REVIEW PREVIEWS UNIT

It is very important to review old sessions, and this is a good example of a new lesson.

Warm up: The participants were asked to review the words "on holiday" topic.

e.g: cruise holiday, safari, hiking, hotel, beach, seaside, camping, caravan, etc...

Link the activity to a board game, which we are going to call CATEGORIES. It means that you can take the idea and work around the topic you have for the session.

A board card is prepared with the categories to be created:

e.g: holiday, furniture, job, fruit, colours, classroom objects, etc;

Option 1: The participants can fill the CATEGORIES, card A, with their own ideas and knowledge;

Option 2: The tutor prepares another card, B, with all the words related to the categories required in card A, listed but mixed. The participants are supposed to pick the right choice to a selected category.

e.g: Card A
Category - Holiday

Card B
Safari, cruise, beach, hotel, seaside, caravan, camping, etc...

Suggestion: When the card A is filled up, the tutor can ask the participants to add one more word for each category.

e.g: excursion

Time: about 20-25 min.
Level: Beginners
Objective: vocabulary acquisition
Skills: speaking, writing, reading, and listening

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Academic Task: Write a story based on pictures.

Social Task: Include every one's idea to write sentences.

Group Formation: The participants will get a card with the country of origin in one side and the flag on the other side

Team Building: The participants should sit in the alphabetical order of the countries and number each other according to the system already used.

Material: Set of pictures, graffiti board, colour pencil and crayon, markers, final sheet.

Task Direction:

*Each member gets a set of cards;
*Draw a cloud shape in the centre of the graffiti page for the title of the story;
*Each member has to write their best sentence using their set of cards;
*The set of cards move clockwise round the table until everyone has had each set;
*The members move clock wise one place;
*Choose the best sentence of each member;
*Write the final story.

Think about WHO, WHAT, WHERE and HOW to write the story.

All the stories can be hung on the wall where everybody will read them easily. It is amazing how creative a person can be when is stimulated by the other participants.

These are key to effective assessment for all pupils.

As stated in QCA’s publication A language
in common, effective assessment for all pupils should:

• recognise what pupils can do and reward achievement;
• be based on different kinds of evidence;
• be a valid reflection of what has been taught or covered in class;
• be reliable in terms of enabling someone else to repeat the
assessment and obtain comparable results;
• be manageable, both in terms of the time needed to complete the
task, and in providing results which can be reported or passed on to
other teachers.

BILINGUAL PUPIL

"Bilingual pupils have access to two or more
languages at home and at school. They may
operate at different language levels in a variety of
circumstances. Being bilingual does not mean that
they are fluent or literate in both languages. For
example, some pupils may be fluent in one of their
spoken home languages, which is used with family
and friends, but they may only be literate in
English or another community language."

Milton Keynes Ethnic Minority Achievement Support Service

EXPERIENCE

I have had the best experience of my life as a teacher of foreigner students from a primary school in Scotland.

P1/2 Kamil, Joseph, Gvidas and Theodor;

P4/5 Joell and Supany;

P7 Nida.

I have developed some activities to interact with them, and I hope in a short term to reach the target.

For P1/2 I intend to help them to develop primary writing, reading, speaking and listening skills.

For P4/5 I intend to help them to cope with writing and reading skills, to make them able to follow the grade they are at the moment.

For P7 I intend to to help her to improve her grammar skills.

God bless me!!!!

ESOL EFL ESL EAL

My experience in Brazil as an English teacher gave me full registration for Language - Modern and Community with GTC in Scotland. It means that I can teach English as an Additional Language (EAL).

What is the difference in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), as a Foreign Language (EFL), as an Additional Language (EAL), and English for Speakers of other Language (ESOL )?

Basically, I need to understand the contest I belong at the moment.

Many Eastern European have launched in this country. Schools have had a huge number of pupils as speakers of other languages where the L1 in Scotland is English.

Which approach should be applied in the schools?

These pupils need English as an Additional Language.

LEARNING MORE EFFECTIVELY

I have researched how to learn more effectively this week.

The resource in the area is really impressive, but one book in particular has caught my eyes. It is colourful, big letters, pictures, and every section is very well explained and separated.

TIPS...oh yes...they help us a lot...I love them

If you understand that we use both side of our brain to learn more effectively, you are going to agree that we need to combine some techniques to improve the way we learn. I would say that everyone has a particular strategy of learning.

What is yours?

Ex: If you want to learn PHRASAL VERBS, what is the best method to use and to be applied in classroom for your students?

PHRASAL VERBS

Introducing phrasal verbs is a constant challenge, because they are just rather difficult to learn. A dictionary can help, but students really need to read and hear phrasal verbs in context for them to be able to truly understand the correct usage.

My suggestion is to begin with a reading comprehension of some interesting student stories for discussion peppered with phrasal verbs. The second part is to propose a brainstorming for students to create a list of phrasal verbs to share with one another.

ENGLISH LITERATURE ACTIVITY

A very good activity in English Literature class.

When studying Shakespeare (ex.), choose some of his plays and give to the students a choice to work in group and perform it freely. The groups shouldn't be more than 5 members.

Each group is supposed to introduce the author, the play, time, space, characters, and perform it in about 45 min.

Enjoy it. You are going to be surprised with your students creativity.

Distance Learning

My friend Filomena has just started blogging, http://www.distanteperto.blogspot.com ,and it is all about Distance Learning.
We graduated at the same year but we have followed different directions. Without being apart and always in touch we have just found out that we are addicted learners. Do you love initials? There is one for you, if you are a person who is always interested in continuing personal and professional development (CPD). That is it...CPD...

If you have any comments, please do it. It is a pleasure to get different opinions, and discuss about so many important subjects in educational area.

A hug.