Affective Teaching

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?                                     I have two groups of 11-year-old children who really enjoy communicative activities in class. They are always looking for new challenges and opportunities to put into practice what they learn. To cater for their needs, I created a project named “My dear friend” in which stds were supposed to write notes to each other to get personal information and then, write a text. At first sight, they were reluctant to take part in the activity, firstly because it was novelty, and secondly because they are used to practicing language with their classmates. So, to encourage them, I showed them my writing portfolio which has all the pieces of writing I have made since I have started studying English.( From when I was 10 to CPE). To my surprise,...

Discussion task #1: Design a writing activity in which young learners can experience both grammar and writing in a creative way using concrete props.                    My 8-year-old students are learning colors, food, numbers and basic structures, such as “What is your name?” How old are you? “I like/ I don’t like…./ Do you like… To start working on writing, they had to create a ‘this-is-me poster, where they glued a picture of themselves on a poster and wrote information about them using the structures they are learning. They had never done such activity, so it was a little bit challenging to get them to write the correct structures, or remember the right word order.   To make the word order more attainable, I cut the structures into small pieces and glued them to lego bricks. Before writing, they had to put each word, or parts of speech. Together to form the right structure. As a result, not only were they able to  remember the structure, but some of them even remembered the order j...

DISCUSSION TASK 3 The school I work at has a fixed planning that teachers have to follow strictly. So, unfortunately,I couldn't create the puppet from the video. On the other hand, I managed to create another puppet, which is way simpler, and students had tons of fun. They had a fixed model I drew on the board. They had to draw it on the paper, and decorate as they wished. The outcome was great. They are learning the basics of the verb to be, greetings, numbers and colors. They have already learnt some food vocab. So, to make learning more meaningful, they had to create a stick puppet and perform a dialogue. To rehearse the dialogue, I used the fishbowl technique. I invited one student to perform the dialogue with me, then with one friend and then return to their pairs and perform it among themselves. They absolutely loved making new names, giving their puppets the final touch and performing in group. We did the choral repetition in a big circle. Dialogue PROCEDURE: teacher elicits...

DISCUSSION TASK 1 Storytelling is a memorable moment in which learners establish strong connections with the language. What aspects are important in your opinion to take in consideration when planning a storytelling activity? How do they affect the moment in which we are with our students? PREPARATION IS THE KEY: I firmly believe that to tell a FUNtastic story, the teacher has to be prepared in advance, It is important that the teacher reads the story beforehand, creates any puppets that are necessary, dim the lights, play a special song. When the teachers is prepared and ready for the action, learners will be more engaged. VOICES: This is another aspect the teacher has to take into consideration. While telling the story, it is vital to create different voices according to the puppet and be consistent. If you are using a hoarse voice with that puppet that resembles a 80-year old grandpa, stick to it. It also helps learners identifies who is who in the story. Believe me, they can spot ...

I though I had posted the answer to this task. However, upon taking a look at all the completed tasks, I realized I hadn`t posted the answer. So here it is. DISCUSSION TASK 3 When I started learning English, I was a very insecure student. I was afraid of asking questions, taking risks because I thought exposure would harm somehow. I don`t know how it would affect me, but I had always felt I would be the nagging student in the class. However, everything changed. When I was 16, my very first English teache showed me that it is okay to take risks. It is okay to ask questions, and yet not be nagging. So, I am pretty sure this teacher of mine had planted the seed of knowledge that one fine day would grow. It grew. It`s been very fruitful. Thanks to her advice, I was able to change my mindset and became secure. I truly believe one of the keys to succeed as a language learner, it is to have someone who believes in your. Someone who sees your true colors and invest time in you, knowing that th...

Please take a picture that symbolizes affective language learning for you and share it with the group explaining why you took it.   To me, this picture represents affective learning. When we are teaching and providing stds with input, we are planting a seed that one fine day is going to grow. It is known to everybody that to make a tree grow, the gardener has to water it every other day and make sure everything is fine with the soil and so on. The same thing happens in teaching. When we are teaching, we are taking care of the soil (stds' hearts) and planting the the seed (English) that will grow. It may seem a long way to go, but it will result in a great tree. It is paramount to always nurture and care for the tree (our stds).  How can we do it? To teach affectively, we do not have to smile, hug and kiss all the stds. Instead, teachers have to create a safe atmosphere where they feel they belong to. Once they realize they are part of this community, learners will thrive because a ...

I would like to comment on the benefits of circle and what problems may arise from it. I truly believe that circle time is one of the most crucial moments in the language lesson, where teachers have the opportunity to not only interact with them, but also find out information about their families, hobbies and so on. When in the circle time,it is important to highlight that they all have to listen to each other. IN other words, they will be practicing turn-taking, listening actively and responding to their peers` ideas without worrying too much about Getting things right. In addition, they are allowed to express their feeling without being judged. So, when a student shares that he or she is afraid of the dark, it may seem to be harmless to teachers, even though some teachers are afraid of the dark, but, it is the moment where teachers can find out the source of the kid`s being afraid of the dark. Moreover, teachers are able to find out if everything is fine in their homes: when ther...

Hello, everyone!!! My name is Danilo Ribeiro and I live in São Paulo, Brazil. I have been teaching English for 6 years. I've been teaching YLes for 3 years and I am passionate about them. In addition to teaching language to them, I firmly believe we are responsible for teaching values and other 'hidden' things that surface as time goes by. I believe all kids have potential, but teachers, most of the times, lack the right tools, to unleash their learning potential. To me, this course is the tool we need to nurture and cater for their needs. =) I am willing to learn more from this more-than-fantastic community of teachers. Nice to meet you all! * btw Juan, you worked at Seven Idiomas, didn't you? :)