GOOD IDEAS, GOOD RESOURCES

Looking at my partner's blogs, I found a very interesing idea for my younger students such as "Interactive Picture" for vocabulary. Actually, I found it very interesting as a post-activity for CLIL lessons in each unit.

We did a review of the healthy food with the proteins, calcium, fat, vitamins, fibre, and carbohydrates.

THANK YOU!

https://thinkenglishthinkbig.blogspot.com/2021/05/do-you-like.html

SPEAKING PROJECT

I like to finish the unit with a "mini" Final Task in which students apply everything they have been learning on their own. It consists on a writing and a monologue of whay they have done.

In the 4th grade class, I presented this Genially with the different parts of the Task (it usually takes two/three lessons), I did it individually following the COVID measures, but they help each other when they need it.

I divided the project in different sessions, in this case, 4 lessons were needed. 

1) The first lesson we were focus on the Genially and the steps we were going to follow. We review the vocabulary (first orally and then written). In this part we use Flashcards and the blackboard to do little competitions. The second part of this lesson is focused on the analysis of an example. We are going to learn how to drescribe a healthy lunch so we listen and complete an example.

2) The second lesson is focused on their draft. With the help of a project plan from the book (I like those organizers because they help students to be organised with the information). We chose the food we liked and the quantity of them. (In this part, we revire the structures we are using such as a lot of, a little, a few...).

3) The third lesson is focused on autonomous work as I assess their drafts and they are prepared to do their final writing. We have to do them with cardboard, paper and coloured pencils as we don't have good devices. 

4) The forth lesson is for oral presentations to their classmates!! 

From my point of view, Genially is a great tool to introduce information and organise a project with different steps. It s more visual for those students who need different learning options. I think this tool has helped my students to understand better what was expected from them to do. Furthermore, I could post it in the classroom page we have and they could vizualise the videos and prepare some material in their homes. A kind of "Flipped Classroom" I guess.

What I would change, obviously, is the possibility of using laptops and each student could prepare their project with Genially. (I thought of using my own laptop in the classroom, but it wasn't a good idea because I would have needed 10 hours for all of them to prepare the project).

  STORIES AND BOOKS

The writing process is one of the most difficult skills to learn, and for me, teaching as I need to take care of lots of details for them to learn without any pressure. 

In the 3rd grade class we were learning about descriptions and the final task consisted on the creation of a giant (like the story we read on the unit) using the third person of HAVE GOT and some actions in PRESENT CONTINUOUS (although they do not know anything about it), but I was more interested on the physical descriptions.

I did not organise the final task in groups for COVID sanitary measures, but it was fun too as I told them to "create" new giant friends.

My principal learning objectives were:

• To work on the key vocabulary of the unit (with extension options for the advanced learners).
• To work on the structure of a description.
• To work on the communication function of a description.
• To write sentences using HAVE GOT in the third person (affirmative and negative).
• To write creatively and autonomously as much as they can.

The tool helped my students achieve those objectives with the motivation they felt when their works were projected on the board. As they were proud of their work and wanted to share it with the rest of the class.

As they are 3rd graders, the creativity was focused on the "vocabulary" the used or even the picture they drew because they are very limited in the writing because they are starting to write short texts. However, they showed me how much creativity there is in a simple task with only a picture and a couple of sentences. The communicative intention of their works was very powerful.

My students enjoyed the most the drawing part, obviously. They enjoy every task which involves drawing and painting. Also, the chance of writing on the computer was very popular. 

I would change next time the option that every student could do their own book about their giant, but the digital devices of our school are not prepared for that. I hope I could carry this same lesson on other class and try with the improvements.

Read this book made on StoryJumper