Show and Tell

In the last week have started Show and Tell sessions in class.

The pupils bring in some photos from home and can prepare some comments about them. The main objective is to just speak clearly about something familiar and simple.

The pupils work in groups of about 5. While one of them speaks the others have an assessment sheet. They have to evaluate their classmates on several key areas -  interesting photos, speaking clearly, interesting information, "correct" English and a final mark.

(las hojas de evaluación solo sirven para enfocar el interés de los alumnos mientras escuchan a sus compañeros)

5B show and Tell 1 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Show and Tell 2 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

And thank you Martín for your humorous "Ninja Cat" presentation ...

5B Show and Tell (Martín) from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Reading Aloud: Dialogues

In the current work unit we are focusing on different ways of writing down spoken words.
In this video the students have used different "speech verbs" to write a very simple narrative which includes some dialogue.
Students volunteer to read aloud the completed text. This is a difficult skill as they have little time to prepare and must think of the intonation required.
In this activity we are not aiming for perfection. We are aiming for building confidence, improving intonation and fluency.

Text for 5ºA:

"How are you?" asked Brendan
"I´m bored" groaned Zaida "We have too much work!"
"Rubbish!" yelled Héctor "I want even more work"
(written by class together)

Reading Aloud 5A from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Text for 5ºB:

"How are you David?" asked Brendan
"I´m not happy" replied David
"Why not?" asked Brendan, looking at David with interest
"Because it´s the literacy class" groaned David. "All right, hmmm" yelled Brendan "Go and sit down!"
(written by class together)

Reading Aloud 5B (1) from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Reading Aloud 5B (2) from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Easter Holiday Homework: Follow-up.

The pupils produced some excellent and interesting "Holiday Diaries".
(Pincha en las fotos para verlas más grandes)

After returning from the Easter break we did a questions and answer session using the whiteboards to take notes. (photos and video 5ªB). After selecting various dates from the holiday period pupils have to find others in the class who did something on that date. They use their own diary for consultation.

La calidad del sonido en el video no es muy buena pero se puede ver que todos los alumnos se involucran en la actividad 

Easter Holiday News from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Running Dictations

5ºB Running Dictation from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

We went outside on a cold friday midday to do a "Running Dictation". Working in teams the students have to pass a written message from one end of the playground to the other via a chain of communication. Sentence by sentence, bit by bit. The final writing is never the same as the original but it is interesting and fun to see the end result then discuss which parts are "easy" and which parts cause difficulties.

Photos from 5ºA:

Who Am I? (actualizado)

Pupils have to guess their "new identity" as a famous person in this speaking activity. In this video there are very good examples of :

• Self-correction, 
• Question formation
• Listening and speaking in context

... and excellent interaction between pupils. Well done!

5ºB:

Who Am I? from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5ºA:
5A Who am I? from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Types of Questions the students asked:

• Am I a man? Am I a woman? Am I an actor? Am I Spanish? Am I a singer?
• Can I speak English? Can I run fast? Can I play the piano?
• Have I got long hair? Have I got a famous wife?
• Do I live in Hollywood? Do I play for Real madrid? etc etc

Story Time: The Iron Man

On fridays we usually have our "Story Time" when we read poems, section of novels or short stories in a group. In the first term we read the first chapter of this famous story for children, "The Iron man" by Ted Hughes.

Open the video below to see an excellent and atmospheric, animated version of the first chapter. It is from the BBC children´s channel.
(1. Esto es un recurso que se utilizará en el aula)

Below that there is a video of the students in 5ºA doing a follow-up activity.
(2. Alumnos de 5ºA hablan del libro en el segundo video:)


The Iron Man from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

5A The Iron Man Review from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.


Listening Practice: This is an abridged version of the story, we will be doing some comprehension questions based on this listening. Practice reading the text to yourself as it is read by the narrator.

Esto es otro recurso que se utilizará en el aula:

What did you do ...?

The students often tell the class their news at the start of the class. Part of the process is the use of verb tenses in context.  However occasionally we revise and focus directly on some grammar points.

Here the students from 5ºB are doing question and answer chains. They prepared their questions but do not know who they will be speaking to until their turn comes around again. (activity from October 2015)

Some students prefer to watch and listen ... which is fine!

5B Past Tense Chains from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Him Her Me Us Them ....

Working on pronouns is often difficult. But eventually after hearing and saying thousands of things in English they begin to sound right. Sometimes we do short "games" to check and revise.

In this activity the pupils from 5ºA are playing "Sergeant and soldiers" and have to think quickly (while practicing the use of object pronouns).

  
5A Pronoun Soldiers from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

The Magpie Poem.

We are working on "scientific" and non-fiction texts at the moment. To coincide with the research on different types of birds we had a bit of fun with this traditional poem about the magpie (the urraca or "pega"). Throughout history the magpie has been the subject of superstition and folk stories.

In the first video the pupils of 5ºA have been given the words of the poem as a puzzle. They are deciding the logical order for the words by working out the "value" of each element and which of them rhyme.

5A Magpie Poem Class from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Here the pupils of 5ºB recite the poem in groups:

5B Magpie Poem 1 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Magpie Poem 2 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Magpie Poem 3 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

There are lots of variations on this traditional poem but this is the most commonly known one:

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told!