One of the most useful CPD sessions I ever attended was a really fun book making technique that Charlotte Haenlein taught at the 2009 NATECLA conference. Book making is a great lesson in its own right and it also happens to meet a piece of portfolio criteria, following instructions, which is always a bonus ;-p
So as a follow up to Rima's Day we created our own books using images from the SQA's "Daily Life" pack. The book making itself is fun... all you need is a few different sets of coloured paper and the instructions.
They get all sorts of integrated skills work as they:
put the books together
write their sentences
talk about their daily routine
listen to others
match the appropriate words to the picture
read their own books to themselves, eachother and their children.
I've also used the books to make picture dictionaries and alphabet books. Lots of fun for all so a big thanks to Charlotte for her wonderful arts and crafts session! :-)
Well what a great addition to my collection. My first Language Garden lesson also happens to be the first session I've ever delivered 100% with ICT and nothing else. So... I was a little nervous on Monday morning as I'd deliberately not planned anything else so as not to have a get out clause!
However, I didn't need to worry... the students loved the session. I chose to do a poem from the Language Garden called The Village Elders.
Lots of my leaners are Pakistani and many of them come from villages so I thought this session would interest them. The great thing about the site is that there are loads of different activities, lead ins and ideas for how to approach the material (as you can see from the right hand column) and you can just pick and choose how much or little you want to use it.
We started with a chat about bravery and what that means... some difference of opinion here but ended up with a definition that incorporated warriors as well as ESOL learners choosing to join a class for the first time!
We then listened to the text while they watched the language plant unfold. They were slightly confused at first but soon got into it! We listened a few times per verse. The other lovely thing about this is that you can click on the leaves for key vocab and a picture appears.
So it was great to elicit meanings from them but also be able to show them the image at the end. A big sigh of relief especially from the lower level learners to have it so clearly displayed.
It was also really nice for my Eastern European learners as they have been struggling with some of the listening tasks we've done previously. Being able to watch the text literally grow before their eyes really helped them I think.
Once we'd done all three verses I split them into groups and they tried to remember as much about the three different men as they could. Kind of like a dictogloss but I didn't follow it through to the stage of them reproducing the text themselves. What was interesting was how much they could remember of the text and how distinct in their minds the three different characters were.
We then had a go at the puzzle which totally freaked them out at first... but I asked them to think about it quietly for a few minutes and gradually they started to make (accurate) suggestions of where the words should go. They were coming up to the board and showing me where to place the words. (Made me think how nice it would be to have a smartboard in there) 15 minutes later and between them they had done it! They were so pleased with themselves it was great :-)
Another activity we had a go at was the parts of speech painting. They don't actually need to know adjs and nouns etc.. at this level but they caught on really quite quickly. So quickly in fact that I'm going to do a follow up session on adjectives next session. It's amazing (and quite scary) how my conception of level puts a limit on the language I allow them to explore.
Finally they produced some descriptions of their own using the "New Topic" as a guide. I think I could have done more with this. However, for this session it was more than enough!
Their feedback on the session was that it was "hard but good"...'"challenging" another said..."like life is a challenge" said another. My feedback is it was nice as a change to have a whole lesson there and ready. I felt like there was a lot more I could have done with it myself in terms of adaptation but haven't quite managed to come up with what yet.
What's really exciting is that apparently there will soon be a plant maker available free for teachers to use to create their own online plants. I think it might well become the new wordle! I'm very much looking forward to playing with it and have loved playing around with the already existing, extensive and exciting lessons on this website.
Thanks again to David for letting me explore the site and use screenshots in this post :-) and for anyone who is interested... here is the complete poem in a more normal format ;-p
So over the holidays I had the privilege of exploring the full The Language Garden site created by David Warr. I would highly recommend anyone having a look. A lot of thought and creativity has gone into this site and the lessons cover a wide range of levels and topics.
Here for example is the different lessons you could do at Level One:
What I like
Colours
You and Me
My Family
Really Really
Please Please Me
Around the House
Ask me another
Teamwork
What I like Doing
Where is It?
Things in Common
For me that's perfect... so many of the topics there I have already covered with my beginner refugee group... it'll be great for revision. If we ever get internet in that venue!
There are also great instructions and ideas covering how to use the materials!
...and a very useful grammar section where learners can choose a part of speech to look at in more detail before testing themselves.
All in all I was very impressed and couldn't wait to try out one of the sessions with my Entry One after the half term break... which I'm going to write about next!
Ok so for anyone who is interested this is the lesson I'm going to try out next week. Please see previous post for details of how I was inspired by various pages on the English Raven's blog as many of the teaching ideas below are his.
Image – Show learners image of rose and ask them for words that come to their head. Brainstorm onto the board.
Follow up conversation: When I see a rose I think of…. etc…See where the discussion goes…
Depending on how the discussion goes etc.. other things might happen but then I am going to tell them that the image made me think of a song by The Safires called Sweet Rose.
Wordle – guess as a class about the song based on the vocabulary (and vocabulary size/frequency)
Listen to the song…. Discuss any meaning issues… do songs need to make sense? etc…
Sight and sound – divide the class into two halves, listen again with one group listening to the words, the other half concentrating on the music. Each group should write down adjectives to describe what they hear (feelings, mood, etc.) and then share as a class, making lists for poet and music on the whiteboard. How does it make them feel? Do any lines jump out that they liked particularly? Why?
Gap fill Ask learners to listen again and fill in the gaps (I’ve removed all the verbs)
Language focus: Once they’ve got the completed lyrics in front of them I’ll ask them to identify what the main tense is (present simple). Then think about why. (It’s trying to convey a sense of now, how she currently feels, describing a moment, wanting it to feel immediate etc..) Look again at the verbs are they positive or negative? Why?
Language focus 2: Ask them to try to locate which places the singer goes to? E.g. within your eyes, through shards of light, within your sighs, to this earth, in the secret of your smile, in the sand, the palm of your hand, the ocean so blue below etc… See if they notice the prepositions of place and discuss this.
Depending on time maybe …
DictoglossPlace the students in teams and play the performance up to trace, (with the teams writing down what they hear/remember during the interludes between each stanza), with students pooling and discussing their notes (without referring to the original) and then attempting to reconstruct the song as accurately as possible. Have them refer to the original version of the song to self-correct their answers (as notes alongside their reconstructions).
Then…
Speaking follow up 1: Which place would you go to if you could? Why?
Speaking follow up 2: It’s time to tell one of your stories – where do you like to go to when you can? Use your imagination. Tell your partner and listen to their story. Tell the group.
Writing follow up: Individually or in pairs write a true or fictional story about a place they go to or would like to go to and why it’s special.
There are many other things I could do I'm sure but that's what I'm going to try out! I'm looking forward to it!
If anyone happens to want to try this as well here are the teaching notes in downloadable format:
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