My little English Corner

 ALL ABOUT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH

In 5th grade we were working on famous scientists, artists, inventors, musicians, … We were learning how to write a short biography using verbs in past. That was a very hard work because they met irregular verbs for the very first time and memorizing them was not a good surprise.

As we finished the unit last week, I take advantage of their curiosity and this activity as a very good review of the topic. I chose the Queen Elizabeth II as they are always asking me about her and the Prince Philip, so I wrote a text in which her life was explained (I modified some verbs and expressions for them to make it easy to understand).

My learning objectives were very clear and simple:

    - To review the Past Simple (regular and irregular verbs).

    - To review the principal points of a biography.

    - To read cooperatively.

    - To use the dictionary as a learning tool.

I decided to use the cooperative strategy: RECIPROCAL TEACHING.

It consists of working on a text in groups of 3-4 people. The teacher gives the material to them and divide the text in different paragraphs to be read for each member of the group. In my case, I decided to divide the text in paragraphs, but they were read by each group instead of each member (COVID-19 measures, I guess). Then they share what they read to the rest of their classmates and everyone has a general idea of the whole text.

The whole lesson started with setting them up in groups of three (and one of four) that I chose as I prefer to mix everyone up a little bit more (they have to work with everyone in the class!). Then I told them that we were going to read a text about Queen Elizabeth and doing a TimeLine about her on the computer.

** Here I have to do a little explanation about the laptops in my school. I tried to use them for the final task in other units and it was a disaster. They are not ready; they have a very slow working process, so students were waiting more than working in my class. That is why I decided to use the whiteboard and only one.

Then, I told them which paragraph they had to read, and they started to work immediately. When they finished, each group came to the front of the class and summarised the paragraph for their classmates in a mix of English and Spanish. Finally, we answered all the questions about vocabulary and doubts about the text. Each group decided which parts of Elizabeth’s life were important to be in the Timeline.

When everything was done, we started with the TimeLine in which each group wrote the sentences... As you may see, writing is not one of our best skills, we are still working on it!

LINK TO THE TIME LINE

Everything I have done can be improved. This lesson is not an exception. My difficulties were, especially, the computers. It is difficult to rely on the technology when it is not updated and work well. That is our principal problem, and the solution is not easy, but we are trying to acquire new equipment. 

On the other hand, I have to give more motivation and reasons for reading the text because sometimes I feel like I am punishing them with the reading altough the 75% of the students really want to read it.

The app is interesting as they organise the reading and develop the SUMMARISING strategy. I think of using it as a final task because I helped me to review the past simple as they had to write sentences about them, they worked cooperatively as they had to agree with the information, they used a new tool to organise a biography and its importants points.

Summing up, this tool gave me the opportunity to "update" reading and a new strategy for my students to develop learning to learn.