SONGWRITING FOR KIDS
Űž Final task:
-How can you keep the kids writing after the course has ended?What could you do with the songs they have created? First of all, I want to make it clear that I would try to make the most of the songs, by using them for different purposes, taking into account the effort my kids would have made. For instance, I would record all the songs in a CD and make sure that all the students have it so that each pupil can listen to them and gets a chance to enjoy the music they have created. I would also make a book that contains the lyrics of all the songs and I would use it for doing different activities, such as, 'filling the gaps', 'adding more lines to the songs', 'changing nouns',...
-What extra activities would kids love apart from just writing the songs? I believe that singing the students' song at the end of the school year, that is, in the big show that takes place every year, would be a challenge for my pupils. Each group could prepare some decorations and customes related to their song and perform it for the whole school. In addition to this, I would also prepare a 'Karaoke party'. I would record the melody of all the songs and I would get the lyrics so that pupils could sing any song by just looking at the screen and following the lyrics as well as the melody.
-Where can we put the songs on the web? How?
I would put the songs either on the school web or on my personal ' I love teaching' blog. As my kids' parents have already an access to that blog, it would also be enriching to share the songs with them. -What other phonetics games could you play after the course? As the main aim of phonetics games is to pronounce English sounds correctly, I would play some of the following games: -Pronouncing a particular phoneme: I would concentrate on one phoneme and after pronouncing it twice and pupils repeat it, I would stick the flashcard of the words that begin with that sound on the board. Next, I would play 'I spy ...' with the words stuck on the board. -Preparing a magnifying glass and finding sounds: Each pupil prepares their magnifying glass with a little hole in it. Give them a short text and students find the words containing that sound.
-Distinguishing sounds: I make two list of words on the board:
/b/
/p/
BUS
PARK
BOOK
PARROT
Each sound is given a colour, for instance, /b/ is red and /p/ is green. Each pupil has two cards, a red and a green one, and I say a word and students hold up the correct card. -Colouring words according to sounds: Students are given a worksheet containing these two sounds. They have to colour words according to the sound the contain. -I bring several poems and student have to identify the words that rhyme. -Making a rhyme booklet: I call out one word and write it on the board. Children brainstorm words that rhyme with this word and make a rhyme booklet. -Colouring words that rhyme: Students have to colour the word that rhyme with the same colour. Computer
Three
Door
Mouse
Meat
House
Eat
Sister
Tree
Two
Four
Shoe
ہInstead of using words, it can be played with pictures too.
Methodology: -How can you ensure that everyone wins when you use a system of reward? First of all, I would like to make it clear that when working with children it's extremely important that everybody feels happy and satisfied. However, I believe it can sometimes be quite tricky and although we try to do our best, there is still a long way to go. Using different system of rewards can help when making our pupils motivate. Therefore, when rewarding children we can have different prizes, such as, 'vocabulary prize', 'originality prize', 'rhythm prize', 'lyrics prize', 'pronunciation prize',... And instead of giving points, I would use the following 'stickers' because from what I have experienced, they work really well with our young pupils.
-Assess the different methods we used on the course: pair/individual/plenary? As well know, we have mainly been working either in pairs or small groups and obviously, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. Regarding advantages, I firmly believe 'pair work' gives a chance not only to share your knowledge with some others but also to learn from each other experience. However, as it is pretty usual, when you don't see eye to eye with one another it would happen that you don't believe in what you are doing.
To make a long story short, I think the methods used on this course have worked quite well and that we all feel satisfied with them. To be honest, I had never attended a course in Lekaroz as I have always been teaching in Iru単a but it has been worth it. We got some extra ideas for our daily English lessons, which is something I really appreciate. And we also got a chance to know more about computers, although I am not really fond of them. Thanks for everything, Naiara Arozena