LISTENING...?UGHHH... NO! IT COULD BE ENJOYABLE!!

 

Hi everyone:

I know (as a teacher and as a student of C1 level) that listening activities could be boring, difficult, stormy and they produce lack of motivation on behalf of the students.

Because of that, I bring you an example of pre-, while and post listening activity that will make your English class more fun. Are you ready? Let´s begin with it.

The main activity is a video of an interview of Selena Gómez done by Vogue. These videos are authentic material, and they are very useful for the English classroom. The title of the interview is "73 questions" and you can find celebrities as Ariadna Grande, Taylor Swift, Zac Efron...

I have taken the video and I have adapted the content to my students. To that end, I have used the website "Edpuzzle" where you can edit the video cutting the lenght of the video, asking questions for the understanding of the activity, sharing the activities to the students, knowing who and who not look at the video...

I have chosen this video because I think that the pop star is very famous among the young people and the questions are easy to follow for them. I believe, it is a motivational activity for children that are working with quotidian questions.

With these type of activities, students:

- Learn how to ask and answer questions about another person.

- They use the "scanning" strategy to look for specific information in the video.

- Develop entrepreneurship and sense of intiave.

(Pre- listening) To start with, we prepare a "brainstorming round of questions". We propose our students the following statement:

"There is a new student in our classroom. She is Selena Gómez and you want to know more about her life. Prepare a list of questions that you want to ask to your new classmate".

Then, we put in common the questions writing them on the board and giving possible solutions.

(While listening) Now, it is time to listen to the video that I have edited. This activity could be done in the classroom, with the option "live" or as a way of "Flipped classroom" as a telematic activity.

Students are going to listen to the video and answer the questions that I have prepared for them. You can take a look at the video here.

INTERVIEWING SELENA GOMEZ

(Post- listening) The last activity  would be well- prepared. I like to involve my students in challenges, because they enhances the curiosity and they develop motivation towards them. 

So, the last part of the activity is a challenge:

"You are a journalist of the magazine "Vogue". You have to look for information about a popular celebrity nowadays. Prepare the questions for your interview and find the answers. Later, you will prepsent your interview to your classmates"

To sum up, I am going to analyse the positive effects and suggestions :

- Students feel comfortable working with this type of topics, because they are familiarized with the world of music and cinema. They love working with authentic topics and they like investigate about people that they are interested on.

- For the next time, I will introduce a game like "20 questions", or an interactive game created with Genily about different singers an actors to introduce the games in the session (to make it more complete).

LISTENING RULES!!

INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN WITH TIMETOAST

 

Last academic year, the 8th of March, we celebrated in our school The International Women´s Day with a lovely activity called: Inspirational Women.

Every level, from Infant Education to the 6th level of Primary Education had to make a wallchart about one important woman in a field.

As a Coordinator of the Programme, I gave them the fields that they have to work on. For example, 3 years worked with “Education”, 5 years worked with “Sports”, the first level of Primary Education worked with “Literature”…

The wallcharts contained:

-       - The name and the sphere that she belongs to.

-       - A photo or drawing of the woman

-      -  A brief description of her life: they could use pictures, timelines, texts…wherever the wanted.

Then, the wallcharts were shown in the big hall of the school.

With this activity, we wanted to increase in our students the curisioty to know about woman that worked in different subjetcs. This activity promotes cooperation and participation among them. Moreover, we need to make aware about how women had to fight throguht the years so that we could study, vote, drive and so on.

And you say…why are you talking about this now, one year later? The answer is because I have used TimeToast or create a “timeline” as a summary of the different women.

This “timeline” will be shown this year , the 25th of November as a remember of those women that suffer discrimination and violence to reach their dreams.

The use of TimeToast is to easy and intuitive.

I did it on my way own, because , actually I am not working due to an illness. However, I find TimeToast very easy and intutive for children from higher levels (5th and 6th leve lof Primary Education).

The only drawback that I find it is that it implies to prepare,in advance the information: the different dates and, of course, images for every women. It is a hard job.

To sum up, I can say that I see TimeToast a very useful tool for using in the Hisctory Science classroom as a way of reflection and summary of the topics.

Here you have access to my timeline of “INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN”.

TIMETOAST

READING: I can only see benefits

 Hello everyone:

If you know me, you should know how much I love reading novels about history, and If you don´t know me, this will be a good way to know more about my "Reading Life". 

Firstly, I will answer some questions about the images and I will compare them with my own habits and feelings.

Then I am going to talk briefly about my preferences in L1 and L2 reading. Finally I´ll let you know my interests in reading and an interesting advice.

The images of the activity are showing different kinds of texts: books, newspapers, e- texts, …

I think the majority of them are reading for pleaure, except children at the school, which presumably the same book was choosen for them.

The way are they feeling is really changeable depending of the picture:

In the first one, people are reading for pleaure or looking for information about any kind of subject they are interested in. So, they feel comfortable and curious about their new discoveries.

In the second one, I believe that the colour of the photo informs that maybe the girl is explaining her mother curative advantages of the flowers. The¡ mum felt astonished, because they are discovering new information that can help with the health of the family.

Possibly, the third picture, the reader device is commonly used nowadays. The person who is reading,merely is feeling anxoious because is learning to read in a new way.

The fourth photo is a real image of a reading class group: all together, in silence, reading the same book…In my opinión, perhaps the 60% of the class is boring.

In the last photo, the man is actually feeling free of read what he wants, where he wants. That´s what exactly feel when I am reading.

If I look for similarities in the pictures about my reading experience, definetly I will choose the first and the fouth ones.

The first one is the way I grew up, sorrounded by books at home. My older brother had a big library and I used to go to his bedroom and read there. On the contrary, when I read in English, it is usually because I have to study, or read a text in the classroom, or reading books for the C1 certificate, not for pleasure, mainly imposed.

 I consider myself a huge reader. Since I could remember, I have always had a book between my hands.

In L1, I usually read every kind of text you can imagine: novels, poetry, lyrcs, magazines, blogs, articles…but in L2, I read informative text about Education, like websites, blogs, articles, textbooks…and sometimes, for pleasure, I love reading English and American lyrics and short stories.

Dealing with this answer , I have to say that I choose the text, specially L2, taking into account the level of difficulty. Furthermore, I usually look for an interesting topic.

I prefer to read on paper, but two years ago my family gave me an e-book in Christmas , and recently I used to read there.

I can read everywhere and in every moment, but my perfect time to read is before going to sleep.

I love reading on holidays, as a way of relaxing of a hard day, for pleasure, at the beach…

To sum up, I can´t stop reading because I only see benefits with this skill: READING improves my vocabulary, makes me grown culturally, it is a way of desconexion… I DO LOVE READING!!

My advice: Read and you will see your body and soul grow up.

INTERACTIVE WORKSHEETS

Hello children:

Here, you can find access to some interactive worsheets that I made for you. I hope you like it and enjoy it.

Hola chicos y chicas:

Aquí, podéis encontrar acceso a algunas fichas interactivas que he hecho para vosotros. Espero que os gusten y las disfrutéis.

 PINOCCHIO

WHAT IS SHE OR HE WEARING TODAY?

PARTS OF THE BODY- HAVE GOT

WELCOME TO THIS AMAZING BLOG

 Hello everybody:

Are you ready to learn English in a funny way? Do you want to listen to music that can improve your English? Do you like playing games? If the answer is YES!!, this Blog is for you.

Come in!! Watch the videos, play the games, answer the questions... Definetly,enjoy while you are learning English!