that does not come from Super Simple Songs and which we owe to Pete the Cat.

Here, the story took a completely different turn – I did want a module on school (it was the start of the year) and on the Present Continous (which would help us later to get the kids involved in the telling of the stories and in the describing the pictures) and so I wrote it for my kids and the video and the song, of course, were the basis for it.

The contents of the module included: rooms in the school and a set of Present Continous sentences, but the original set from the song was later extended by the set of places which the kids studied before (such as ‘the cafe’, ‘the volcano’, ‘the park’) and the other verbs which we have been using for two years in our movement game. Now they came in very handy.

This particular song is the song that we have modified the most and our key structure, sung and then spoken, went according to the formula ‘what I am doing’ + ‘where’, for example: I am reading in the garden.

What’s your favourite colour?

I have mentioned it before, in one of the previous posts, that I utterly love this song. Not only is it a very dynamic way of practising colours (we sing it, touching and pointing at everything green, blue and yellow around us) and, as such, it can be introduced even with the youngest beginners, but it also has got the advantage of introdcing a superbly generative and adaptable ‘What’s your favourite…‘ together with an equally superbly generative and adaptable (and straightforward) answer ‘I like‘. We sing it first with colours but, as soon as the kids are ready, we start singing (and then talking) about our favourite colours. And then, as we progress through the unit, about our favourite fruit, pets, toys, weather, food and animals. If there is any structure that can be and should be introduced as the first five ones…

In class, I sing the verse for each student, using their name ‘Sasha, Sasha, What’s your favourite colour?’ and Sasha is expected to answer by choosing a flashcard from the pile of colour flashcards as she answers. Which is a procedure that we repeat later on with all the topics. To make it more managable, I have also created a set of special flashcards which have the question on one side and a selection of items in each category on the other side. This way I do not have to keep a huge pile of flashcards from all the categories to practise this question.

With my older students we have managed to take this activity one step further and turn it into a pairwork activity. At this point, we have a beautiful selection of categories (sport, hobbies, lunch, dessert, transport, toys, jungle animals, farm animals, ocean animals) and the kids are good at accepting the flashcard of a tractor to stand for the entire category. We put our ten categories of the day (aka ten flashcards) on the floor, we sit around it in pairs. One child in each pair gets five counting sticks and they ask their chosen five ‘favourite’ questions to their partners and, as they do, they put one stick on the relevant flashcard. After they are done, I collect the sticks, divide them into the packs of five and redistribute and the other child in each pair asks their chosen questions.

As a follow-up, they ask me a question each, as we collect the cards of the floor. A beautiful, personalised pairwork activity that started a long while ago with a Super Simple Song.

What are you waiting from? Have you got a song that you have been singing for a while now and that your kids know very (very) well? Are there any interesting structures that could turn this song into a game? Go on! Use it to maximise production! It will be fun! I guarantee!

Happy teaching!

Wordwall: Top 10 Favourite Activities

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Well, well, well, this is officially my post #100 on the blog and I am in the mood for celebrating. That might take the form of sharing some random numbers (8,280 visits and 5,563 visitors over a year and a half (and mind you, I have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER if it is ‘impressive’, ‘not so good at all’ or just ‘why even bring it up?!’) and pondering over the fact that these have been my 5 most popular posts:

a) Colourful semantics in EFL?

b) The Invisible Student and why you might want to have one

c) The first VYL lesson Survival Kit

d) A to Z of homework for very young learners

e) All you need is a picture

Which means that there is some interest in teaching pre-schoolers, using visuals in class and that Pasha, the invisible student, has become a bit more real, overall.

Apart from that, however, I would also like to take this opportunity to share with you my top 10 wordwall activities that I use with my primary and pre-primary students.

Disclaimer: Wordwall is amazing, no doubt about that, but it is still only a resource, a material. Its main aim is to provide opportunities for the students to produce the language. For that reason, in all of the games (for the lack of a better word) described below there will be always a differentiation between the material (the actual tool created with wordwall formats) and the activity (how we use it in class).

Here we go (in no particular order):

  • Are you scared of?

Materials: Random cards, for example ‘Are you scared of…?‘

Activity: Kids take turns to ask everyone the key question using the cue on the card. All the students in the group answer. The same pattern can be used with any question ie Do you like…? Can you…? Have you got…?

Works well with: primary (they can attempt working in pairs and taking turns to ask a question to their partner only) and pre-primary, individual and groups

  • Tell me about

Materials: Open the box, for example Tell me about this picture (seasons #2)

Activity: Kids play in teams, ask for the box to be open, produce a sentence (or sentences about the picture), win the number of points. The game about seasons is a very simple one, for preschoolers, the one such as this one here, about animals, can generate a lot more language, also with preschoolers and, of course, a lot more with primary.

Works well with: primary and pre-primary (with pre-primary we play T vs the whole class), groups and individial (we play T vs the student).

  • What’s this? Stencils

Materials: Flashcards, double-sided, for example Secret animals. What’s this?

Activity: Kids play in teams, team A asks the question ‘What’s this?’, team B tries to answer. Afterwards the teacher flips the card to check. Depending on the vocabulary kids then say whether they like it or not or try to describe, too.

Works well with: pre-primary, individual and groups, it might be a bit under-challenging for the primary students

  • Which one is correct? Spelling

Materials: Flashcards, double-sided, with visuals and correct and incorrect spelling of the word Places in the city or a quiz with a similar idea, for example this one Superminds 5, Read and choose

Activities: Kids read both versions and choose the correct one. With the flashcards the teacher is flipping the cards back and forth, I use it mostly with my 1-1s. With groups the quiz version works better and it can turn into a proper quiz, with the kids writing the answers down.

Works well with: primary, individual and groups

  • Advanced riddles aka Turn your back

Materials: Random cards, for example Transport Revision.

Activities: Kids work in pairs, one student in each pair has to sit with their back to the TV/ interactive whiteboard, the other is looking at the board. T keeps dealing the cards. The student looking at the screen has to describe the word for their partner to guess. After a certain number of rounds they change. The cards usually have the words on them, too, so it works well with mixed ability groups.

Works well with: primary and teens. I have only tried it with groups.

  • Song support

Materials: Match, for example Pete the Cat, Rocking in my school shoes or As quiet as a mouse

Activity: We use the cards or the matching activity to sing the song, slowly, with pauses, to practise and to revise before the actual video / track. The set such as the one for the ‘As quiet as a mouse’ can be used to start creating own versions of the song as kids have only the animals and they can (if they are ready) to come up with their own adjectives.

Works well with: primary and pre-primary, individual and groups.

  • Story / video comprehension check

Materials: Match to accompany Peppa Pig ‘Fruit Day’ or a quiz to accompany Peppa Pig ‘George is ill’

Activities: We normally learn the vocabulary, get ready for watching the video and then watch it. The games described here are used to check comprehension. The quiz is read by the teacher and the kids answer ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ and correct the incorrect sentences (unless I use the same story with primary who can read it themselves). The matching activity is always accompanied by a structure. It can be a simple ‘Apples are for George’ or a more comples ‘George would like apples’.

Works well with: primary and pre-primary, individual or groups.

  • Memory Game

Materials: Match, for example I am going to the supermarket. I am going to buy bread or any other matching activity consisting of two components.

Activities: The game itself is usually set for homework. We check it together, whole class. Afterwards the kids are divided into pairs and they test each other, for example Student A says: I am going to the supermarket’, student B has to recreate the second half of the sentence. To help the kids a bit, I put up some key words (ie places and main verbs) on the board. The kids change after a few rounds.

Works well with: primary, individual or groups

  • Just questions

Materials: Flashcards or random cards, with full questions or prompts.

Activities: Kids work in pairs and the kids interview each other, reading the questions or prompts of the computer / TV / interactive whiteboard. Afterwards they swap.

Works well with: primary and teens, individual and groups

  • Yes / No

Materials: Radom cards or flashcards for example ‘She’s / He’s wearing’

Activities: Kids look at the cards and listen to the teacher describing the pictures. If the sentence is correct, they say ‘Yes’, if there is a mistake, they reply with ‘No!’ and correct the mistake. Later on, there is a lot of potential for the kids to take turns to lead the game. The older students can work in pairs, too, while looking at the screen / the interactive whiteboard / the TV.

Works well with: primary and pre-primary, individual and groups.

If you are looking for inspiration or ready activity, you can find my profile (Azapart) there. I share all of my activities so there is plenty to choose from, especially if you work with Playway to English and Superminds.

Here you will also find Part 2 of this post and even more ideas for using Wordwall games in your YL classes.

Happy teaching!

P.S. A request!

It is very simple.

I would like to know a tiny little bit more about my readers. There are so many of you, popping in here, again and again, and the numbers of visitors and visits are going up and make my heart sweel with joy. But I realised I don’t know anything about my readers and I would love to know, a tiny little bit more.

Hence the survey.

The Storytelling Campaign: Activities

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If you are here, dear read, you have probably already read the first part of this post. If not – here it is.

In this part, I would like to share some practical activities to be used in the VYL and YL lessons to practise adjectives, verbs and Present Continous and to get closer to storytelling, even with the very young or the beginner students.

First steps

Tell me about this picture has quickly become one of our favourite games. We use wordwall Boxes for that. Players take turns to open the box and to describe the picture hidden there. If they complete the task successfully, they get the number of points also hidden in the box. The game can be used to practise both adjectives and Present Continous (or any other language) and the students can be asked to produce one, two or three sentences, depending on their skills and the teacher can keep count of the sentences produced using fingers. The best thing about the game is that the children choose themselves what they want to talk about, much as in the YLE Starters, Flyers and Movers.

Here are some of the sets we have used

  • Animals: I can see a lion. It is big. It is brown. It is beautiful.
  • Present Continous: It is a girl. She is drinking coffee. She is happy.
  • Bedrooms: It is a bedroom. It is big. It is beautiful. I like it.

So far, I have only played it with my 1-1 students (player 1: the student, player 2: the teacher) but I am about to start using it with my groups, too (player 1: the class, player 2: the teacher).

Oups is a game in which students look at the picture (any picture) and listen to the sentences produced by the teacher. When they hear a sentence with a mistake, they should say ‘oups!’ and correct the sentence. In the beginning, they normally react only by producing a single word, replacing the incorrect one but later on, when they get used to it, they can produce full sentences. Even later, it is also possible for the students to lead the game and to produce correct or incorrect sentences for everyone else to listen and to react to.

With the youngest students it is better to limit the range of structures used to something super simple, for example ‘I can see…’, with the older (and more advanced ones), the structures can vary.

This activity can be used in class but it is also a great homework task, as long as you share the picture and record a few sentences and share it with parents.

An example can be found below. The picture was generated using makebeliefscomix.com and the recording can be found here.

makebeliefscomix.com

In my picture…: This is a natural follow-up activity, a little bit more complex and a little bit more challenging. It is based on two pictures that are to be compared. They are not quite the actual YLE Movers or Flyers speaking tasks because these are too detailed and they contain the vocabulary that might be beyond the pre-A student’s level.

What you need is basically two pictures that are connected by the theme i.e. farm, kids in the park, in my bedroom etc and a very simple starter phrase, a proper all-rounder such as ‘I can see’. With 1-1 students, it is very straightforward – one picture for the teacher, the other for the student. With groups, the kids will be working as a group, comparing their picture with the teacher’s. At least in the beginning, before they are ready to work in pairs.

Some examples of pictures that can be used:

These are the pictures I ‘created’ using the tools on the Miro board
www.clipart-library.com and www.clipartpanda.com

The next step will be telling stories using a set of pictures…(Please continue reading:-)

One story, many ideas.

Here is one of the YLE Flyers stories (Flyers TESTS REFERECE), called ‘Charlie and the elephant‘ and some of the ways in which it can be used with pre-school and primary students.

‘Advanced’ preschool students

Step 1: look at the pictures and say what you can see. The kids can use very simple structures, for example ‘I can see…’ or some more complex structures, for example ‘It is a…’, ‘She’s got…’, ‘He’s got…’, ‘She is…’, ‘He is…’.

With 1-1 students, the teacher and the child take turns to describe pictures, with groups we all talk each picture, one by one. It might be a good idea to cover up all the pictures and uncover them progressively, to help the children focus only on one of them at a time.

Step 2: look at the pictures, listen and help me. This is basically an advanced version of Oups, the game I described above, only here a series of pictures is used. Here you can find a recording I created for my students.

Step 3: look at the pictures and help me tell the story, Similar but Different. The teacher first models, telling a story that has a similar framework (a woman, a boy, an animal, some fruit, going away, a show at the end) but which uses different details. Later on, the students tell their own version of the story, with the necessary amount of support from the teacher. The teacher can only start the senteces (‘A woman….’) or create almost an entire sentence with the students filling in only the essential details (‘A boy is eating a….’).

These steps were introduced in three consecutive lessons.

Primary beginner Flyers students

Step 1: Two words: students work in pairs. Each pair gets a copy of the story. Kids look at pictures and together write two things they can see in each of them. The teacher also participates in order to be able to model at each stage of the activity. Students exchange the handouts, in a circle. Each pair gets a new handout and the procedure is repeated: each pair writes two words next to each picture but these have to be two new words. The procedure is repeated until each pair writes their words on every handout.

By that point, each picture is accompanied by a set of words (2 words x the number of pairs). Kids look at the pictures and tell the story using the words they can see. They can be encouraged to cross out the words they have used to make sure that all the words have been used.

Step 2: Two crazy words: we start with retelling the story from the previous lesson, as a class. Then, the teacher shows the students the new handout – the familiar pictures but with two strange words next to each of them. The teacher tells them that these are the words you cannot see in any of the pictures and that now the students will tell the story again but including these words.

It is absolutely necessary to generate some ideas, for the first two pictures, for example. I have added ‘a teacher’ and ‘a monster’ for picture 1 and it went more or less like this: ‘Mmmm, a teacher. Maybe mum is a teacher. Maybe the book is about a teacher. Maybe the book is about a monster. Maybe…’ and I let the kids give some more ideas about these two words.

Afterwards, the students work in pairs, taking turns to retell the story with the new words.

If you are interested and if you would like to see the handouts that we used, you can find them here.

Step 3: Our own story: again, we start with retelling a story, together, as a group. Afterwards the teacher goes through the framework of the story, using a powerpoint presentation, highlightling the main ‘events’ of the story, at the same time eliciting ideas from the class. Then the students are given some silent ‘Thinking Time’ (something that we tried for the very first time and that worked like a dream) during which they prepare their story. Afterwards, they are telling their stories to their partners.

Action stories

One of the tools that will come in handy in and that can be used to accompany the activities mentioned above is the action story or the TPR stories promoted by Herbert Puchta (and Gunther Gerngross) in pretty much all of his coursebooks. They have been included in Playway to English, both editions and in Superminds 1 and 2. I have some vague recollections about the old Join Us series, too. There is a separate publication, Do and Understand: 50 Action Stories for Young Learners which they wrote together and which was published in 1996 (wow!) but which still can be found in libraries and on amazon.co.uk.

The idea behind those is that children, even the youngest ones, can be encouraged to listen to a story and to tell a story, using a multi-channel approach: there is a set of pictures to illustrate the main events and each of these comes with a sentence and a gesture.

Students listen to the story, retell the story using the gestures and, later on, also the sentences and they work with the visuals in the coursebook completing such exercises as listen and order the pictures and, in case of the primary students, read and number the sentences.

More ideas to work with pictures and stories on this blog

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #11: Speaking Circle (aka My favourite part of the lesson)

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Set-up: a set of small chairs in a circle, in one super cozy corner of the classroom. This is where always start the lesson before we move to the serious part of the classroom and the lesson, with big tables, big chairs and coursebooks.

Time: 5 – 10 minutes in the beginning of each lesson

Materials: Angelina, dice and any visuals, especially flashcards, EFL posters (and at the school we do have a big and the most random collection of these from long-forgotten publishers and coursebooks), Starters, Movers and Flyers wordlist picturebooks which you can be easily downloaded (although we are lucky to have a few paper copies, too) and sometimes a whiteboard or a set of mini-whiteboards

Interaction patterns: all the new activities are first tried and tested with the whole group, to support production and to make sure that all students feel comfortable to be creative and to share their ideas. Later on, we split and continue in pairs or in teams.

Here a confession: ideally, of course, all of the interaction should be taking place in pairs to ensure that everyone has a go and produces as much language as possible but it is not what we always do. I have noticed that first of all, the children really do enjoy the whole group discussion, when everyone can contribute and when we do something together. I cannot quite describe it but it is almost palpable, this ‘team spirit’ and it does have a positive impact on them and on the atmosphere in the group. Plus, they are always curious about everyone else’s creative (aka crazy) ideas so they pause to eavesdrop, especially when there are giggles coming up from different parts of the circle. Because of that, we do both, a lot of whole class and a lot of pairwork.

Some of the activities to use in the Speaking Circle:

  • Tell me about that boy: the kids choose a person, an animal, a character or an object in the picture. The kids choose themselves what they want to conversation to be about and what information to include. The basic information usually includes emotions, clothes, activities or location.
  • Yes or no: the kids use the picture as the basis to make true or false sentences about the picture. The other students listen and correct the sentences when necessary.
  • Riddles: the kids describe something in the picture (the colour, the size, the location and the activities) for the others to guess
  • Which one is better?: the kids draw two cards out of the pile (animals, gadgets, food or anything else that we are studying) and they choose which one is better.
  • It’s a pair: the kids look for associations among different objects, people, animals in the set and they have to explain why they have put them together
  • Silly pictures: the kids talk about different silly things they see in the pictures
  • Silly stories: the kids come up with a character and they take turns in coming up with the adventures based on the set of verbs and / or other words that the teacher prepares in advance (displayed on the whiteboard or on the mini-whiteboards).
  • Angelina: the kids chat with the class puppet, ask and answer questions (pre-primary groups)
  • Hello dice: a new variation of the hello circle that can be introduced long before the kids actually study the Past Simple. They roll the dice, once, in turns and talk about their day, starting with the key phrase and we try to encourage including justification (‘School was easy because I have only 4 lessons on Tuesday’) or evaluation (‘I ate soup and it was very yummy’) etc. Sometimes we also play with the imaginary dice which basically means that everyone can choose what they want to talk about. Somehow, then number 6 is the most common choice. Perhaps because it is most generative of all of them and it is fun to say that ‘I didn’t go to Mars’, ‘I didn’t eat a fox’, ‘I didn’t dance in the park’ and what not. Not to mention that they just LOVE rolling the imaginary dice.
I kept it colour-coded to help them navigate among the verbs in the early days of this game.

Why we like it

  • The kids love it
  • They are very creative, they have great ideas and they want to share them
  • By being creative, they also develop their creativity, there are new ideas, new approaches and even more fun
  • Endless opportunities for revising without focusing too much on any specific vocabulary or structures.
  • Some potential for accidental learning and emerging vocabulary (although to make it work properly, I should start keeping track of it)
  • The activities do provide lots of opportunities for spontaneous (or almost spontaneous) language production where the only scaffolding devices are just the resources prepared by the teacher for the day and the langauge that the kids have at their disposal and, in many ways, we are just having a chat, despite being only A1 level.
  • Really, the part of the lesson that I really look forward to, every Tuesday and every Thursday.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #10: Silly pictures

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So here is a picture, have a look.

www.seanparks.net, also reproduced by allisonfors.com and aulap.org

Can you see what I see? Are you thinking what I am thinking?

This adventure started like many others, really, with google and one of those straightforwardly mindless searches and a hope that the engine can actually pleasantly surprise you once more. this time it was ‘silly pictures for kids, clip art’ or something similar.

When I came up, I tried to take in all the absurdities all at once but at the same time, my teaching brain was firing at me with the many ideas of how I could use it in class. If I had been an ancient Greek philospher, most likely, I would be running around shouting ‘Eureka’ but since I am only a humble teacher, the only reaction was a rather excited mumble ‘THIS is going to be SO good!’

Now, this Crumbs post is going to be slightly different. We are still in the middle of winter holidays so there hasn’t been a chance to properly trial and test it with mu kids. but I am going to share it anyway, now, and the real classroom experience is going to be added in a week.

Here are the activities I am planning for next week

Preschoolers: Yes and No.

With my second year preschoolers, we are going to use the winter scene as this one is most relevant due to the what’s happening in the world outside of our windows and because the vocabulary and structures that we are already familiar and this picture has a chance of being most productive.

Yes and No is a game that my kids are familiar with. The teacher makes a sentence about the picture, which can be true or false and the kids have to react to it and correct it, using either a full sentence or only a phrase, depending on their abilities.

For example:

T: I can see a girl. She is sliding on a doughnut.

SS or S 1: Yes / Yes, it’s true.

T: I can see a girl. She is wearing one yellow hat.

SS or S: No. She is wearing 5 hats.

https://www.pinterest.ru/pin/96686723224800785/

Primary: Can you see something really silly?

Step 1: Prediction

T tells the kids that they are going to see a picture of a campsite. T asks the whole class to guess what might be in the picture. To make it even more dramatic, T can ask the kids to close their eyes, imagine that they are in the forest and say what is happening. T may preteach some of the campsite-related words that kids might not be familiar with yet.

Step 2: Silly campsite

T tells the students that the campsite that they are going to see is a little silly. Kids work in pairs. T gives out a copy of the picture per pair. Kids circle and describe all the silly things they can see.

Step 3: What’s the silliest thing in the picture?

To round up, each student chooses one thing in the picture that they think is the silliest one.

www.seanparks.net, also reproduced by allisonfors.com and aulap.org

Primary: Silly pictures reading practice

This one was inspired by an activity I found on aulapt.org and, automatically, I wanted to have my own. Here is it, created on wordwall and it will be shared as an additional homework task.

Primary: Tell me about this boy…Because

All these silly picture scenes are going to be the main character in our free speaking activities that has become a regular feature in our lessons recently.

One of the easiest activities to apply here is ‘Tell me about this boy‘. In the beginning, the teacher is leading the activity, chosing the people, animals or objects to describe and the students, in turns, decide what information they want to share. Now we have reached the stage when the kids are comfortable enough with working in pairs and taking turns in choosing the parts of the illustration for their partners and describing what was selected for them.

Now, with this new resources and all the absurdity, I would like to go in the direction of looking for rationale for their actions. We will try to play ‘Because‘. It might not always be easy but since the students are in charge of their discourse (well, ok, their mini-discourse), they can focus on how the people are feeling, what they like or don’t like or what they did before that might have had an impact on their non-standard behaviour now. Especially that we have just started talking about the past, using was/were and the affirmative forms of the regular and irregular verbs so that might be just a perfect opportunity to practise these.

Stage 1: Extended modelling

T: Tell me about this animal.

S1: It is a bull. It is swimming.

T: Because he likes water.

T: Tell me about this man.

S2: He is sitting. He’s got a big fork.

T: Because he is very hungry.

Stage 2: Because

Since this is a new kind of an activity and it might quite challenging to find the rationale for all the actions, we will play it together, to ensure a good brainstorming session. Kids will be choosing what they want to talk about and the whole class will try to say what everyone is doing and why.

In the worst case scenario, we might resort to our ‘Because because’ answer which they sometimes use or we might just go for a simple ‘Because it’s fun’.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91l29YCYn2L.SL1500.jpg


This ia brand new adventure for us. I will be back in a few weeks to let you know whether it was a story of success or yet another epic fail story to post on this blog, too.

If you are interested in our free speaking practice circle, have a look at this post and if you would like to know more about what EFL teachers can learn from speech therapists – here is another post to check out!

If you are looking for more ideas on using pictures in speaking activities, here are two posts from the series of ‘All you need is…a picture’ and, its Volume 2 (because activities are accumulating:-)

PS A word of confession: it was very difficult to resource these illustrations. They have been posted, reposted and shared a million times, sometimes losing the artist on the way. I did my best!

Happy teaching!

P.S. A request!

It is very simple.

I would like to know a tiny little bit more about my readers. There are so many of you, popping in here, again and again, and the numbers of visitors and visits are going up and make my heart sweel with joy. But I realised I don’t know anything about my readers and I would love to know, a tiny little bit more.

Hence the survey.