We started the lessons doing lots of activities about external exams and creativity in the classroom and then we went on the project we are doing.
THE FIRST SESSION:
It was about external exams. First, the teacher was talking about the negative part of external exams for our students and also teachers. Here are some of her conclusions:
It was about external exams. First, the teacher was talking about the negative part of external exams for our students and also teachers. Here are some of her conclusions:
- External exams have a washback effect on learning.
- Teachers have the exam at their backs and it is a negative influence for their teaching.
- Students feel exams as a kind of punishment
- To keep motivation with grammar activities in pupils at the 6th grade/year is difficult.
- Both, teachers and students have lots of pressure all the time due to this kind of exams.
After this reflection, we did some activities that the students might find them more enjoyable and could give them a kind of motivation to learn grammar structures and to practice oral activities without any pressure. She also gave us, as teacher, some resources to prepare our students for these exams.
ACTIVITY 1: It was connected with grammar. We practiced the order of the adjectives
in a sentence.
in a sentence.
The teacher put some picture words on the floor with adjectives and nouns. Then, students should join the adjectives and nouns according to the meaning. After that, some volunteers were performing the dragon story that was built with the information given by the pictures words already done. The whole students were repeating aloud the sentences with the vocabulary and the structure given.
After that, we saw some videos about drama and stories by Michael Rosen dealing with the same idea of activity that I have already done.
ACTIVITY 2: It was connected with production of sentences in order to build a story.
The teacher told us that she would like to have a pet and, using FORTUNATELY/ UNFORTUNATELY we were encouraged to give sentences to complete a story. What was important here was not to create a coherence story but, to have some kind of reaction, a productive activity trying to be creative.
ACTIVITY 3: It was related to how to improve oral production in the foreign language.
It was a kind of competition game. The teacher had already prepared a set of easy questions adapted to the level of the students. The main aim of the activity was to be familiar with ordinary sentences. It was a kind of competition doing 2 lines of students and four students in each line. Those who were the fastest in answering the questions should be the winners.
ACTIVITY 4: It was connected with the development of correct pronunciation in English, as a foreign language.
She gave us a web site to practice and get in touch with native pronunciation, that is
Robobraille.org
ACTIVITY 5 : It was also a grammar activity dealing with connection of verbs and their complements to do phrases. So, we played a game of cards related to collocation. It was useful to practice phrases.
Also, the teacher recommended us some books to practice grammar activities these are
“Teenagers” by Gordon Lewis. Oxford.
Mini flashcards. Languages game. Copy Kit English
Finally, she gave us some pieces of advice to prepare the external exams such as, to give the students strategies for clarification, to prepare the speech and, to try more advanced structures without been afraid to make complex sentences.
Here, there are some pictures of the activities reported.
SECOND SESSION: LITERACY ROUNDUP
The teacher showed us some activities related to production of poems:
- 1.-A shopping list about feelings
- 2.-The reading of some poems
- 3.-Doing poems individually and reading aloud with the whole class.
- 4.-Reading aloud a tongue twisters, first in group and then with the whole class
Here there are some pictures of the poetry session with Malgosia.
THIRD SESSION
We were working on our projects in the computer room. we are doing a lesson planning for primary education children in groups of three that we will present to our colleagues on Thursday.
My personal reflection about what we did yesterday is that all the activities that we did were very useful for teachers to prepare the students for Trinity and Cambridge exams, easy to do with students, enjoyable on the students part, they create a relaxing atmosphere in the classroom that is good for the students learning. These activities are able to work all the skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Most of the activities that we have done in this training course in Nile are very useful for us, as teacher, to improve our teaching practice.
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