Magpie Moments

Playing with plants...

Came back after my lesson today to discover something seriously exciting! David Warr of Language Garden fame has just released his plant maker - along with a challenge to review a lesson and make the highlights into a plant.

So, the above plant is some of the words we came up with in class today when we thought of Bradford, as per the lesson I wrote about here. There was obviously  a variety of opinion, some of them opposing, but we had a great time chatting about it. The materials were actually a bit too hard for them - they are more towards the low end of E2. However, they still found the session interesting - at least they seemed too :-)

Anyway, thank you very much Mr Language Gardener - you've made my day. If we ever do get our promised interactive whiteboards it will be a lot of fun to use in class!

Edit: Below is my second slightly more complex attempt with the Churchill quote: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But I'm hoping it is the end of the beginning." Which applies just as well to my language plants as to WW 2 I'm sure ;-p This plant was a real labour of love as it crashed twice when trying to save it but I got there in the end :-)

Using readers - Rima's Day

It never ceases to amaze me how much absolute beginners love to read books. When I bring in a pile of kids books they will quite happily choose one, look at the pictures and attempt to decode the language. Whilst this is fun for a while they are definitely limited by how much they can decode. That's what I love about some of the graded ESOL readers that talented people like Marta Paluch have created and then shared on free websites like Talent.

Rima's Day is one of my favourites because the language is simple, the pictures are clear and although the language is quite significantly above my learners' level they can have a jolly good stab at it. We print them off in booklet form which gives them a huge sense of achievement as they learn to read and understand the vast majority of it.

There's very little prep needed but so much we can do with the text. Here are a few of the things we did last time I used it: 

• We read it together with lots of acting from me as many of the verbs are unfamiliar to them  e.g. put on, clear away, get up etc... 
• We practiced whole phrases
• We went round the room reading a page each
•  I read it and they acted out the verb phrases
• They acted a phrase and the other learners guessed which one  e.g. washing the dishes
• We played word races where I said the verb and they raced through the book to find it and show me.
•  They read it to eachother
• I broke it down onto cards and they matched pictures with phrases and ordered the text. 

Usually ideas for what to do just spark as you see what phrases catch their interest etc... They take it home and read it to their kids and bring it back a little scrattier than when it was given  but well used. It may not be an authentic text but they certainly get an authentic sense of achievement from learning to read and understand it. There are three different readers available for free on Talent that I can find but I'd love to know which ones other teachers use and as always any ideas for how to use them :-)

 

 

Panning for gold in the online river...

                                                                                                                       Image: Davity Dave

ELT gold is everywhere... throughout the onlineworld people are sharing their nuggets, coins and bars. The wider education world is no less exciting. Ideas like Edupunk are potentially transformative and offer millions hope for a future where higher education doesn't come with a prohibitive price tag.

In the future it's looking more and more likely that universities will not maintain the role of higher education gatekeepers. Similarly for ELT, I think we're moving into a time where the coursebook will cease to be the gatekeeper of ELT material.

Most of my ELT career to date has been in the UK ESOL context and although there are very basic government produced materials and a core curriculum, we are by and large underfunded, meaning coursebooks are rarely rolled out across levels and classes.

It's only recently I've begun to realise what a huge advantage this has been, certainly for me and my colleagues. It's made for mix and match courses and plenty of adaptation. The main way to access resources outside our own heads has been the vast online goldmines. Many of these are free or partially free and I'm always on the look out for more. If anyone's interested here are a few I've collected over the years:

The Scottish Qualifications Authority has whole packs of adaptable resources on very beginner topics... a rare and greatly valued find!

Talent is also free, after you create a login, and has a mix of different resources mainly for lower levels.

Skillsworkshop has been invaluable at the higher end of the spectrum.

The Teachit family of websites covering ELT, Primary, Secondary and Citizenship, also has a wide range of resources although you have to pay to gain access to the adaptable versions.

ESOLcourses has been a more recent find that has great online activities as well.

The NIACE citizenship pack is excellent for all sorts of reasons and the material is of a high standared with a variety of activities and approaches.

BreakingNewsEnglish for topical news.

ESLbase has some great grammar games.

Of course OneStopEnglish, although you have to pay to access much of it, is one of the few pay for resources that I'd say is definitely worth it.

And I'm pretty sure I'll soon be purchasing a subscription to English Raven as I have no doubt it's also well worth paying for!

There's more I'm sure. A few more include Bogglesworld, ESOLUK, englishbanana, JamieKeddie  and for low levels and phonics I love mes-english, funfonix, stickyball and activityvillage.

I  would of course be more than interested in the mines that others have discovered :-D

It's tuly amazing how much is available and don't even get me started on blogs ;-p

There something even more special is shared... ideas, reflections  and thoughts that are slowly leading me away from my reliance on goldmines and more towards the hidden nuggets which, as they emerge, are completely changing my whole way of teaching.

The future's bright... and very very shiny.

 

Scene It! & New Resources on Protests in the Arab World...

So... because I enjoyed using the Egypt photo so much in my class the other week I decided to look again at Larry Ferlazzo's site and see what else I could find. I came across some new resources on the protests which led me to a great lesson plan on The Basics: Understanding the Upheaval in the Middle East .

Unfortunately, I don't have accesss to the internet in class and I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate a more unplugged approach.

This conincided with Jason Renshaw uploading a whole load of really interesting unplugged Scene It! lessons complete with great teaching ideas.

Then some friends and I were talking about the protests and the amazing non violent approaches many of the protesters are taking. It's really quite beautiful. They told me about girls giving flowers to soldiers in Bahrain which led me this image here.

So there's a little insight into how my brain works! Anyway it has all culminated in an adaptation of the Scene It! resource which Jason very kindly made available in word format here. Unfortunately, it is not all unplugged there is a plugged section included because I really wanted to add some information into the mix as well as working with their current knowledge. Rightly or wrongly I'm not fully prepared to leave the Matrix just yet!

I've adapted the learning network session where each group answers a different set of questions then feeds back jigsaw style. However, I'm planning to print the questions out on coloured card and the readings on different coloured paper which in my head makes it a little better for some reason ;-p

Anyway all the resources are below if anyone wants to take a look :-) and now I really really really must do some marking!!

Download SceneIt Middle East Protests

Download SceneIt Middle East Protests Teacher notes

Download Jigsaw Questions

Download Four readings on Arab protests

Larry Ferlazzo's Best Sites...

Now if only I could add all of this amazing site to my collection! ;-p

It would take more time than I have to fully explore all this site has to offer but the little I have seen has really brought something fresh to my class.

Last week I saw this amazing image 
found here linked too from The Best Sites for Learning About the Protests in Egypt

Just taking this into class sparked off some amazing conversation that lasted much longer than I expected. It was enjoyable, fun and relevant to the learners and me!

What I'd really like to learn though is how to do more constructive language follow up and feedback. I feel this is the key to an unplugged approach and it's where I am most inexperienced. But it's what excites me most about the approach. Really listening to my students content and language use and then reformulating it and helping them to notice things. Going into the class with nothing but this picture and coming out with not just a great conversation but great student and teacher notes on language.

My whiteboard work and their own personal notes... I want to facilitate these becoming much clearer and much more useful although I'm not really sure how. I'd love to watch a lesson where a really experienced unplugged teacher does this. I'm sure it's out there somewhere!

But in the meantime thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for his incredibly useful and inspirational website!