TESOL Blogs
- American TESOL Blog
- A Law School Linguist
- alice's posterous
- Angela Maiers
- Becoming a Better Teacher
- Behind the Curtain
- Better at English
- Business English Blog
- Ceely's Modern Usage
- College Dean Confessions
- EFL Geek
- eLearning Goddess
- English (ESL) Weblog
- ESL etc.
- ESL Lesson Plan
- ESL Podcast
- Free Language
- Fun English
- if bees are few
- Insights Into TEFL
- John Wells
- Learning English
- Listen to English
- London Language
- Metrolingua
- Ryan's linguistics blog
- Slang O' The Day
- Teacher Reboot Camp
- TEFLtastic with Alex Case
- The English You Need
- THE FCE BLOG
- The Hesitant Scribe
- World Wide Words
TESOL Programs
 |
alice's posterous |
| alice's posterous Updated : Collaboration project with a school in the USA, Part 2.
A few weeks ago I embarked on an exciting project with a North American school. My Spanish students in grade 9 (14-15 years old) were able to connect with other Spanish students across the Atlantic. The main topic for discussion was free time and sports. Students had already worked on their writing skills describing their hobbies, they could now move on to practice their speaking skills. The task was to produce a podcast to describe a popular sport in Germany/USA or to describe an unusual sport. To prepare for this task, my students first played a little game where they had to guess a sport. I used Samantha Lunn's template on her fabulous website called The Languages Resources Website. Students were allowed to ask 6 questions in order to guess the sport thought by another student. I then showed my students a text I found on Gizmodo about table tennis played at home. Gizmodo is full of articles about unusual stuff (most of it about technology) and it is a good source to sparkle students' curiosity. I adapted the text by including the advantages and disadvantages of such a sport. Students read it and answered questions. I then asked students to work in groups of 2 to 3 and think about a sport they would like to describe to their American pen pals. It could be a popular German sport or an unusual sport like the one they had just read about. I told them to first describe the sport generally using the questions from the guessing game and then to list at least 2 advantages and disadvantages for this sport. Students wrote a draft, I checked it and they then practiced saying it in order to be recorded afterwards. When practicing, I checked that their pronunciation and intonation were fine. I then recorded them and sent their audio files as mp3 to the collaboration blog. I really liked the fact that my students chose unusual sports such as hockey under the water or a typical German sport where you have to carry pints of beers. They were creative and did produce high level sentences, considering they only started to learn Spanish this year. They also took time to practice their pronunciation, which again is due to the recording factor! I am very proud of my students and the quality of work they put in. The American students also recorded their parts and my students were able to listen to other students learning Spanish. This was our final collaborative task for this school year since the American students will go on their summer holidays soon. On the whole, this was a very positive experience because it got to motivate our students to write and speak in Spanish. However Juliana and me agreed on the fact that our students didn't really connect. They achieved the different tasks they were assigned to do but most of them did not comment on each other's work, nor did they start exchanging information. We want to continue our project next school year but this time we want to take time to plan it more in depth to make sure our students connect. Any ideas?
Publ.Date : Tue, 25 May 2010 08:27:00 -0700 Having a break. My family and I are going on holidays in a tiny village called Sainte-Croix in la Drôme in France. We will stay in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with no Internet access!!! I don't know how I'm going to cope but I think it will be a nice break away from a computer!!! When I come back in a week time, my blog will serve as a notebook. To be more explicit: my main goal this summer is to learn how to become a better teacher! In order to do so, I found this excellent professional development course on Lgb06's blog. "It is an open course from the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Language Technology Center. The online course is based on the actual methods course that the university offers. Each module focuses on a different area of teaching a foreign language: Being a Foreign Language Teacher, Speaking, Writing, Reading, Listening, Vocab, Grammar, Pragmatics, Culture, the Language Learner, Classroom Management, Technology, and Assessment." The website contains interactive, media-rich modules taught by 12 faculty members from across the language departments. The good point of the course is that each of the audio/video clips are in the 5 minute range, which is the perfect timing for a busy mom like me! There are also thought provoking questions as transitions between the materials. Coming back to my blog becoming a notebook: as I go along each module, I will take notes of what I have learnt and what I want to remember. Instead of taking "traditional" notes with a pen and a notebook, I will take notes using my computer and my blog! Each post will feature the main points from each lesson of each module. Watch this space and see you next week! Publ.Date : Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:17:34 -0700 Motivating memory technique for students.
One of my goal this year was to read at least one book to improve my teaching. When I read Doug Belshaw's e-book on engaging activities in the classroom, one of the tip from @primarypete_ was to read The Teacher’s Toolkit. I ordered the book and I love it. It is full of practical ideas to raise classroom achievement and engage students. The activities, Paul Ginnis (the author of the book) shares fit very well with what could be expected from a 21st century learner: to be flexible, to be able to work in a team, to be creative, to know where to find knowledge. One of the activities I wanted to try straightaway with my students is a fairly simple one. It is called "Hide'n'Seek" and it is a basic memory technique which can lead to many other variations. My students have their final exams next week and we are spending this week revising. My objective is to give my students the tools to revise effectively. I find that most of them are not organised and do not prepare sufficiently for the exams, they lack appropriate techniques to do useful revisions. For the finals, my students should be able to describe themselves or their family, so they should know words related to physical appearance and to personality. In order to revise the vocabulary, I supplied my students with cardboard paper and I asked them to make a pack of small cards (the size of business cards). On one side of the cards, they wrote the words to be learnt and on the reverse their meanings in English. They then laid their cards out on the desk, face up (the meanings face down). I asked them to look at a card, give its meaning in their head, then to turn the card over to see if they were right. If they were right, they could turn the card over. If not, they had to leave the card face down and they couldn't return to it until they had been round all the other cards. Once all the cards were turned, students could reverse the process. They could also work in pairs: they put two identical packs of cards together, one face up, one face down. The cards were shuffled randomly and they took turns to match pairs, a bit like the memory game. Students loved the process of making their own cards. Some of them wrote the masculine, feminine and even the plural form of each word! Usually, students like to create flashcards, but then don't really know what to do with them. This showed them how to revise with them. It gave them a tool to learn and increased their independent learning skills! As Paul Ginnis states in his book:" it helps students to realise that success can be achieved with a little effort and a little fun - It creates motivation for future learning." What about you? What do you do to make your students revise vocabulary?Publ.Date : Mon, 17 May 2010 03:45:00 -0700 Raising bilingual children.
Since we live in Weimar, my two little boys have been going to a kindergarten. My eldest son who is 4 years old picked up German very quickly and is now fluent in German. He can understand and communicate with no problems to other German people. He can also speak French fluently. We speak French at home. My youngest son who is 2 years old understands everything in French and German and can say words in both languages. I think it is a fantastic opportunity to be able to speak two languages so easily, however I am already concerned about the future. What if they can't master at least one of the two languages? By mastering, I mean being able to write with no spelling nor grammar mistakes. But even more than that being able to read literature books, to write essays and so on. I can communicate in three languages: French, English and Spanish but I know I master French because most of my education was spent in France where I had to read "big" books from "big" French authors such as Balzac, Hugo, Flaubert... and where I had to sit for four hours writing a philosophical essay. I am not at ease writing in English, although it has improved over the years mostly by doing my degree in the UK and also by reading so many blog posts and newspaper articles in English! How will I raise my children so they are equally "equipped" in French and in German? Well, after flicking through the pages of A Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker, I found the question for me: "will my child be equally fluent in two languages?" The answer is a definite "NO". "This idea of balanced bilinguals, perfectly balanced in both their languages, is one muddled myth that surrounds bilingualism. This myth is part of a monolingual view of the world. The monolingual views the language world as someone totally fluent in a language. The monolingual view of bilinguals is that they should be perfectly fluent in two languages.... For a bilingual, each language tends to have different purposes, different functions and different uses." In the case of my children, French is the language of the family whereas German is the language of teachers and friends. "Bilinguals are not two monolinguals in inside one person. They own a unique combination of two languages that are both separate and integrated within the thinking system. While two languages are visible in production, in the thinking quarters of the brain, one feeds the other. One language helps the other to grow." I really like this idea of enrichment by one language to another. As I have been brought up as a monolingual, I guess I tend to think that my children should be two monolinguals, but in fact the two languages are integrated between themselves and can therefore be easily transferable. Colin Baker gives the example of mathematical multiplication learnt in one language, which does not have to be relearnt in the second language. "Once the idea is complete in the child,the understanding is immediately available in the second language." My children might not be perfect in French, nor German but French and German are "their language" and they have the advantage and flexibility of being able to move between two languages, two cultures in a way that monolinguals cannot. However, Colin Baker warns us about "the difficulty that arises in school and employment markets where bilinguals are sometimes compared with monolinguals. This can work both for and against bilinguals". What do you think? Do you raise bilingual children? Publ.Date : Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:42:37 -0700 Different perceptions of time I have just been reading The secrets powers of time on the Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age blog and I cannot help sharing this fantastic video about how our views on time influence our lives. I love the animation and of course the explanation! What are you thoughts?Publ.Date : Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:47:01 -0700 Mini madeleines en folie!
Wikipedia says that "the madeleine or petite madeleine is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France. Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Aside from the traditional moulded pan, commonly found in stores specialising in kitchen equipment and even hardware stores, no special tools are required to make madeleines."Now for my birthday, my dear sister-in-law offered me two silicon moulds to bake mini madeleines. Those little sponge cakes are so yummy and easy to do, that last weekend I had guests over for lunch and I baked a batch of savoury ones filled with cheese. Here is the recipe: Mix 100g flour, 2 eggs, 3 tsps baking powder, a pinch of salt and black pepper, 2 tbsps olive oil, 20g melted butter and 4 tbsps milk. Then you can add whatever you want, such as grated cheese, feta, chives, ham, prawns... I did two bowls: in one I added grated gruyère and in the other one I added crumbled feta. Leave the mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is really important to make them rise up in the oven. Pre-heat your oven to 220 degres. Then fill in each little mould with one teaspoon of the mixture. Put in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes then lower down the oven to 180 degres and leave the madeleines for a further 5 to 6 minutes until risen and golden at the top. These mini cheese madeleines are perfect as an appetizer served with a yogurt and chives sauce to dip in!Et merci, Tata Phanie pour ce joli cadeau. Publ.Date : Sat, 29 May 2010 07:05:00 -0700 Top 100 Language Blogs 2010.
I am delighted to announce that for the second time around my blog has been nominated in the "Language Teaching" category :)) A million thanks to all of you who visit my blog, read my posts, take time to comment and retweet!!!To vote, click on the voting button below or on the sidebar (voting ends May 24th!):There are also other categories in which you can vote for a blog: Language Learning blogs, Language Technology blogs, and Language Professional blogs. They all have a list of excellent blogs worth suscribing to! What about you? Do you have a Language blog to recommend? Publ.Date : Wed, 19 May 2010 00:42:00 -0700 Strawberry time! This is the big season for strawberries and my family and I love them! At the moment, they are freshly picked from our local fields, near Erfurt (as you can see on the package!) and they are truly tasty. This is the first time in years that I eat such delicious strawberries. So we eat them straight out from their box! You can eat them in many delicious ways: Strawberry Tart with Mascarpone Strawberry Torte Rachel Epstein's Strawberry Cheesecake What about you? How do you eat strawberries? Publ.Date : Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:35:14 -0700 Creative writing. Lesson 3 from the Writing module delivered by the University of Texas in Austin focuses on Creative Writing. Zsuzsanna Abrams mentions that :"Creative writing is usually engaging and motivating for students. It also helps learners view language as an authentic communicative tool, with a focus on meaning, not merely as a linguistic system."Poetry:In an acrostic poem, the first letter of each word together spell out a word or phrase. Cinquain poetry consists of five lines (hence the name "cinquain") that explore learners' notions of a concept (person, event, genre). For example, in a Spanish literature class, have students interpret Don Quixote and how they view the main character or his struggles. Prose: Alternate ending activities can be used with any text (from stories, music, or film). For known texts, students can simply come up with a different ending. Or they can predict an ending of a story from the class reading. It might best work as a group activity to ensure that students are not overwhelmed linguistically. Group writing can enhance creativity, lower anxiety, and foster student-to-student learning.Short stories can range from a single paragraph to as long as 15 pages at the advanced language level. Think "creativity" and not "accuracy" when designing short story activities. It can be a mystery written collaboratively. The class decides on the crime and even the victim for their story. Then students, using a wiki site, write a mystery over the course of a week. Ideally, the class reads a mystery story beforehand, to learn relevant vocabulary, grammar, and narrative structure before they write. Students can edit each others' statements, insert comments/events into already existing paragraphs, or simply add to the story sequentially.Performance:it takes the form of screenplays which can be designed for skits, a "newscast", a game show, or for a key scene in a movie or written story. Dramas might be better suited for more advanced language levels and perhaps as long-term (e.g., semester-long) collaborative projects. Wiki entries, blogs, a brochure advertising study abroad programs can also be used.Lots of ideas to be tried out next year which should motivate my students to write! If you liked this post, you can also read:
Publ.Date : Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:12:33 -0700 Frida Kahlo in Berlin.
The great Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is in Berlin! I mean she has passed away but over 120 paintings and drawings are on display in the Martin-Gropius-Bau and it is one of the most extensive exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s oeuvre to date. I could not miss such an opportunity to share Hispanic culture with my students. So the Art teacher and me decided to take the 9th graders (14-15 years old) on a field trip to Berlin. Beforehand, I wanted to prepare the students for the exhibition, so I made them watch the movie Frida with Salma Hayek. The movie depicts the professional and private life of the Mexican painter. We watched the movie in English as my students are only Spanish beginners but it was an excellent insight into the Mexican culture and into Frida Kahlo's life. Before watching the movie, I displayed different items related to Frida Kahlo's life: a bus (a toy!), a monkey (a cuddly toy!), Diego Rivera portrait, a Communist flag, a picture of New York, a picture of la casa azul, a quotation "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." - "Creían que yo era surrealista, pero no lo era. Nunca pinté mis sueños. Pinté mi propia realidad". In pairs, students were asked to look at each item and to ask a meaningful question about each. I then told the students to answer their questions whilst watching the film. I also gave them a questionnaire about two scenes happening in the film and which relate to two different paintings: After watching the movie, we continued to discuss it with a list of questions. This time, I asked the students to write their answers on slips of paper. Each student had to read aloud a slip of paper from another student. We then talked about self-portraits, which Frida painted a lot. I wrote some questions on poster paper:
I posted different paintings outside the door to the classroom. There were all self-portraits. Students were in groups of 3. Student A from each group went in the hall to look at the painting. After looking at the painting, Student A met Student B at the door to the classroom. Student A described the painting in Spanish to student B. No English was allowed, however, students could use gestures and body language to aid them in communication. Student B received the description of the painting from Student A, but was not allowed to look at the painting itself. Student B was allowed to ask questions in Spanish for clarification. After receiving the information, Student B reported back to Student C, who was seated in the classroom. Student C remained seated in the classroom the entire time. Student C drew the scene that was described by Student B. The goal of the activity was to have as many details as possible in the student drawing. Student B ran back and forth between the two students multiple times to gather and report additional information. This activity went on for 10-15 minutes. At the end, students could see the real painting and check to see how many details they were able to correctly place in their own drawing.Finally, on Friday we took the train to Berlin! We were very excited to see Frida Kahlo's real paintings! The Art teacher had booked a guide,, which was a wise decision as there was a very long waiting queue at the entrance of the museum. Because we had booked a guide, we didn't have to queue! The guided tour went on for an hour and was very interesting. We then let the students wander for another hour with a questionnaire to fill in. We will discuss the answers next week in class. All in all, it was a wonderful experience for my students. They got to understand the Mexican culture and art better, and I hope they will have remembered at least one painting from Frida Kahlo. better
Publ.Date : Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:31:13 -0700 How to implement communicative tasks.
I am now on lesson 4 from the Speaking module delivered by University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Language Technology Center. Last lesson, I learnt how to design a communicative task, now it's time to implement it. Based on the book by Brandl. K. 2009, Communicative Language Teaching in Action, we should consider the following points when implementing a communicative task:
http://tltc.la.utexas.edu/methods/modules/speaking/04/narrative.phpThen look at this list of communicative task templates. You can download them as .pdf versions: http://tltc.la.utexas.edu/methods/modules/speaking/06/It has given me lots of ideas when planning lessons. I especially like the activity about assembling an object. I can already see myself with a box full of Lego devices for my students to play with! If you liked this post, you can also read how to design good communicative tasks. Publ.Date : Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:02:13 -0700 How to design good communicative tasks. I am back from a wonderful break in France. It was good to be cut off from technology for a while. Now it's time to re-connect and I am starting an excellent professional development course delivered by the University of Texas at Austin. I found it on Lgb06's blog. My blog will serve as a notebook to recall the points I want to remember and each day, each post will feature a lesson from a module. The first module I decided to start with is the speaking module, because I do think that making students speak in the target language is often one of the most challenging task for a language teacher. The instructor for the Speaking module is Carl Blyth, Associate Professor of French Linguistics in the Department of French and Italian and the Director of the Texas Language Technology Center (TLTC). Lesson 3 of the Speaking module is about designing good communicative tasks. When planning such tasks, we, as teachers, should consider the following:
http://tltc.la.utexas.edu/methods/modules/speaking/03/unsuccessful.php Then you can view some successful tasks and the analysis from language teachers and ways to improve them: http://tltc.la.utexas.edu/methods/modules/speaking/03/analysis.php A book that might be worth reading and where all the information above comes from is Lee, J. 2000. Tasks and Communicating in Language Classrooms. I will keep you updated as I am learning through each module. Publ.Date : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:57:21 -0700 White chocolate & berry pudding
The other week, @mme_henderson asked what to do with "fruits rouges" (red berries), I directed her to a clafoutis, which is the easiest option with any type of fruit. However, I forgot that I tried a microwave recipe found on the BBC Good Food website. It involves mixed berries and white chocolate and it is very quick to make! All you need is:
Fold the pear mix through batter and pour into the dish. Sounds yummy too! Publ.Date : Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:05:57 -0700 Memory board
Other posts based on The Teacher’s Toolkit: Publ.Date : Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:28:00 -0700 Reflections on the school year.
This is the end of my first school year in an international school in Weimar, Germany. It seems odd as last year, back in Leicester, UK, I would still have one more month or so to teach. As I reflect back on my experiences this year, it has been very different but very positive at the same time. This was my first year teaching the International Baccalaureate program and especially the Spanish ab initio course. This was also my first year teaching so much Spanish. But it seems that I managed to develop exciting projects and activities which my students enjoyed doing. I also trialled the Michel Thomas method, which I will talk into more details in a next post. What were the main differences and challenges this year?Well, compared to where I taught in England, class sizes are much smaller so I did not have to face behaviour problems nor classroom management issues. However, I had to differentiate my teaching much more to meet each student's needs. I also had to cope with limited IT resources: very few computers available and slow Internet access. I had to give away my PowerPoint presentations and to re-think my lessons. This led me to use mini-whiteboards a lot more and to create group activities. Actually, I think my teaching changed from teacher-led to student-centered, which is better. The school is very new (about 5 years old), so I had to create a Spanish curriculum from scratch. I am still in the process of creating one and it is not an easy task since I am the only Spanish teacher in the school. Now that I look back on this school year, I am very grateful that my teacher training happened in England. I had the best GTP and NQT mentors and this helped me to cope with new situations and challenges as they arose. What does the future bring? I now look forward to the next year (in August!), when I can truly implement the Spanish curriculum. I also look forward to prepare my grade 9 and 10 students for the IGSCE Spanish, which will be a whole new experience for me. My plan is also to use the ICT more despite the limited resources of the school. All in all, a good year!What about you? have you finished school? How was it? Publ.Date : Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:59:57 -0700 Writing is a productive skill. I have finished the Speaking module delivered for free by the University of Texas at Austin and I am now going to do the Writing module. This module is delivered by Zsuzsanna Abrams who is Associate Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies at the Univeristy of Texas at Austin. In addition to teaching language courses and graduate courses on foreign language pedagogy, she has been the language program director in Germanic Studies. Students tend to be reluctant at writing, especially longer paragraphs. However, the writing skill plays a big part in the exams. However, as Zsuzsanna Abrams states in her introduction to the module: "writing is a dominant mode of interpersonal communication, especially nowadays, there are blogs, people use computer-mediated communication, they text a lot. All of these need to be trained explicitly in the foreign language classroom as well.... writing can be a creative outlet that allows for a stronger affective connection to the language, possibly motivating learners to study it longer and to establish links to other users of the language, which then encourages them to keep practicing the foreign language even beyond the foreign language classroom."In lesson 1, we learn how to plan a writing activity.What is very important to remember is that in this computer-mediated age, being able to write is an essential skill in any language. When planning a writing activity, we should always remember that:
Publ.Date : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:11:28 -0700 Trying to become a teacher of learning languages.
I really like this picture from @langwitches on her Facebook page: When you are a language teacher, it is all too easy to give learners cut flowers in the form of vocabulary lists and verb tables, thinking that their language level is not good enough yet. They must first get the basis and then they will be able to know how to learn the language. This weekend, I read a very interesting post by Chris Charte making the same remarks about language teachers who "claim that our language learners could only ever get up to applying on the taxonomy as their language level is not good enough". He rightly says that "we are teachers of languages but we should also be teachers of learning. ", by giving the example of teachers giving a talk to students "about the best way to learn new vocabulary; lists, mind maps, word hooks, look cover spell check etc." He also gives a very concrete example of a series of lessons about teaching the environment in French using De Bono's hats. I would encourage you to read his post:"You can't do that in language teaching...", it has really motivated me to become a teacher of learning languages.What about you? How do you feel about teaching languages? Publ.Date : Mon, 31 May 2010 10:56:00 -0700 End of year project: poster conversations.
Last summer, I was looking for Spanish textbooks. Marcy Webb, one of my favorite (and so supportive) Twitter colleagues, advised me to look at the Teacher's Discovery website. She told me she bought a useful book full of activities for mini-whiteboards entitled Games and Activities for Individual Whiteboards. I bought it as an ebook, downloadable version to avoid delivery costs from the USA. As I was browsing the website, I was tempting to buy everything related to languages! But I resisted the temptation and "only" bought another ebook entitled Motivating Spanish Through Creative Activities. I do not regret buying both ebooks! There are full of engaging activities to supplement any lesson plan. Each ebook includes user-friendly instructions and complete information about preparation and provisions. One project that my grade 6 students (11-12 years old) did to end the school year was taken from Motivating Spanish Through Creative Activities. It is called Las conversaciones en un cartel de cartón / Poster Conversations and it is a student-centered activity. Students work in groups of three to design a poster with various conversations taking place within two different settings. Other students will have an opportunity to match up the talking characters on the poster using the group’s cartoon conversation bubbles that have tape on the back. All you need is one poster board for each group, as well as scrap cardboard, markers, scissors, glue, cellar tape or felt, optional: a computer to print graphics, cartoon conversation bubbles, and answer key. In their groups, students design a poster featuring various conversations. They have to be creative because their posters must come alive! Before they begin, they must select two settings that their group will represent, and think about vocabulary they’ve learnt. Examples of settings to use include restaurants, an office-supply store, a park, a pet store, or a school. They then draw the characters and the settings, they also create speech bubbles for their conversations but they don't stick them on their poster. Another group will do it for them. When they have finished their posters, they have to go to another group and place the conversation bubbles on the other group's poster. My grade 6 class spent the last lessons working on their posters. Each member of the group was actively involved in the process. One person who was good at drawing would create the characters and settings, another person who liked writing conversations would do the speech bubbles. They absolutely loved it. On our last lesson, I walked into the classroom five minutes late and saw all the groups finishing their poster, getting on with their work! I was so pleased as the last lesson of the year usually consists of students begging you not to do any work! This activity was also a good way to conclude the year and for the students to see how much they have actually learnt this year. I thoroughly recommend those two books and I cannot thank Marcy enough for pointing them at me :) Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:44:00 -0700 Grammar work in groups. My grade 5 French students worked on a bit of grammar related to the verb "être-to be" the other lesson. This time, I wanted them to wok out the rules themselves so I took the idea from The Teacher’s Toolkit. This book is really a must have for teachers and I cannot thank @primarypete_ enough for mentioning it to me! It is full of useful techniques to make students work in groups. I am now quite experienced with activities related to language teaching such as retaining vocabulary. Those kind of activities are teacher-led and do not leave much room for making students think for themselves. However I am not so confident with group work and student-centered activities, so this book is really helping me developing that side. My students have learnt how to conjugate the verb "être-to be" in the present tense and we had a lesson about "Mardi gras" and people dressing up. I taught the class the verb "déguiser- to dress up" and I told them that "to be dressed up" is "être déguisé". I then asked them: "so, what is I am dressed up in French?". They came up with "je suis déguisé". However, when I wrote their answer on the board, I wrote "je suis deguisé(e)" and asked them why I added "e" between brackets. Some of them came up with the correct answer: "because the person talking could be a girl". Then I put students in pairs and gave them a piece of cardboard paper. I asked them to conjugate "to be dressed up". They had to be careful on the endings of "déguisé". After a set time, I asked pairs to come together into fours. That is, two pairs joined up and each pair shared the results of its labour with the other pair. The four then entered into further debate in order to arrive at an agreed version. Their versions were then shared with the whole class. During this time, my role was was to keep everyone on their toes and to lead them to the right direction, if they were going on the wrong track. Finally, we debriefed the content and the process, focusing on the verb endings and the reasons why. This exercise helped my students understand this French grammar rule better, as they had to explain their choices to each other. They are only in their second year of French and for now, they only know how to use the present tense. They don't know anything about the perfect tense, nor the passive form but they know about genders and I thought this was a good introduction to the past tense, next year. In the future, I want to experience more of these group thinking activities to ensure my students really understand the grammar rules.What about you? How do you teach grammar?Another activity I tried from The Teacher’s Toolkit is a motivating memory technique for students. Publ.Date : Thu, 27 May 2010 02:36:11 -0700 How to design good writing tasks.
Lesson 2 of the writing module delivered by the University of Texas in Austin is about designing a writing activity. The steps to follow are to:
This grid helps us define a writing activity into more details.
Then come the publishing phase which is sharing the author's written work with multiple readers or even viewers.It can greatly help focus learners' attention and motivation for writing: there is a real, legitimate communicative purpose for their work. Below are a few examples: Publishing in written format:
Publishing (Presentation) in oral format:
From now on, when I design a writing task, I will answer the following questions:
If you liked this post, you can also read:
Publ.Date : Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:41:00 -0700 |
enroll now
TESOL Certification for teaching english abroad in non-native English speaking countries.
