Active methodology in the bilingual or clil classroom baja

TITLE: ACTIVE METHODOLOGY IN THE BILINGUAL OR CLIL CLASSROOM

COORDINATORS AND PROJECT SUPERVISORS: Carmen Reigada Pérez (CPR Cuencas mineras) Margarita Valdés Díaz (CPR Avilés-Occidente) AUTHORS: Alonso Fernández, Noelia Álvarez-Sala, Silvina Arauzo Barbón, Odette Coalla Fernandez, María Ángeles De Sáa Quintana, Cintia Del Castro Suárez, Sonia Mª Díaz Alvarez, Maria Jesús Fernández Pérez, Silvia Garcia Iglesias, Mª Teresa González Garcia, Patricia González González, Pilar

González Martínez, Miriam González Rodríguez, Mª Jesús Laurín Farrás, Sara López García, Mª Del Mar Soraya Martín Higarza, Pilar Cristina Martínez Cueto-Felgueroso, Eugenia Muruais García, Elena Rial Castro, Rosa Mª Río Blanco, Mª Carmen Rodríguez Pérez, Ana Rosa Ruíz Soriano, José Luis Santos Rodríguez, María Luisa

PROJECT ADVISOR: Patricia Spence EDITA: CPR CUENCAS MINERAS D. L.: AS-00996-2018 Copyright: Copyright: 2017 Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Dirección General de Ordenación Académica e Innovación Educativa. La reproducción de fragmentos de las obras escritas que se emplean en los diferentes documentos de esta publicación se acogen a lo establecido en el artículo 32 (citas y reseñas) del Real Decreto Legislativo 1/1.996, de 12 de abril, modificado por la Ley 23/2006, de 7 de julio, “Cita e ilustración de la enseñanza”, puesto que “se trata de obras de naturaleza escrita, sonora o audiovisual que han sido extraídas de documentos ya divulgados por vía comercial o por internet, se hace a título de cita, análisis o comentario crítico, y se utilizan solamente con fines docentes”.

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INDEX

INTRODUCTION 9

ACTIVE METHODOLOGY IN THE BILINGUAL OR CLIL CLASSROOM

11

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

13

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

45

INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

77

THINKING AND CREATIVITY

101

SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES

119

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

141

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

155

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Introduction

“I never teach my pupils: I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn”.

Albert Einstein.

Providing situations to learn and guiding learners all the way through: that is basically what teachers should aim at and is one of the goals we pursue with this book. Making it both practical and useful for CLIL teachers was our motto.

From the very beginning we have focused on a very simple idea, proposed as a project itself: to discover whether active methodology is effective in the bilingual classroom, to get to know the fundamentals of this didactic approach, to understand and use active methodology in our classrooms, to record the results and share findings from experience.

At the bottom of it all, there is an urgent need to change from traditional approaches, based mainly on rote learning, in which contents - and not so much competences - stand as the backbone of the curriculum.

Giving students an active role encourages their autonomy, engagement in their own learning, development of thinking skills, capacity to explore and ask questions and a sense of responsibility which is difficult to attain in more traditional settings.

Since our students have different intelligences and learning styles, as teachers we have to make sure we provide a variety of learning situations to match this diversity in our classrooms. In this context, extensive use of group work becomes a strategic move, which requires training, practice and reflection in order to make it truly productive and effective. It takes a whole process of decision-making, ranging from the most suitable strategies with which to group students (combining different skills, taking advantage of similarities, at random and so on) to key elements, such as assigning work, laying down an effective foundation or supplying language for interaction to do this successfully.

Bearing all these aspects in mind, the main aim for all those taking part in this project, mentors and participants in the course Metodologías activas para el aula bilingüe held at CPR Cuencas Mineras and CPR AvilésOccidente in 2016, was, on the one hand, to reflect on our own teaching practice with a clear willingness to improve and, on the other hand, to provide this set of ready-made examples, which have been carried out in real classes and which are accompanied by a complete description of the whole context and process including feedback and conclusions.

In order to achieve this double goal, we chose PBL (Project-Based Learning) and active learning methodology, as stated above. Any outstanding CLIL project must start with a strong driving question to engage students. In the case of this workgroup, this was our starting point: Is active methodology really effective in the bilingual classroom? Our aim was to discover the answer to this question in practice by designing activities based on

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the principles of active learning and see how effective they were when carried out in our classrooms.

In the effort to find an answer to this question, the group reviewed and explored the principles of CLIL starting by putting the methodology into practice in the workgroup sessions: teachers learnt CLIL through CLIL methodology and explored active learning strategies using these. This involved working in groups, using thinking skills to review theoretical aspects and turn these into action, being creative, including cultural content in their subjects, and using communication strategies.

Further to this revision of CLIL, the main group task was to design activities for each phase of a CLIL lesson (activating prior knowledge, teaching key vocabulary, accessing and processing information, scaffolding strategies, assessment, etc.) and then to carry these out in their classrooms, in a variety of subjects in PrePrimary, Primary and Secondary Education.

In order to have a common report format, teachers were given a template containing the points to be taken into account when writing their reports.

Once they had adapted each designed activity to the context of their school, classroom or level and then put it into practice with their pupils, all the teachers wrote reports on how it was developed step by step, the time taken to complete the activity, the resources (both physical and linguistic) needed to carry it out, the difficulties they had to cope with and, finally, the outcome and a personal reflection on using this active methodology in their lessons.

The result of this work is this Guide to an Active Bilingual Classroom. It brings together a set of reports describing activities that have been implemented in a variety of bilingual CLIL classrooms and written according to a common structure. The guide is divided into sections according to the teaching function of the activity within the structure of a CLIL lesson.

All the activities reported in this guide can be adapted to any other subjects, educational levels or contexts.

That is the challenge for potential users of the guide and we invite them to send us feedback of their own results.

Connected to the guide, there is a website where you can find more information about active methodology for CLIL classrooms at the following URL: https://sites.google.com/site/metodologiasbilingue

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Active Methodology in the Bilingual or CLIL Classroom Active learning is “a process whereby students engage in activities, such as reading, writing, discussion, or problem solving that promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of class content�. University of Michigan (http://www.crlt. umich.edu/tstrategies/tsal) Active learning methodology refers to the kind of teaching process which centers on activities which encourage students to engage in their learning in a more autonomous way, involving more than short-term memorization of facts and concepts, leading to long-term understanding through analysis, evaluation and creation and making students take a responsible active role in their learning.

Active learning uses the 4 skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing together with watching and adds thinking.

The teacher takes responsibility for guiding, providing learning opportunities for and motivating students whilst the students themselves, now at the hub of the process, take responsibility for their own learning through exploration, discussion, problem solving and collaboration.

YOUR CLASSROOM Floor Plan Students will need to work individually, in pairs, in small groups and as a whole group, therefore they need a seating arrangement that will allow them to do this and also to move from one group to another easily, out to the board easily, carry out physical activities easily and have a space where they can role-play, take part in team activities, present information in different ways and so on.

Equipment Although the boards (digital and white) are essential tools, individual or group access to digital information is recommendable, although if this not possible, you will have to use hand-outs or equivalent. Mini-whiteboards for writing quick answers are very useful and enable students not only to offer their own ideas (important for formative assessment purposes) but also to see what their peers think.

Environment Wall charts with KWL, information on facts and concepts, key vocabulary, language for different functions, etc. are all useful to students and will make their participation more active as well as supporting learning and motivating them. Real-life objects and models enable pupils to observe 3 dimensions as well as allowing them to stimulate senses other than sight. Labelled boxes with all essential tools that can be used if students do not have their own per group are handy. Extra tables around the room can be handy to move to if more space is needed. Don’t be afraid to incorporate the outside world as part of your learning environment. Remember also that your environment can be virtual.

Actors The main actors in your active classroom are obviously your pupils. To plan for them and to engage them, you need to know each and every one of them, their different intelligence make-ups, their different learning styles, their personalities, their competences and abilities, their likes and dislikes, their motivations, their backgrounds, etc. and they need opportunities to become aware of the same, as regards themselves and as regards their peers.

Activities Activities will ideally be adapted to the class, require the use of all skills, include thinking, involve individual, pair, small group and whole group work, work on the content in a variety of ways and format, allow for autonomous information access, processing and product, be carefully timed (use a timer and include a further point for groups that finish quickly), offer feedback opportunities (from teacher to pupils, pupils to teacher, pupils to themselves and pupils to each other), lead to further learning, engage pupils, be scaffolded (especially as regards language).

As pupils are learning in a bilingual or CLIL environment, information input will need to be made accessible as will

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the activities themselves (instructions, discourse, etc).

When pupils learn actively, they access and discuss information through listening, reading, speaking and writing at all stages of the lesson, which usually involves pupils in: •

activating prior knowledge (content + processes)

•

accessing key language and concepts through information input and process activities

•

thinking about, evaluating and using the information for a purpose or product

•

assessing their own learning and progress

•

receiving constant feedback from teacher, peers or others.

Throughout the learning, pupils will be aware of what and why they are learning, what significance this has for what they are going to learn next, what they have learnt and what they still need to know.

Most of all, teachers will need to be patient, encouraging and persistent at first, as pupils find change hard and will need time to adapt to a different kind of learning activity and to feel safe. Chunking (dividing information into manageable sizes) and exchanging information in jigsaw activities, reviewing activities before they are graded, only allowing group answers or designated person answers, are ways to engage all the students in the class but they require time and training. Don’t give up!

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Prior Knowledge Prior knowledge: what an individual student “brings to the classroom, based on their personal and idiosyncratic experiences …” (Bransford et al, 2000).

Prior knowledge refers to the knowledge that we have of the world, of what things are and how to do things (i.e. concepts and procedures).

Our prior knowledge enables us to identify something as known or not known and if it is known, then we can evaluate it as useful or not useful by comparing it with what we know. This, in turn, enables us to take a decision to act or to find out more.

For example, if I am driving my car and I hear an ambulance siren, I will understand what it is because its sound will be in my prior knowledge store if I have heard it before. If I have no experience of this, I will probably proceed by doing the same as the other car drivers around.

Our prior knowledge will obviously affect our learning. Our progress will be affected by our prior knowledge in terms of: a) what we already know, don’t know or inaccurately know about a topic, b) our ability to access, transfer and transmit information (digitally or otherwise) and c) our ability to carry out a variety of processes.

In bilingual learning, we should also consider our knowledge of the foreign language.

Taking prior knowledge into account, and activating it is therefore an important starting point for new learning.

What students already know enables them to make links and acquire new knowledge more easily. A student’s prior knowledge can help learning but it can also hinder as it might have gaps in it (i.e. be insufficient), it might be referring to the wrong context (i.e. be inappropriate) or it might have been misunderstood and is wrong (i.e. be inaccurate).

So, we need to remember that starting students’ learning of a topic with a prior knowledge activity will: • • •

activate their schemata (their existing knowledge framework); motivate them to find out more; enable us (as teachers) to see: »» what they already know (to build on that knowledge) »» what they don’t know (to provide knowledge) »» what they think they know but don’t (to correct inaccurate knowledge).

This will enable our pupils to see that…

• • • •

they are not starting from zero; they have learned a lot already; they are able to make connections and evaluate new information in the light of what they already know; that some of what they think they know is erroneous.

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Students come into our courses with knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes gained in other courses and through daily life. It influences how they filter and interpret what they are learning. (Ambrose, 2010)

Activity:

Ecosystem puzzles

Carried out by:

Sara Laurín Farrás and Year 5 Primary pupils from CP Clarín. Gijón. Primary Education pupils from C.P. Clarín, Gijón.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know.

Activating prior knowledge

Description

In this activity, pupils worked in groups to think about what they already knew about the key concepts of the lesson we were about to start, Ecosystems and Biomes.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

The aims of the activity were to activate pupils’ prior knowledge about ecosystems and to foster group work and group cohesion through sharing their knowledge and discussing a topic they had previously studied in Spanish.

Context

The project was developed at the beginning of a Natural Science lesson. It was done by 24 pupils from class 5A and 23 pupils from class 5ºB, organized in groups of four or five. The project was carried out in their classrooms.

Recommendations

To avoid unnecessary noise and wasting time by moving chairs and/or tables, pupils were asked to do the puzzles standing up around a table or on the floor. If your pupils are seated in groups, this is not necessary.

Also, to avoid losing and/or jumbling up the puzzle pieces, put them altogether in a Ziploc bag. It would also be useful to number them or print them in different colours so the sets for the different groups are easily recognizable.

Physical resources

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/EcosystemsChart.pdf Terrestrial Ecosystems Chart (see Annex)

Language resources

Language of learning Vocabulary related to ecosystems and biomes (biotic factors, abiotic factors, climate, animals and plants).

Language for learning Language for discussing the topic (I think…, in my opinion…, this is…).

Language through learning Some animal vocabulary (e.g. robin)

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were organized in groups of four or five pupils. There was no need to arrange any tables or seats, as it was a quick activity which could be done standing up or on the floor.

Timing

The activity itself took around 15 minutes, taking into account the video and the pupils fitting the puzzles together.

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The Activity

1. First of all, I showed the video to the pupils and asked them to focus on what biotic and abiotic factors are.

2. Then, the pupils were divided into groups and I gave them some jigsaw puzzles about the biotic and abiotic factors to complete. See Resources.

3. When they had finished those, they tried the others as a challenge.

4. Once each group was happy with the results, we reported back to the whole class, checked and discussed each of the concepts and displayed them as a chart (projected on the interactive whiteboard).

5. They then worked individually to complete the Terrestrial Ecosystems Chart.

Outcome

Pupils liked the activity as some of them already knew the concepts in their mother tongue, which made it a great starter for the lesson, as they got involved quickly. The only problem I encountered was that asking pupils to work standing up or on the floor made them quite fidgety so I had to calm them down after the activity.

Discussion

On the one hand, the activity was well-received by the pupils, who became quite competitive towards other groups, and it enabled them to review and reflect on previous knowledge as if they were simply playing a game.

On the other hand, and as mentioned above, some pupils got over-excited and started to grow restless as they are not used to standing up or doing floor activities. Next time, I will probably spend the extra time arranging tables and chairs to avoid this problem.

Conclusion

To sum up, I would highlight that with this activity, my pupils were more engaged with the lesson than when just asked questions about the topic.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/EcosystemsChart.pdf

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

What do you know about Baltu and Judo?

Carried out by:

Cintia de Sáa Quintana and Year 3 Secondary students from IES Virgen de Covadonga. El Entrego, (San Martín del Rey Aurelio).

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know about Judo and Baltu Activating prior knowledge

Description

This was an activity to activate students’ prior knowledge on two sports, judo and baltu.

It used the name of the founder of Judo to encourage students to think about what they already knew about the topic.

Context

This PE activity was carried out with 24 students in the third year of Secondary, aged 14-16 years old.

Two years earlier, they had done a brief unit about one of these modalities with another PE teacher, so I wanted to see what they remembered, what they might know from their life experience, activate their knowledge systems and motivate them towards the topic.

Recommendations

Students need to be divided into two groups.

The activity could be used as a “warm up” activity or a “cool down” activity.

Physical resources

Each group needs a sheet of paper and a pen to write.

The teacher needs a board.

Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the content: specific PE vocabulary (material, actions). Since this is a Prior Knowledge activity, key language may already be known or will be learnt from peers or provided by the teacher.

Language for learning The instructions for carrying out the game.

Sit on the bench/mat with your group This is the name of the founder of Judo.

Write down one fact or aspect about Judo beginning with each letter of the name.

Time’s up, etc.

Language for evaluating an idea Do you think this is a valid idea? We don’t think it’s valid because… We challenge that idea, etc.

Language through learning Key language from previous learning 2 years ago (I checked with the teacher).

Emerging language was recycled orally during the topic.

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Groups and classroom space

Groups of students were sitting on benches or mats.

Timing

Maximum: 3-4 minutes to write and 7-10 minutes to check the answers

The Activity

1. The class was divided into groups and each group was given a sheet of paper with a name taken from the topic, the name of the founder of Judo, written vertically.

2. At “go”, each group spent 3-4 minutes writing down one fact or aspect related to the topic for each letter in the word.

3. I used this time to write the name on the board.

4. When “time was up”, I asked each group in turn what they had decided for each letter and wrote the word on the board if everyone agreed that it was a valid idea.

5. Points were given: 1 point for words that appeared in more than one group´s list; 2 points for facts that only appeared once.

J I G O R O K A N O

Outcome

Students really liked the activity. It was very productive and a lot of words were given.

There were some difficulties, however. Some students found it hard to listen to others, some letters were very difficult and they invented some of the words.

Discussion

The group of students who participated responded really well, so it was very easy to finish the activity. They became very engaged and I had to put the pens in another part of the gym because they were trying to write more words after the whistle.

This is a great activity if they are able to write enough words, although perhaps it would be quite difficult with lower levels.

Conclusion

I would like to repeat this activity with the same group and other groups.

Annex

Some of the words offered: Judo/Jigoro Immobilize Grab/greeting O-soto-gari /o-uchi gari Repetition practised without throwing (Uchi-komi)/reap Outside (soto) Kansetsu waza/Kneeling bow Arm lock /armpit Naked (as in hadaka jime) O (big)

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

The Penguin Thief - Watch and predict.

Carried out by:

Cristina Martin Martín and Year 2 Secondary students, from CPFB Cabañaquinta, (Aller).

Strategy:

Finding out what students already know Activating prior knowledge

Description

This is an activity which involves watching a short video clip about a penguin colony and making predictions. It works well for activating prior knowledge and is also useful for introducing new content.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class with 18 students from Secondary Year 2.

Recommendations

You will need a good Internet connection.

Physical resources

A sheet of paper per group Laptop and projector YouTube Video: The Penguin Thief (1’13’’) https://youtu.be/hkme4NkYjFk

Language resources

Vocabulary Sheet Dictionary Language of learning Language of animals and nature in cold (Polar) regions.

Language for learning The future tense for making predictions, e.g. I think the penguin will…, maybe it will…, the penguin probably won’t…, etc.

Language through learning Animal behaviour

Groups and classroom space

Students worked in groups of 3.

Students sat in their groups

Timing

1 lesson (55 mins. The video clip is 1 min.13 secs.

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The Activity The Penguin Thief

1. The students were told that they were going to watch a video about penguins and that they had to predict what the penguins would do before they watched the whole video.

2. Just one frame from the video was displayed on the board.

3. They shared their predictions and then completed an A-Z list with words or concepts they thought would appear in the video.

4. They then watched the video and checked to see if their predictions were right.

5. Finally, the whole group checked their A-Z vocabulary list of ideas that appeared in the video.

6. They got 1 point for things seen on the video if other groups also had these predictions and 2 points if they had predicted something which was not in any other group’s list.

Outcome

The students carried out the activity well and they enjoyed it. It was productive in that it refreshed knowledge as well as introducing new content. However, a major difficulty encountered was slow and poor Internet connection which was at times frustrating and also made the activity take longer.

Discussion

The activity was motivating for students since it involved the use of ICT and it was an attractive topic for them with lots of visual material. The use of dictionaries was also good for supporting students’ autonomy. I feel that it could also work well for more advanced students.

Conclusion

The activity was motivating and beneficial. Group work and students’ cooperation also proved to be effective.

Annexes

https://youtu.be/hkme4NkYjFk

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

Jobs Alphabet Race

Carried out by:

Elena Muruáis García and Secondary Year 3 from IES Virgen de Covadonga.

El Entrego, (San Martín del Rey Aurelio).

Strategy:

Finding out what students already know Activating prior knowledge Collaborative Learning and Group Work

Description

This was very simple activity used as a warm up as well as to activate and share students’ prior knowledge on a given topic, in this case at the beginning of a unit on the topic of Jobs. Students worked together to do an A-Z game.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class with 15 students in Secondary Year 3, aged 14-15 years old. The students were grouped in 4 teams of 4, except one with 3 students.

Recommendations

When doing the whole class discussion and game, strict organisation and respect for rules is essential if the activity is to keep to time and not be boring.

Physical resources

A worksheet with letters of the alphabet (annex) PowerPoint for the Word by Word Race (Annex)

Language resources

Language of learning Jobs Language for learning Alphabet pronunciation, instructions for the team game.

Language through learning Jobs to be continued

Groups and classroom space

Students sat at group desks, 4 students in each team.

Each team shared a team worksheet.

Timing

About 15 minutes in total, depending on the students’ level of attention and organization in the last stage of the activity.

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The Activity

1. Warm up: I told the students I was going to play a guessing game with them.

I then read the following riddle: “He gets up very early. He doesn’t travel to work. He works outside. He works all day in the sun and the rain. He grows vegetables and then he sells them in the local market. What’s his job?”

After somebody gave the right answer, I explained we were going to focus on jobs.

First we were going to see how many jobs they could remember from previous years by playing a cooperative game (with a small competition included).

2. Each team was given a copy of the group worksheet Job Alphabet Race (see Annex) and the students were told that they were to rotate the paper and take turns to write as many jobs as they could, starting with each of the letters in the alphabet. They were given a time limit of 5 minutes to try to complete the chart but told that if a team finished first, they could stop the game.

3. When time was up, the teams added up their words and the team with the most jobs in the list started the game (see step 4).

4. It was then time to share all the jobs in a whole class discussion and game. One student in the team with the most jobs read their job for letter and if no other team had it in their list, they got 10 points. If other teams had the same job they would all get 5 points (with spelling mistakes, 8 and 3 points respectively). Then if other teams had other jobs for the same letter, they told the class and the same rules applied. If not, the next student in the team moved on to letter B and so on, until we had reviewed the whole list.

Important: All the students in each team should take turns and add all new jobs appearing in the game to their group list. It is also important that students take turns to act as speakers in their groups so that everybody participates.

When we finished the alphabet race, we added up the scores to see who the winners were!

5. Finally, I collected all the Group Worksheets and photocopied them so that all the students would get a copy after the whole class discussion.

6. Follow up: Find out a job for the letters that were left blank.

7. The following day we played Word by Word, using the jobs in the alphabet race.

(See Annex for the PowerPoint of the Word by Word Race).

Outcome

The students enjoyed the activity and were amazed at how many jobs the class knew altogether as a whole group. As the aim of the activity was to find and share vocabulary on jobs, I consider it was useful and it reached its goal.

There were no special difficulties, but the whole class discussion required organization and strict respect for the rules. Otherwise, it might have taken too long and become boring.

Conclusion

It was a good, simple activity. Apart from activating prior knowledge, it strengthened team spirit and cooperation while introducing a small amount of competition which added a bit of excitement. It was interesting to notice how many things we can learn from each other when we work together.

Annexes

http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/AlphabetWorksheet.docx http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/wordbyword.pdf

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Activity:

Discovering your Urinary System

Carried out by:

Eugenia Martínez Cueto-Felgueroso and Year 3 Secondary bilingual students from I.E.S. Sánchez Lastra. Mieres.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know about the urinary system Activating prior knowledge

Description

These are two activities to activate students’ prior knowledge of the anatomy of the human urinary system.

The first is a very simple activity, an easy 5-piece jigsaw of the kidney and the main parts that make it up (See Annex Jigsaw).

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

The second activity is a game: students were given a card with five sentences related to the urinary system. They had to read them carefully and to figure out if the sentences were true or false and to bet on their choice (See Annex Casino).

Context

The activities were carried out with 12 students in Class 3B aged 14 years old in the subject of Biology and Geology. They were done in a normal classroom, using photocopies and the blackboard, with students working in pairs.

Recommendations

The jigsaw can be completed in one minute or less, because it is very simple.

For the casino game, the students were given six minutes to decide (in pairs) if the sentences given were true or false.

Physical resources

Jigsaw of the kidney printed on paper and divided into pieces. One per pair. (See Annex).

“Casino cards” with the true/false sentences. One per pair. (See Annex).

A stopwatch or timer.

Blackboard to write the teams’ bets.

Language resources

Language of learning Scientific terminology relating to the urinary system, e.g. kidney, renal artery, renal vein, renal capsule, renal pelvis, kidney cortex, kidney medulla, ureter, urethra, bladder, diuretic, urine, waste products, to increase/to decrease (the urine production).

Language for learning Language relating to the casino: bet, place your bet, etc.

Language for giving instructions (e.g. complete the jigsaw) Language to discuss if a sentence is true or false Language through learning Jigsaw, to fit, to figure out, to bet, how much to bet

Groups and classroom space

Organization of pupils: in pairs.

Timing

Total time for the 2 activities was about 20 minutes

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The Activity

A. Jigsaw.

Each pair was given a set of five pieces of paper with different parts of a drawing of the kidney. I explained that it was a jigsaw and they had to fit all the pieces together to make up a kidney.

B. True/False Casino.

1. I explained to the pupils that they were going to start with 100 credit points to bet on True/False statements.

2. Each pair was given a “casino card” and they had to decide if the statements were true or false and then complete the casino card. If they thought a statement was false, they had to complete the “why?” section.

3. In the bet column, they wrote down how much they wanted to bet. The minimum bet was 10 and maximum was 20 credits.

4. When all the pairs had completed their “casino card”, I asked them whether they thought each sentence was True or False and wrote each pair’s answer up on the blackboard together with their bet.

Examples of teacher questions: Do you think statement 1 is true or false? What is your bet on this statement? Why do you think it is false?

5. I then told the students the correct answers for each statement and why. We checked and adjusted each pair’s total credit points accordingly. The winning pair was the one with the most credit points at the end.

Outcome

The students had no problems in carrying out the two activities and enjoyed the true/ false casino game a lot. They had to reflect on what was written in the true/false sentences.

They found the jigsaw very easy to complete, even though they did not know the specific names of each part of the kidney, and were able to do it very quickly following the kidney shape. It was productive because I used it to introduce the internal anatomy of the kidney with its corresponding vocabulary.

Discussion

The students worked in teacher-made pairs, trying to combine those who are weaker in Biology with more competent peers, which was effective in enabling all students to participate and learn.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the activities were interesting for the students and they enjoyed themselves while doing them. The fact of playing a game and betting made them feel more motivated when doing the second activity.

Annexes

http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/CasinoGameEugeniaMartinezActivity.docx http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/Worksheet.docx

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

Let’s classify vertebrates!

Carried out by:

M.M.Soraya López García and Year 3 Primary bilingual pupils from C.P. Marcelo Gago. Avilés.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know about the classification of vertebrates

Description

This is an activity to activate pupils’ prior knowledge of the classification of vertebrates.

Pupils use clue cards to help them choose five toy animals that correspond to the five categories of vertebrates. They then check their own work themselves.

Context

The activity was carried out with seven pupils aged eight years old in Science.

Recommendations

These pupils got very excited when they saw so many toy animals and started to play with them. Therefore, if your pupils are not used to using realia for learning activities, it might be a good idea to allow them to play for a moment before starting the activity.

You will need to prepare the physical resources before starting, which could be done with another group as a revision activity.

The photos in the Annex might help you to understand the activity better if the instructions are not clear to you.

Physical resources

A set of vertebrate toy animals. There should be enough toy animals of every group of vertebrates (mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds).

A set of five clue cards per pair (see Annex 1). These should be in different colours (e.g. red for mammals, yellow for birds, blue for fish, green for reptiles and purple for amphibians) and have a clue written on them (e.g. ‘They drink their mother’s milk’, for mammals.)

Five big cards (flashcards) in the same colours as the clue cards on one side, and on the other with the picture of an animal corresponding to a vertebrate category and a label with the name of the category (e.g. the picture of a cow and the word MAMMALS).

See photographs in the Annex for more information.

Language resources

One vocabulary sheet per pair of pupils with the meaning of the most difficult words in the clues. The sheets are stuck on the classroom walls.

Language of learning Mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians.

Language for learning I think (cows) are (mammals). I don’t think so What’s the meaning of...? ….... is a (reptile). … are (birds). Etc. Language through learning Choose, pick up, put/place

Groups and classroom space

Students worked in groups of 3.

Pupils worked in pairs.

They used their tables, the classroom walls, the floor and two big tables.

Timing

These pupils took 50 minutes.

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The Activity

1. As there were only seven pupils, they worked in pairs.

2. Prior to the activity, I prepared and stuck up the vocabulary sheets on the wall to support pupils in their understanding of the clues.

3. I also placed 5 sets of animals (with at least 1 animal per pair) corresponding to the 5 categories of vertebrates - Mammals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles and Amphibians – on the equipment table.

4. To start the activity, the pupils, in pairs, chose five toy animals - one from each group - from the table. Each pair received 5 clue cards, one for each of the 5 categories of vertebrates.

5. Each card was in a different colour and contained a clue about a type of vertebrate.

6. Pupils read the clues and decided whether each corresponded to a mammal, a bird and so on. They used the expressions I think this is a … mammal (or mamífero in their mother tongue if they did not know the English word) or I don’t think so.

7. They then put the animals they had chosen on a table, with the clue cards next to each animal according to how they had decided to classify them.

8. Meanwhile, the teacher had put five flashcards face down on the floor. These flashcards were the same colours as the corresponding clue cards and had a picture of an animal of every type and the name of the category but these could not be seen face down.

9. When all the pupils had finished classifying, they put each animal on the floor under the flashcard that was the same colour as the clue card they had used to classify it.

10. The teacher then turned the five flashcards on the floor face up so that the children could check if the animals they had chosen were the same type as the animals they could now see on the flashcards.

11. The teacher read out the five categories on the flashcards and the pupils repeated.

They said sentences about their toy animals, such as Giraffes are mammals and the teacher asked all the pupils if they agreed.

12. If an animal was in a wrong vertebrate group, the pupils who had put it there read aloud the clue for that category and translated it. The translation helped them to rethink, evaluate the information, compare and choose the correct category.

Outcome

The children were engaged in the activity. Only one pair put an animal in the wrong place and when they read the clue again, they realised their mistake and were then able to change the animal to the correct category.

Discussion

The pupils worked in teacher-made pairs, trying to combine those who were weaker in English with more competent peers.

Conclusion

This was the first time these children had shown a real interest in carrying out an activity in the Science class this year! All of them participated and I think it was an important fact that they did it by themselves, helping each other and as the teacher I was only guiding, which fostered a feeling in them of being able to do something alone.

25

Activity:

Animals - Pets

Carried out by:

María Luisa Santos Rodríguez and Year 1 Primary pupils from CP Benjamín Mateo. La Felguera, (Langreo).

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activating prior knowledge Description

This was a flashcard combined with colouring activity in order to find out how much pupils already knew about the topic of pets and to activate this knowledge. It involved the communicative functions of describing animals and their characteristics and talking about their preferences as regards animals.

Context

The activity was carried out in the FL English class with four Year 1 pupils (six years old). The class is heterogeneous, because two pupils work hard but the other two sometimes need help.

The school is small and I work with double cycles so there were second year pupils in the same class. The activity was therefore carried out with the help of the speech therapy teacher.

Recommendations

Prior to this activity, pupils also listened to a song about pets to activate prior knowledge of aspects related to this topic.

Physical resources

4 flashcards of pets (similar to those included in the Annex) Blackboard Notebooks Crayons and pencils

Language resources

Language of learning Vocabulary of animals, pets, colours Syntactic structures: It´s a (mouse) A blue (body). What´s your favourite animal?

My favourite animal´s (a dog), etc.

Language for learning Children need the expression it´s got / it has got Language through learning The activity produced language such as draw, look at, I’ve finished and so on.

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked as a small group, sitting at their tables around the teacher´s table with the board behind the teacher to display the cards.

Timing

The activity took about forty minutes but this would depend on the number of pupils and number of times the activity is explained prior to starting.

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The Activity

1. I stuck four flashcards of a dog, mouse, rabbit and cat, each in a different position in relation to a tree, onto the blackboard.

2. We then identified these animals by exploring their position in relation to the tree.

Example: The cat is under the tree. The dog is next to the tree, etc.

3. We quickly revised the colours and parts of the body (in general), as well as tail, nose, legs, etc.

4. The pupils then drew these 4 animals in their notebooks.

5. Pupils were given various drawing and colouring instructions such as: • Look at the cat. Colour a pink nose. It has a pink nose.

• Look at the mouse. Colour a yellow body. It has a yellow body.

• Look at the rabbit and colour only two blue legs.

• Draw a tail and colour it green.

• Draw the four legs of a dog and colour them red.

• Draw a cat with three legs and colour one brown, etc.

• With each instruction, pupils coloured or drew the corresponding item.

6. To add an element of play to the activity, the child who finished first was given a point.

Outcome

This was a useful activity. Pupils enjoyed it, learned a lot of vocabulary and how to describe animals, just by using very simple resources: four flashcards, their notebooks and crayons.

The whole activity was carried out exclusively in English so pupils used the FL as the language of communication, which was certainly a step forward.

Discussion

The group was very small so I did not divide the class, and they were both engaged in and focused on the activity, including a SEN pupil with autism who, in fact, finished first and won the point. This was not only motivating but also a source of reflection for myself, as a teacher, to see that my pupils were able to carry out an activity using only the FL and that they acquired new knowledge thanks to the activation of prior knowledge.

I was also surprised to discover that the SEN pupil, who had never previously engaged in any activity in the FL class but, on the contrary, usually sang, shouted or ran around the room while the other pupils were working, sat down, focused on the activity and actually finished first.

Having shared this finding with other teachers, we decided that this could be a way to help the SEN pupil to move forward.

Finally, I will adapt the activity and do it again for the start of the next topic, as I feel it is effective when learning the key language.

Conclusion

The experience was productive and the pupils also very much enjoyed this type of activity.

However, although it was positive and I was very happy with the results, I also think it is difficult to work with this type of activity in the classroom every day.

Annex

http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/PetFlashcards.docx

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

What do you know about animals?

Carried out by:

Noelia Alonso Fernández and Year 1 Secondary students from María Inmaculada School. Pola de Laviana.

Strategy:

Finding out what students already know Activating prior knowledge

Description

This was a group activity which worked well to review the words they had acquired in the previous years and to learn new vocabulary related to the new topic we were dealing with.

Context

This activity was carried out in the English FL class with 24 students in Year 1 Secondary. I was alone in the classroom (no assistants) but although there were some students with some specific problems (for example, of attention) there were no SEN students.

Recommendations

When working in groups, assign roles or numbers, so number one reads and explains the question to number two, number two answers the question, number three corrects the answer and number four reads the answer aloud for the group.

Physical resources

Photocopy of different animals and questions https://goo.gl/XZUiLM Digital Board or photocopies

Language resources

The language of learning and the language for learning were shown on the whiteboard and photocopy with it was also provided to each group Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the content of animals, e.g.

The different groups are for example: Characteristics Mammals, Reptiles, etc.

Animals: the topic is in the centre It’s got… It’s big /small, etc.

Language for learning Language for speculating, e.g. It could be a …, I think it’s a …

Language for giving clues, e.g. It lives …

Language through learning This animal belongs to … group because it …

Groups and classroom space

The students were in groups of four.

Timing

40 minutes

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The Activity

1. Students were divided into groups of 4 and each was given a photocopy of different animals to classify as mammal, reptile, bird, fish, etc. and with questions related with the animals.

2. I explained how they were going to do the activity and how they were going to work.

3. I gave each group a photocopy with the language of learning and the language for learning and also displayed it on the whiteboard.

4. I gave them 15 minutes to think together and do the photocopy and then asked them to tell me their answers, but I did not tell them if they were right or wrong.

Outcome

The students enjoyed doing the activity, reviewed and learnt concepts and language and they found it interesting.

Discussion

In spite of the fact that the activity was successful as regards learning, I found it difficult when they worked in groups because of the noise, as they were not able to speak quietly.

Conclusion

The activity was a success and the students enjoyed it a lot.

Annex

Animal classification worksheet https://goo.gl/XZUiLM

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

What do you know about invertebrates?

Carried out by:

Odette Arauzo Barbón and Year 4 Primary pupils from Maria Inmaculada School. Pola de Laviana.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know Activating prior knowledge

Description

This is a group activity which works well when reviewing the knowledge that they have acquired in previous years and to acquire other concepts related to the topic they are studying. If we do it cooperatively and we let the pupils know we are interested in their knowledge, they will benefit from the group’s opinions and will participate more actively. The pupils will be more interested in the topic in order to learn the content and the vocabulary they haven’t learnt yet.

Context

The activity was done with 25 pupils in Year 4 Primary in the natural science class.

I had no help in the classroom. It is a really talkative class but they work well in groups. There is one SEN pupil.

Recommendations

If we do the activity cooperatively and let the pupils know that we are interested in their knowledge, they will benefit from the group’s opinions and will participate more actively. The pupils will be more interested in the topic in order to learn the content and the vocabulary they have not learnt yet.

Give roles within the team or numbers, so number one reads and explains the question to number two, number two answers the question. Number three corrects the answer and number four writes the answer aloud for the group, adds what it’s necessary and reads the second question aloud. Choose one ‘clever pupil’ one ‘shy pupil’ and two ‘average pupils’ in each group.

Physical resources

Photos/ poster of different invertebrates

Language resources

The invertebrates poster placed on the wall.

The language of learning and the language for learning will be displayed on a word document on the whiteboard or will be given in a photocopy (one per group).

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for Invertebrates.

It is a vertebrate / an invertebrate Arthropods / worm / echinoderms / molluscs / sponges / arachnid / insect / crustacean Wings / abdomen / legs / head/ cephalothorax / antennae It’s got… / It’s big /small, etc.

Language for learning Group work, e.g. It’s my turn/ it’s your turn For comparing, e.g. A butterfly is smaller than a starfish For speculating, e.g. It could be a …

For giving an opinion, e.g. I think it’s a ... because …

For giving clues, e.g. It lives …

Language through learning This animal belongs to … group, because it …

It hasn’t got bones so it’s an invertebrate

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Groups and classroom space

The pupils are grouped in pairs so that when necessary they can move easily into groups of four. The tables are in front of the digital interactive whiteboard and there is a blackboard too.

Timing

20 minutes depending on the extent to which the pupils are used to working in groups and how you make up the groups.

The Activity

1. I put the poster on the wall and asked the pupils what they could see on it.

2. I asked them if they knew the names of the invertebrates on the poster.

3. The pupils were then divided into groups and I gave each one a photocopy with the different animals and with questions related with the animals.

4. I explained how they were going to do it and how they were going to work.

5. In addition, I gave each group a photocopy with the language of and for learning (you could also display this on the whiteboard).

6. They were given 15 minutes to do the photocopy and then they were asked to say their answers, but I didn’t tell them if they were right or wrong.

Outcome

The pupils enjoyed doing the activity and they found it interesting. They are used to working in groups so they worked well. They talked among themselves but sometimes they used their mother tongue, instead of asking for the vocabulary they didn’t know, which is an aspect to improve in future.

Discussion

For me, it’s really difficult when they work in groups to evaluate which pupils have taken part more actively while doing the activity. If I do this activity again, I will design one individual activity to do before the group activity.

Conclusion

The activity was a success and the pupils got involved easily. It lets you know the main knowledge from the group and what things they have not learnt yet.

Annex

http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/InvertebratesWorksheet.docx

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

‘Christmas is coming’

Carried out by:

Mª del Pilar González González and Year 1 Secondary students and Year 2 Secondary from IES Sánchez Lastra. Mieres.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know Activating prior knowledge

Description

‘Christmas is coming’ is a prior knowledge activity which enables the teacher to get an idea of what the students already know about how people celebrate Christmas in Great Britain and in New Zealand and also to activate students’ prior knowledge networks.

This activity involves the following skills: thinking, writing, listening, reading and speaking.

AIMS OF THE ACTIVITY: 1. To find out what students already know about the topic.

2. To allow students to share information and knowledge with their classmates.

3. To help students to reflect on their prior knowledge.

4. To think, listen, talk, read and write about the topic practising a variety of vocabulary, structures and functions

Context

This activity was carried out with students in three different groups in the Bilingual Stream Programme at IES Sánchez Lastra Secondary School: FORM

AGE OF THE STUDENTS

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

1B

12 / 13 years old

12

2A

13 / 14 years old

11

2B

13 / 14 years old

12

Recommendations

Display the language for learning on the board so that students have easy access to it.

Physical resources

White worksheets (One for each pupil) Coloured cardboard Pens and felt pens Watch and a bell

Language resources

Dictionaries Language of learning Students share their knowledge of vocabulary related to the topic (Christmas). The teacher can help them when needed.

Language for learning Instructions for the activity - these were written on the board.

Language through learning A mini-picture dictionary will be made with the key language which emerges from the activity.

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Groups and classroom space

Groups of 3 or 4 students A big table in the middle of the classroom

Timing

The activity took 35 minutes in total divided into three parts: • 5 min. thinking and working on their own.

• 5 min. working in groups of 3/4.

• 10 min. to write their statements on the chart.

• 5 min. to read others’ statements.

• 10 min. round table discussion 1. A large coloured chart was displayed on the big table in the middle of the classroom.

The Activity

CHRISTMAS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IN NEW ZEALAND KNOW (OR THINK WE KNOW)

WANT (NEED) TO KNOW

LEARNT

2. Pupils worked individually to write their sentences about the topic on a worksheet.

3. They then worked in groups of 3 or 4 and shared what they already knew about celebrating Christmas in UK and in NZ. 4. Each group sent a member to the chart to write a statement in the first column.

5. Each group then went to the chart to read the other groups’ statements.

If they did not agree with them, they wrote a question mark next to it.

6. Next, groups wrote questions in the second column of the chart about what they would like to know about the topic.

7. Finally, we had a round table discussion. See Video display of activity and results

Outcome

Discussion

I discovered that the students had some knowledge about the topic and they were able to acquire new information by peer sharing.

Mass media has an enormous influence on the pupils and is the cause of some misunderstanding, for example, some students thought ‘Black Friday’ was part of the Christmas Celebration.

It was quite an interesting activity. Students took part actively in all the different parts of the activity and enjoyed it.

Conclusion

The students showed interest and a positive attitude towards the activity and they realised what they already knew and learnt some more facts.

I would use this kind of activity in the future, but next time students will be provided with written instructions to make the activity easier to follow.

Annex

http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/Video.mp4 http://cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/1/Template.docx

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

Post Living Things

Carried out by:

Rosa Rial Castro and Year 5 Primary pupils from CP San Claudio, Oviedo.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know Activating prior knowledge

Description

This was an Active Mind Map activity that involved thinking, discussion and movement around the room, as well as reading and writing skills.

It was a “team game” so competition, fun, game rules, teamwork, motivation, etc. were also part of it.

The aims of the activity were: • to find out what pupils already knew about Living Things; • to help pupils to organise their knowledge by using mind maps; • to observe how they manage in a group activity.

Context

The activity was carried out during a Natural Science lesson about Living Things with 19 pupils of 10 years old in Year 5 Primary.

This was the first activity for the Living Things unit.

Recommendations

If the pupils are not already in groups, you must take into account the time and the space you will need to form these.

Physical resources

Coloured post-it notes (as many colours as groups) A board and chalk If you like: a countdown clock

Language resources

Dictionaries Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed to talk about Living Things.

The teacher can provide language help if needed.

Language for learning Managing in class: How do you say… in Spanish/English, please?

I know / I don’t know what …. is …

Speculating: I think that … is a kingdom Agreeing/Disagreeing: I don’t agree with you; I think that… I agree with you.

Language through learning As this was a prior knowledge activity, the pupils used the vocabulary they knew about Living Things. They later made a Glossary in their notebooks. New language would be recycled throughout the topic.

Groups and classroom space

4 x groups of 4/5 people 4 tables or 4 groups of tables

Timing

About 20 minutes.

The first time I used the activity, it took longer because it was important to define the topic they were working on clearly.

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The Activity

1. Pupils were divided into groups and each group was given a set of post-its - one colour for each group (e.g. G1 blue, G2 red, etc.).

2. I wrote the topic as a title in the centre of the board and set a time limit of 2-3 mins.

3. Pupils wrote one idea per post-it about the topic, as many as they could in the time.

4. When time was up, the first group put their post-its around the edge of the board.

5. The second group did the same, but, if any idea was the same, they placed that post-it on the corresponding post-it from the first group. This meant that pupils needed to read all the post-its from the other group. All the groups did the same.

6. When all the post-its were on the board, pupils had 2-3 minutes to think and to decide, in view of the ideas on the board, what the sub-sets of the main topic were.

7. I used the time to draw a giant mind map, with the topic in the centre, on the board.

8. When time was up, I asked each group to sa sub-topic title and write them in the subset circles.

9. Each group in turn came out to the board and had 30 seconds to assign post-its to the sub-sets.

10. Any post-its left at the end were discussed and we decided where to put them.

Outcome

Some groups made a summary of the previous unit (the organisation of Living Things). Others competed about how many post-it notes they could write so they did not enjoy the activity very much.

It was productive in the way they reviewed the topic but they did not really show how much they knew about the theme. In addition, it took longer than expected because they did not understand exactly what they had to write down and to organise the information was hard.

Some wrote down just words, other groups competed as to how many post-it notes they could write.

Discussion

The results were not optimal, maybe because it was their first time and they were not used to working in groups, to thinking or to being active in their learning or maybe the instructions about the aim of the activity were not clearly understood.

It might be better to choose a “smaller� / more specific topic for the first time.

Conclusion

More precise information should have been given and more examples at the beginning.

I will try it again.

Update

I have now tried the activity again with the topic of ecosystems. This time the results were better. Even though pupils just wrote words, they no longer made a competition of it and were able to group the post-its to make a simple mind map. It took a long time but less than the previous day.

35

Activity:

Christmas has come

Carried out by:

Silvia Mª Fernández Pérez and Year 2 Baccalaureate students from IES Valle de Turón. Santa Marina de Turón, (Mieres).

Strategy:

Activating prior knowledge

Description

This was an oral activity for students to activate their prior knowledge by randomly assigning them a wh-question word with which to form a proper question to ask their partners about Christmas.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

The reason for this was to check how much they really knew about Christmas because at this level, with a relatively high level of competence, they think they know “everything” and often this is not an accurate self-evaluation of knowledge. With this activity, they gained awareness of the fact that learning is a life-long process and even such a simple topic as Christmas can still offer them opportunities to learn.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English language session on Friday just before the break in their classroom with Year 2 post-compulsory mixed branch students.

MAs there are only 8 students, instead of making groups, each of them had one wh-word to work with.

Recommendations

At the end, as we had enough time, we listened to two carols “All I want for Xmas is you” and “Imagine” for them to compare both and also make them reflect on the meaning of this time of the year, so it is a good idea if you wish to finish in this way, to take into account internet speed.

Physical resources

Board to write key words.

PC connected to the projector to see pictures and listen to carols.

Post-its with the WH-words written on them and posted around the classroom.

36

Language resources

I provided students with typical words about Christmas (decorations, carols, stocking, mistletoe, etc.) written on post-its (using different colours depending on grammatical category) and scattered all around the classroom.

Language of learning Christmas lexicon Language for learning Language for expressing likes and dislikes Language through learning Specific activities and tools to build on emerging language

Groups and classroom space

8 students in a horseshoe set-up

Timing

It took 50-55 minutes in total, but time is dependent on internet connection speed

The Activity

1. First of all, I explained to students how the session was going to be developed.

2. Asking for information: each student chose a coloured piece of paper with a WHword written on it - without seeing the side on which the word appeared.

3. Students made up a question, beginning with the WH-word that they had been given, to ask for any kind of information about Christmas, either in present or past tense.

4. If s/he formulated it correctly, s/he received a point, as well as the partner who answered the question correctly. e.g. When was Christ born? Where is mistletoe placed in the house? Etc.

Outcome

As the group was very lively and talkative, the activity worked well and students and teacher enjoyed it. In general, the students performed satisfactorily, with most of them wanting to ask another question (except the shyer ones) and they all found the activity fun and motivating.

Discussion

The activity was successful because these pupils usually feel motivated towards the English lesson, although they do sometimes try to use their mother tongue. However, since it was a lively group with a small number of students, it was ideal to work the activity with.

Conclusion

The results can be considered extremely positive because pupils listened to each other, expressed their opinions in a respectful way and those who wanted to then enjoyed the intercultural aspect of singing the carols. The activity also contributed to helping them to learn ethical values like sharing and not being too materialistic.

Annex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY

37

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

What can you see in my face?

Carried out by:

Silvia Mª Fernández Pérez and Year 1 Secondary students from IES Valle de Turón. Santa Marina de Turón, (Mieres).

Strategy:

Finding out what students already know.

Subject:

English Content and Language Integrated Learning

Description

What can you see in my face? is a prior knowledge activity which enables to teachers to get a rough idea of what their students already know and to activate their prior knowledge networks regarding the topic in question – in this case, parts the human face.

This is an active pair activity involving thinking and discussion, as well as reading and writing skills, which has the added element of “a team game” (competition, fun, game rules, teamwork, motivation, etc.).

The aims of the activity (apart from having fun) were: 1. to see how useful a prior knowledge activity can be before introducing the main learning focus; 2. to find out what the participants already knew about the different parts of the human face; 3. to experience the fact that activities are more meaningful and motivating if they appeal to all aspects of an individual’s “intelligence make-up” (understood as how an individual’s intelligence is made up of multiple facets of intelligence).

Context

This activity was carried out with 16 students in Year 1 Secondary (12-14 years old).

The students had at least 3 different levels of English language competence and one had a curricular adaptation, which did not prevent him from carrying out the activity with his classmates.

This group of students did not belong to the bilingual section.

Recommendations

As they work in pairs, if the classroom is big enough, there is generally enough space for each pair to work standing up around one of their two tables.

Physical resources

1 set of pictures for each pair of the eyebrow, eyelash, forehead, etc.

1 set of written words for each pair for students to match with the pictures.

Blackboard and chalk to write the names of the pairs, which had been chosen by the students themselves and to assign the points to the winners.

Language resources

Language of learning Students shared their knowledge of key language in the course of the activity (ears, eyes, mouth, lips...)

As this was a prior knowledge activity, no extra planning was needed.

The teacher provided key language when/if needed.

Language for learning Group work expressions – it is a good idea to have these permanently displayed on the board or wall.

Instructions for the game. You have 2 sets of cards: one with pictures of the different parts of the face and one with the names written on them.

You have to match the 2 sets as quickly as possible.

When you finish, say “stop”.

If it is correct, you are given a point. If not, another pair takes their turn.

Language through learning Key language which emerged from the activity was recycled in an Odd One Out information input activity and orally in class.

38

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked in pairs.

They needed one table per pair to work on.

Timing

Timing can be adapted to time available and complexity of the topic. As a guide, we did the activity in 10 minutes, including explanations.

The Activity

1. Each pair had a table as their “home”.

2. The 2 sets of cards were placed face down on each table.

3. Students were told what the topic was and given 2-3 minutes to think together about the topic of the human face.

4. I explained the rules of the activity clearly and had one student explain again to check that they understood what they were going to do.

5. Students had to match the parts of the face with the word labels. At “go”, each pair started doing the matching 6. When the first pair had finished, I checked one picture-word match at a time. If it was correct, they were assigned 1 point, if not, their turn passed to another pair.

Outcome

The activity in general was successful as an example of a prior knowledge game. I discovered that students did have some knowledge of the parts of the face, but that this was limited. Students enjoyed the activity and some new information was also acquired by peer sharing.

One difficulty I encountered involved some misunderstanding of activity instructions, which could perhaps be solved by using a model “match” prior to starting.

Discussion

The activity was extremely useful both to provide a hands-on example of a prior knowledge game so that the students would understand that they did already have some knowledge of the topic and also to show them and myself, as their teacher, what parts of the face they actually knew already as well as to realise to what extent some more information was needed.

Conclusion

The activity was successful as all students felt confident because they were helped by their classmates.

I would use this activity again linked to other concepts like parts of the house and so on.

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Activity:

Let´s see your “Talking Drawing about Volume”

Carried out by:

Silvina Alvarez-Sala and Year 1 Secondary Bilingual students from C.P.E.B. Cabañaquinta, (Aller).

Strategy:

Finding out what students already know Activating knowledge framworks Motivating

Description

This was an active practical activity, in which students made a drawing of what they knew about “volume”, what they understood by “volume” and how they would represent it.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

By physically drawing what they knew, they could see their own and peers’ initial knowledge and after some discussion and explanation, realized what they still needed to know.

The activity also enabled the teacher to get a good graphic idea of what students already knew about the topic of volume and how it is represented in 2D in order to start the study of the topic at the right level.

Context

The activity was carried out in the workshop corresponding to the subject of EPVA (Plastic, Visual and Audiovisual Expression, i.e. Art and Design) with 13 students in the bilingual section of Year 1 Secondary (12 years old).

Recommendations

The topic should be adapted to students’ age (12 years old) Students need to sit so that they are not able copy each other’s ideas.

Physical resources

Pencil and white paper.

Language resources

Dictionary Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the topic of volume, e.g. relief, area, filled with.., prism, solid geometry, etc.

Language for learning Language for description, for group work, for assessing drawings.

Language through learning They learned specific and technical words about different shapes.

Groups and classroom space

Groups of 4/5 students Large groupwork tables.

Timing

35 minutes in total.

The first part took 5 min.

Group Work 10 min.

20 min for commenting group drawings

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The Activity

1. Students were told to close their eyes and to visualize what they knew about volume (e.g. solid geometry, 3D etc.) for a minute or so.

2. Then I told them that they had 3 minutes to draw a picture of what they had visualized.

3. When time was “up”, students joined together in groups of 4-5 and displayed and explained their drawings to each other.

4. They were asked to make positive comments about each drawing using “I like the fact that…” e.g. I like the fact that your drawing has a geometric shape like a sphere.

5. They then told the whole class in what way their group’s drawings were similar and in what way they were different.

6. Then all the drawings were put on display around the room.

7. After learning, these drawings later showed students the difference between what they knew before and what they had learned.

Outcome

At first, students felt surprised and were very shy, which caused an initial difficulty when starting the activity. I think this was probably due to the fact that they were not used to thinking about an abstract topic and even less to sketching it. However, once they became engaged in the activity, the results were much better, and gave both the students and myself an important insight into how limited their knowledge actually was in this area as well as making them more receptive towards learning more about the topic.

Discussion

The results were better than expected. However, the topic I chose was maybe too abstract and general so if I do the activity again, I will choose a more specific focus.

The activity was very visual and gave students an immediate understanding of what they knew at that moment about volume and how to represent it.

Conclusion

As a prior knowledge activity, it was successful in that both students and I recognized immediately how limited their existing knowledge of the topic of volume was and enabled us to understand what they needed to know as well as motivating them.

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PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Activity:

Getting to know Christmas

Carried out by:

Sonia Mª del Castro Suárez and 5 years old Pre-primary pupils from CP Atalía.

Gijón.

Strategy:

Finding out what students already know about Christmas time.

Activating knowledge networks to connect new to previous learning.

Guessing and predicting.

Description

This is a story-telling activity using a YouTube video clip adapted from the traditional tale “The Gingerbread Man”, aimed at 5-year olds, who, of course, love listening to tales. The story connects with the animated world of animals in a winter setting, and gives pupils a clue to guess the title of the activity to be worked on.

It is based on vocabulary related to Christmas and connected with the wonderful world of fantasy and dreams. Then, through the presentation of a “magic box”, the gingerbread man introduces the new vocabulary related to Christmas.

The aim of the activity was to introduce new vocabulary through motivating activities which connected with pupils’ prior knowledge and interests, thereby activating their knowledge networks to facilitate learning, encourage predicting skills and scaffold an anxiety-free environment in which children felt happy to guess.

Context

Both activities were carried out in the English classroom with three groups of 25 students who were in the last year of Pre-primary. The tutor-teachers were not involved because of lack of time for coordination.

The whole set of activities were connected to a cooking workshop carried out in our school dining room where pupils made baked cookies. Once pupils had worked with the information, they were encouraged to decorate a gingerbread man provided on a worksheet.

Recommendations

This activity is the introduction to a set of activities described in the section on Information Input and Processing, which lasted throughout the month of December with two sessions per week.

Physical resources

Digital: YouTube video The Ginger Bread Man (in winter) Material: flashcards, a magic box and realia

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Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary related to Christmas time, for example: Gingerbread man, Christmas, Santa Claus, sleigh, Rudolf, reindeer, bells, Christmas tree, baubles, presents, star, stocking, candy cane, etc.

Expressions: when is Santa coming? we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, what color is the present? etc.

Language for learning Hello boys and girls. How are you today? As you can see I have our Magic box.

Surprise, surprise!! What do you think there is inside?

Maybe…is there a big book? Is there a teddy bear? What do you think? etc.

Language through learning in addition to the key language, emerging language included actions and winter (snow ice, cold, frozen, etc.)

Emerging language was recycled and added to through various related activities in later sessions, such as: The story “When magic really happens” video clip Decorating a Gingerbread man Christmas card template A short play: The Gingerbread Man Christmas counting and bingo, etc

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were grouped in teams of 4 so that they could work cooperatively and develop oral skills among peers. They were seated for both activities as a whole group in a horseshoe arrangement in order to see the magic box and the board (video clip).

Timing

1 session Video lasts 1’43’’

The Activity

1. Prior to the session, I had made a “magic box” (I used a decorated shoe box) and put in it some flashcards with pictures of things connected to Christmas, e.g. Gingerbread man, Christmas, Santa Claus, sleigh, Rudolf, reindeer, bells, Christmas tree, baubles, presents, star, stocking, candy cane, and so on.

2. Pupils first watched The Gingerbread Man by Oxford University Press which you can access on YouTube (1min. 43’’). This is simple for them to understand and uses everyday vocabulary relating to actions.

3. Then I asked them to think together and guess what could be the title of the activities we were going to do.

4. Once they had discovered the title of the activity, the vocabulary related to Christmas was introduced by using the flashcards hidden in the “magic box”.

5. I said a magic sentence to open the box: “Magic Christmas, Magic Christmas, open the box 1,2,3” and one flashcard appeared.

6. Pupils participated by putting up their hands which provided information about their prior knowledge and helps them to fit the new words into their knowledge network.

Outcome

The children enjoyed both activities a lot, as they involved an element of fun and at the same time created a non-threatening learning environment, in which guessing was encouraged.

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Discussion

The strength of this strategy was to acquire the new vocabulary in an unconscious and fun way. Pupils were acquiring the English language without being aware of the fact that they were working and the new items of vocabulary connected with their prior knowledge and interests. So, their linguistic competence was extended and their social skills reinforced.

The weakness was, as always, the lack of time to carry out this type of activities.

Conclusion

In general, the activity was quite successful. Pupils’ participation was good as was their effort. The objective of the 2 prior knowledge activities was achieved and children enjoyed their learning.

Annex:

Adaptation of the traditional story of The Gingerbread Man by Oxford on YouTube. I you do not have an OUP account on YouTube, you can use this Gingerbread Man song video: https://youtu.be/UT0_Kb-H7Q4

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Teaching Key Language Why?

Many teachers consider that one of the strengths of bilingual learning is the opportunity for students to access key vocabulary and expressions in more than one language through active methodology, in a context in which on of the basic tenets is that teachers are more aware of students’ language difficulties.

How? Most teachers ensure that their pupils understand key language in two ways: A. Pre-teaching key words and expressions explicitly (e.g. through glossaries, realia or flashcard activities or through thinking tasks connected to the learning), B. Teaching the key language through the context of the topic being learnt, which could be described as teaching the key language “on the way” so to speak.

A. Pre-teaching key words and expressions explicitly This does make it easier for learners to access information but, on the other hand, if not prepared for actively, may lack sufficient context, may not necessarily activate pupils’ knowledge networks and may be horrendously boring.

B. Teaching the key language through the context of the topic being learnt “on the way”.

This means that students learn the language through the content they are working on, with the peers (and teacher) they are working with and the context they are working in.

If activities are adequately prepared and scaffolded, students will learn key concept language in this way. It is a natural way of learning in which language, because it is in context, is more meaningful and memorable. This is NOT translation – although students will obviously compare both languages and think in both languages.

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TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Maybe one of the most important differences between pupils that are progressing satisfactorily across the curriculum and those that are not, independently of other factors such as motivation, grit, etc., is their store of vocabulary, understood as vocabulary that is correctly understood and used.

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Forest Fire

Carried out by:

Tricia Spence and teachers participating in the “Active Methodology in the Bilingual Classroom” course, organised by Cuencas Mineras In-service Teachers’ Centre and Year 3 and 4 Primary children at a language centre.

Strategy:

Teaching key language and concepts through song and drama Scaffolding learning with a PPT linked to song

Description

The Forest Fire was a song and drama activity based on the story of the processes involved in the destruction and renovation of a forest affected by a fire. The lyrics of the song were written by the teacher and set to music using the melody of a traditional children’s song/drama (There was a princess long ago). The resulting song was combined with a PPT, which showed the lyrics of each verse together with an image which illustrated the idea of that verse.

The aim of the activity for the participating teachers was to give them first-hand practical experience of using a song/drama activity to teach content and language directly as well as to see the importance of teamwork.

Context

This activity was carried out with 21 in-service teachers at the Cuencas Mineras In-service Teachers’ Centre.

The participants were teaching a wide range of subject areas and levels: Pre-primary mainstream and English; Primary mainstream and English, Secondary ESOL and Secondary Bilingual (Art, P.E., Science, Social Science, Technology, Maths, etc.).

The activity formed part of the fourth session of a training project designed to enable teachers to explore active methodology in the bilingual classroom and to feel motivated and confident about trying out some activities in their own classroom.

In addition, the same activity had previously been used with 2 groups of young learners, aged 6-9 years old, in an ESOL context to learn (through English) about environmental awareness (protecting our forests from fire) and teamwork.

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Recommendations

This kind of activity can be created with a little imagination by adapting the lyrics of a popular children’s song, to whatever content you wish to teach and recording the music.

Physical resources

OHP PPT of the song showing the lyrics of each verse together with explanatory images and synchronised with the music of the song. In this case the song was about a Forest Fire.

Same Powtoon in video mode (faster) for the dramatization.

Language resources

Language of learning The new key language relating to the topic of a forest fire was presented in context using the images and lyrics on the slides.

Pupils shared any prior knowledge of key language in the group part of the activity.

Forest fire, make a fire, the wind blows hard, the fire spreads, put out the fire, burn, firefighter, helicopter, dead, grow tall.

Language for learning Group work expressions – it’s a good idea to have these permanently displayed on the walls but this wasn’t possible as we were assigned a room at random.

Instructions for the dramatization, e.g. Make a large circle.

Who wants to be a … (firefighter); The rest of you are trees; Now be a tree, etc.

See the activity instructions for language you might think necessary Language through learning Key language which emerged from the PPT song activity was then recycled in the drama activity (and with the children also in various oral and written activities).

Groups and classroom space

Space is needed to dramatize the song.

Timing

The teachers did the activity in 15 minutes, including explanations, but they were adults working on a topic that they had some knowledge of. The primary pupils took considerably longer so you might consider doubling this in primary.

The Activity

1. I first created the song, the PPT and the Powtoon.

2. The pupils worked on the key language by reading the lyrics together with the image on each PPT slide.

3. We sang each verse, miming the actions and pointing to elements of the pictures.

4. Pupils then spent a couple of minutes in small groups of 4/5 to make a list of words that were not known by anybody in their group. This meant that, in order to identify words not known by anyone in their group, pupils had to share knowledge of words that they did know with their team mates who did not know them.

5. Then groups shared meanings together to come up with a final list of words not known by anyone. I then asked them to think and guess the meaning in L1 from the context.

Primary pupils worked in small groups to identify unknown language and share known language.

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6. After this, we watched the slides as a video (see Powtoon attached) and sang the song again using mime to dramatize the story. The teachers participating in the course started the activity at this point as they knew the key language and Steps 1-5 of the pupils’ activity had already been described to them orally.

7. Roles were assigned to all learners by asking them Who wants to be (e.g. the wind)?

8. The learners who were trees stood in a large circle and the main actors moved in and out of the circle when needed. When not main actors, these were also trees.

9. All participants sang the song as well as acting. The music for each verse contributes to the dramatization: slow and dirge-like for the dead forest and faster and happier for replanting, etc. and also scaffolds the language that is more difficult by slowing down.

10. Roles for the dramatization: the trees in the forest = these were learners who did not want to be take a specific role and all participants waiting to take part or having finished their part – they stood in a circle and acted throughout the song (rustling branches, moving in the wind, burning, dying, growing tall, as new trees, depending on the verse); 2 pupils as the people who started the fire – they took the main role in verses 2-4 (making the fire, trying to put it out, showing panic, etc.), followed by a secondary role as helpers trying to put out the fire, and then became trees; 2 pupils as the fire – they took a main role as from verse 3 when the fire spread, moving around the inside of the circle to attack the trees and eventually dying down and disappearing and then became trees; 2 pupils as the wind – they played a main role from verse 3, going around the circle, blowing hard and continuing until the fire was extinguished and then became trees; 2 pupils as firefighters – they joined the people trying to put out the fire from verse 6 to verse 8 and then became trees; 2 pupils as helicopters - they joined the people trying to put out the fire from verse 7 to verse 8 and then became trees; everybody mimed the rain; everybody used voice and body to act out the desolation of the dead forest in verses 10 and 11; 3+pupils played children planting trees; everybody grew tall as new trees together with those pupils acting as children; everybody joined hands and danced around in a circle for the repeat of the beginning verse; everybody shook hands in the final verse.

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Outcome

The activity was successful as an example of how song and drama can be used to learn both concepts and key language. The participating teachers realised that apart from teaching children environmental awareness and responsibility, we were also introducing them to the ideas of cause and effect, systems and processes, whilst at the same time showing them the value of teamwork in solving problems.

Most participants appeared to enjoy the activity and find it useful both for themselves and also as a model for an activity that they could use with their own students. However, as they have not yet evaluated it, this is only a personal opinion.

Discussion

One of the main reasons offered by teachers for not carrying out this kind of activity in their own classes is that any activity involving movement is too difficult to do with a large number of pupils and causes noise. By actually doing this themselves, they realised that it is not impossible, but requires familiarisation, in the sense that the more often pupils take part in activities like this, the more they respond to the challenge and generally put pressure on their peers to participate and behave responsibly. A certain amount of “noise� is inevitable but does not necessarily indicate a lack of control or a lack of learning.

Video, song and drama enable key language to be understood in context and assimilated in a variety of learning styles, through images, writing, listening, music and movement.

Because thinking is required to get to meaning, learning is deeper.

Conclusion

The activity could have been improved with the teachers “by asking them to design a similar kind of activity for the subject and level that they were working with. This would have involved working with language (stress, rhyme, intonation), content language and concepts, building teamwork concepts and skills, visual/sound technology presentation skills, building confidence through song and drama as well as increasing key language

Annex:

PPT for Steps 1-5 http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/TheForestFire.pdf Video for the song and dramatization http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/TheForestFir.mp4

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TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

Parts of the Central Nervous System

Carried out by:

Eugenia Martínez Cueto Felgueroso and Year 3 Secondary bilingual students. from IES Sánchez Lastra. Mieres.

Strategy:

Learning Key Language through a matching activity.

Using prior knowledge of the topic to aid learning.

Processing concepts through the language activity.

Description

Parts of the Central Nervous System was designed to help students to get familiar with the basic key language of the CNS (Central Nervous System) whilst at the same time processing information. The language for this topic is very specific and sometimes students find it difficult.

The activity was intended to be done with students working in pairs on a challenging task involving triple matching key word – definition - image.

The activity involved thinking, discussing and reaching agreements in order to accomplish the task. To make it more interesting, we organised it as a competition, with a “reward” of extra points for the winning team.

The aims of the activity were to: 1.

familiarise students with the key anatomical vocabulary of the Central Nervous System;

2.

ensure they were paying attention to the correct position of the main parts of the CNS in our body;

3.

highlight the importance of accuracy when they are scientifically defining a part of the anatomy;

4.

motivate students to learn more about the human CNS, especially as this is not an easy topic for them to understand;

5.

eventually, to push students towards working in small groups.

Context

This activity was carried out with 20 Year 3 (KS4) students in two different groups (14 students in 3ºB and 6 students in 3ºA) in the Bilingual Programme at Sánchez Lastra Secondary School. The students were 14/15 years old.

Recommendations

Clear instructions must be given to the students, as even though they might be used to doing matching activities, this one involves triple matching.

Physical resources

One worksheet for each team (we also gave a copy to each student in order to keep the information). (See Annex).

Eight different coloured felt-tip pens or crayons per team.

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Language resources

Language of learning Students shared their knowledge of key language in the course of the activity. When the activity was being checked, we also paid attention to the pronunciation of the key words (cerebrum, brain stem, hypothalamus and so on.).

Language for learning Instructions for the activity: you will be given a table with three columns and eight rows; your task is to match each term with the corresponding definition and drawing; use different colours to join each term with its definition and its picture; you will get a point if your team is the first one to finishing the activity.

Language through learning Key language which emerged from the activity would be later used during all the sessions dealing with the topic (CNS).

Groups and classroom space

Students worked in pairs.

Timing

We did the activity in about 20 minutes, including explanations. Students were given 10 minutes to do the matching. Five more minutes were spent on checking and another 5 on asking students questions to review and to check understanding.

The Activity

They were given a table with three columns (technical names, pictures and descriptions) and, together, they had to discuss each item and match them. They were told to use a different colour to link each picture with its corresponding name and description.

1. Students were divided into pairs.

2. A worksheet was given to each team (and also to each student in order to allow them to keep all the information acquired in their notebooks). The worksheet consisted of a table with three columns (technical name, picture and description) relating to the human central nervous system.

3. Each pair was given eight different felt-tip pens or crayons.

4. They were given 10 minutes to read the activity, think and discuss the meaning of each definition and then to do the matching.

5. Students had to use one colour to match a key word with its corresponding definition and picture and then a different colour for the next and so on.

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Example:

6. After 10 minutes, I called time and all pairs stopped.

7. We checked the answers all together as a whole group.

8. Finally, I asked random students some questions (e.g. Can you tell me what the brain stem is? Where is the brain stem located? etc.).

9. Students checked that they had all the information on their personal worksheets and filed these.

The activity in general was successful in teaching them the key language of the topic. Students already knew some concepts about the CNS, but they did not know it was divided into so many parts, so, at the same time, they acquired new knowledge and also processed this. New information was also acquired by peer sharing.

Discussion

The activity was useful to introduce students to the specific language of the topic of the Central Nervous System in English. However, they encountered some difficulties with the key anatomical names, as they were not familiar with them, despite the fact that they had some prior knowledge of the topic in their own language. This made them more aware of the importance of inferring, comparing linguistically, etc. in learning.

The activity can be re-used or pre-used by giving students an envelope with the worksheet cut up and asking them to match and paste the parts together correctly in their notebooks.

Conclusiรณn

The activity could have been improved by showing them a model of a human body and the location and shape of the different anatomical parts they were working with. As the nervous system is quite a complex topic with a lot of technical words, the activity was useful to allow students to get to know some of those words.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/TeachingKeyLanguageCNSWorksheet.docx

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“Let’s go to the old house”.

Carried out by:

Carmen Río Blanco and Year 2 Primary pupils from C.P. Apolinar García Hevia.

Avilés.

Strategy:

Consolidating key language learned in previous lessons.

Description

A Total Physical Response (TPR) game to go with the chant.

This was a movement game to consolidate vocabulary learned about the rooms in the house.

Young learners like active learning activities in which they can think, move, touch, use their energy, work with partners as well as use the information they have acquired for a real purpose, in this case to play a game.

The activity followed a series of lessons in which the new language was introduced through flashcard activities and the reading of a story (“The old house” from Bugs 2 Macmillan). Pupils were able to review all the key vocabulary by learning a chant, interacting with each other and moving around the classroom.

Context

The activity was carried out with 20 Year 2 Primary students (7/8-year-olds) in the English classroom.

Recommendations

Remember to stick the flashcards up on the walls before the lesson takes place.

Physical resources

IWB Flashcards of rooms in the house

Language resources

IWB display with the chant and a reminder of the key vocabulary (see Annex 1) Language of learning: The old house Rooms in the house: kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, garage, garden Language for learning: Language for giving instructions and explaining the game: Do you want to play a game? Let’s play a game! Come on!

Let’s practice the chant, Any volunteers? Me! Make a shh sound. Shh! Tiptoe, What’s this? It’s the…, Is this the …? Let’s go to the…, Pick a room…

Listen to instructions. Let’s make groups. You are group number 1/2/3/4, Stand up.

Come to the front of the classroom. Listen to your classmates. Go! Touch the flashcard.

You found it! Great! Well done! Thank you. Sit down.

Language through learning Chant: Let’s go to the old house! Shh! Let’s be very quiet! Let’s go to the….

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TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked as a whole class when reviewing vocabulary, introducing and practising the chant and listening to directions. For the game, I divided the class up into teams of 4/5 pupils, making sure the groups were mixed-ability. Desks were arranged in the shape of two adjoining L’s so that the pupils could work together in pairs/small groups and the teacher had easy access.

Timing

Introducing and practising the chant while reviewing key language: 10 minutes.

Playing the game:10 minutes.

The Activity

1.

Prior to the activity, flashcards of different rooms in the house had been put up around the classroom walls.

2. Pupils were shown the chant on the IWB (see image) and were asked if they wanted to play a game.

3. I introduced the chant and asked for a few Mvolunteers to demonstrate the actions (make a shh! sound and tiptoe). The volunteers modelled the actions for the rest of their classmates.

4. I presented the flashcard of the old house and elicited the key language from pupils. Depending on the child’s ability, I gave more or less support: Is this the bedroom or the bathroom? What room is this? What’s this? and so on.

5. Once all the key vocabulary had been reviewed (rooms in the house), I gave the pupils instructions to do the activity, such as Let’s make groups. Adrián, Olaya, Nicol and Hugo, you are Group Nº 1. Stand up and come to the front of the classroom. Listen to your classmates.

I then modelled the chant with the rest of the class and picked one pupil to complete the chant with one of the possible rooms in the house: 1. Let’s go to the old house! Shh!

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2. Let’s be very quiet!

3. Let’s go to the… (chosen pupil said the room, e.g. bathroom).

6. Group 1 then looked around the classroom to find the bathroom flashcard. They did so by tiptoeing and making a shh! sound. When they found the flashcard, they had to touch it and say the name. I modelled these final instructions with this first group so that the rest of the groups were able to understand how to carry out the activity.

7. Pupils then continued in groups until they had found all the rooms.

8. When the game was over, I asked pupils for feedback using the thumbs up/middle/ down strategy.

Outcome

These pupils carried out the activity very effectively. They enjoyed it very much as always with activities in which they can move away from their desks and do something active which involves them in thinking and using the language that they are learning.

It was a productive activity in the sense that it was accessible to all pupils, even to those who were less willing to participate. It gave them a sense of belonging as they worked in groups and helped each other.

Pupils gave different types of responses: from the basic TPR response to more advanced productions (the whole chant).

Discussion

As mentioned before, one of the strengths of the activity was definitely that it gave all pupils a chance to participate in a game without feeling afraid of being too visible or giving a wrong answer. Even if a child did not know the answer, he or she could follow the rest of the group. Another strength was also the dynamic element of playing a game.

As a weakness, I would point out that the classroom layout could have been arranged differently and I could have included a few new items of vocabulary as the activity needed maybe to be a bit more challenging.

Conclusion

This is a very good class in both terms of behaviour and attitude towards learning, so they are always eager to both learn new things and try out different activities. They had already learnt the key language about the house but putting this to use in a group activity where they had to apply their learning to the task of getting somewhere was meaningful for them.

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Discovering new toys.

Carried out by:

Marian Coalla and Year 2 Primary pupils from CRA Castrillón - Illas, Vegarrozadas, (Castrillón).

Strategy:

Scaffolding the new language with a jigsaw game.

Working with labels and realia to discover new language.

Peer feedback to guide learning.

Description

These are two activities to discover the names of some toys that children usually find in the classroom The first was a very simple activity, an easy 8-piece jigsaw of a drawing of toys with the names they match. This was a scaffolding activity in order to carry out the second activity (See Jigsaw template in Young Learners by Oxford).

The second activity was a game: pupils were given a set of cards with the names of toys written on them and a set of real toys on the floor. They had to read the cards carefully and match them to the toys, thus creating a label.

Context

The activities were carried out with 3 pupils in San Miguel Class aged 6 years old in the subject of English FL. They were done in a mixed-ability classroom, using real toys, cardboard labels and the jigsaw, with pupils working together. Other pupils watched and gave feedback to guide pupils’ learning.

Recommendations

The jigsaw can be completed in one minute or less, because it is very simple. For the labelling game, the pupils were given two or three minutes to decide (in pairs or alone) if the words matched the toys on the floor.

Physical resources

Jigsaw of the toys printed on paper and divided into pieces. One per child (See video).

A set of real toys with the corresponding labels per child or pair. (See video).

A stopwatch or timer.

Blackboard to write the toys they labelled correctly.

Language resources

Language of learning Toys: scooter, doll, car, ball, computer game, board game, skateboard and kite.

Language for learning Language for giving instructions (e.g. complete the jigsaw) Language to discuss if labelling is correct.

Language through learning The names of the jigsaw toys

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TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

Groups and classroom space

Organization of pupils: individual and group work.

Timing

Total time for the 2 activities: about 15 minutes

The Activity

A. Jigsaw Each pair was given a set of five pieces of paper with different drawings of toys. I explained that it was a jigsaw and they had to fit all the pieces together. This was a scaffolding activity to support the labelling activity.

B. Labelling Toys 1. I explained to the pupils that they were going to label the toys they found around the classroom using a clue card.

2. E ach child was given a “card� and they had to decide whether or not the card matched any toy on the floor and if so to label that toy.

Outcome

The pupils had no problems in carrying out the two activities and enjoyed doing the jigsaw and labelling toys a lot. They found the jigsaw very easy to complete, even though they did not know the specific names of each toy and were able to do it very quickly following the template. It was productive because I used it to introduce the real toys with their corresponding vocabulary.

Discussion

The pupils worked together trying correct the mistakes in labelling which was effective in enabling all pupils to participate and learn. The activities made pupils think about what they were learning and try again when things did not turn out as they wished the first time.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the activities were interesting for the pupils and they enjoyed themselves while doing them. They thought about what they were doing and were guided by other pupils on occasion. The fact of playing a game made them feel more motivated when doing the second activity.

Annex

Video clips showing pupils doing the activity http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/Jigsaw1.mp4 http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/Jigsaw2.mp4 http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/Labelling1.mp4 http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/Labelling2.mp4

58

Activity:

Musical Flashcards

Carried out by:

Sonia Mª del Castro Suárez and Year 2 from Pre primary pupils. CP Atalía.

Gijón.

Strategy:

Teaching key language through visual stimuli (flashcards + realia) combined with music and movement.

Activating prior knowledge Musical Flashcards is a prior knowledge activity which enables teachers to find out what pupils know and activate their prior knowledge networks about the topic in question. In this case, the topic we were dealing with was Christmas.

This is an active group activity involving creative thinking, oral skills, music, movement and an element of fun.

The aims of the activity were: •

to find out what pupils know about Christmas time;

•

to teach key language relating to Christmas;

•

to encourage pupils to cooperate and to think;

•

to facilitate learning through play.

Context

The activity was carried out by the English teacher in the 2nd level Pre-primary classroom with a group of 25 pupils of five years old.

Recommendations

It would be advisable to set up a suitable classroom layout since this activity involves movement and the need to pass a ball between pupils rather than throwing. A horse shoe arrangement works best.

Physical resources

Realia and/or flashcards A small ball A musical timer

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were in groups of 4 and sat in a horse shoe arrangement.

Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for Christmas.

Language for learning Language to follow the instructions for the game.

Language through learning Emerging language was recycled in our English corner.

59

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Description

Timing

The activity took 20 minutes including explanation.

The Activity

1. The flashcards about Christmas were placed on the board with the back of the card to the children so that they could not see what was on the card.

2. I put the realia on a table next to the board.

3. Children sat in a horseshoe arrangement and when the music started, they passed a small ball to one another around the horseshoe.

4. When the music stopped, the pupil who had the ball chose a flashcard on the board, which I turned face up to show the picture.

5. The pupil was asked: What´s this? If they did not know the answer, they missed a turn but if they did, their team got one point.

6. The music starts again and children participate in the same way until all the flashcards on the board have been turned up.

7. After that, pupils listen to a different piece of music which encourages them to pass the ball in the opposite direction.

8. When the music stops again, this time the corresponding pupil has to pick the real object that goes with the first flashcard uncovered.

9. The game continues in the same way until all the objects have been joined to their corresponding flashcards.

10. Finally, at the end of the game, pupils made a semantic link between the oral and visual item of vocabulary.

Outcome

The activity in general was quite successful but the game took longer than planned.

In addition, the second part of the game needed to be explained twice.

Discussion

The results were good in spite of the fact that the game was a little time consuming.

It might be better to reduce the number of flashcards from 8 to 5, for instance.

If you use the activity again for other topics, children would probably remember and transfer their skills so you would do it faster and could therefore add more flashcards and objects.

Conclusion

Pupils had not yet developed enough concentration skills so the game was a bit long for them as they had not done it before. However, this could be solved by reducing the number of flashcards initially and adding more cards each time you play in order to develop concentration.

60

Clue Realia

Carried out by:

Silvina Alvarez-Sala with Secondary Year 1 Bilingual, from C.P.E.B. Cabañaquinta, Aller.

Strategy:

Pre-teaching key language to make it easier to access information and also to review language.

Description

This was a quiet activity in which students learned the vocabulary of a specific topic (tools for technology) without translation by listening, seeing, touching and finally guessing from clues. Most students find key language easier to learn when it is accompanied by an object, something that they can see and touch.

Context

The activity was carried out in the workshop of the subject EPVA (Art and Design) with 17 students aged 12.

Recommendations

Depending on students’ behavior, you could have more than one object or tool, e.g. two hammers, two compasses, because it can be rather slow if they have only one item and everybody wants to touch everything.

Physical resources

The objects e.g. pencils of different hardness, compass, technical pens, common ruler, engineer´s scale, triangular set of squares, protractor, stencils, etc.

Language resources

Students will need to know the vocabulary in both languages.

Language of learning Names of tools, instruments and uses.

Language for learning Expressions needed to recognize the use of objects, e.g. this is a tool that is used to draw parallel and perpendicular lines. This is used for putting in nails, etc.

Describing objects, e.g. it’s long and thing. It has a long, thin handle, etc.

Language through learning They learned specific technical words, which were practiced in subsequent tasks.

Groups and classroom space

Students worked in small groups and as a whole class at the same time.

In the work shop, the tables are large and ideal for group work.

Timing

Depending on the number of objects: around 20 min.

61

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Activity

1. The students were told exactly what they had to do exactly, including all the instructions for the activity.

2. They were then given examples, e.g. of types of questions, language, etc. (I used the board but you can show them on a hand-out).

3. Students were shown an object and told its name, which they then repeated.

4. They then saw the next object and so on until they had seen all the tools and instruments, touched them and repeated their names.

5. Then the objects were spread out on a large table which the students stood around in groups.

6. I gave them a clue, e.g. this is a tool that is used to draw parallel lines.

7. Students put up their hands to answer and held up the corresponding object, saying its name.

8. If the answer was correct the group received one point, but if it was wrong the group lost one point. The winning group had the most points.

9. All the objects were then reviewed orally and again with the written form.

10. Finally, the students copied the key words and their pronunciation into their glossaries, adding what that tool was used for.

Outcome

The students enjoyed the activity very much and learned all the technical words but most importantly, they understood how a technical tool works. They did the activity quite well and the only problem I had was with the number of some objects because I had only one stencil and everybody wanted to touch it.

Discussion

I think this strategy is good if the students have to learn essential vocabulary in a short time. One of its strengths is playing a game with a sense like touch, because you will never forget what you have learnt in this way, I think.

Conclusion

I recommend this activity for students who like to touch and play. I am also sure that in time after working with vocabulary in this way, students will not need any translation for these words.

62

Word game

Carried out by:

Silvia Mª Fernández Pérez and Year 3 Secondary students IES Valle de Turón.

Santa Marina de Turón, (Mieres).

Strategy:

Teaching key language through the information

Description

This was a fun activity based on pictures (flashcards or digital) which encouraged all students to participate in the session development, whilst at the same time facilitating the learning of key language through the content as opposed to through a vocabulary list and at the same time it practiced the 5 skills of Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing and Thinking.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class with 8 pupils aged 14-15 years old in Year 3 Secondary.

The foreign language assistant also took part, which was important as it enabled students to access another “accent” reference.

One of the participants was a SEN student but had no difficulty in following her peers.

Physical resources

Pictures (either flashcards or a power point presentation) A handout to fill in the blanks

Language resources

Language was shown visually on digital board and with flashcards.

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the content of new technologies: e.g. download, file sharing, message board, search engine, etc.

Language for learning Language for comparison: e.g. Internet is quicker than....; chat rooms are the most fun…

Language through learning Exercise to reflect upon language: different word categories, which was used for later consolidation activities.

Groups and classroom space

Students sat in pairs/fours, facing each other.

Timing

A whole session (50 minutes) in total.

Time was dependent on the timetable.

63

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Activity

Students started with the description of several pictures and finished by doing a written consolidation activity. In pairs, they had to choose whether the word given was a NOUN or a VERB. •

Students were shown several pictures which they had to describe. This part of the activity helped to activate their prior knowledge and also acted as a “pre-teaching vocabulary” activity in order to work with the main information.

•

For example, Student A said Two people are talking; Student B went a step further by making a guess and asserted that they look like mother and daughter; Student C pointed out that they are arguing because the girl is on her computer, etc.

•

Verbs like CHAT, DOWNLOAD or E-MAIL were shown on the IWB for students to define in English.

•

I guided them with questions, for instance: How often do you download music from Internet? Who do you chat with most frequently? or When / where do you usually email?

•

Students who had not yet taken part were asked to give an example of one of the words in a sentence. For example: I usually email my friends in the afternoon or I have never downloaded music from Internet

•

I went a step further by giving another example of one of the words, this time with a different grammatical category: e.g. Would you like to open the email?

•

In groups of 4, students were asked to make up the sentences with the remaining words, using the new grammatical category, which they then wrote down.

•

They corrected their sentences.

•

Finally, a spokesperson from each group wrote them up on the board while the rest checked the correction.

Outcome

Students carried out the activity quite well, taking into consideration that the lesson was during the last session of the morning when they are usually quite tired, and they found it productive and enjoyable. However, one difficulty I encountered was that sometimes they did not agree.

Discussion

The main strength of this cooperative and collaborative work was what some students were able to learn from their peers.

Conclusion

This was a good activity with which to break the habitual rhythm of the “textbook-based” class. It was student-centered and also supportive of SEN students. In addition, it worked quite well, so I do not think it needs to be improved and could be used effectively in other contexts.

64

Activity:

The animal by the part!

Carried out by:

Rosa Rial Castro and Year 2 Primary pupils from CP San Claudio, Oviedo.

Strategy:

Pre-teaching new vocabulary through a learning activity

Description

This was a PPT activity that involved reading, thinking and speaking skills. It was a whole group activity.

The aims of the activity were: 1. to present new vocabulary about animal body parts through a learning activity.

3. to have fun drawing crazy animals.

Context

The activity was carried out during a bilingual Art lesson related with Living Things with 15 pupils of 7 years old in Year 2 Primary.

Recommendations

None

Physical resources

PPT Animal Parts (see Annex)

Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed to describe animals: Tail, claws, wing, horn, paws, scales, tusks and shell.

Language for learning Can you think of any animals with…?

How do you say… in Spanish/English, please? … have got …

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked as a whole class around the IWB. For the last part they worked individually.

Timing

The activity took about 10 minutes

65

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

2. to help pupils to remember the animals they already know.

The Activity

1. I told the pupils that they were going to draw special animals but that first they had to learn about their bodies.

2. I showed the PowerPoint presentation (see Annex) and we read out the slides orally.

3. Each slide had a picture and the name of a part of an animal’s body.

4. One example was given and pupils were asked to provide more.

5. The last slide had some examples of crazy animals.

6. Pupils said what animal parts the crazy animals were made up of.

7. Finally, they designed their own.

Outcome

The children had great fun as they love animals and they knew lots of them. They understood and assimilated the vocabulary quickly.

Discussion

The class occasionally became a bit noisy and nervous.

Conclusion

I felt that this activity was both fun and meaningful for pupils.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/2/PPTAnimalParts.pdf

66

Glass tower!

Carried out by:

Odette Arauzo Barbón and Year 4 Primary pupils from María Inmaculada School, Pola de Laviana.

Strategy:

Pre-teaching Key Language

Description

This is an activity to introduce key vocabulary. It works well with children because it has a competitive element, which also encourages them to collaborate and fosters vocabulary learning.

Context

The activity was carried out in the Social Science class with 24 pupils in Year 4 Primary. Year 4 is a talkative class but they work well in groups. In the class there is one pupil with special needs.

Recommendations

Choose captains for the groups.

Use plastic cups, not glasses.

Physical resources

Flashcards - one set with names and another set with drawings per team.

Plastic cups.

Interactive whiteboard to display the language structures they might need.

Language resources

Language of learning Vocabulary and expressions for dealing with the topic of landforms and landscapes.

It’s a peak This is a peak You find it in a mountain landscape / coastal landscape / plain landscape, etc.

Language for learning Instructions for the game: show the word card, choose the flashcard, make a sentence, put the plastic glass carefully, etc.

Language through learning Key language which emerges from the activity will be recycled in the class, by doing some group activity or another game

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were divided into four groups.

Timing

5-10 minutes

67

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Activity

1. I divided the class into groups and arranged two of the groups in two different lines.

2. The other two groups acted as spectators and judges.

3. I placed the pile of word cards face up and the pile of flashcards face down on a table in front of the students and put an empty table next to the one with the flashcards.

4. The first pupil picked up a word card and looked for the corresponding flashcard.

5. S/he then said the word and made a short sentence with it.

6. If they made a correct sentence, they put a plastic cup and the flashcard on it, in order to build a glass tower with flashcards between the glasses.

7. If they didn’t guess or didn’t make the sentence correctly (we took into account the content and not the grammar mistakes), they gave the flashcard to the next pupil.

8. The team which built the highest tower won the game.

9. When these two groups had finished the activity, it was repeated with the other two groups.

10. If you have enough flashcards and glasses, you can play with the four groups at the same time, although it would probably be more difficult for the teacher to control the correct sentences.

Outcome

The pupils understood the activity and had fun while doing it. It was really productive because they learnt the vocabulary quickly.

Discussion

The results were quite good. However, some pupils did not even try to make a sentence with the word. The next time I do it, I will try to display more structures on the board or after the activity, ask students to make a sentence individually so I can see whether they are able to make one.

Conclusion

The activity was motivating and fun enough for them to remember and understand the key vocabulary and even use it in a real way.

68

What do you know about HOLIDAYS?

Carried out by:

Noelia Alonso Fernández and Year 2 Secondary students from María Inmaculada School, Pola de Laviana.

Strategy:

Teaching key language in context

Description

This was a group activity which worked well for reviewing the words they had acquired in previous years and for learning new vocabulary related to the topic we were dealing with.

Context

The activity was carried out in the Social Science class with 24 pupils in Year 4 Primary. Year 4 is a talkative class but they work well in groups. In the class there is one pupil with special needs.

Recommendations

The activity works best when group members are given roles inside the team.

These could be expressed as numbers, so that number one’s role is to read and explain the question whilst number two’s role is to answer the questions. Number three corrects the answer and number four reads the answer aloud for the group.

Physical resources

Pictures of different words related to holidays. https://goo.gl/UAnRTm

Language resources

The language of learning and the language for learning was shown on the whiteboard.

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for holidays If you went on holiday to an island, you would take……………

Language for learning Speculating: It could be a …

Talking about needs: I think a … is necessary because…, we would need a .., if …, etc.

Language through learning A passport is necessary if you travel to…

Groups and classroom space

The pupils were in groups of four.

Timing

40 minutes

69

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Activity

1. Students were divided into groups of 4.

2. I gave each group a photocopy with the different words related to holidays and with questions relating to the topic.

3. I explained how to do the activity and who they were to work with.

4. The language of and for learning was displayed on the whiteboard (alternatively you could give each group a photocopy).

5. I allowed 15 minutes to do the questions and then asked them to tell me the answers.

Outcome

The pupils enjoyed doing the activity and they found it interesting.

Discussion

Despite the fact that this was a productive and engaging activity, the students found it hard to speak quietly, which makes it really difficult when they work in groups because of the noise.

Conclusion

The activity was a success, learning objectives were achieved and the pupils enjoyed it a lot.

Annex

Holiday worksheet https://goo.gl/UAnRTm

70

The Romans

Carried out by:

Mª Luisa Santos Rodríguez and Year 5-6 Primary pupils from CP Benjamín Mateo. La Felguera, (Langreo).

Strategy:

Presenting key vocabulary during learning

Description

This is an activity on a topic about ancient cultures, which used flashcards and a question and answer task to present new vocabulary relating to the Romans, which they were studying in History.

Context

I did the activity with eight Year 5 and seven Year 6 Primary pupils. It was a mixed ability and mixed motivation class, with some pupils needing a significant level of teacher help.

Since the activity was carried out with a double cycle, we received the help of both speech therapist and the psychologist. However, these teachers only spoke Spanish.

There was one SEN pupil in Year 5 and two in Year 6, one of whom was repeating the year. The remaining pupils were mixed ability. Although attention in the class was not generally good, they were very motivated by the topic which they found interesting and also because they wanted to study and to learn English.

Recommendations

If pupils are engaged, the activity is productive and you might wish to continue for longer than the time you have originally planned for. You could also extend by allowing pupils to group up and do the last part of the activity again autonomously.

Physical resources

I needed the help of two teachers.

Flashcards with vocabulary relating to the Romans (I used the resource pack from Rooftops Year 6 by Oxford University Press). You can also find resources at: https://goo.gl/oFC998 A large poster of life in a Roman City Romans (from the Resource Pack as mentioned above) or access https://goo.gl/ii5RSA CD player y CD with the pronunciation of the vocabulary (Rooftops 6) or record your own

Language resources

Language of learning Vocabulary and expressions about the Romans: necklace, ring, bracelet, bowl, letter, coin, archaeologist, soldier, battle, buried, treasure, metal, amphitheatre, gladiator, dig, etc.

Language for learning For this activity I explained the expression: there is/there isn´t /there are/there aren´t Interrogative pronouns such as: what /where/how, etc.

Talking about what there is in a picture, e.g.: There is a necklace. There are five earrings, etc.

Talking about what is happening in a picture.

Talking about the past.

Language through learning From previous learning, such as: cup, knife, spoon, comb, old, dirty The poster produced a lot of language which will be recycled in later activities.

71

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were sitting so that they were able to see the board.

Timing

Total time was about sixty minutes. I think the activity could have finished in 45 minutes but as the pupils were very motivated, we continued for another twenty minutes.

The Activity

1. I explained the new vocabulary by placing the flashcards on the digital board for about three – five minutes and naming the items.

2. Then I put the labels of the written words under the pictures and I switched on the CD so that pupils could repeat the words.

3. We looked at the poster and identified what things there were in the picture.

4. I showed children how to say and write was/were, and I also wrote some sentences with other verbs in the past in affirmative and negative.

5. Pupils used the models to create their own five sentence using the new vocabulary.

Examples: The Romans ate with their hands.

The Romans were outside the castle.

The Romans didn´t use knives and forks to eat.

6. We then collected up their sentences and did a dictation with these.

Example: The Romans didn´t drink coffee and chocolate. Roman girls didn´t go to school.

Roman children didn´t watch the television. The archaeologist was in the museum.

There was a coin on the table. The knives were made of metal. The ring was three hundred years old. This bracelet was in that box. Romans sometimes drank tea.

The sentences were then put up on the board and pupils corrected their dictations.

Finally, we asked oral questions about the poster.

Examples: How old is it? Where is the castle? What is it made of? How did the Romans eat? Etc.

Outcome

I think pupils enjoyed the activity very much and were so engaged that we continued for longer than originally planned. They learned a lot of vocabulary in addition to that introduced by the flashcards and I only needed to use Spanish twice in the whole class.

Discussion

I think the experience was positive but, although I was happy with the outcome and felt it was both productive and enjoyable for pupils, it is very difficult to do this kind of activity in the classroom every day.

Conclusion

I would do it again to introduce other topics like the Romans.

72

Iron Age Life

Carried out by:

Cristina Martín with a group of 13 students in Year 1 Secondary, from CPEB Cabañaquinta, Cabañaquinta.

Strategy:

Inferring the meaning of new words from the context. Interactive ICT game

Description

This is an activity in which students were encouraged to infer the meaning of new key language through visual and written context.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class as part of a cooperative project in History, Art and English. The students were learning about Prehistory in their History lessons and they were also building a cave and some Prehistoric tools in their art lessons.

Recommendations

You will need a good Internet connection.

Physical resources

Language assistant Video about life in the Iron Age https://youtu.be/Uu9bLT9I9fI

Language resources

Language of learning Vocabulary related to tools and life in prehistory.

Language for learning Language of processes: verbs and connectors.

Language through learning The students learn about manual work and life in Prehistoric times.

Groups and classroom space

Students worked individually

Timing

1 or 2 lessons, depending on students’ prior knowledge of the topic and the language.

73

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Activity

1. The language assistant showed the students a video about life in the Iron Age in which they discovered how to make fire, bake bread and spin cloth and so survive the Iron Age. 2. The language assistant explained the processes involved in the game by making extensive use of non-verbal language.

3. With the support of visual and written aid, the students inferred the meaning of unknown linguistic elements (e.g. “grind grain”, “hide”, “quern”, etc.). Once all the explanations had been given, the students did an online quiz to test their knowledge.

Access the quiz. ttps://patricials.typeform.com/to/j8p64w

Outcome

It took students some time to get acquainted with the method of inferring, i.e. guessing the meaning from the written or visual context. Eventually, they became familiar with it and were able to guess the meaning of the key words required for the game. They enjoyed the activity and judged that it was worth the effort required to infer the meaning of unknown words. Visual aid was, of course, essential and the collaboration of the language assistant was very useful.

Since we were dealing with authentic material and the students were at elementary level, some vocabulary needed to be simplified by the language assistant (e.g. unusual words, difficult, technical or not very relevant terms were ignored or substituted by more frequent or common ones). The content was also simplified: some processes were reduced or facilitated for the students. Clarification was also necessary.

Discussion

The activity involved some difficulty for elementary level students: some were not familiar with the topic and their command of English was still limited. Therefore, simplification of complex matter and extensive use of visual aid were fundamental strategies in order to obtain optimal results. In our view, this aspect is crucial as far as CLIL is concerned.

Conclusion

Inferring the meanings of unfamiliar words helps students develop learning strategies and, therefore, build their own knowledge.

Annex

Video about The Iron Age https://youtu.be/Uu9bLT9I9fI Information about The Iron Age https://goo.gl/6Kura8 Online quiz about The Iron Age https://patricials.typeform.com/to/j8p64w More information video https://youtu.be/XQ9lvVCfyN8

74

Pet or wild animal?

Carried out by:

Miriam González Martínez and Year 2 Pre-primary pupils from CEIP Gloria Rodríguez, Soto del Barco.

Strategy:

Reinforcement of key vocabulary and concepts

Description

This was a quick activity to reinforce the main vocabulary learnt in the unit on the topic of animals whilst at the same time developing thinking skills through comparing characteristics of animals to understand the concept of wild animal or pet. It was based on the popular game Cross the River.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class with a group of 14 four-year-old pupils. This was their first year in contact with the English Language.

Recommendations

With a little help from the teacher, these pupils were left to think and produce their own descriptions or just to whisper to the teacher the name of one animal to be described. In this way, I was able to add language production to the activity.

Physical resources

Flashcards of animals Aluminium foil

Language resources

Language of learning Names of animals Language for learning Animal body parts Language for descriptions: verb have got, nouns: tail, legs, ears, adjectives: long, short, big, small, colours and numbers.

Language through learning Pet, Wild animal.

Groups and classroom space

Two rows of 7 pupils each

Timing

15 minutes although time depended on pupils’ language proficiency.

Empty area of the classroom.

75

TEACHING KEY LANGUAGE

Activity:

The Activity

1. The activity came after a previous flashcard review activity to check that all pupils could remember the names and understand descriptions of animals.

2. An empty space was made in the centre of the classroom and aluminium foil was placed on the floor to represent a river that the pupils had to cross.

3. Flashcards of the animals were placed on the floor to represent stepping stones to cross the empty river.

4. The pupils crossed the river by stepping on the corresponding stepping stone as the teacher described an animal.

5. They were told that two secret words were going to be introduced for them to find out the meaning (pet/wild animal).

E.g. It’s a PET. It’s got four legs. It’s brown or It’s a WILD ANIMAL. It’s got 2 legs, 2 arms and a long tail.

6. They were not told the meaning of PET or WILD ANIMAL but had to infer it little by little as they crossed the river.

7. At the end of the activity, pupils were asked what the concept of pet/wild animal meant.

Outcome

The pupils really enjoyed the activity as it involved movement.

It was productive as they were left to think about two words (pet/wild animal) they were not familiar with and they found it motivating to discover the meaning of the two concepts by themselves as part of the activity.

Discussion

I would probably group the children in smaller groups next time so that a larger number of pupils can participate at the same time.

The activity may get a little noisy as pupils have to move around but it is worth it as they really do get engaged in their learning.

Conclusion

At the end of the activity pupils were able to remember all the key vocabulary and they also reviewed colours, animal body parts and so on. In addition, they used thinking to infer the meaning of wild and pet. Because their learning was active and meaningful to them it was also more memorable.

76

Information Input. Processing and Output For some, learning means a response to a stimulus; for others, learning means memorization and for yet others “learning means a process of sense making, in which you try to understand what is presented by actively selecting relevant pieces of the presented information, mentally organizing them, and integrating them with other knowledge you already have” (Fiorella and Mayer, 2014).

When we learn, we access information through our senses that is processed in our working memory and later, if we are successful, stored in our long-term memory. Research tells us that in our working memory, we can only manage 3-9 pieces of information at one time and remember it for 15-20 seconds unless we process it in some way. So it is clear that when preparing our lessons, we should take this into account.

SOME ASPECTS TO REMEMBER WHEN CREATING ACTIVITIES Inputting activities should: •

review previous learning, activate prior knowledge already in the long term memory

•

present new information through a variety of “sensory” formats, text types and sources

•

guide students in accessing the relevant information themselves

•

draw attention to the most important information (through voice, formatting, activities, etc.)

•

ask students to do something with the information when accessing rather than just read it, view it or listen to it.

Processing activities should allow students to: •

order, label, compare, make analogies, evaluate (e.g. True/False), summarize, etc.

•

think about, discuss, take a decision, act on, do something with, etc.

•

transfer information: to diagrams, organizers, role plays, songs, presentations, video, etc.

Output activities should allow pupils to: •

solve a problem or puzzle, or answer an important question

•

follow instructions to make or do something and use information to do research

•

write summaries and assignments

•

create information presentations (PPT, Powtoon, Video, Animation, Song, Roleplay, Dramatization, Wall Display, Corridor Display, Big Book, Storyboard, Book, etc.)

•

exchange information with other schools (Skype, email, joint website, etc.)

•

create websites, webquests and blogs

•

create a newspaper or magazine

•

explain to others (oral presentations, teach your group/partner, radio interview, etc.)

•

complete a Portfolio (on paper or online)

•

organize a school trip

•

even, maybe, do an exam?

77

INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Learning can be considered as the development that takes place in our knowledge as a result of our experiences in life.

INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

The Process of Photosynthesis

Carried out by:

M.M.Soraya López García with Year 5 Primary bilingual pupils from C.P. Marcelo Gago, Avilés.

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils already know about Photosynthesis Activating pupils’ prior knowledge of plants and the process of photosynthesis.

Accessing and processing simple information autonomously.

Description

This is an activity to activate pupils’ prior knowledge of the process of photosynthesis whilst at the same time inputting new information and concepts.

Pupils identify the things plants need to make their own food and then put in order the process of photosynthesis. Finally, they check and self-assess their own work.

Context

The activity was carried out with five pupils aged ten-eleven years old in the subject of Science.

Recommendations

Although originally planned for one session, it actually took a bit longer.

Physical resources

•

• • • • • Language resources

A set of 8 small Needs Label Cards per pair of pupils. See Annex.

These should include the 4 basic things that a plant needs to synthesise its own food. Some of the cards should be correct (e.g. water, minerals, solar energy, carbon dioxide) and some should be wrong (e.g. sugar, nitrogen, meat, milk).

A set of Process Cards per pair, each card with a piece of information about the process of photosynthesis. See Annex.

A set of Self-Assessment Sheets (Nºs 1, 2, 3 and 4) per pair of pupils. See Annex.

Blackboard + chalk in various colours or whiteboard + different-coloured markers.

Large pieces of white card + crayons or felt-tip pens, to make posters.

White-tack to fix cards to the posters so that they can be removed and reused.

One vocabulary sheet per pair of pupils with the meaning of the most difficult words.

The sheets are stuck with white-tack on the classroom walls.

Language of learning Key vocabulary relating to the process of photosynthesis: Nouns: water, mineral salts, solar energy, carbon dioxide, oxygen, chlorophyll, raw sap, elaborated sap, xylem vessels, phloem vessels.

Verbs: absorb, mix, become, transport, absorb, release, transform, make, produce.

Language for learning I think this comes first.

I don’t think this goes here.

I don’t agree What’s the meaning of...?

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked in pairs.

Timing

Intended for 55 mins. but took a little longer.

They used their desks, two big tables and the blackboard.

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The Activity

Before starting the activity, all the Self-Assessment Sheets were placed face down on large tables. Alternatively, you could stick them with white-tack on the classroom walls with the information side turned to the wall.

Step 1 1. Pupils, in pairs, decided which words were correct on their set of Needs Label Cards, as regards what plants need to make their own food, and which were not.

2. They then checked their decision by looking at Self-Assessment Sheet Nยบ 1, which was face down on a large table.

3. Each pair then drew a plant on the blackboard, with roots, stem and a leaf, the ground and the sun. They stuck the Need Cards in the correct place on the drawing with some white-tack and then checked it with Self-Assessment Sheet Nยบ 2, which was also face down on the large table.

Step 2 4. Pupils were then given a set of Process Cards, each of which had a piece of information on the process of photosynthesis. They read these, interpreted and discussed them and put them in the correct order.

5. They then checked with Self-Assessment Sheet Nยบ 3 on the large table.

6. They stuck the cards on their drawings on the blackboard, each in a suitable place, and checked with Self-Assessment Sheet Nยบ 4.

Step 3 7. Finally, each pair was given a large piece of white card.

8. They used this to make a poster, by drawing the same picture as they had drawn on the blackboard and transferring their cards from the board to their poster. They used white-tack to fix the Label and Process Cards to their poster.

9. The posters were then placed on the classroom walls. As the Label and Process Cards were stuck on with white-tack, the posters could be re-used to study and revise photosynthesis later.

Outcome

Pupils carried out the activity with no special problems. They enjoyed drawing the plant and labelling it and then checking their work themselves, which enabled them to reformulate language or concepts that had been misunderstood and to reach a better understanding.

Discussion

The pupils worked in teacher-made pairs, trying to combine those who were weaker in English with more competent peers.

Conclusion

These pupils enjoyed working in this more active way, engaging more independently with the information, and I think that they understood and learned the concepts much better.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/NeedslabelCards.docx Needs, process and assessment cards Print and cut into strips.

Water

Minerals

Sugar

Oxygen

Carbon dioxide

Meat

Nitrogen

Solar energy

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Process of photosynthesis cards: Print and cut into strips The roots absorb water and The stem transports the Leaves absorb carbon minerals. raw sap to the leaves. dioxide.

Chlorophyll collects solar energy.

The solar energy transforms the raw sap and the carbon dioxide into elaborated sap and the plant releases oxygen.

The stem transports the elaborated sap to all the parts of the plant.

SELF-ASSESSMENT SHEET Nº 1 WATER MINERALS SOLAR ENERGY CARBON DIOXIDE

SELF-ASSESSMENT SHEET Nº 2 A picture of a plant drawn by the teacher with the labels of Self-Assessment Sheet Nº 1 on it.

SELF-ASSESSMENT SHEET Nº 3 The roots absorb water and minerals.

The stem transports the raw sap to the leaves.

Leaves absorb carbon dioxide.

Chlorophyll collects solar energy.

The solar energy transforms the raw sap and the carbon dioxide into elaborated sap.

The stem transports the elaborated sap to all the parts of the plant.

SELF-ASSESSMENT SHEET Nº 4 The same picture as in Self-Assessment Sheet Nº 2 with the pieces of information written next to the respective part of the plant.

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Carried out by:

Guess the animal!

Carmen Río Blanco and Year 1 Primary pupils from C.P. Apolinar García Hevia.

Avilés.

Strategy:

Accessing input.

Focusing on understanding information.

Predicting and making choices.

Description

In the first part of this activity, pupils were shown a PPT presentation with some information about six zoo animals. They had to guess the right animal by processing the information given on each slide. To show their choices, they used a set of animal cards they had prepared in advance.

In the second part of the activity, pupils, in pairs, played a memory game (pelmanism) putting together their sets of animal cards.

Context

The activity was carried out with 22 Year 1 Primary pupils (6/7-year-olds) in the English classroom. In previous lessons, pupils had been learning some basic facts about these animals (number of legs, body parts, colours and actions they can perform) by doing the following activities: •

playing flashcard games

•

listening and acting out a song

•

listening to and acting out a story

•

listening to audio clips of real animals and associating them to the right animal

•

making their own animal cards (by colouring in pictures of animals and cutting them up).

Recommendations When showing pupils the presentation, make sure to highlight key language and use gestures or other visuals to help them access the information.

Physical resources

Language resources

IWB PPT presentation “Guess the animal!” (see Annex) Animal cards for each pupil (they can make their own)

Language of learning Animals: elephant, kangaroo, monkey, penguin, snake, polar bear Animal body parts: legs, nose, tongue, trunk, beak, tail Animal actions: stomp, jump, swing, waddle, slither, swim Numbers Colours Language for learning What animal is it? It has got… It is… It can….

Is it a…? Yes/No… Now let’s play a game! Listen to the instructions. Let’s make pairs…

Great! Well done!

Did you like the activity? Yes/No/So-so?

Thank you

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INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked as a whole class and in pairs.

Desks were arranged in the shape of two adjoining L’s so that all pupils could easily see the IWB and also work in pairs. Also it enabled me to check answers and assess pupils’ performance from both the front of the room and around the desks.

Timing

30 minutes.

The Activity

1. I introduced the activity by insisting on the question mark on the first slide of the presentation so that pupils could infer that they had to guess an animal.

2. Each pupil had already prepared a set of animal cards and had them spread out on the desk.

3. With the second slide, I demonstrated how the activity worked. I revealed one short sentence with information on the animal’s number of legs. Then I asked pupils to think and pick one of their animal cards. Pupils picked a card and lifted it up in the air for the teacher and other pupils to see.

4. At that point, I revealed the second short sentence with more information about the animal and I asked pupils to think again and either keep the chosen card or change it for another animal.

5. I did the same with another two sentence clues and I also gave them the chance to listen to an audio clip with the sound of the animal. At this moment, pupils were holding the card of their choice.

6. Finally, I revealed the picture of the right animal so that pupils could check if they had guessed right or wrong.

7. The same process was continued with the other animals until the end of the presentation.

8. At the end of this activity, I asked for feedback from pupils using the thumbs up/ middle/down strategy (see video clip).

9. To carry out the second part of the activity, I chose a pupil and demonstrated with her how to play the memory game.

10. Pupils were then given some time to play the game.

11. At the end of this activity I asked for feedback again.

12. See video clip of the activity

The Outcome

Most pupils carried out the activity very effectively. Some were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of written information given in the presentation. These were the ones that didn’t get many answers right and therefore didn’t give a positive feedback, although in general, they enjoyed the activities as they had been preparing the topic for quite some time and had a good background knowledge of it.

The memory game was so successful that in the next session, I gave pupils the chance to make a complete memory game set to take home and practise with their families and friends.

Discussion

Both activities allowed pupils to apply some thinking strategies of their own. In the first activity, they were able to analyse language to acquire some criteria for classification, compare this to their background knowledge of animals and apply the result on order to make predictions. In the second activity, they were able to produce language, interact with each other and work cooperatively.

As mentioned before, some pupils found it hard to access the written language in the first activity as they are still quite young and therefore became a bit demotivated.

However, they could still make their predictions by checking their partners’ answers or by simply having a go.

To support these pupils, it might be better to include an oral version of each clue, read out by the teacher, other pupils or included in the presentation.

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Conclusion Using this kind of active learning activities in my classroom made pupils more engaged in their learning. I was able to see for myself that they participated more, worked together happily, collaborated with each other and started to develop thinking skills.

Annex 1. PPT Presentation

Click on the image to access http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/Inputing/GuesstheAnimal.pptx

Ready to play

2. Photographs of Guess the Animal.

Preparing the activity

Starting the activity

Observing, thinking, comparing, evaluating, taking informed decisions and ENGAGED!

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Active Learning A. Participating B. Thinking C. Self -assessing D. Peer-assessing

Annex 4: http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/Inputing/MemoryGamevidio.mp4 Annex 5: http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/Inputing/pupilsFeedbackvideo.mp4

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The Alphabet Train

Carried out by:

Sonia Mª del Castro Suárez and Year 3 Pre-primary pupils from CP Atalía.

Gijón.

Strategy:

Scaffolding pupils’ learning through sequencing (I do, we do, you all do, you do it alone).

Using a variety of input formats to cater for all learning styles.

Working in small groups to support each other in their learning.

Description

The activity was based on identifying the phonetic sounds of English and the English alphabet as the first step to achieving real effective written language development.

Context

The activity was carried out by the English teacher in the Year 3 Pre-primary with a group of 25 pupils of five years old.

Recommendations

The letter worksheet is better done in groups (i.e. 1 letter per group member) rather than all the letters done by each child.

Physical resources

Jolly phonics cards and game CDs, A large picture of a train Web videos such as: The Alphabet Train https://youtu.be/BELlZKpi1Zs (3 minutes) Alphabet Song https://youtu.be/w1LLmyFxRNw (First song of this collection 1’48’’)

Language resources

Language of learning Expression used for talking about the alphabet, e.g. words starting with the alphabet letters: A is for apple.

Language for learning The link between the oral form and the written form of the language.

Example /ei/- /pi/- /pi/- /l/-/i:/ equals “apple”.

Language through learning Matching the picture with the corresponding initial letter.

Example:

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INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were in groups of 5

Timing

We carried out each activity in 7 separate sessions

The Activity

Session 1 To activate thinking and alphabet awareness, pupils watched a short video of The Alphabet Train (3 minutes).

After watching the video, they were encouraged to watch and then sing along to the Alphabet Song (1’48”) Session 2 We then made a large train of colorful animals and bugs on the board. My today’s helper gave me a hand by sticking them on the blackboard. Each animal began with a letter that pupils repeated and each one had a picture related to the initial letter, for example “D” is for DOG. Session 3 I brought a set of pictures and letters to the classroom and placed these on the right and left sides of the blackboard. I gave pupils an example of how to match a picture with its corresponding initial letter. Then they matched the rest of the letters and the pictures.

Session 4 Children worked in groups of 5.

Each group was given a set of letters and a picture.

Children sorted the letters to form the word that corresponded to the picture.

Example: Session 5 Pupils worked individually on a set of worksheets for each letter of the alphabet.

They coloured in the letter and practiced writing it. The worksheets were then put together to make their own Alphabet Book.

Example: Session 6 This was a smartboard activity in which pupils were asked to identify the phonetic sounds of a word connected to a simple sentence, such as The apple is red.

Session 7 Pupils played Alphabet Bingo as a fun positive feedback activity.

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Outcome

The activity was quite successful in general. Pupils enjoyed learning the alphabet song and the final feedback bingo game was effective for both pupils and teacher. However, the worksheet activity turned out to be a bit boring because it was quite repetitive and pupils got tired of it quickly.

Discussion

These pupils had not yet developed enough concentration skills so the game in Session 3 (matching letters with pictures on the board) was a bit too long for them as they had not done it before. However, this could be solved by reducing the number of flashcards initially and adding more cards each time they play in order to develop concentration.

To solve the worksheet problem, I would change the task to group work and give a set of letters (5/6 to each child) to make up a group book, which could then be photocopied so that each child has their own copy to use and later take home. This would also allow them to see their group mates’ way of working and they could help each other more.

Conclusion

The final result was positive if we consider that pupils gained a good oral and written knowledge of the English alphabet as the first step for further learning in reading and writing.

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INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

Getting to know Christmas

Carried out by:

Sonia Mª del Castro Suárez and Year 3 Pre-primary pupils from CP Atalía.

Gijón.

Strategy:

Providing authentic input Scaffolding learning by sequencing activities Connecting information to different areas Encouraging transfer of skills and conceptual knowledge from the MT

Description

This was a set of activities based on a story and aimed at 5-year olds, who love listening to and dramatizing tales. It was based on vocabulary and concepts related to Christmas and connected with the wonderful world of fantasy and dreams. The main story When Magic Really Happens is about how a Forever Friends teddy bear learns with Father Christmas that sharing is a value that makes both us and others happy.

The aim of the activity was to present children with access to authentic information in the Foreign Language about Christmas and the value of sharing and to work on this information through motivating activities which had been scaffolded by firstly connecting to their prior knowledge both in L1 and L2 (See Prior Knowledge activities in the Section 1) by sequencing them gradually from guided to independent output in order to facilitate learning and by connecting them to children’s learning in other areas.

Context

This set of five activities was carried out in 5 sessions in the English classroom with the three groups of pupils who are in the last year of Pre-primary. The tutorteachers were not involved because of lack of time for coordination.

The activities were connected to a cooking workshop carried out in our school dining room where pupils made baked cookies and to the general topic of Christmas, which, although carried out in the mother tongue provided an authentic context for the activities carried out in L2 and also scaffolding for these, since children were able to transfer concepts and skills to their learning in English.

A prior session with two activities which were used to activate prior knowledge, encourage predicting skills and scaffold an anxiety-free environment in which children felt happy to guess (Gingerbread Man video and the Magic Box flashcard activity – see Section 1) had introduced the set described here.

Recommendations

These activities (together with the Prior Knowledge activities described in Section 1) lasted throughout the month of December with two sessions per week. It was important to set aside one session for doing the small theatrical performance.

Physical resources

Digital resources: Video (YouTube or Vimeo) When Magic Really Happens by Forever Friends; interactive whiteboard.

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Language resources

Material resources: worksheets, flashcards, puppets and realia.

Language of learning Key vocabulary related to Christmas: Christmastime, Santa Claus, Rudolf, bells, sleigh, Christmas tree, baubles, presents, star, stocking, candy cane, moon, snow, snowing, etc.

Expressions: when is Santa coming? we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, What color is the present? etc.

Language for learning Specific language needed to decorate a Gingerbread man.

Language through learning Language from the Prior Knowledge activities Emerging language through decorating a Gingerbread man and making a Christmas Card and participating in the short play: The Gingerbread Man.

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were in groups of 4 so that they could work cooperatively and develop oral skills among peers.

The organization of the classroom space depended on the nature of the activity. For instance, to carry out the performance the pupils were grouped in a horse shoe. In the classroom, we have an Art space where pupils could do art activities quietly.

Timing:

As regards timing, the whole set of activities, including the first Prior Knowledge session, took about seven sessions.

The Activity

Session 1 has been described in Section 1 Prior Knowledge.

Session 2 Pupils watched a story based on Christmas Time and Santa Claus “WHEN MAGIC REALLY HAPPENS”.

This story tale provided a wonderful Christmas story with a soft music which connected with the “magic world” of pupils of this age. It was also the learning context in which pupils learned the new vocabulary as well as previous learnt language that they did not remember or did not know (as discovered in Session 1).

Session 3

Pupils reviewed the Christmas vocabulary with the flashcards game: What´s missing? (See Flashcards Section of the guide). Pupils then wrote the new vocabulary on a worksheet (like this example from Pinterest.com). They identified pictures and words and then traced the words.

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Session 4

In this session, we concentrated on Numeracy.

The pupils looked at the pictures of Christmas objects on a Worksheet (like this example from ISL collective) and said the names. They asked “How many …. are there? then counted the Christmas objects in each square and answered the question, writing in the number. To play a game, they asked each other How many xxxx? and answered. Finally, they colored the pictures.

Session 5

Pupils decorated a blank template of the Gingerbread man following oral instructions that I gave them in English, like this example.

Examples: Draw a hat on his head, draw three buttons on his body, color his eyes blue, etc.

Session 6

In order to review, consolidate and assimilate the vocabulary that they had been learning in a fun way, pupils played Christmas Bingo.

They worked individually but as groups at the same time so they got points for their team, like this example from http://crazylittleprojects.com/ We quickly did an oral run-through of the pictures to make sure that all pupils recognized the images and knew the names. Then pupils chose one of the images and drew it in the middle FREE square, so that they had 2 images the same on the board (or drew a different image). Then we played!

Session 7 This session was focused on doing a short play called “Santa is coming to our school”. I dressed up as Santa and performed a short play with some of the pupils in our classroom.

The aim was to provide a real context for the language and develop communicative competence in pupils.

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Outcome

My pupils enjoyed the tasks a lot, especially those which involved an element of fun. I also noticed that as the task related to the subject of Math, all the groups felt motivated and participated with interest.

The main difficulty appeared in the last session due to the lack of time. It could not be prepared adequately so, finally, the little play had to be carried out between the teacher and just one pupil in a simple way, with the rest of the class as audience.

Discussion

The strength of this activity lay in the scaffolding strategies used to move step by step to increase pupils’ confidence and to lead to a more independent use as the sessions unfolded. This involved designing the learning so that the new vocabulary would be acquired in an unconscious way, using play and fun to stimulate pupils’ need to know the language being taught, i.e. pupils acquired the key language without being aware of being taught. In addition, the new items of vocabulary connected with their prior knowledge and interests so that conceptual knowledge and skills could be transferred from the mother tongue classroom. This extended their linguistic competence and reinforced their social skills. Finally, the activities were sequenced in such a way as to move towards more autonomous participation.

The weakness lay, as always, in the lack of time to carry out the kind of activity which takes longer, like drama or role-play.

Conclusion

The activity was, in general, quite successful. Pupil participation was good as was the effort that they put into the tasks. Most of the learning objectives were achieved.

Annex

Video When Magic Really Happens can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mgAqzyp3AA or https://vimeo.com/7469524

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INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

Truth or lie?

Carried out by:

Patricia González García and Year 4 Secondary students from Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo School. Avilés.

Strategy:

Processing key language through group work

Description

This is an activity which we used to process key language relating to physical descriptions and appearance but which can be used to work on any other topic. It is an oral activity which is effective both in processing key vocabulary and practising listening skills and oral expression, in this case connected to descriptions. You need a digital board and pictures related with the topic.

Context

The activity was carried out with twenty 15-year-old students in Year 4 Secondary during English FL classes. It was done in a normal class, using the digital board and the pictures I had chosen beforehand. Pupils took turns to play.

Recommendations

This was an engaging activity in which students get really involved. The crazier the picture is, the more motivated they get, which may lead the teacher to use it with other topics maybe too often. Therefore, it should not be over-used as despite initial motivation, it can get boring quickly.

Physical resources

Digital board, A set of images connected to the topic.

Language resources

Language of learning Physical descriptions of people: tattoo, dyed hair, piercing, beard, moustache, sideburns, goatee beard, glasses, necklace, bracelet, contact lenses, hoodies, baggy clothes, tight clothes, overcoat, fat, thin, slim, well-built, bald, tall, short, average height/weight, long/shot/curly/wavy/straight/ginger/blonde/dark hair Language for learning It looks/looks like…

Are they lying or telling the truth? They are lying/They are telling the truth In the background /foreground of the picture…

Groups and classroom space

Students took turns to sit at the front of the class, facing their classmates.

Timing

The activity lasted as long as we wished (depending on the number of pictures).

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The Activity

1. After working on the vocabulary (physical descriptions and appearance), one student sat on a chair in front of the digital board but facing the class, so that s/he could not see what was being displayed on the screen.

2. The rest of the students were shown an image and started to describe what they could see. Students raised their hand if they wanted to say something.

3. Students had a choice: they could either describe what was actually in the image (i.e. tell the truth) or they could make it up (i.e. lie).

4. If they started telling the truth about the image, then their descriptions had to be truthful till the end, and the other way round - if they started lying, they had to lie all the time about the picture.

5. Finally, the student had to say whether or not s/he thought they were telling the truth and was then allowed to look at the picture.

Outcome

Students became really engaged in the activity and it was very productive in that they made effective use of the key language being learnt. The activity was meaningful to them as they used the key language for a purpose to describe the images truthfully or untruthfully. Of course, they got excited, mainly when trying to invent the image, because even though the people they had to describe were really weird, they tried to make them look weirder.

Discussion

Although at first the activity was productive and students performed well, when it was done again students did not appear to reach the same level of engagement. It was also difficult to get them all to speak - some of them were not confident enough or felt embarrassed.

Conclusion

Students found the activity really motivating but, having done it several times I found that it was not good to overuse as some of them got bored.

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INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

Means of transport

Carried out by:

Miriam González Martínez and Year 2 Primary pupils feom CEIP Gloria Rodriguez. Soto del Barco.

Strategy:

Providing a purpose for accessing the input.

Description

The activity involved classifying, identifying, writing, reading, listening and speaking.

The main aims of the activity were: 1. to activate pupils thinking skills; 2. to give pupils an opportunity to use the vocabulary of the unit in a meaningful context; 3. to facilitate pupils understanding of the information; 4. to foster the development of pupils’ writing skills; 5. to work together to solve a puzzle.

Context

The activity was carried out by 18 seven-year-old pupils in Year 2 Primary during an English FL lesson as part of a unit related with means of transport.

Recommendations

It is a good idea to laminate your materials so that you can use them again.

Pupils can draw their own pictures of the different means of transport in the Art class instead of giving them the picture, which offers them an opportunity to review the language again in that subject.

Step 4 can be done in another session using the Computer Room if you want pupils to practice using PPT. Step 4 and 5 can be performed and assessed individually.

Physical resources

A set of cards with pictures and panels (see annex).

White tack Computer and PPT slide Card

Language resources

Wall scripts with the names of the different means of transport pupils are to work on.

PPT slide example as a reference model for descriptions.

Language of learning Key vocabulary and language needed to describe and classify means of transport.

Language for learning Asking for explanation: Can you explain…?

Giving reasons: because…

How do you say… in Spanish, please?

Verbs: have got and be Language through learning The activity itself involves the use of new vocabulary items as well as recycling structures.

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were divided into 3 groups of 6.

Desks were arranged in stations, with pupils facing each other.

The main vocabulary was displayed with flashcards in an English corner in the wall.

Timing

The activity took us 50 min but this might need to be extended if you want to carry out steps 4 and 5 individually.

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The Activity

1. Pupils were given the set of cards and asked to classify the pictures but they were not given any guidance as to what classification criteria to use in order to activate their thinking skills.

2. When they had finished, they were asked to explain the reasons for the way they had classified the pictures.

3. The teacher then displayed heading cards to classify the pictures under the labels: “water, land and air� on the board.

4. Pupils were called out individually to take a picture and stick it in the corresponding category.

5. As a final task, pupils were shown a PowerPoint slide with an example (model) of a description of a means of transport. They then used the model to help them to write on a card a similar description of one of the pictures already worked on in the previous tasks.

6. Finally, pupils orally presented their descriptions and the rest of pupils had to guess what means of transport they were talking about.

Outcome

At first, the pupils were shocked as they had been left to think (since no rules were given for Step 1) for themselves but they really enjoyed the opportunity. Surprisingly, each group classified the pictures according to different criteria, which they enjoyed explaining.

In addition, pupils felt motivated afterwards, due to the cross-curricular connections, so that the English FL made sense to them.

It really was very productive as both pupils and myself, as teacher, enjoyed the experience and discovered the importance of critical thinking.

No big difficulties found.

Discussion

The main strength of this strategy was that pupils appreciated the opportunity to be left to think and so it motivated them to ask for structures and vocabulary in order to express themselves.

The only thing that is worth considering is that when first performed, thinking takes longer than expected. In fact, I had to give them two opportunities to think in Step 1 as they were not used to doing it. It took almost 30 minutes for them to set their minds to it!

Conclusion

This activity based on active methodology was very productive as pupils learned key language, used critical thinking skills and at the same time really found the activity motivating. It also provided a good example of the usefulness of integrating content and language in the EFL classroom. For this reason, Communicative Competence was well developed and the aims of the subject were met.

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Annex

Set of cards and panels from filefolderfarm.com: https://goo.gl/8FrCAy PPT slide: http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/Transportation.pdf Pictures of the group classifying the means of transport.

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Learning European countries and capital cities.

Carried out by:

José Luis Ruiz Soriano and Year 6 Primary pupils from CP Tremañes, Gijón. (mainstream teacher).

Strategy:

Using ICT and mini project work to help pupils to learn about the geography Europe.

Catering for different levels in the class

Description

These activities helped pupils to learn facts about European countries and their capital cities.

They involved matching countries, cities and flags and locating them on a map, searching for information about one country on the Internet and making a short PowerPoint presentation.

Context

The activity was done during the first term in the Science class with a group of thirteen Year 6 pupils (11-12 years old).

Recommendations

Pupils should not start the second session if they haven’t completed all the activities in Session 1 (blank map included).

Physical resources

Digital board and computers.

4 blank maps of Europe.

Compass.

Blank card.

Website: https://goo.gl/9NbDu Language resources Flashcards with vocabulary and dictionary.

Language of learning Population, density of population, cardinal directions (N, E, S, W), compass.

Language for learning Comparative sentences in English, e.g. Berlin has got a larger population than Madrid.

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked individually in the first session and in groups in the other two. We went to the computer classroom to do some activities, which would not be necessary if pupils had at least one computer for each 2 pupils in the classroom.

Timing

The activity took place in three different sessions giving the pupils as much as time as needed in order to complete the activities.

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INFORMATION INPUT, PROCESSING AND OUTPUT

Activity:

The Activity

Session 1 In the Computer Room, pupils were asked to access the following website: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/European_Geography.htm and to review the Tutorial in the first column on Capitals. They then completed the activities in the first column (levels 1 to 4: beginner, intermediate, expert and cartographer) in order to acquire a basic knowledge of European geography.

The online activity showed pupils the location of each country within Europe and supported them with an oral and written version of the name of each capital city.

As homework pupils were required to fill in a blank map with European countries and capital cities.

Session 2 This was structured in two main parts.

1. Pupils started by self-correcting the previous day’s homework activity using a completed map shown on the smartboard.

When they had finished, pupils carried out an oral activity in which they took turns to ask each other the European capital cities.

2. In the second part of the session, pupils were divided into two groups and took part in a “Europe Competition”.

Each group had four tasks to accomplish: match countries and flags, match countries and capital cities, locate countries on a blank map and do the same with capital cities. The winners were the first to achieve the four tasks successfully.

Session 3 1. Pupils made two large wall posters, which were divided into three main areas. Two of these areas were related to their previous work (flags, capital cities or countries with shapes on a blank map) and the third one had an optional content related to Europe.

2. I proposed two topics to choose from: a. the Eurovision song contest (countries participating, last winners, singers and song titles, etc.), b. the UEFA Champions League (teams playing, cities and countries where they are from, colours and symbols from different teams, etc.).

Both options worked well for my pupils and motivated them.

3. Their task consisted of searching the Internet for information and images, making a selection of pictures, cutting and pasting them and drawing the titles. They had to find and handmake the content of their posters. They used computers, printers, crayons and felt tip markers to write and draw all the elements.

4. When they had finished, they showed and explained their work to the other group.

5. Finally, they were assessed by being asked about the contents they had included.

Outcome

All pupils carried out the activity without problems, most of them learnt the contents and all of them enjoyed the process.

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Discussion

This kind of ‘hands on’ activity supports pupils in taking an active part in their own learning process. My pupils are used to participating in these activities as a part of regular lesson plans.

I try to include at least one activity per unit in which they have to cooperate, work in teams, use technology and elaborate contents. As a result, even pupils who have limited study habits and low motivation through learning become engaged in the activity and learn even though they are not aware of it. That is why at the end of each session I like to ask them about the contents worked, not only to assess their learning but also to make them aware of their progress.

Nevertheless, one thing I would change about this activity is probably the timing. I wish I had had at least one more session to go through the content a bit more slowly and to connect it with previous contents in Geography, like rivers, mountains, seas and so on.

However, planning was very tight and this was not possible.

To sum up, I would say this activity worked especially well, since learning countries and capital cities is hard for many children, mainly for those with little family support. Moreover, it was easy to adapt to the different levels present in the classroom, which is an important issue for me.

This activity could also be useful with other groups, since it can be customized to match pupils´ interests and motivation by including other topics depending on pupils’ preferences, such as typical food from different European countries, traditional dress, monuments, music, art, etc.

Annex

Annex 1: http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/quickreviewoftheactivity.pdf Annex 2: examples of the 2 models used to support pupils in Session 3.

Larger images can be accessed http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/Anexop91HEREJosCLuisSoriano.pdf

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Thinking and Creativity

These are skills that enable us to: • gather information via our senses, focus on it and know why we need it • ask pertinent questions in order to understand or apply this information • store and retrieve this information when needed • compare and differentiate, classify, put in order, prioritize, transfer and/or present this information in different ways • identify any patterns or the parts/components, characteristics or main ideas of this information • identify and evaluate any errors or weaknesses in this information • evaluate the accuracy and usefulness of this information • infer from, make predictions about, elaborate on this information • incorporate, connect and combine this information with other information we already have • apply, use and create with this information and so on.

Most importantly, thinking skills are critical to life and learning, making students more active in their own learning, more able to continue learning and more capable of solving problems that come up in their own and others’ lives.

The role of the teacher in the 21st Century classroom has changed and it is now our responsibility to design the lesson and its resources in such a way as to promote problem-solving, creativity and active learning. This means that when we design activities for our students in the CLIL classroom, we should try to encourage them to think. For example, rather than giving students a list of key language and translating it for them, it could be more beneficial to them to provide an activity in which, by resolving a definition puzzle, for instance, they access the key language for themselves, including their own translation of the concepts in question, which they have reached through thinking about the concept and then comparing the name of it in their own language, if they know it.

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THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Thinking refers to the processes through which we reflect on, make sense of, compare with and act on all the input acquired by our senses from our environment and the actors within this.

Thinking skills are the set of abilities, capacities or competences that we gradually acquire, which empower us to carry out thinking in order to make sense of our world, to learn from our experience and to take decisions and act accordingly.

THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Activity:

Chestnut Faces

Carried out by:

Mª Teresa García Iglesias and Year 6 Primary pupils from CP El Vallín.

Piedras Blancas (Castrillón).

Strategy:

Activating knowledge of adjectives used to describe emotions.

Thinking and learning about emotions.

Expressing emotions through mime and drawing.

Description

This was an activity in which pupils activated prior knowledge of adjectives used to describe emotions whilst at the same time adding to these. Pupils thought about what each emotion actually involved and how people might show the emotion through facial expression. They then expressed each emotion visually through mime and an art production (a die with the 6 faces connected to emotions).

Context

The activity was carried out by 20 pupils in Year 6 Primary (11-12 years old) in the English FL class for the school’s Amagüestu Day, an Asturian Autumn Festival to celebrate the apple and chestnut harvests with sweet cider, roast chestnuts and traditional dancing and games.

It was designed specifically to work on the idea of the festival through the FL and was intended to be a relaxing fun activity which would connect in some way with the festival day through arts and crafts, engage pupils and support development of emotional intelligence and creative thinking.

Recommendations

Although these pupils are in Year 6, it took them a little longer than expected. Some of them needed two sessions so you might need to plan carefully if time is limited.

Physical resources

Dice template (see Annex link) Crayons and marker pens Scissors and glue

Language resources

Dictionaries.

Posters or illustrations related to adjectives of feeling.

Language of learning Adjectives related to feelings: e.g. surprised, funny, happy, angry, excited, etc.

Language for learning Questions to talk about feelings: e.g. How do you feel?

Language through learning I’m……… (surprised) Are you angry? Yes, I am / no, I’m not

Groups and classroom space

Groups and classroom space Pupils were organised in pairs.

Tables were placed for groups.

Timing

It took one session although some pupils needed two sessions.

Time depends on how well pupils manage cutting, colouring, folding, gluing, etc.

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The Activity

In this activity pupils activated their knowledge of adjectives related to feelings and learnt new ones through interaction and feedback in the pair.

1. Pupils were organized in pairs.

2. They were given a template which consisted of a dice with faces on chestnuts but with no expression.

3. They had to draw an expression on each face according to adjectives related to feelings.

4. They then mimed the emotion of that face to their partner, who had to guess what emotion they were feeling.

CHESTNUT DICE TEMPLATE

5. They did the next face in the same way so that they interacted through gestures, then speaking and then drawing the faces on their dices.

6. Each member of the pair designed a different dice.

7. I offered them the possibility of either asking me for new adjectives they wanted to use or finding them in dictionaries or on the posters we had put up in class or in their textbooks.

8. Once they had designed their dice with the faces and written the adjectives underneath, they coloured them, cut out and glued the template to make the dice.

9. A display of their “chestnut dice� was made for the rest of the groups.

Outcome

Pupils enjoyed the activity and were pleased to take their dice home at the end. They learned a lot of key vocabulary relating to emotions and were engaged in their learning thanks to the fact that the activity combined exploring language with thinking, body language, creativity and hands-on exploration. They had to think about the meaning of words that express feelings and how we communicate those feelings through facial expression as well as language.

Discussion

Pupils appreciated the opportunity to carry out an activity in English through Arts and Crafts and also through body language and mime, which made the learning of key language more meaningful to them as well as more motivating.

Conclusion

This was a productive and effective activity which I think I will use again by adapting it to other topics with any other set of vocabulary.

Annex

Annex 1 http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/4/DiceTemplate.docx

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104

The Peace Door

Carried out by:

Mª Teresa García Iglesias and Year 3, 4 and 6 Primary pupils from CP El Vallín.

Piedras Blancas, (Castrillón).

Strategy:

Thinking, discussing and creating.

Encouraging pupils to reflect on values such as peace and tolerance.

Description

In this activity, pupils were encouraged to think and reflect on what peace means for them and then to express their ideas artistically and linguistically to create a Peace Door decorated with post-its on which they had answered the big question placed in the centre of the door.

Context

I carried out this activity with 60 pupils (3 groups of 20 pupils) in Years 3, 4 and 6 Primary in English FL.

Recommendations

It is important for pupils to be familiar with the importance of Peace Day throughout the world.

Physical resources

Squares of coloured card or post its.

Crayons, pens, pencils, etc.

White-tack adhesive or similar.

Language resources

Vocabulary related to Peace / Solidarity / Respect / Tolerance.

Dictionaries.

Language of learning Love, respect, happiness, peace, friendship, share, etc.

Language for learning When you close your eyes and think of peace, what do you see?

Write your idea on the post-it.

Decorate the post-it and stick it around the door.

Language through learning Posted on the door: A world full of happiness. No wars, etc.

See Annex for more examples.

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were organised in groups.

Tables in groups

Timing

The activity took one session.

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THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Activity:

The Activity

1. In this activity, pupils reflected on what the word PEACE meant for them.

2. Pupils were divided into groups.

3. Each pupil was given a square of coloured card (post-its also work well) on which they had to answer the question I had posed, which was placed on the door and which they could read when they came in: “When you close your eyes and think of peace, what do you see?”

4. Pupils closed their eyes and reflected on the question to come to an idea that they associated with Peace.

5. They talked to each other and shared ideas in their groups and then expressed them in short sentences in English on the cards.

6. They also decorated their peace sentence cards with drawings related to the topic such as hearts, the peace symbol, etc.

7. All the cards were then stuck with white-tack around the question on the “Peace Door” so that they were visible to anybody passing, who could in turn stop, read and think.

Outcome

The result was very satisfactory both for pupils and for me. Pupils gave deep thought to the consequences of war and to life in countries suffering wars and appreciated and valued the fact of living in places with peace. They also applied that concept to their own world - at school, with friends, family etc. They were aware of how necessary it is to have a world living in Peace.

They enjoyed decorating the door and continue to read the coloured papers every time they come into the English FL classroom, in order to see what others have written, which, in turn, has served as an authentic reading comprehension task in which they need to think in order to understand and appreciate what other pupils have thought and said about the same topic.

Discussion

The pupils that took part in this activity felt motivated by sharing their ideas on certain values, in this case about what a world in peace meant for them. The transfer of their ideas to post-its and using these as a vehicle for decorating the class door engaged them completely and although some of their interaction took place in their mother tongue, the FL was effectively used when they explained their ideas to the rest of the class orally and also when writing on the post-its.

It was an activity in which pupils made a hands-on use of their foreign language competence to exchange ideas in a very visual way and in which the product remained public to them and the whole school for the rest of the term.

Conclusion

Good productive and effective activity which could be adapted to any other topic by changing the question and the set of vocabulary.

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THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Activity:

Buttons of wood

Carried out by:

María Luisa Santos Rodríguez and Years 5 - 6 Primary pupils from CP Benjamín Mateo. La Felguera, (Langreo).

Strategy:

Creating an engaging activity

Description

This was a creative activity which involved following instructions to recycle fallen branches by making buttons from wood cookies (thin cross sections of the branches) and painting these in an abstract way.

Context

I did the activity with eight Year 5 and seven Year 6 Primary pupils (ten and eleven years old). This was a mixed ability and mixed motivation class, with some pupils needing a significant level of teacher help. Since the activity was carried out with a double cycle, we received the help of both the speech therapist and the psychologist. However, these teachers only spoke Spanish.

There was one SEN pupil in Year 5 and two in Year 6. The remaining pupils were mixed ability. Although attention in the class was not generally good, they were very motivated by the topic, which they found interesting, and also because they wanted to study and to learn English.

This activity was carried out in the Art class but enabled pupils to access, in addition to key language connected to Art, some new vocabulary related to the topic of trees and living/non-living things which they were also studying at the same time in Science. The final task of painting the buttons relates to Abstract Expressionism, which was being explored by pupils in Art at that time.

Recommendations

Depending on pupils’ ability, you might need more time than initially programmed.

The activity is easier to carry out with help from one or two other teachers (almost essential, I would say).

Since a drill and saw are used, care needs to be taken and pupils need to be closely supervised. You might want to restrict the use of the drill and saw to adults only.

Physical resources

Digital board - OHP to show YouTube video How to make tree buttons 1’26’’ flashcards with the key vocabulary of tools and actions a drill and a saw one or two long thin branches picked up from the ground scissors and paper linseed oil (optional) or sandpaper the help of two teachers to do the cutting and drilling watercolours or wax crayons

Language resources

Language of learning Vocabulary and expressions relating to: cut, draw, make, do, colour, pencil, compass, tree cookie, tree trunk, tree branch, drill, scissors, saw, etc.

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Examples Draw circles and cut them out with your scissors Stick them in your drawing block Colour them brown Language for learning Imperatives for giving instructions Language through learning A lot of the language used to carry out the activity emerged from previous activities.

Some new language will be reviewed in Science Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked together as a whole group to watch the video clip of how to make the buttons.

They then worked in pairs wit h the teachers’ help to make the buttons.

Timing

The activity took about sixty minutes, a bit longer than originally planned.

The Activity

1. We quickly reviewed some of the instructional language needed for the activity: cut, draw, scissors, colour, etc. using the flashcards.

2. New key words were introduced by showing pupils the item or tool with flashcards and realia, e.g. the object saw or the action e.g. saw the wood.

3. I then explained what we were going to do: we were going to make buttons by cutting sections from a fallen branch picked up from the ground.

4. We watched the YouTube video How to make tree buttons (1’26’’). This explained what to do, using spoken instructions, written instructions and a visual explanation.

We watched it twice.

5. We then observed how the volunteer teachers cut circular sections with a saw from a thin branch and also how a drill was used to drill two small holes into each circle to make buttons.

6. Pupils sanded their buttons to make them smooth and without splinters.

7. They then painted the buttons creatively, using different lines and colours, following abstract expressionism.

8. They took their buttons home to decorate their bedrooms, to sew onto a bag or to decorate a folder or a notebook.

9. Finally, pupils recorded their learning in their sketch pads by drawing and painting a tree branch cookie in an abstract way..

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Outcome

The activity was extremely engaging for pupils and they were very motivated. With the initial flashcard review, the video shown on the digital board worked well as a lot of the vocabulary was familiar and it was motivating for them to see that they could follow it in the foreign language.

However, it was difficult for them to follow the actual hands-on part of the activity in English and I sometimes had to resort to Spanish after an initial explanation in English, which was frustrating for me, as I had hoped to manage everything in English.

Through this activity, pupils developed critical and creative thinking skills and explored opportunities to apply their new learning in different contexts. They continued developing their understanding of the four areas of art: perceptions and response; historical, cultural and social context; creative expression and production; aesthetics and criticism.

Discussion

The experience, I think, was positive but it was very difficult to carry out in this type of mixed-level group. When I began the hands-on part of the activity, I felt a bit frustrated because I had to speak in Spanish when they did not understand. However, at the end of the activity, my pupils told me that they had enjoyed it and said that it was attractive and different.

Conclusion

It was a productive, if occasionally frustrating, experience for both teacher and pupils.

Annex

How to make wooden tree buttons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMxMwfSTlo4

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Activity:

Throw the dice and play!

Carried out by:

Patricia González García and Year 5 Primary pupils from Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo, School, Avilés.

Strategy:

Thinking about the knowledge

Description

This was an activity to review key language relating to jobs and work places which had been the focus of the topic in the FL class.

It was an effective game activity to help them to think about what they had been learning and to use creative thinking skills to represent this.

Context

The activity was carried out with eighteen 10/11-year-old pupils in Year 5 during English classes. It was done in a normal class, using the board and a cardboard dice. Pupils were grouped in two teams.

Recommendations

The activity can last as long as you wish although it takes a bit longer the first time you do it, since you have to explain the rules.

However, the next time pupils take part in the activity with other topic language, it can take either five minutes or longer, depending on how it is planned: you may decide to stop when a team gets to 20 points, for example.

It is better to work with two/three teams, since it is more dynamic and may get a bit boring if there are too many teams in the class.

Physical resources

Dice and board

Language resources

Language of learning Jobs and work places: librarian, computer programmer, teacher, pupil, scientist, cook, secretary, gardener, security guard, tourist guide, cleaner, florist, author, singer, explorer, firefighter, baker, police officer, gardener, shop assistant, baker, carpenter, doctor, nurse, library, office, school, lab, restaurant, garden, hospital, tourist office, shop, fire station, police station, nature, bakery, etc.

Language for learning Throw the dice. Whose turn is it? It’s our/your turn.

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THINKING AND CREATIVITY

The activity was carried out in teams with a dice and a board. Each side of the dice represented a different activity so chance was a factor, which made the activity more exciting as well as providing for different learning styles.

Groups and classroom space

Organization of pupils: in groups or teams.

Timing

Estimated time: 15 minutes when first used. On subsequent occasions, as long as required.

The Activity

1. Pupils were divided into teams (two or three to make the activity more dynamic).

2. The teams took turns to throw the dice. To decide which team was to start, we did “heads or tails” (to learn a new expression).

3. The opposing team chose a key word from the topic and carried out the activity designated by the number on the dice.

4. The team that threw the dice had to guess the word/expression.

5. If they did so, they got as many points as the number on the dice.

6. For example: 1. Mime If the team got 1, a member of the other team mimed a word. If they guessed it, they got one point. So as to make the game a bit faster, they only had the chance to give three answers. If they didn’t get it, they didn’t get the point.

2. Mute word If the team got 2, a member of the other team “articulated” the word but with no sound uttered. As for 1, there were three possible answers. If they got it, 2 points.

3. Hangman If the team got 3, the other team prepared a “hangman”. If they knew the word, they got 3 points.

4. Pictionary If they got 4, a member of the other team drew the word/expression. If the others knew it, they got four points, As before, there were only three possible answers.

5. Clue game If a team got 5, the other team had to think of five clues to describe a word/ expression. If the team who had to guess knew the answer (just three possibilities), they got 5 points.

6. Choice This was the best category, since if a team got 6, they got 6 points straightaway, chose the category they wanted to play with and got as many points as the number of the category.

Outcome

Pupils enjoyed the activity a lot. It was effective in making them think and rack their brains to guess the word and in encouraging them to think creatively to represent the words (Categories 1, 2, 4 and 5).

One difficulty I found was noise control, but pupils tended to calm down quickly when told that they would have to stop if the noise disturbed other classes.

It was a motivating way for them to review key language as evidenced by the fact that they have frequently asked to repeat the activity and have also decided that the winning team will be the one who gets 100 points over a variety of topics. We are on the way!!

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Discussion

Pupils worked in teams and it was good to see how pupils who do not usually get on very well forgot their differences and worked together as a team. I think this is an activity that can be carried out with pupils of all ages, since it combines different learning styles and intelligences and can be adapted to the level of any class.

It was also good for them to think before they said a word, since they could only give three possible answers. Thus, they did not give possible answers randomly but reflected on the key words and discussed answers with each other before saying them. They tried to come to an agreement before they gave the final word.

Conclusion

Pupils found the activity really motivating. They have repeated it several times and still remember the results they got. We will keep on doing it!

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THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Activity:

The Tree Cookie Story.

Carried out by:

Rosa Rial Castro and Year 5 Primary pupils from CP San Claudio, Oviedo.

Strategy:

Developing creativity and thinking skills.

Description

This was a three-step activity, with a whole class speaking activity and an individual writing activity. It was a cross-curricular activity (English FL, Science, History and Art) which encouraged pupils to ask questions and to write a creative text.

The aims were: 1. to practice the simple past and basic question structures; 2. to review vocabulary from English and Science; 3. to improve pupils’ thinking and writing skills; 4. to develop creativity.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class with 18 pupils (11 years old) in Year 5 Primary.

Recommendations

It is important to remember that pupils first need to make a draft with all their ideas, then order these, write simple sentences to express them, use connectors to join simple sentences and, finally, write in meaningful paragraphs to support understanding of the structure of a story or creative narrative.

Physical resources

A tree cookie (thin sliced section of a tree trunk) and a bag or box.

A board or an IWB. Pupil’s notebook or white sheets of paper.

Language resources

Vocabulary and questions were projected on the IWB. Dictionaries.

Language of learning Language of plants, woodland, adjectives, etc.

Language for learning Wh- question words, past simple of to be, to have and some regular/irregular verbs Language through learning Contained in the written text of their stories.

Groups and classroom space

Whole group

Timing

1 lesson

Individual work.

Reviewing questions for writing can take a long time.

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The Activity

The activity develops in three parts.

PART 1: Guessing 1. The tree cookie was put into an opaque bag or box.

2. One pupil touched it but wasn’t allowed to look at it.

3. The rest of the class asked questions in order to guess what was inside.

For example: How does it feel? Soft / rough / smooth / hard.

What shape is it? Circle, square, rectangle, triangle.

Is it heavy or light?

PART 2: Asking questions about the tree cookie 1. Another set of questions was projected on the IWB about the origin of the tree cookie.

2. Pupils thought about these questions and then used their ideas to d talk about the tree cookie.

For example: Was it a big or small tree? Was it ...? Did it have ...? How old was it? What tree was it? Was it an evergreen tree or a deciduous tree? Where was it? Was it in Asturias?

Was it in a wood/jungle/forest/garden? Who planted it? Who cut it down? Why did they cut it down? How did it get to be a tree cookie?

PART 3: Creative writing 1. Pupils copied the questions into their notebooks and gave their own answers to the questions. This was to support their writing.

2. Pupils then wrote a creative text about the origin of their tree cookie on their own.

3. These stories were then displayed around the classroom so that other pupils could read their classmates’ creative writing efforts. In the image below, you can see a model text used to scaffold the writing.

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Outcome

The guessing activity engaged pupils. The most difficult part was to think further than the physical appearance of a tree. It was difficult for pupils to think up a story and also when writing they initially tried to write long complicated sentences (translating from Spanish).

A further consideration was that pupils are not used to thinking or to writing stories creatively so I added a short text (which can be found in the questions resource file) as a model to scaffold them in this sense.

Discussion

Although this proved to be an interesting activity for encouraging children to ask questions, the writing activity wasn’t as productive as expected. I felt that I should have scaffolded the writing more, for example, by providing the beginning of a paragraph as a guide, by showing a model or by writing part of the story together. Consequently, I have added a model of a story for subsequent use.

The activity was very effective in developing children’s speaking and narrative skills and could be used in other contexts, for example, using as a starting point a stone from a river or beach, a picture, a bottle with a message in it, etc. In addition, it could be transferred to the Art class as a presentation to a task.

Conclusion

I feel it is important to work on creativity and this is something that neither children nor teachers are used to. Activities like this should be used again and again with different aims and themes to develop creative thinking skills.

Annex

Word document with examples of questions and a short text http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/TreeCookieQuestionsandModel.doc

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What can you feel?

Carried out by:

Silvia Mª Fernández Pérez and Year 2 Baccalaureate students from IES Valle de Turón, Santa Marina de Turón (Mieres).

Strategy:

Finding out what students can do from a tree trunk cookie

Subject

FL Content and Language Integrated Learning

Description

What can you feel? was a prior knowledge activity, involving creativity and thinking skills, which enabled me, the teacher, to get a rough idea of what my students already knew about the topic in question – in this case, the parts of a tree - and to activate their prior knowledge networks.

It was an active individual and group activity involving thinking and discussion, as well as writing skills.

The aims of the activity were: 1. to activate prior knowledge before introducing the main learning focus; 2. to find out what the participants already knew about the different parts of a tree; 3. to develop creativity and thinking skills; 4. to experience the fact that activities are more meaningful and motivating if they appeal to all aspects of an individual’s “intelligence make-up” (understood as how an individual’s intelligence is made up of multiple facets of intelligence).

Context

This activity was carried out with 8 students of Year 2 Baccalaureate,17-18 years old.

The students have 2 levels of English language and belong to the bilingual section.

Recommendations

It is best for the student taking the turn to be taken out of the classroom in order to maintain an element of unexpectedness and surprise.

Physical resources 1 thin section of a tree trunk (tree cookie) 1 bag big enough to hide the tree trunk section in and through which students cannot see what it contains (or 1 foulard or silk scarf to cover students’ eyes).

1 piece of paper and 1 pen for each student.

Language resources

Language of learning Students shared their knowledge of key language in the course of the activity, e.g. roots, branch, trunk, leaves, stems, etc.

As this was a prior knowledge activity, no extra planning was needed.

I provided key language when/if needed.

Language for learning Rhyming words to make up a poem connected to the trunk.

Language through learning Key language which emerged from the activity was recycled in later activities.

Groups and classroom space

8 participants

Timing

We did the activity in 15 minutes, including explanations + reading aloud the poems

8 tables to write the poem

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THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Activity:

The Activity

Each student went out of the classroom one by one.

S/He touched and smelled the object hidden in the bag.

Once they had all had their go, the first student said what s/he thought it was. The rest did the same, one by one.

Finally, the tree trunk cookie was revealed and students discussed what it was, what they knew about trees in general and what information a tree trunk cookie could give them.

I explained the rules of the activity clearly to the students and had a student explain again to check that they understood what they were going to do next.

Each student went to a table with paper and pen to write a short poem about “Trees”. This involved using rhyming words in some way at the end of lines.

At “go”, each student started creating their poem.

When everybody had finished, they read their poem aloud.

All poems were then displayed around the classroom.

Outcome

The activity in general was very successful and students enjoyed it. It was extremely useful in that it provided a hands-on prior knowledge activity which students found engaging and also showed students and teacher what parts of the tree they knew and also what other information could be deduced by the colour, shape and so on of the rings, as well as by the conservation of the bark. I discovered that students had a very good knowledge of the parts of the tree and, in addition, some new information was also acquired by peer sharing. Finally, it enabled students to use their English for a real purpose and as a tool for communication.

Conclusion

The activity was successful as all students felt confident when participating. I would use it again linked to other concepts.

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Scaffolding for the Active Bilingual or CLIL Classroom

Scaffolding in the Bilingual or CLIL classroom is, as its name suggests, a support or aid to learning, which we provide for students in order to help them access and consolidate their learning of both language and concepts and which, as they become increasingly confident and independent, we remove little by little.

In the Bilingual or CLIL classroom, scaffolding is usually provided in 4 different ways: 1. Scaffolding of learning in general as it should take place in any classroom, whether or not it is bilingual. Basically, this involves support of the learning environment, of the students themselves, of the teaching-learning process, etc.

2. General scaffolding of the learners in their classroom activity refers to the different strategies we can use to support our pupils in the classroom itself and in the course of their learning. We need to scaffold class interaction and our pupils’ participation. It ranges from just giving a student a little more silence time before providing an explanation or passing a question on to another pupil to making sure that pupils understand what is expected from them by running through an activity quickly before leaving them to do it themselves.

3. Scaffolding of the language for input and associated activities. This is an essential component of providing input for our students. In many cases, authentic resources might offer us the actual content we need and yet not be suitable as regards language. Therefore, we need either to actually adapt the resource to make it accessible or alternatively provide students with aids with which to access the input, such as images, glossaries, dictionaries, explanations, etc. Translation, even, can be a scaffolding strategy as long as it does not foster an “I’ll just wait for the translation” habit.

4. Scaffolding the Activity. This refers to how we support pupils when they are actually engaging with an activity. It is very much linked to supporting learning in general but refers in more detail to individual activities.

Our pupils need to know what, when, why and how they are doing an activity together with clear instructions.

In addition, pupils should know how well they must do something, for example, what the evaluation criteria for the activity are (maybe see a rubric) and receive constant feedback and/or reorientation while they are doing the activity.

Pupils benefit from both language modelling and activity modelling and should be given chances to repeat things if the activity does not work as desired. Balance pupil grouping positively so they are able to go that little bit further than they would alone and try to follow an “I-we-you” sequence (first I do it, then we do it together and finally you do it alone).

Make sure pupils have visual access to the language needed for the activity, including a set of sentence starters or language frames. Finally, it helps to actively teach some classroom language through specific activities at the beginning of the year.

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SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES

In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. https://goo.gl/Yc85p3

SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES

Activity:

At the restaurant.

Carried out by:

Cristina Martín Martín and Year 4 Secondary students from CPEB Cabañaquinta, (Aller).

Strategy:

Students move progressively from simple activities toward deeper understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process with the completion of a final task.

Description

Students do a series of activities related to eating out at a restaurant and move progressively towards the completion of a final task. It works well with students with a certain level of English. The activity aims at putting oral skills into practice in real contexts.

Context

The activity was carried out in the English FL class with a group of 18 students aged 15-16 years old in Year 4 Secondary in the classroom and in the computer room.

Recommendations

The teacher should make sure that all the students understand the instructions and that they effectively make use of the support given to reach a higher level of comprehension and performance. It is also essential that students strictly follow the sequence of activities proposed in the specified order.

Physical resources

Three worksheets per student (see Annex) Laptops or computers with headphones.

Notebooks and pencils.

Links are included in the Worksheets.

Language resources

Paper or digital dictionary.

Language of learning Language of eating and drinking, types of restaurants.

Language for learning Asking, offering, accepting, ordering, deciding, paying, etc.

Language through learning Spoken English in real contexts: manners in different cultures, intercultural awareness, social formulae, eating habits.

Groups and classroom space

Students worked individually and in pairs.

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The activity

In order to scaffold learning, our task as teachers is to create situations in which the students can interact in English in order to attain communicative and socially relevant goals, firstly through guided activities and then, eventually, independently.

In this case, the final task was action-oriented since it was a purposeful action necessary in order to achieve a given result: eating out in an English speaking country.

It was also contextualized and real, a significant linguistic product similar to those naturally occurring outside the classroom. In groups, the students wrote their own dialogue using the structures they had been learning in previous lessons. They then presented the dialogues to the class.

WORKSHEET 1: FOUR OF A KIND This was an activity to refresh students’ previous knowledge and extend with new terms. 40 words had to be grouped into 10 different categories, according to different criteria which students had to establish themselves. They then had to define the category. They were linked through semantic fields that formed a network of related meanings that helped students learn. For example, medium rare, medium well-done and rare would make up one category which students would have to define as the category of how well cooked meat is. This was a warm-up activity to stimulate students and introduce content.

The teacher checked the meanings of the words and completed the chart on the board. This was carried out as a game.

WORKSHEET 2 Students were given a list of very simple words related to eating out in a restaurant. These referred to places to eat, meals and parts of the menu. They checked the meaning of new words using dictionaries. This was done individually and then in pairs.

Next, they did two activities using ICT in which they put into practice the vocabulary they had acquired. The first involved searching for 2 restaurants in an English speaking country and downloading their menus. The second involved designing their own menu with the help of a website.

WORKSHEET 3 The students were given a list of more complex words and expressions related to ordering food in a restaurant – waiter expressions, customer expressions and paying. They had to check the meaning of new words and then carry out 3 tasks with the help of some examples and useful links given.

Task 1 was a listening/reading activity about typical restaurant dialogues.

Task 2 involved listening and answering questions.

Task 3 required them to read, practise and role-play two dialogues.

In the final task, the students worked together to create their own dialogue using the language learnt and then to present their dialogue to the whole class.

This involved more complexity than the previous activities and followed the scaffolded structure designed for the whole task, in which the proposed activities followed a gradual development: warm-up activities to introduce the content and a progressive movement towards the completion of the final task, during which scaffolding was gradually removed, shifting more responsibility onto the student.

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Outcome

The students did the activity well although teacher supervision was important at all times.

The students were a bit surprised at the beginning since the activity differed from the ordinary activities in textbooks that they are used to but they soon became engaged in it. Autonomous and pair work outside the usual atmosphere of the class was also a plus and it was productive since students were able to develop strategies of autonomous learning through guidance.

Students acquired new, specialized vocabulary to cope with language of communication outside the textbook and from different sources.

Discussion

The main strength of the activity was that undertaking some of the activities outside the usual student environment, i.e. the computer room, provided a motivating setting for learning. Equally, the inclusion of a project apart from the textbook with the use of authentic sources initiated greater individual and group involvement.

The only weakness I could mention is that the complexity of some of the activities needed great teacher supervision, especially with less able students. I had to make sure that all the students understood the instructions and were involved in the process. Anyway, the gradual achievement of content and the support given helped and stimulated students’ autonomous learning.

I also feel that teachers might find it time-consuming, but I think it is worth the effort and time since you can adapt it and do it with different groups and levels.

Conclusion

Scaffolding was effective in the learning process: it stimulated student autonomy and encouraged a process of reflection and analysis

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/3/Worksheets.docx

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SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES

Activity:

Where does it go?

Carried out by:

Silvia Mª Fernández Pérez. Year 3 Secondary students from IES Valle de Turón, Santa Marina de Turón (Mieres).

Strategy:

Presenting information and scaffolding output

Subject

English Foreign Language

Description

Where does it go? is an activity in which the teacher provides students with the necessary input of information for them to achieve personal output, aided by scaffolding strategies.

This is an individual activity involving thinking and revision, as well as reading and writing skills, which has the added element of “a team game” (competition and fun).

The aims of the activity (apart from having fun) were: • to see to what extent provided input turns into useful output • to find out how participants handle different scaffolding techniques • to experience the fact that activities are more meaningful and motivating if they appeal to all aspects of an individual’s “intelligence make-up” (understood as how an individual’s intelligence is made up of multiple facets of intelligence).

Context

This activity was carried out with 8 students in Secondary Year 3 aged 14-16 years old. This group of students does not belong to the bilingual section.

The students had at least 3 different levels of English language and one had a curricular adaptation, which did not prevent him from doing the activity with his classmates (with teacher help).

The activity was based on sentence formation in Present Perfect Simple.

Recommendations

Provide a table for each student so that they can spread out the cards.

Physical resources

8 sets of sentences - 1 per student Every set should have 5-6 words, each in a different colour to support students’ recognition of their grammatical category.

Blackboard and chalk for students to write the sentences and to assign points to the ones who are correct

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Language resources

List of irregular verbs.

Present perfect participles displayed on the board.

The teacher should provide key language when/if needed.

Language of learning Irregular verbs Conjunctions: ever / never / just / already / yet / still Language for learning Present perfect participles.

Instructions for the game: You have a series of words written in different colours.

You have to order them to make correct sentences in present perfect tense When you finish say “stop”.

If it is correct, you are given a point. If not, another partner has a turn.

Language through learning This will be reviewed in further activities.

Groups and classroom space

Students worked individually and as a whole group.

Timing

Timing can be adapted to time available and complexity of the topic. We did the activity in 5 minutes, including explanations.

The Activity

1. Each student had a table as their “home” and was given a set of cards.

2. Students were told what the grammatical point was and given 1-2 minutes to think together about it.

3. I explained the rules clearly to the students and had a student explain again to check that they understood what they were going to do.

4. At “go”, students started ordering the words to make correct sentences.

5. When the first student had finished, we checked the sentences. If a sentence was correct, the student was assigned 1 point, if not, their turn passed to another partner.

Outcome

The activity was very effective. All the students´ outputs were correct and they enjoyed their learning. Some new information was also acquired by peer sharing. In addition, I discovered that students did have some knowledge of the present perfect tense although quite limited.

Discussion

The activity was extremely useful both to teacher and students. It was a good handson example of how a scaffolded task enables students to work more independently and get a little bit further in their own output. It also showed to what extent some more information was needed.

Conclusion

The activity was successful as all the students felt confident because they were helped by their classmates who had finished and also by the teacher. I would use it again linked to other grammatical structures (conditionals, etc.).

A table for each student to build the sentences

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SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES

Activity:

Is it a bird or a mammal?

Carried out by:

Rosa Rial Castro and Year 1 Primary pupils from CP San Claudio, Oviedo.

Strategy:

Scaffolding information input and learning.

Description

This was an activity that involved distinguishing between animal classification groups, in this case, birds and mammals.

The aims of the activity were: • to learn basic classification skills (observing, comparing same or different, analysing properties, applying knowledge of characteristics, etc.

• to engage pupils in thinking; • to put into real practice key language already learnt connected with the topic.

Context

The activity was carried out in 4 bilingual Science lessons related to classifying animals with 17 pupils of 6 years old in Year 1 Primary. It should be noted that pupils were constrained by time as their lessons are only 45 minutes long.

Recommendations

The activity is better done in a larger time frame.

For the group activity, it is easier to set up group tables.

All the materials need to be made ready for each group.

Scaffolding recommendations based on how the activity was carried out.

• I used a lot of pictures and labels to scaffold the learning process, the pictures in order to support the new vocabulary and the labels because pupils needed to recognise the written form of what they heard or said.

• I also put up the pictures and labels on the class walls to help the children to remember by looking at them when needed.

• On the worksheet (Activity 3 Resource 4 WS Mammal – Bird), I used Escolar 1 font and, in addition, I spaced out letters, words and sentences to make independent reading easier. I also differentiated the most important key words and concepts from the rest of the text by using a child’s print font.

• On the same WS, I included a picture of a lion and a bird labelled with the body parts for reference, and I provided two similar worksheets, one with all the information but with the body parts written out to trace over using “infantil punteada” font, one with a gapped text, in order to choose the one that best suited each pupil, depending on knowledge or on writing ability. I used the handwriting version, but there is a print (Arial Black) version also which has the key information differentiated with block letters.

• Again, for the chart on the Quest worksheet, there were two possibilities (pages 2 and 3) in order to adapt the activity to the pupils: one option had questions about the two animal groups and the other had affirmative sentences that had been used during the lessons. In addition, I gave pupils a “help page” (page 1 in the file) with the key sentences, with key concept words in a different colour (red) which helped them to focus on the most important points to think about as well as providing them with a reminder of the language.

• The input was given and processed in a variety of formats, visual, mime, listening, music, reading, speaking, writing, hands-on, etc. and worked on in groups.

• Finally, the activities were sequenced from the initial information input with more teacher and peer help to more independent hands-on poster activity through to a final independent quiz oral/reading activity.

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Physical resources

Language resources

See Annex for all resources •

Flashcards of animal pictures with the corresponding name flashcards. I used the ones corresponding to their textbook.

•

Flashcards of animal body parts e.g. https://goo.gl/JvzB6q

•

IWB with the PPT (Resource 1 Input Vertebrate Body Parts). There is also a PDF version provided.

•

A set of photos of animals (mammals and birds) to cut out, with enough to give 6 animals to each group: there are some on the Worksheets/PPT provided or you can download and print from google images, etc.

•

A set of animal pictures/photos brought by pupils

•

Set of Mammal and Bird labels per group: Resource 2 Labels + Phrases Page 1

•

Set of Mammal and Bird phrases per group: Resource 2 Labels + Phrases Page 2

•

Projectable/printable version of Listening Sentences Resource 3 Listening Sentences

•

Mammal and Bird Classification Worksheets Resource 4a + 4b WS Mammal Bird

•

Quest worksheets and scaffolding Resource 5 Quest Mammal - Bird

•

Sheets of card (A4) in two colours or Resource 6 Poster Page Bird-Mammal

•

Set of Mammal and Bird Question Cards: Resource 7 Qu. Cards Bird-Mammal

Vocabulary flashcards PPT about body parts.

Language of learning Animal body parts: wings, feathers, beak, tail, shell, fur, hair, backbone and legs.

Reproduction: reproduce, they are/it is oviparous, viviparous, Actions: run, walk, jump, swim, fly Language for learning Birds/Mammals have (a)... Do Mammals have (a)...? Yes/No Birds/ Mammals are... Are Birds/ Mammals...? Yes/No Birds/ Mammals can... Can Mammals...? Yes/No Language through learning Guessing activities with flashcards, odd one out pictures/flashcards and games.

Groups and classroom space

Whole group, small groups (4 children)

Timing

The whole set of activities took 4 lessons.

Classroom organised in U or groups depending on the activity

The group activity can take a long time

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The Activity

To scaffold learning, pupils start by working all together and move progressively to more autonomous thinking and doing. Activities are linked to multiple intelligences and learning styles.

Lesson 1 1. Animal picture and word flashcards. a. The children were shown some flashcards of animals (I used the ones corresponding to their book) and were asked what each animal was. If they did not know, they were told the name. They were also shown the written word on a separate flashcard. They then listened to, read and repeated the name of each animal. b. I then shared out all the flashcards and word cards among the pupils. When I said the name of an animal, the pupil with the picture and the pupil with the name both stood up and went to the board, putting their cards next to each other on the board.

2. PowerPoint input: animal body parts.

Pupils were then shown the Animal Body Parts PowerPoint. We went through it, looking at each part (e.g. beak) and I asked them for examples of animals that had each part. They were scaffolded in this instance with the images.

3. Labelling animal body parts. a. I showed pupils written labels of animal body parts, which I had previously printed and cut out (Resource 2 Labels and Phrase Cards). With each one (e.g. fin), I said the name, pointed to the label and mimed a fin, e.g. This is a fin. Mime a fin! Put your hands next to your body and move them or put one hand on your back, like a dolphin. What animal has fins? b. Then pupils took turns to take a label and match it with the corresponding animal pictures that they had previously put on the board.

4. Mime Pupils stood up and mimed the body part that I told them.

Lesson 2 1. Flash! a. I made a set of flashcards of animal body parts (you can use the images on the PPT or get some from https://goo.gl/JvzB6q to use for this activity. I put them in a pile in the table. I picked up one card and very quickly flashed the image. b. This was done fast so that pupils needed to be shown the card several times with a short “thinking time� between each flash. c. Pupils had to identify the animal body part.

2. Mime Pupils again mimed the body parts that I asked them to, first together and then in turns

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1. Listening for information. a. We then moved on to listening. I said the name of the body part and pupils mimed it as in Lesson 1. b. We then reviewed concepts previously learnt in “Living Things” about reproduction and how animals move. I asked questions such as Are fish oviparous? Are fish viviparous? Can fish swim? etc. c. Pupils then listened to some simple sentences that I read slowly to them (Resource 3 Listening Sentences) about mammal and bird characteristics.

2. Reading and writing Finally, pupils worked in pairs to read and complete sentences about the characteristics of mammals and birds (Resource 4a WS Mammals and Birds).

Lesson 3 1. The odd one out animal. a. In this activity, groups of three pupils stood together at the front of the classroom and each was given a picture of an animal. b. One of the animals was the odd one out and the rest of the pupils tried to decide which one and why. c. I scaffolded them by asking them and by putting up three key questions on the board (page 1 of Resource 5 Quest) for them to think about in order to determine which one was different. I also asked the questions orally when necessary.

2. Classification Quest a. Each pupil was then given 6 images, 3 birds and 3 mammals, and the Quest Chart (page 2 questions to think about and page 3 statements of characteristics from Resource 5 Quest). b. They used the questions on Page 2 to classify their 6 animals and glue the images into the correct section of the WS. c. They then used Page 3 to check their understanding and their decisions.

Lesson 4 1.

Poster of an animal group. a. Pupils worked in groups to make a poster of an animal group. b. To scaffold them, we first reviewed the body parts and characteristics of birds and mammals (I asked them a few questions). c. Each group had: • a colour sheet with the animal name of the group printed on it (see Resource 6 Poster Page Bird-Mammal) • labels with the body parts and phrases with the characteristics of both groups • a set of pictures of animals brought by pupils (magazines, Internet, etc.)

Making the poster

A finished poster

d. When all the posters were finished, each group’s poster was checked by the other groups to make sure that both the animals and the text labels were correct.

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2.

Quiz

Finally, they were given the question cards in Resource 7, which they used to quiz each other as a final review of the topic and which gave us (me and my pupils) feedback on possible problems and areas that might need more attention.

Discussion

This type of activity takes longer and requires more work (planning, preparing resources, etc.) than traditional learning so consequently needs a wider time frame. In particular, the poster activity would be better in a one-hour lesson rather than 45 minutes.

In addition, these pupils were not used to using English FL as the means of communication, especially as regards speaking, they were very excited about animals so it would be useful if, in future activities of this kind, another teacher could help.

Finally, if I did it again, I would maybe include some video clips and maybe a song such as The Hokey Cokey Parts song, which is simply an adaptation of the well-known song for human anatomy.

Put your fins in Put your fins out.

Fins in, fins out, shake your fins about.

Do the Hokey Cokey and turn your fins about FINS, FINS, FINS.

Conclusion

The activity was productive and effective despite time constraints.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource1.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource1-2.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource2.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/ListeningSentences.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource4a.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource4b.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource5.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource6.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Resource7.pdf

TWO OF THE PUPILS’ POSTERS

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Technical Drawing: Bisector.

Carried out by:

Silvina Alvarez-Sala and Year 1 Secondary Bilingual students from CPEB. Cabañaquinta (Aller).

Strategy:

Using different strategies to scaffold information input, processing and learning.

Description

These practical and instrumental activities were designed taking into account strategies with which to scaffold students’ learning.

Context

The activity was carried out in the workshop corresponding to the subject of EPVA (Plastic, Visual and Audiovisual Expression, i.e. Art and Design) with 13 students in the bilingual section of Year 1 Secondary (12 years old).

Recommendations

Before starting the activity, it is essential to prepare and carry out activities related with prior knowledge and pre-teaching the key language.

The instructions need to be explained very carefully. In addition to asking the class if they have understood, it is a good idea to ask one or more students to explain the activity to the others in order to check understanding.

Physical resources

Pencil and white paper.

Set square and a pair of compasses.

Internet Connection.

Printable step by step constructions.

A printed map.

Language resources Online Dictionary: e.g. wordreference.com

Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the content, which were scaffolded by using bold type and brackets: segment, line, arc, mid-point, etc.

Language for learning Language for description and movements, e.g take this measurement and draw it on board…, etc.

Language through learning Specific and technical words about different constructions - perpendicular bisector, help pages for constructions: http://www.mathopenref.com/ and https://silvinaloreto.wordpress.com/

Groups and classroom space

Groups and classroom space Groups of 4/5 Large group-work tables

Timing

2 and a half sessions.

Session 1: The first part 10 min, Theory activity 15 min 25 min for drawings.

1½ sessions for the next two activities.

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SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES

Activity:

The Activity

This is a description of the set of activities I used to work on the topic of BISECTORS with my students. It includes an explanation of a variety of scaffolding strategies that I put into practice: A. scaffolding the input to make it more accessible for students and therefore able to be worked on autonomously - formatting, paraphrasing, bilingual glossary B. scaffolding the activity – clearly explaining instructions, giving instructions in oral and written format, displaying the language of/for learning around the room and on the board, giving time and opportunity to review meaning, providing a written copy of texts used, providing help pages for consultation, providing an online dictionary, etc.

C. scaffolding learning - through building on prior knowledge, sequencing from explanation to individual work, supported activities, peer support through group work, grouping, making content relevant to real life, showing connections, using a variety of inputs and processing activities involving speaking, reading, thinking, hands/on, etc.

1. In previous lessons, students had done activities to activate prior knowledge and preteach key language (See Clue Realia). Doing these activities first enabled students to think about what they might already know and to analyse this with their classmates and also encouraged them to think about what they needed to know to continue and how to fit this into their existing knowledge framework. In addition, it helped them to become more engaged, more open to learning and gave them a better chance of following the class and therefore of being more successful at processing their new knowledge and skills.

2. Firstly, the instructions and times were explained to students. They were then asked to say what they had to do and what they were going to do.

The instructions they needed to remember and be able to formulate were: Work in groups of 4. Instructions: Your teacher will distribute one paragraph for each member of the group. Read your paragraph and try to explain it to the partner on your right.

By taking time to do this, I made sure that students understood and used the language.

3. The language for the tools and actions that students needed to use and do for the activity was displayed (on the board, wall, etc.). Students reviewed the meaning. By doing this, I made it easier for them to follow everything in English and also to communicate in English.

4. After the theory explanation, students went on to the next activity: Activity 2 Practicing with the theory: Match the definition with the correct concept. To scaffold this activity, students were given a copy of the text so that they could focus on the content and not have to work from memory.

5. Activity 3: Write the correct concept below each drawing. To scaffold this activity, students were provided with two help pages to enable them to work more autonomously and to think for themselves: (Help: Constructions: Perpendicular bisector and angle bisector) https://goo.gl/E2GC7 https://goo.gl/y8Cbr0 6. They were then able to do the next activity without help. This activity gave the entre them y opportunity to practice what they had been learning.

Each student was given a printed copy of Activity 4 Drawing the perpendicular bisector step by step and Activity 5 Drawing the angle bisector step by step to work on individually following the instructions on the worksheet.

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7.

Using the content for real life. Activity 6: Mark the furthest point west and the furthest point east of the main road. Draw that segment line and find the midpoint.

Here I tried to show them that the content they were learning was valid for the real world and that they could use it in their daily lives. By making this connection to the real world, students would find it easier to assimilate and store the information for future needs.

8. The map gave us the possibility of talking and introducing the next topic: “What is a compass and what is it for?” Activity 7: Sherlock Holmes. Find out where North might have been when the tree was alive. And why? This was an activity to make them think about what they had learnt in order to put it into practice to solve a problem. It was linked to their environment, which at this age is a motivating topic of interest to engage them in their learning (See the Tree Cookie Activity in the Creativity Section of this guide).

9. This was an optional activity - Activity 8: Make your own compass for which they were given a text to read and follow the instructions to make a compass. With this activity, they could see that the content they had learnt was very important for navigation and could be useful if they got lost. They still had the support of words in bold type or explanations in brackets and if needed they could use word reference.com.

10. The final activity was Activity 9: Draw a Wind Rose. Students were given a model which they used to design their own Wind Rose.

Outcome

These students were used to working with text and reading so in this sense they worked quite well. However, when they had to think, they were lazy, probably because they are not usually encouraged to think in order to do things and since they lacked practice in thinking, they found it much more difficult, hence their “laziness” towards actually using their minds.

Discussion

The result was good. The activities were scaffolded not only in the different ways described above, but also by presenting them through increasing levels of autonomy and by working in groups, which enabled students to discuss and think about what they were learning and to help each other. In addition, the activities were designed to be easy to understand so that neither content nor language would be an impediment with the result that students felt that they could actually carry them out successfully.

Conclusion

By scaffolding all the learning activities, I enabled my students to learn the theory and put the constructions into practice without a huge effort, which I feel was productive.

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Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Presentingprocessingandscaffolding.pptx http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/5/Presentingprocessingandscaffolding.doc https://goo.gl/E2GC7 https://goo.gl/y8Cbr0 Make your own compass https://goo.gl/qNNKCt The following annexed pages show the worksheet that students used. The worksheet itself can be accessed by clicking on the link above.

Annex (I) Page 1 of the Work Sheet.

Activity 1 Work in gropups of 4 Instructions: Your teacher will distribute one paragraph to each member of the group.

Read your paragraph and try to explain to the partner on your right. http:/dicionario.reverso.nat/ingles-español/ Bisector A bisector is something that cuts an object into two equal parts. It is applied to angles and line segments. In verb form, we say thtat it bisects (cuts into two equal parts) the other object.

1. Angle bisector A line that cuts an angle into two equal parts In the figure below the light line bisects the angel LJM. The light line is the bisector

2. Line segment bisector A line which cuts another line segment into two equal parts. In the figure below, the line segment AB is the bisector. It bisects the line PQ - dividing it into two equal parts.

In general, ‘to bisect’ something means to cut it into two equal parts. The ‘bisector’ is the thing that does the cutting.

With a line bisector, we are cutting a line segment into two equal lengths with another line - the bisector.

If AB crosses at a right angle, it is called the “perpendicular bisector” of P Q. If it crosses at any other angle, it is simply called a bisector.

For obvious reasons, the point F is called the midpoint (middle) of the segment line PQ.

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Activity 2 Practicing with the theory.

Match the definition with the correct concept. Definitions: 1/ A line which cuts an angle into two equal halves (two half) 2/ A line which cuts an angle into two halves.

3/ A line which cuts another line segment into two equal parts.

4/ A line which cuts a line segment into two equal parts at 90ยบ.

Concepts: A/ Angle bisector B/ Line bisector C/ Perpendicular bisector.

Activity 3 Write the correct concept below each drawing.

(Help: Constructions: Perpendicular bisector and angle bisector) https://goo.gl/E2GC7 https://goo.gl/y8Cbr0 Activity 4 Draw the perpendicular bisector step by step. Follow the instructions.

Activity 5 Draw the angle bisector step by step. Follow the instructions.

Activity 6: Mark the furthest north, south, west and east points of the map with your triangle set drawing parallel and perpendicular lines. Check directions with the compass drawing (rosa de los vientos) below.

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Annex (III) Printable Step by Step (http://www.mathopenref.com/)

Activity 6: Mark the furthest north, south, west and east points of the map with your triangle set drawing parallel and perpendicular lines. Check directions with the compass drawing (rosa de los vientos) below.

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Activity 7 Mark the furthest point west and the furthest point east on the main road. Draw that segment line and find out the midpoint.

Activity 8 Sherlock Holmes activity: Find out where North could have been when the tree was alive.

Why?

Activity 9 Look at the picture on the right.

How can you draw it with your set-squares?

(Clue: one is rotated 90ยบ)

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Make Your Own Compass “When neither (no) sun nor stars appeared for many a day, they gave up hope. This was a terrible handicap to them because these ancient navigators had no compass nor any other instrument. The only way they could guide the ship was by the sun and stars. When they could not see them for many days they lost all knowledge of their whereabouts (where exactly?) They were drifting helplessly (a la deriva sin esperanza) before a howling gale (strong wind) in the midst of a turbulent sea with no idea where they were headed.” from God and Shipwrecks by Ray C. Stedman

http://www.raystedman.org/acts/0450.html One of the most important improvements to ocean navigation was the invention of the compass. There is some disagreement about who should get credit for this invention. It is quite clear that the Chinese knew about magnetism as early as 2637 BC, but the first written description of a compass for navigation did not appear in Europe until 1190. Why did it take so long? After you do this activity, you may have at least one good answer!

You Will Need: • A sewing needle about one to two inches long • A small bar magnet or refrigerator magnet • A small piece of cork (corks from wine bottles work well, but not plastic stoppers) • A small glass or cup of water to float the cork and needle Warning 1. Needles are sharp. Be careful!

2. Magnets can damage cards with a magnetic strip (credit cards, library cards, school IDs, etc.), floppy disks and some electronic devices. Keep magnets away from these things.

How to Do It 1. Rub (apply pressure with movement) a magnet over the needle a few times, always in the same direction. This action magnetizes the needle.

2. Cut off a small circle from one end of the cork, about 1/4-inch thick. Lay (put down) the circle on a flat surface.

3. Using a pair of pliers (tenazas), carefully poke (push) the needle into one edge of the circle and force the needle through the cork so that the end comes out the other side.

Push the needle far enough through the cork so that about the same amount of needle is sticking out each side of the cork. Be careful not to stab yourself!

4. Fill the glass or cup about half full of water and put the cork and needle assembly on the surface of the water. lace your “compass” on a flat surface and watch what happens. The needle should point 5. P towards the nearest magnetic pole —north or south, depending upon where you live.

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Let’s experiment!

Try placing a magnet near your compass and watch what happens. How close does the magnet have to be to cause any effects?

1. Try this again with a nail or other steel object. You can see why it’s important to keep metal objects away from compasses on ships!

2. Imagine you are on the deck of a ship tossing around on the open ocean. How well do you think your compass would work?

3. When the cork floats on the water, it creates a sort of low-friction bearing. This kind of bearing is essential to allow the needle to rotate in response to Earth’s magnetic field. But a cup of water probably wouldn’t last long on the deck of a rolling ship! The need for a sturdy low-friction bearing was one of the reasons that it took a long time for mariners to use compasses at sea, even though the basic principles had been known for centuries.

What’s Happening Magnetic fields are areas that contain a force created by moving electrical charges. Earth produces a magnetic field. This field is very weak, but it is sufficient to align magnetized objects— such as your needle—that are free to rotate. By floating the needle on the cork, you allow it to rotate freely so the needle becomes lined up with Earth’s magnetic field and points toward the North or South Pole of the planet.

If you want more information, access https://goo.gl/qNNKCt

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Annex (IV) How to make a compass.

From: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/for_fun/MakeyourownCompass.pdf Annex (V) Example of a Wind Rose Examples of different designs created by the students.

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Assessment Assessment for Learning

It is intended to give pupils a more active role in their learning and make them more responsible for their progress by showing them what quality work is and explains what they are supposed to do, where they need to go and how to get there. It empowers pupils (motivation, self-esteem, I can, etc.)

Assessment to aid learning: A tool for pupils Assessment should help pupils to move forwards, to be responsible for their own learning, to understand what they are learning and why they are learning it.

It is also a tool that helps pupils to see their own progress and how their peers learn and to learn from this.

It also should help students to identify their strengths and weaknesses and work on these as well as to feel motivated, to feel greater self-esteem, to feel that they can progress.

As a result pupils should be prepared for future learning, for future summative assessment, …for life.

Pupils need to know what’s being assessed and what they have to do.

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Show them the rubric, let them stick it in their notebooks.

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Give them a model (oral, visual, written, etc.) of the assessment activity.

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Train them to actively evaluate, e.g. give them examples to evaluate together.

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Use evaluation games/activities during and at the end of lessons.

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Use self and peer evaluation activities often.

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Ask often: why is this important, why are we doing this.

Assessment to aid learning: A tool for teachers From the teacher’s point of view, assessment should help them to help their pupils as it helps them to see how they need to make changes (planning, own work style, groupings, formats, etc.) to adapt to different learning styles and to identify key areas needing support as well.

Teachers need to adapt learning to progress and to learners so assessment is a fundamental tool to do that and to facilitate learning, to involve and engage pupils in their own learning.

It is also an excellent way for teachers to motivate pupils and to boost self-esteem, to show them that they can progress by offering a constructive feedback.

At the end of the whole process teachers can collect data to do the final summative assessment.

Finally assessment should also help teachers to reflect on and improve their own practice.

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

AfL is the use of assessment as a tool to aid teachers and pupils in the teaching-learning process. It contributes to the pupil’s learning rather than simply measuring it.

Activity:

Can you match these words?

Carried out by:

Cintia de Sáa Quintana and Year 4 Secondary students from IES Virgen de Covadonga.

El Entrego (San Martín del Rey Aurelio)

Strategy:

Finding out what pupils remembered about the sports they have learnt.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Reviewing the key language Description

This was a feedback activity to find out what students could remember about different sports, which involved matching different aspects, i.e. movements or equipment, etc., to different sports.

Context

I did this PE activity with 20 students in the fourth year of Secondary in order to see whether they had really learnt the different concepts during the term.

Recommendations

You will need to divide students into at least five groups.

It can be used as a “warm up” activity or a “cool down” activity.

Although the fastest group will have a higher mark, English should be the spoken language when they are working with their team mates so this should also be taken into consideration.

Physical resources

Each group need a mat or they can put the pieces of paper on the floor

Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the content: specific PE vocabulary (material, actions, sports) Language for learning Instructions for the activity, e.g. get into groups of 5, work on the mat, match a red paper to a black paper, time’s up, etc.

Groups and classroom space

Groups of 5.

Timing

Maximum: 8 minutes.

The Activity

The class was divided into groups of 5 and I gave each group an envelope of pieces of paper with words written on them in two different colours, red and black.

Students sat or knelt on the floor or mats.

At “go”, each group tried to match two words (red and black).

I used this time to go from group to group to support them and to monitor their progress.

When “time was up”, each group was asked how many words they had matched.

Points were given as follows: One point for each pair of words, e.g. backhand and tennis Two points if they made a sentence using both words. e.g. you can hit the ball backhand in tennis.

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Outcome

The students really enjoyed the activity and the way it “tested� their learning from the term and made them think about it. Two groups managed to finish all the words.

However, they found it hard to listen to each other, so, hopefully, it has helped to develop their teamwork skills, and they also found it hard to keep to English as the language of communication.

Discussion

This was a very motivated group of students who worked hard so it was very easy to finish the activity.

It is a good activity if students are able to remember basic vocabulary and expressions, but perhaps could be quite difficult with lower levels.

Conclusion

I would like to repeat this activity with the same group and other groups, using different topics.

Annex

Two photos from the activity

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Activity:

Preposition Box

Carried out by:

María Jesús Díaz Álvarez and Year 1-2 Primary pupils CRA Castrillón-Illas.

Strategy:

Making and using a card-realia game to consolidate and review learning.

Description

This is an activity in which pupils, with the support of the teacher, made a box with 3 animals and 3 objects and cards which told them where to put the object. Once finished, it became a classroom tool they could use to remember prepositions (now in the English FL curriculum for Years 1 and 2). Prepositions covered were IN, ON, NEXT TO and UNDER.

Context

The activity was carried out in a C.R.A. (Grouped Rural School) Castrillón-Illas with a group of 8 pupils in Years 1 and 2, in Caizuela Primary school.

It’s a small group that works very well in oral activities and in cooperative learning they are used to doing this kind of activity.

Recommendations

This is also a good option for fast finishers and additionally can be used at the end of the lesson to help pupils review and remember the vocabulary.

Physical resources

The activity was adapted from the activity box for positional words in the resource box of Autism Tank.

To create our own box, we only needed an old shoe box, pictures of the objects in position and some toys used as realia.

To play the game, we needed: Set of cards with an instruction to place an animal in a position related to an item of furniture (see Annex).

On the back of the card was a picture of the correct answer with the corresponding sentence.

Realia: a toy fish, duck and frog and a toy table, chair and cupboard.

Language resources

Language of learning Year 1 textbook Language for learning Prepositions: on, in, under and next to.

Animals: frog, duck, fish.

Objects: table, chair, cupboard.

Language through learning Describing position: The frog is on the chair.

Giving instructions: Put the …

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Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked in pairs at a table at the front of the classroom.

Timing

The activity takes around 10 minutes, although it took longer the first time as pupils helped me to make the cards and they had then to learn how to play the game.

The Activity

1. The objects (toy cupboard, chair and table) and animals (duck, frog and fish) required for the activity were placed on a table at the front of the room.

2. The pupils were given an instruction card which told them where to put one of the animals (see Annex) e.g. Put the duck on the table.

3. Pupils read and carried out the instruction.

4. They then consulted the position card to compare and evaluate whether or not they had carried out the instruction correctly.

Outcome

The pupils enjoyed the activity and it was an effective way of reviewing the position vocabulary they had previously learned as well as learning to think about and evaluate whether or not they had made a correct decision according to their learning.

It would have been better if we had had more sets to use in the class so that several pairs could do the activity at the same time

Discussion

Having tried out the activity, I realised that it could easily be done with more topics, such as members of the family and the rooms of the house. For example: Mum is in the kitchen.

Conclusion

It is very useful to have activities like this in class and use them when appropriate for independent learning. Pupils can assess their own answers themselves by just turning over the card; the teacher is not needed, only to check pronunciation.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/6/ActivitytemplateforCards.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/6/Activity5bSelfreviewVideo.mp4

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Activity:

Group exam experience.

Carried out by:

María Jesús González Rodríguez and Year 1 Secondary students from IES Rosario de Acuña. Gijón

Strategy:

Reviewing concepts before individual exam assessment.

Developing group knowledge sharing skills.

Peer support for exam preparation skills and understanding concepts.

Thinking and understanding versus rote learning.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Description

This was a group-based learning activity in which students worked in groups to do an exam before doing their own individual exams. The content had been previously explored in the classroom and in this activity, students worked together to share their knowledge and understanding of the concepts through discussing the possible answers to the questions. The activity particularly supported less competent students.

The aims of the activity were: 1. to foster group work and group cohesion; 2. to give students tools with which to develop their learning autonomously through reading, thinking, discussion and development of exam skills; 3. to enable students to evaluate corrected exam answers and understand why an answer might not be valid even when the information they had given was essentially correct; 4. to make students aware of their strengths and weaknesses as regards memorising a concept as opposed to actually understanding it.

Context

The group experience was carried out as part of bilingual Natural Science over two sessions by classes 3A and B (21 students) organized in groups of three students.

The activity was done in their classroom, in the two sessions before the individual exam – one session for working on the questions and one session for discussing their group answers once corrected.

Recommendations

Students need to work in groups designed to combine competences and ability so it is important to make sure that each group of three is made up of 3 levels of ability with the least competent student in charge of writing down the exam answers.

Physical resources

A short version of an exam, with questions of the type to be included in the final exam.

Language resources

Individual glossary (in the textbook) and dictionaries.

Language of learning Vocabulary related to the topic of the exam.

Language for learning Language for discussing: I think…, in my opinion…, this answer is right/wrong/ better, Why is this wrong/I don’t understand, etc

Groups and classroom space

Pupils are in groups of three and tables are organized accordingly so they can work comfortably.

Timing

2 sessions of 1 hour.

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The Activity

The students worked in small groups of three people, made up of one more competent, one less competent and one low-achieving student. The low-achiever was the person in charge of writing the answers.

I gave each group a short version of the exam they were going to do three days later.

Students were also allowed to use their textbooks and notebooks in order to help them to find the correct answer as well as to learn and revise for the test at the same time.

After an hour, I collected in their tasks and marked them as if they were real exams.

At the end of the class, the students handed in all the tasks again and I told them that the real exam was similar to the one they had done but longer.

Outcome

All the students felt engaged from the start, discussed every item and worked hard during the whole class. This atmosphere of collaborative work was followed by better results when they did the longer individual exam. Practically everybody improved their grades, except one student who had failed her first exam and also this one.

The most positive aspect of this experience was that the weakest students doubled their grades in comparison with their previous exams. In fact four students improved their results between 80-100%. Additionally, more than a half of the whole group improved between 10-40%, and only the highest achievers remained almost the same, although increased their marks around 2%. All these figures are shown in the graph in the Annex.

Discussion

The main advantage of the activity was that students became aware of the important difference between memorising paragraphs of language containing information about a concept and actually understanding the concept itself as well as the meaning of the language used to provide the information. In addition, they were able to see how exam questions are designed and what kind of information they needed to give to answer a question satisfactorily.

Moreover, the fact that students worked together and supported each other in small groups enabled all of them, independently of ability, to reach a greater understanding of the topic. This created a sense of involvement in their work and also motivated them.

In the light of the results of this experience, I would try to improve the activity by not allowing the students to use their textbooks, although obviously I would have to explain this new condition beforehand. This would mean that their marks would have similar importance to individual exams. Thus, students would be expected to achieve better results in their marks and develop useful skills such as confidence, motivation and willingness to continue their studies.

Conclusion

The activity was so successful that I have now used it with other non-bilingual groups and also shared it with other departmental teachers, who have also tried it out with positive results. In addition, the students themselves asked me to repeat the activity with other topics as it helped them to understand the concepts and also to improve their grades.

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

At the following session, I gave each group their corrected paper and they then had time to analyse each question, think about and analyse their answers for mistakes and discuss why their answers were wrong or how an answer could be improved.

Annex

The following graph shows the improvement in pass rate and marks out of 10 of 21 students after putting into practice the group exam strategy. Exam 1 refers to the 1st exam in Term 1 with no group experience and Exam 2 refers to the 2nd exam in Term 1 done after a group experience.

In the first exam, 6 students failed and only 6 managed to score at least 7 points, whereas in the exam done after a group experience only 1 student failed and 14 managed to score at least 7 points, despite the fact that the concepts studied were actually more difficult.

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Activity:

Ecosystem

Carried out by:

Rosa Rial with Year 5 Primary pupils from CP San Claudio, San Claudio, Oviedo

Strategy:

Assessing with rubrics Group work self-assessment and peer assessment This was an alternative assessment activity carried out in two parts: a) a group selfassessment rubric to evaluate a group task related with ecosystem and b) a peer assessment rubric to evaluate their peers’ performance in the same task.

It is important for pupils to think about and reflect on how they work and learn. The rubrics used helped these pupils to do so by explaining what they were supposed to do, where they needed to go and how to get there

Context

This task was carried out by 19 pupils in Year 5 Primary (11 years old), divided into 4 groups of 4/5 pupils.

The two assessment activities related to a task about ecosystems, which had been done in groups of 4/5 pupils and integrated into bilingual Science, Art and English.

Each group had previously chosen an ecosystem, which they had then investigated and used the information acquired to make a model in the Art class.

Pupils showed the final result to their classmates in a group presentation in the English class.

It was the first time that pupils had uses a rubric to self or peer assess

Recommendations

It is essential to do a demonstration of how to use the rubric.

Physical resources

Group work self-assessment rubric.

Peer assessment rubric Both can be accessed in the annex

Language resources

Language of learning Key vocabulary and expressions needed for the content: language of ecosystems Language for learning Specific language used in typical rubrics adverbs of frequency: always, nearly always, usually, sometimes, never adjectives; clear, clean, tidy, messy, significant, well done adverbials of manner and degree: well, clearly, confidently, in a loud voice, quite verbs and phrases: represent, include, without …ing, search for, share, respect …’s feelings, contribute knowledge and ideas, make a script, etc

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Description

Groups and classroom space

Pupils were divided into 4 groups of 4/5

Timing

1 lesson of 45 minutes.

The Activity

1.

2.

3.

Pupils were to present a model about the ecosystem they had chosen using the model they had made during the Art lesson with information they had researched in the Science class.

After they had finished this task, we carried out the self- and peer assessment activity, in which pupils learned how to think about and assess performance using a rubric A) Self-assessment rubric I showed pupils the self-assessment rubric, which we read all together, and I then explained how to use it. There were five aspects to evaluate from 1 to 5: a) searching for information - to what extent the group member considered that she had contributed to finding and sharing the information about the ecosystem; b) the representation of this information in the ecosystem craft - to what extent the craft itself has been successful in displaying the ecosystem and the quality of the work involved; c) the elements of the ecosystem craft - to what extent the elements of the biotope and biocoenosis had been included; d) group work - how each pupil felt they had contributed to making the group’s product, knowledge of concepts and presentation successful; e) the explanation of the ecosystem - how well they considered that they had presented their model to the class, i.e. whether they had made a script to learn or to use as an aid, whether they had been able to present the information without reading it out directly from their script, whether they had been able to answer their peers’ questions and whether they had presented the information in a clear, confident, loud voice.

4.

5.

Pupils read and highlighted the relevant cells and/or sentences that they thought best represented their performance during the group work with the exception of the explanation about the ecosystem as that section was to be done after the presentation of the work.

B) Group-assessment rubric When they had finished the self-assessment rubric, the pupils were shown the group-assessment rubric, to be discussed as a group and completed.

6.

Again, we read it together and clarified any doubts before starting independent work. In this case, there were three aspects to evaluate from 1 to 5: a) the representation of the ecosystem information in the craft (as above) b) the elements of the ecosystem craft (as above) c) the explanation of the ecosystem (as above).

7.

After the presentation of each ecosystem, the rest of the pupils in each group discussed and highlighted what they considered to be most in line with how the presenting group had performed by selecting the relevant cells and/or sentences.

8.

While they were doing this, the pupils who had done the presentation finished this section of their self-evaluation.

9.

This was then repeated with the rest of the groups.

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Outcome

It was rather difficult for pupils to agree on their evaluation of the other groups and also some children thought of it as a competition and gave a score. As regards self-assessment, some pupils had difficulty with interpreting and highlighting the most accurate description of their behaviour and contributions.

The activity was productive, however, as it gave pupils their first taste of really thinking about their own and their classmates’ work and most pupils were quite realistic about what they had done and how they had carried out the ecosystem activity.

Discussion

I think this was a very interesting and significant activity for my pupils, who took it quite seriously and nearly all of them were able to do it.

However, I noticed a couple of small details that I will change the next time I do it. I will use “I” instead of “you” in the self-assessment rubric, e.g. “I worked well in the group” instead of “You worked well in the group”, as I realised that the use of “you” was more in line with my own (the teacher) evaluation of their achievements. The second affected some of the descriptors in that certain items on the rubric could not really be measured with the adverbs of frequency, e.g. you made a script, so I would have to express this differently.

Conclusion

I will use rubrics more frequently and I will give the rubric to the pupils at the beginning of units, activities or lessons, etc. in order to show pupils what quality work is and explain what they are supposed to do, where they need to go and how to get there.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/6/EcosystemPeer.doc http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/6/EcosystemSelf.doc

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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

Activity:

Who is who?

Carried out by:

Silvia Mª Fernández and Year 3 Secondary students from IES Valle de Turon.

Santa Marina de Turón (Mieres)

Strategy:

Assessment for Learning

Subject

English Language

Description

Who is who? is a traditional table game in which players have to guess which person the other players have in their cards.

This is an individual activity involving thinking and revision as well as competition and fun. It was based on sentence formation in Present Simple using the verb HAVE. The aims of the activity were: • to assess students’ knowledge of vocabulary relating to physical description focused on the face; • to assess students’ performance as regards the necessary grammatical structures; • to take action in the light of this assessment.

Context

This activity was carried out with 8 students in Secondary Year 3, aged 14-16 years old.

The students had at least 3 different levels of English language and one had a curricular adaptation, which did not prevent him from carrying out the activity with his classmates although with teacher help. The group of students did not belong to the bilingual section.

Recommendations

A table is needed for each team so that they are sitting just opposite the other team.

Physical resources

Two game boards, one for each team.

A set of cards common to them all.

Alternatively, you can download a sheet of faces from the Internet and cut them up or give students the actual sheet. See Annex below for ISL link.

Language resources

Language of learning Verb HAVE in questions and short answers.

I provided key language if needed.

Language for learning Word order of adjectives in English Instructions for the game, e.g. Choose a card from the set and show it to the rest of the players in your team.

In turns, ask each member of the other team a question about your opponent’s card.

Ask about eye colour, lip shape, hair type, etc.

Listen to this example: has she got blue eyes?

If you know who the person is, tell your opponent.

Score a point.

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Groups and classroom space

Students work in 2 teams of 4 people each.

Each team needs a “Who is Who” game board with cards. You could alternatively download or make your own cards and then print out a set for each team.

2 tables to sit opposite each other.

Timing

Timing can be adapted to the time it takes to explain the instructions. We took about 15 mins.

The Activity

1. Each team had a table as their “home” and a set of cards (or a printed sheet showing different faces) as in the game Who is Who? 2. The teams sat opposite each other, with Student 1 from Team 1 opposite Student 1 from Team 2, etc.

3. I told the students what the grammatical point was (verb have + adjective + noun referring to facial features) and gave them 1-2 minutes to think together about it.

4. I explained the rules of the activity clearly and had a student explain again to check that they understood what they were going do.

5. At “go”, each team took alternating turns.

6. The first student in Team 1 chose a card from their set, allowing the rest of their own team members to see it.

7. In turns, each member of Team 2 asked a question to the member of Team 1 who was sitting opposite them about the card. They had to ask about facial features in order to identify the person: eye colour, lip shape, hair type, etc.

8. If Team 2 was able to identify the person, they had one chance to say the name. If they were correct, they got 1 point, if not, their turn passed to the other team, who then did the same procedure.

9. We worked both with the identification of just one face - “the hidden person” – and also with setting a time to see how many faces each team had successfully identified.

Outcome

Students carried out the activity in general successfully, all students´ outputs were correct and they enjoyed the activity.

It enabled me as the teacher to verify that students had acquired a GOOD oral knowledge of the present simple of HAVE and the use of this with adjective-noun combinations to describe people. Some new information was also acquired by peer sharing.

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Project Based Learning

• Key knowledge, understanding and success skills.

In our Project, these concerned active learning, CLIL and bilingual learning.

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Challenging question or problem. A dilemma to solve or a question to answer is engaging for students.

Students gain in motivation when they do not have to learn just to pass a test but must actively use their knowledge for something that is useful and relevant for them. In our Project, we wanted to find out whether “active methodology is really effective in the bilingual classroom”.

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Inquiry. This refers to the process of finding, selecting and processing information. It goes beyond finding data. When students solve questions, their answers guide them to new and deeper questions, thereby involving students’ mental activity. In our Project, we explored and put into practice active methodology through problem-solving and individual and group inquiry.

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Authenticity. Projects must be connected to real life: community problems, questions or dilemmas. This means that students have to do real life tasks, such as managing real prices for budgets, buying tickets, phoning real offices to get some kind of information, etc. It may also involve students’ problems or concerns even if these are not connected with adults’ interests. In our own Project, all the activities done by the teachers taking part were then carried out in the authentic context of their own real-life classrooms.

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Student voice and choice. Students can take control of some aspects of the project, such as the questions they generate, the sources they use to find information, the final products they make or even the project itself, depending on the age of the students or the experience they have from previous projects. This gives them more sense of ownership and gives them extra motivation. Of course, the teachers also have voice and choice as they have to orientate or re-orientate their students’ projects. In our Project, each teacher chose their activities and designed and adapted these to their own classrooms.

•

Thinking. A project involves the development of many thinking skills and 21st century skills. But it also involves reflection on the process of learning; it helps students to think and reflect on their own learning, how and why they learn. It can take place in an informal way throughout classroom interaction, but it must also be taken into account during formal assessment, at several project checkpoints and during the public presentation of final products.

•

Critique and revision. Formative evaluation is very important. When students display their final products to the public, they have to learn to receive criticism from their peers and from other adults as happens in the real world. They must also learn to make constructive criticism of their partners’ work based on rubrics or protocols. This means not only teachers giving feedback to students, but students evaluating the results of their learning. Participants in the Project presented their activities to their colleagues and discussed results.

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Public product. This involves not only tangible objects but also a display, a presentation, or the proposed solution to a challenging question etc. The public dimension of their work increases motivation as everyone wants to do well in public, which encourages the development of work-based skills: revision, evaluation and correction of work, selection of relevant material, decision-making, presentation skills, etc. The social dimension of learning makes it more relevant and teachers are seen as helpers rather than enemies. This Guide is our Final public product.

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PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

• Student learning of academic content and skill development are at the centre of any well-designed project. The Buck Institute of Education is a reference worldwide as regards Project Based Learning.

Accordingly, we used their Gold Standard as a guideline to the basic elements we need to take into account when designing a project:

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Activity:

Lights, shadows and darkness in our coal-mining valleys – a project on the Caudal and El Entrego Mining Valleys of Asturias.

Carried out by:

Mª del Pilar González González, Eugenia Martínez Cueto-Felgueroso, Ana Rosa Rodríguez Pérez and Years 1-4 Secondary bilingual students from (in cooperation with non-bilingual suject teachers) IES Sánchez Lastra. Mieres.

Strategy:

Using a project combined with Content and Language Integrated Learning to improve knowledge across the curriculum and to forge ties within the local community.

Subjects:

English, Spanish, Asturian Language, Biology, Maths, Technology and ICT, Art and Craft, Music, Religion, FOL (Work-related Learning).

Description

The project was carried out in 3 languages (English, Spanish and Asturian), across the school curriculum and with Years 1-4. It was designed to improve students’ competence in communication, mathematical competence, science and technology, digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competence, initiative and entrepreneurship and cultural awareness and expression as well as to consolidate reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in the 3 languages and to foster thinking skills and motivation.

The section of the Project described here corresponds to what was done in the bilingual subjects through English.

Context

This activity was carried out with students in the first 4 years of compulsory secondary education and included in the following 10 subjects: English as a Foreign Language, Spanish, Asturian as a Second Language, Biology, Social Science (Geography and History), Maths, Technology and ICT, Art and Craft, Music, Religion and FOL (Workrelated Learning).

The main topic of the project was Mining, since this is the foremost sector in the local area, which is locally referred to as “the mining valleys”, the Nalón River and the Caudal River valleys which historically were the most important Asturian coal mining areas in the past. Whilst coal mining has declined in the area, there are still some mines in activity.

Even though our students live in these mining areas, they do not know much about our history, geography and mining heritage so our project would hopefully contribute to developing their knowledge of their own roots.

Recommendations

We tried to follow some basic project-based learning guidelines as well as scaffolding aimed at supporting students working through the foreign language. To make out task easier, we designed a special template and set out specific steps to guide ourselves and our students, and which could be used for future projects on other topics.

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Physical resources

Hand-out http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/ProjectBasedLearned/ Materials for building and painting mining models Student-produced materials.

Language resources

Language of learning Mainly vocabulary relating to mining, history and culture of the area, maths, etc. (See activities and especially the key vocabulary activities in Resource 2b Vocabulary Matching and Resource 2c Flashcard Definitions) Language for learning Group work expressions – it is a good idea to have these permanently displayed on the walls but this wasn’t possible as we were assigned rooms at random.

Instructions for the various activities. Worksheets were used to scaffold instructional language.

Language through learning Key language emerging from the activity was continuously recycled in a variety of activities and discussions and also through the project products produced and displayed by the students involved.

Groups and classroom space

Students worked in small groups.

Timing

The project ran throughout the school year.

The Project

Students worked on their project through a variety of activities and always guided by teachers. Each activity had a student worksheet with written instructions for each step, including images, and space/organisers in which to jot down their answers.

The worksheet served both as a scaffolding mechanism for students and also as an evaluation tool so that teachers could assess on-going learning as well as products.

The worksheets included a self-assessment section for each activity.

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The Project

The following teacher-guided activities were used in bilingual learning: 1. A prior knowledge activity to discover what students knew about their local area, the Caudal mining valley and the town of Mieres, and to gain knowledge from each other by sharing what they knew individually and as groups about this topic. Local knowledge included location, population, town planning, streets, neighbourhoods, economic activity, etc. Students were guided with a worksheet.

2. A key language/concept learning activity to acquire terminology and concepts connected with mining, which involved groups in an active “discover and match” game, after which students discussed and shared their new knowledge. Students used a worksheet to help them.

3. Two activities to foster creativity and thinking skills. These involved research and presentation of findings. Both activities were scaffolded, apart from the group worksheet, by providing specific website links. a) Younger students (Years 1+2) worked in small groups to research local mining disasters. With the information acquired, they prepared information flags giving details of when, where, why and nº of deaths, etc. They then calculated where each disaster would occur on the tree rings of a tree cookie and pinned their flags in the correct place. Finally, each group showed their tree cookie and presented their findings. b) Older students (Year 3) worked on a topic entitled “The Ages of Coal”, in which they searched the Internet to acquire information about the Geological Eras and the different types of coal. They then used the information to prepare information flags, as above, which they pinned onto the tree cookie after calculating the correct place.

This involved scaling the radius of the tree cookie to the age of the Earth (4,600 million years). They then presented their work orally to their peers, explaining how they had done it.

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4. In addition to the above structured activities, students worked independently in their groups to produce the following products: a) a Big Book, created with the combined work of all the small groups, entitled Lights, Shadows and Darkness in my Coal Mining Valley, which can be accessed on the following link: Mining Project.m4v https://goo.gl/Wr4pZM The Big Book describes: • • • • •

• • • • • • •

the area under study - location, population, streets, neighbourhoods, places of interest, transport and main festivals mining in the area – history and planning of a typical mining village a “mining route” which takes walkers though the various sights of a mining valley up to a monument to miners killed in a mine disaster location, history and description of other mining monuments in the area practical applications of maths and science learning and thinking skills work relating to the project - coordinates, scales, percentages, population statistics and graph work, volume of wood needed for bracing the galleries, deforestation caused, sustainable forestry supply based on type of tree used, plantation needs of tree, height and girth, volume of gallery v. volume of wood, etc. study and construction of a scale model of a headframe (wheel gear) a model of a mine with pitworker, typical clothing and equipment art work relating to mines, mining and miners a study of mines past and present – description of main shafts, history, employees, production, etc. key language/concepts about mines: mining equipment, parts of the mine, pit workers tree cookie work descriptions – what they represent (ages of coal and history of mining disasters) and how the tree cookies were made the history and impact of mining in the Nalón Valley »» »» »» »»

coal mining disasters – history, personal experiences, opinions; mine worker struggles in Asturias; advantages and disadvantages for the area of the coal mining industry; types of coal: name, physical and thermal properties, age and formation, main producers, main applications.

b) an interview with a woman miner c) the work of a local 19th century realist writer, Armando Palacio Valdés, about life in the area d) a Big Book entitled LUNG, that dealt with lung diseases caused by mining e) PowerPoint presentations in Spanish/English f) a newspaper

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g) a concert of mining songs h) models of a mine and headframes (wheel gear), i) a picture display.

At a later stage, students will produce a full exhibition of all these products and will make posts on the school webpage and on different school blogs (Spanish, English, geography, history, biology, etc.) in order to share their project across their school and others.

Outcome

The participating teachers were positive about the outcome of the Project in view of students’ increased motivation since the topic was related to their local environment.

Students took an interest in applying their learning in a range of subjects to solve problems and create products for the project.

However, we did encounter a range of difficulties. Students found it difficult to: • organise themselves as a team • prioritize the most important parts of their own task • be responsible for their own task • respect their peers’ work • finish the activities on time.

On the other hand, grappling with such difficulties could be considered as contributing to the development of their learning in these areas.

Conclusion

Students were motivated and held a positive attitude towards their learning because they realized that with a little help from the teacher they were able to work independently and that they could even be teachers to their classmates, both aspects of which they felt proud.

As regards digital competence, we specifically focussed on searching for information on the Internet and students did not use specific programs like Kahoot, Pinterest, etc. When presenting their findings, they preferred to make PowerPoint presentations because they felt more confident with this tool.

The activities could have been improved by giving the students simple rules about cooperative work in advance (since this was the main difficulty encountered), as well as about how to use ICT with accuracy.

A clear deadline should also be set when doing this type of task and another basic rule to be made quite clear at the beginning is that students in each team must divide up the task between them, that lazy behaviour is not acceptable.

Finally, we found that students need to be supervised by the teacher when making up their teams as in our case, they had no prior experience of factors to take into consideration in order to form a “strong” team.

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Annex

Curricular Framework of the Project containing http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/ProjectBasedLearned/ • Prior knowledge folder: Students’ worksheet and teacher report on the activity including instructions.

• Key vocabulary folder: Students’ worksheet and teacher report on the activity including instructions.

• Creativity – tree cookie folder: Students’ worksheet and teacher report on the activity including instructions.

• Assessment folder: Daily self-assessment, Speaking rubric, Writing rubric, Teamwork rubric, Final product rubric.

• Photo folder: Images showing how groups worked to create the final products of their Project • Output folder: Examples of some of the Final Products in English and Spanish »»

Lights, shadows and darkness in our valley’ (Big Book video)

»»

‘Asturias Revolution’ and ‘The Asturian Revolution of 1934’(PowerPoint presentations)

»»

‘Congreso de la Minería’(VideoClip of the Students’ Mining Congress)

»»

‘Canciones Mineras’ (PowerPoint presentation)

»»

‘Escuelas mineras en las cuencas’ (PowerPoint presentation)

• Template for designing other projects.

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Activity:

Biome dioramas.

Carried out by:

Sara Laurín Farrás and Year 5 Primary pupils from CP Clarín. Gijón

Strategy:

Learning through a mini-project.

Reading, classifying and summarizing information.

Thinking and applying to create a product.

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Description

This was a mini project-based learning activity in which pupils worked in groups to create a poster about a biome and design a triorama based on its characteristics. The content had been previously explored through other group-based activities in a prior session.

The aims of this activity were: 1. to foster group work and group cohesion; 2. to further process information and deepen learning of previously presented content; 3. to give pupils tools with which to develop their learning autonomously through reading, classifying and summarizing skills.

Context

This mini project was developed as part of Natural Science in an hour and a half specifically allocated to the groups for the activity. It was carried out by classes 5A (24 Pupils) and 5B (23 pupils) organized in pairs and/or groups of three pupils.

The project was developed in their classroom, although the seating arrangement was changed to suit group-work, and we made use of the school’s laptops from the School 2.0 project.

Recommendations

Pupils need to be used to working in groups autonomously or grouped smartly.

Inexperience in this sense caused an issue in one of the classes where pupils argued and refused to work together because they had always worked individually in other classes.

The time allocated for the activity needs to be explicitly specified, as some pupils tended to take too much time with minor tasks (titles, decoration, etc.) instead of working on the content.

Extra time might be added for slow finishers, although the goal is for the group to manage their time wisely.

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Physical resources

Language resources

•

A3 sheets of coloured card for the posters.

•

A4 blank paper sheets.

•

Printed charts and maps for pupils to fill in with the information (See annex).

•

Printed animal pictures.

•

Felt tips, coloured pencils, crayons, scissors and glue sticks.

•

Information input about biomes (we used a chart created in the previous lesson (see annex), based on information found in MacMillan Edelvives BYME Year 5 Textbook but any book with adequate information would suffice).

Individual glossary (in the textbook).

Dictionaries and animal encyclopaedia (The Oxford Children’s Encyclopaedia of Plants and Animals by Oxford University Press).

Language of learning Vocabulary related to ecosystems and biomes (biotic factors, abiotic factors, climate, animals and plants).

Language for learning Language for discussing the topic (I think…, in my opinion…, this is…).

There is/are…

Language through learning Some specific names of animals and plants (weasel, beech, maple).

Groups and classroom space

Pupils worked in pairs or groups of three and tables were organized accordingly so they could work comfortably.

Timing

1 hour and half, although it can take longer depending on how pupils work together.

The Activity

1. First, I asked pupils to make a little summary of what we had been working on during this unit and then explained the project.

2. Pupils read, analysed and summarized the basic information about each biome (each group had been assigned one), completed the templates given and displayed these on the poster.

3. Then, they looked for pictures of the biome using laptops and discussed what kind of landscape they needed (flat, mountainous, etc.) to be able to draw the background of the triorama accordingly.

4. I answered any questions they had and showed them the templates and an example of a triorama, which they passed around to observe close up.

5. After that, I assigned each group some animals (two or three depending on whether they were a pair or a group of three) and they had to guess, based on the information, to which biome these animals belonged.

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The Activity

6. We checked their answers with the whole class, distributed the materials we needed and started work on the posters, looking for the information in the textbook and in the chart.

7. They worked independently, so I went from table to table checking their work, making comments and generally assessing how they were doing.

8. Finally, they prepared the triorama for their animal and its biome.

Outcome

Pupils enjoyed the activity as they were able to to work autonomously with their partners, although one of the groups presented issues with working together and collaborating which caused me to intervene.

Most groups finished on time and were able to discuss their work with other groups, which was part of our next lesson. As each group and pair had worked on a different biome, both class groups joined together in the next lesson to present their work to the others. Posters and trioramas are now displayed in the corridor on our Natural Science Topic Wall, so the information is accessible to both classes and also all pupils in the school.

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Discussion

The biggest problem we encountered during the development of this project was that one class was less used to working cooperatively than the other, which presented some issues and challenges when grouping pupils together. For the first class, pupils made up the groups themselves whereas in the second, I had to intervene and form the groups myself.

Another challenge was managing to get both class groups together to present their work, as pupils are not used to interacting between classes and that presented some problems for some of the pupils (anxiety, shyness and so on) as well as class scheduling (they did not have lessons at the same time).

Finally, some pupils did not take the task seriously.

Conclusion

The project took a lot of time and presented some problems which are not an issue when working exclusively with the book.

However, in general pupils really enjoyed it and their learning was more engaging, active and meaningful than when just listening and completing activities.

Annex

http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/7/Abioticandbiotic.pdf http://www.cprcuencasmineras.com/bilingual/7/Terrestrialchart.pdf

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Activity:

Caizuela Vegetable Patch.

Carried out by:

María Jesús Díaz Álvarez and Pre-primary mixed aged pupils from CRA Castrillón-Illas. La Caizuela (Illas)

Strategy:

Garden-Based Learning - Planting a Vegetable Garden.

Description

In this project-based learning activity, pupils worked together to learn English and how to weed and plant some plants to create our own vegetable garden and grow our own vegetables.

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

The activity was totally integrated in the Spanish Infant Curriculum and also helped the pupils to gain a better understanding of British culture (where gardening is more important than in Spain).

Context

I did this activity in C.R.A. Castrillón-Illas with 2 groups of pupils: one group of 13 pupils in infant education (3, 4 and 5 years old) and another group of 8 pupils in Years 1 and 2 Primary (6-7 years old) in Caizuela Primary School.

The classroom teacher assisted when we went to the garden to plant and water the plants. This was our third year with the garden. Since this is a year round activity, parts of it, such as having a parent cook some of the vegetables for the pupils, took place in September-October, to coincide with harvest time.

Recommendations

The help of the classroom teacher was essential because the children were very young and had to leave the classroom and move around outside several times.

Physical resources

We asked the City Council for a place for the garden and I, as an amateur gardener, provided all the seeds and tools.

Language resources

We learned basic vocabulary related to vegetables, such as names of vegetables, parts of plants and plant processes, elements of the garden, prepositions and actions related to gardening, tools, etc.

However, since this was the kind of activity in which children moved around a lot, logically there was a lot more language used, in a REAL situation, which I think was both important and relevant for pupils.

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Groups and classroom space

Whole class both indoors and outdoors.

Timing

The activity took around 20 minutes every time we did it, but was always weather/ season dependent.

The Activity

In the spring time, we prepared the ground, weeded, planted and watered the plants. In the autumn we harvested our vegetables, prepared and ate them and talked about healthy habits.

The activity also took place in the indoor classroom, for which we did other activities such as reading books and watching videos like Caillou in the Garden and Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

Outcome

The children loved going to the garden in the English class and they learned a lot of English without realising it, as well as an understanding of plant and gardening processes.

Discussion

Some teachers have asked me to do this activity with the older pupils (Years 5 and 6 Primary) but I preferred to do it with the infants and in the first years of primary because I was not able to get the older pupils so motivated.

Conclusion

Going out into nature is always a good way of teaching. Some pupils are Nature Smart and love going out and for the others, it is a good change to the classroom routine.

Garden Based Learning (GBL) is a tendency all over the world and the school garden is a good resource for our pupils, which gives them the opportunity to discover nature so they can learn how it works and protect it.

Everything can be taught in the garden, not only nature and healthy eating, for example: Maths: counting vegetables, statistics (10 out of 15 seeds born), measuring, etc.

Languages: we did this activity in three languages, Asturiano, Spanish and English.

Art: the garden provided us with lots of materials we then turned into art.

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Conclusion Any learning process requires both reflection and a critical analysis which enable learners to draw their own conclusions and continue to deepen their knowledge with new experiences.

The course Metodologías activas para el aula bilingüe, leading to the present Guide, was precisely conceived as an opportunity to learn together and enrich our teaching practices by sharing processes and results.

In such a context, reflection and feedback could not be left aside and that is why we carried out a survey to gather participants’ analysis and comments on the development of this training activity, their learning outcomes, follow-up possibilities and so on.

We asked the teachers to what extent - on a scale of one to five - they agreed with the following statements, • • • • • •

I have a deeper knowledge of the fundamentals of active methodology.

Active methodology contributes to competence development more efficiently than other traditional approaches.

I give my students more autonomy and responsibility.

I have introduced group work on a regular basis.

I take into account different intelligences and learning styles when designing class activities.

I have introduced project work in my lessons.

The course has encouraged collaboration and can be a good starting point to build up professional networks for future professional development.

The feedback received was very positive, with the average score in all cases being well above four, which provides compelling evidence of how taking part in this experience has contributed to a deeper knowledge of the fundamentals of active methodology and the benefits of it in terms of competence development or students’ autonomy and responsibility. It has also opened up new paths for alternative ways of classroom organization, with a growing role for group work- or useful strategies for the design of class activities that take into account different intelligences and learning styles.

For us, this experience has not only widely fulfilled our initial expectations but also encourages us to go on exploring new ways of collaboration and exchange of expertise through both further face-to-face training activities and networking.

We also asked the teachers to sum up in a sentence their experience in this project. These are some of their contributions:

I HAD A REALLY AWESOME TIME. I WISH I COULD ATTEND AGAIN!

Very good training to know what active learning is.

It has really pushed my work in a new direction.

Amazing experience and great ideas.

I have enjoyed very much doing this type of work. In a word, MOTIVATION.

It’s been very encouraging and inspiring.

STIMULATED ME AS A TEACHER AND OPENED MY MIND TOWARDS NEW EDUCATIONAL METHODS.

Great! We need more training activities to change classical methodology.

My job is more interesting now.

This experience was very motivating and rewarding. Interesting and challenging I HAD A NICE TIME AND COMPARED MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITH OTHER TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES.

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