Task # 1Design a writing activity in which young learners can experience both grammar and writing in a creative way...

Task # 1Design a writing activity in which young learners can experience both grammar and writing in a creative way using concrete props.

This week I worked with a book project with my  six/seven-year-old students. The idea was to create a book using the vocab and the grammar structure learned.
Vocabulary: zoo animals
Grammar structure: can/can't
 For them, it is not an easy task to read and write in English. Since English is a non phonetic language, at this age it is very difficult for them to read and write the words without mispronouncing or misspelling them. These are the steps I followed.
1 - To practice the spelling of the words, I gave them plastic letters. I said a word and they had to find the letters and organize them. I did this activity as a game. They had lots of fun;
2 - To practice word order, I gave them cards with some words: CAN, SHE, HE, YOU, CAN'T, SWIM ... I projected a picture on the board  and showed a question mark or a period. They had to organize the cards in order to make a sentence. For example: I projected a picture of a cat swimming and a question mark. They had to organize the cards to have the question: Can cats swim?
3 - In the circle time, we discussed the ideas for our book. We came up with a title and the story;
4 - I wrote on the board the sentences they had come up with and each student was responsible for one page of the book. They wrote the sentences and illustrated the pages. The story was about a zoo. A wizard visited the zoo, created a magic potion and by mistake the animals drank it. They got super powers!
5 - I became the narrator and they acted out their story.
They had a great time and they were proud of what they have accomplished together.
Something very special happened when they were illustrating their pages. I have a student who is nine years old, but she remained cognitively similar to a 5-year-old kid. I always try my best to engage her in the activities, but sometimes it does not happen. I helped her so she could write her sentence and she illustratte her page by herself (page 8). For my surprise, she asked for another sheet of paper and she wrote the title of the book by herself. It was an unforgettable moment for me!








Comments

  1. Renata TodorovskaMay 5, 2016 at 9:50 PM

    Great activities Núria!
    You have really motivated and inspired the girl since she asked for another sheet of paper!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marwa TounsiMay 6, 2016 at 5:19 AM

    I love what you've done and mainly because you broke down the writing task into smaller writings with different objectives. The ultimate objective was to write the story! But how much time did it take you to accomplish all this. I mean did you devote a session for every writing task or you accomplish it all in the same session?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Juan UribeMay 7, 2016 at 9:59 AM

    Hi Núria!

    I am smiling here in the silent room where I am. It's amazing how we can promote affective learning by making small changes that let students come with their ideas. I liked the way in which you broke the activity to make it success-oriented and what called my attention the most was when you stopped and discussed with the students who their book was going to be. The part of the wizard also allowed them to play with the language. Drawing and having a final product you are all proud of make it a truly memorable experience.

    The way you worked allowed your little girl to leave her mark. Very touching story.

    Congrats on this great affective language learning experience!!!

    Juan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Núria VintróMay 7, 2016 at 3:05 PM

    Your words inspire me each day more Juan. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Núria VintróMay 7, 2016 at 3:08 PM

    Dear Marwa, it took me three classes of 45 minutes to accomplish all the activities. Thank you Renata.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TASK 2: Getting ready for storytelling.

TASK 2: Getting ready for storytelling. I have a group of 12 kids ranging from 7 to 8 years old. They are already familiarized with the characters of the book (Tina the tortoise, monkey, own, duck and rabbit). The leading character is Tina the tortoise. This is a pre-teaching activity and I bring realia objects to the classroom like: football, a coat, socks, a cap and a mug. I ask kids where Tina is: where is Tina? ( I act like I'm looking for her..) Oh look! Tina is in her shell! Tina come out and play! ( sound of a negative answer) Help me kids! Repeat: Tina come out and play! ( sound of a negative answer again). Let's try again but louder! Tina, come out and play! Tina answers: No, no! It's cold outside! I say: Tina let's swim! ( I make the gesture) Tina answers: no, no! It' cold outside! I let children have ideas showing the objects inside the box! Let's play football! Children keep trying to convince her (Put on a coat! Put on a cap! Put on your socks!). A...
Read more

Finding the right audience and making writing meaningful are two of the major challenges teachers face when...

Finding the right audience and making writing meaningful are two of the major challenges teachers face when designing writing activities. What affective strategies have you used that achieved these goals? Imagine asking a ten-year old student to write about the impact of the economic collapse in the USA. This student will not have much to say and he/she will feel frustrated. Now imagine asking a 17-year-old student to write about his/her favorite toy. This student will not feel excited to write about this because it is not part of his/her reality anymore. Of course, these are extreme examples, but we do have to take into consideration many aspects such as students's age, background, reality and interests when designing writing activities. Besides relating to students lives and realities writing acitivities should also cover three moments: pre writing, writing and post writing. In the first stage, we should activate students memories, feelings and senses providing them with the ...
Read more

Discussion task #2

Discussion task #2 Finding the right audience and making writing meaningful are two of the major challenges teachers face when designing writing activities. What affective strategies have you used that achieved these goals? 1) I try to personalize writing as much as possible. I usually start talking about myself to get students at ease and more open to share their own feelings and ideas towards the writing topic. Then I adapt the task to allow students to express themselves in a comfortable and confident way. 2) Finding the right audience is definitely a key issue in all writing tasks but it's even more important with young learners as they need to feel their writing is authentic and will be read by real audience. That's why I try to do peer check/correction before I read it myself. Whenever possible, I try to have students write to each other and reply back. As a different version of it, we created at our center (A wise owl) which students write to and get personalized replies...
Read more