Class 6

Class 6

“If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, we must teach in a way the child can learn.”

- Unknown

Sometimes we think that kids are not able to learn, and we get anxious; however, as teachers, we should look for the way to make children learn. Not all kids learn in the same way or at the same rate, but it is our responsibility to be creative and use different techniques that can reach all kids’ learning needs.

This last thought was observable in this class number six in which students who had not been the top performances of the class could shine and show that they are also good at learning.  More of this will be discussed along this entry

This class number six was conducted by Cristela Monika and me. We taught the days of the week and the numbers from one to twenty. In order to start the class in a good way, we set up the classroom with different posters and materials that could start teaching in an indirect way to those kids whose type of learning is visual to then, move to the beginning of the real class.

Here you have our lesson plan, if you want to give it a glance.

Objective of the lesson:    By the end of the lesson,  SWBAT produce and identify the days  of the week, and the numbers from eleven to twenty in a calendar or planner and also in isolation through many activities like: spinning wheel, matching, modeling clay, answering questions and guided games, by the end of a ninety-minute lesson..
Time	Stage	Procedure	Notes
10 minutes	Warm up	Have Ss sing the “how are you today?” song to start the class. On the wall, there will be three vertical strips. Ss will see three posters in which adjectives, such as happy, sad, hungry, are inside. The whole class will be in line and run toward each poster every time the word is heard. (Twice) Let’s have a review of the previous topic. Have Ss make two line, one in front of the other. A colored box will be in the middle of them and on the stage. Encourage Ss to play the “spinning wheel”. The spinning wheel has four sections: alphabet, family, colors, and numbers. Teacher will spin the wheel and ask a question corresponding to the category to be answered by one of them. The first student that picks the box up will have the opportunity to answer. After this, each S will go back of the line.  If the category is color, what color is it? It’s black; if the category is number, what number is it? It is 11; if the category is family, who is he/she? It’s my mother/father…; If the category is spelling, how do you spell mother, and so on.	Aim of the activity: to demonstrate how much they have learnt from the previous classes by reviewing the target language and vocabulary through playing “spinning wheel” game. Type of learner: auditory, visual, kinesthetic. Interaction: teacher-student  Materials: posters, spinning wheel Responsible: Mónica Ponce
10 minutes	Presentation	Invite Ss to sit on the floor. T presents a weekly planner that has images of activities we can do weekly. The weekly planner will be pasted on the wall (in front of the windows; and next to this, the numbers from 11-17). Invite volunteers to select one number (or color) to be discovered by the T and inside the paper is the day of the week (7 days of the weeks). T reads the word and says the day of the week two or three times. Encourage Ss to repeat the word. Ask them: What does the word Monday start with?  Elicit their answers. Then, invite Ss to produce the sound /m/. T does the same with the rest of the days. Then, have student spell the day; each time they say one letter they have to give a clap. Next, invite Ss to count the letter from each day and teacher will paste each of them in the correct position. Finally, ask Ss to repeat the days of week by singing: “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, What day is today, what day is today? Friday, Friday” Ask them, What day is today? T waits for the answer “Friday”.	Aim of the activity:  to encounter the target vocabulary by focusing on the pronunciation of the sounds: /m, t, w, f, s/. Type of learner: visual, kinesthetic, auditory. Interaction: teacher-student, student-student  Materials: a Weekly Planner, sheets of paper Responsible: Mónica Ponce
15 minutes 15 minutes 5 minutes	Practice Practice practice	Greet the students. Then, Present them the calendar that will be replicated on the board; however, the words of the days will be missing. Next, students will be asked what the first day of the week is. Each day will be represented with a different color. If they do not know, the teacher will help them with the first day of the week. Once the day is mentioned, it will be pasted on the calendar by the teacher; after that, every day that is mentioned by the Sts will be pasted on the calendar with the help of the teacher. Afterward, the teacher will make students practice the days of the week pronunciation, the colors and the numbers of the calendar emphasizing the numbers from 11 to 20. Finally, the students will be given some pieces of paper of different colors and the students will have to look for the days which represent those colors and paste them on those days (that is on the calendar which will be on the board).	Aim of the activity: to recognize the days of the week combined with the numbers from 11 to 20 using the calendar. Type of learner: visual. Interaction: teacher-students  Materials: board decorated as a calendar Responsible: Gisselt Romero
		Kids will be taught how to create a train. First, kids will be showed a train already done for them to visualize what they are expected to do. Then, they will be given the materials. The wagons will not have the days of the week because the kids should paste the days of the week on the wagon that they prefer. Next, kids will be given some wool to join the wagons of the train in the correct order according to the days of the week. This activity will be done individually.	Aim of the activity: to create a visual aid that will help them remember the target vocabulary at home. Type of learner: tactile Interaction: teacher-students, students-students  Materials: all the parts of the train in cardboard, wool, scotch tape, glue and the words of the week. Responsible: Gisselt Romero
		The class will be divided into two groups. These two groups will form two lines. Then, seven boxes with the days of the week in different colors will be placed in front of the lines. The students at the top of the lines will be given some paper balls. Subsequently, the teacher will say one day, and the students have to throw the ball in the corresponding box. The ones who have already participated should go at the back of the lines to wait for a new chance to participate if the time allows it.	Aim of the activity: to practice the acquisition of the target vocabulary in pronunciation to then connect it to its written form. Type of learner: kinesthetic Interaction: teacher-students  Materials: boxes with the days of the week on them, and balls of papers. Responsible: Gisselt Romero
15 minutes		The teacher will greet the kids, and asks “how are you today”, and also what day is today? Then, on the wall the teacher is going to have some cards with some of the days of the week, but not all of them. For example, Monday ……  Wednesday…….Friday.. Sunday. One student will be asked to pass to the front to paste the days that are missing according to the correct sequence. Then, When the first kid fills with the correct days, the teacher should ask “how many days do you have? What colors do they have? How do you spell them? Furthermore, next to the days of the week, there will be some cards with the numbers from 11-20   because the teacher will say for example; Sunday has the same color than the numbers fifteen and sixteen. Once the students get the gist of the activity, the teacher will ask for example: what numbers have the same colors than Sunday. After the first kid has done all this process, he will come back to his seat and the teacher will ask everyone to close their eyes while she removes other days of the week, then, another student should pass to do the whole process again, and if the student is not able to do it alone, he will receive the teacher’s help and also his classmates’ help.	Aim of the activity: To have students remember the days of the week in isolation without the neighboring days. Type of learner: visual Interaction: teacher-student, student-student Materials: cards of different colors with the letter s of the days of the week and the numbers from 11 to twenty, all pasted on the wall. Responsible: Cristela Navarro
15 minutes		The kids will be presented with some pieces of paper containing the days of the week. They have to fill with clay the word that the teacher says. For example, the teacher says paint Sunday with orange; students have to paint it with that color. Then. The teacher will say another color for another day and the students have to look for the word to fill it with the day that the teacher said. Finally, kids should arrange them in the correct order. Next the teacher, will ask Wednesday is between?	Aim of the activity: to make a final review of the target vocabulary to see if the main objective was achieved. Type of learner: tactile Interaction: teacher-student, student-student Materials: pieces of paper, different colors of clay Responsible: Cristela Navarro
5 minutes		The kids will be standing up in order to sing and mimic the goodbye song together with the teachers. This will be done three or four times depending on the kids’ need.	Aim of the activity: to recognize that it is time to say good bye. Type of learner: Auditory Interaction: teacher-student Materials: nothing Responsible: Mónica Ponce Gisselt Romero Cristela Rubio
Assignments and announcements

During the class!!!!!

The warm up and the presentation stage were conducted by Monica. In this opportunity, we inverted the original positions in which we participated the first time, and as I addressed the warm up and the presentation in the first class; this time was Monica’s chance to start the class, so as usual in Monica’s performance; she always does a high-quality job. She addressed a very superior warm-up stage in which she had the students moving from one part of the floor to another one to follow the adjectives that are mentioned in the HELLO song that she had pasted on a wall. This practice showed that kids love music and also adding gestures to the songs they are to sing. Furthermore, Monica presented the main topic of the class (days of the week) using a big weekly planner chart that she created. This last activity was accompanied by a song that kids perfectly sang and that enjoyed a lot. To sum up, the warm up and the presentation stage went exactly as Monica had planned, and the objectives of these two activities were achieved due to Monica’s experience regarding teaching kids.

 

Monica’s song of the days of the week made me think about the benefits that music has on kids’ learning. I could notice that kids love music and that they started to follow Monica’s song even when they had not been told the lyric, but they started to hum it. This made me look for the benefits that kids get from music and I could find that:

Studies suggest that music and movement
    • Nourish the brain while affecting all areas of development
    • Strengthen listening, motor skills, language, problem solving, spatial-    temporal  performance and literacy
    • Help develop critical listening skills
    • Create space for emotional well-being
    • Provide opportunities to practice social skills
    • Support phonemic awareness
    • Instill acts of kindness and cooperation
    • Calm and focus the mind
    • Encourage interaction in non-threatening ways

Now, I think that the benefits presented above are good reasons to start using more songs in our classes.

Then, the practice stage was carried out by Cristela and me. I was the first one practicing with the students the target vocabulary presented by Monica. This was not an easy task since these words of the day do not have a specific picture that can be matched to them so that kids can visualize them, actually; abstract ideas that cannot be materialized as name days are harder to teach that the previous target

vocabulary we taught that was about items we have at home. However, we rehearse the days of the week spelling, and pronunciation so that they could internalize them. Firstly, I used many activities such as, the use of a calendar, and a handicraft involving the days of the week words. Next, it was Cristela’s time to continue practicing. She used a filling in the blanks activity in which kids had to fill in the blanks with the days of the week missing; however, this task was not a normal filling in the blanks task that is handled in a page, but rather this task was developed on the wall so that all kids could participate at the same time. Finally, after a lot of practice, we can say that the days of the week were internalized by the students, although they still need some rehearsing of this topic since this was new information for them.  

About my case of study:

Throughout these classes, I have observed that Jefferson (my case of study) is one of the troublemaker kids. I have been analyzing Jefferson regarding the learning problems that he presents; however, now I notice that beyond his possible learning difficulties; he also presents bad behavior that might interfere with his learning as well.

Jefferson presents misbehaviors in the classes. During this class, Jefferson was one of the kids that bothered a lot during the class. He hit his girl classmates, he talked and distracted the other kids, and he did not pay attention to his teachers. There was one opportunity in which I saw him throwing balls to some classmates and I had to intervene and stop him of doing such a joke.  

All these misbehaviors that Jefferson presents can be making him fail in the acquisition of English. All these misconducts that Jefferson has, affect him in a way that he does not pay attention to the classes because he is bothering or doing another activity different from the one conducted by the teacher in charge.  This means that more attention should be paid to Jefferson’s attitudes during the class; besides, some techniques should be implemented so that we can always keep Jefferson busy in order to avoid him misbehaving.    

Finally, I would like to finish this entry with some strategies to respond to some misbehavior that kids show.

 

1. Visual and Verbal Cues

Once teachers have modeled expected behaviors and given children opportunities for practice, a visual or verbal cue will often stop a misbehavior and help a child get back on track. Simply looking briefly into a child's eyes can powerfully send the message that "I know you know how to do this; now let’s see you do it." Other examples of visual cues are a writing gesture for "This is writing workshop; get to work" or a finger against your lips for "Remember, silent lips when someone is sharing."

Verbal cues can be as simple as saying the child’s name. Reminding language can also be highly effective: Sonya, what should you be doing right now? Dante, what do our rules say about sharing materials?

2. Increased Teacher Proximity

Sometimes all that's needed to reestablish positive behavior is for the teacher to move next to a child. For example, if children have been taught how to sit safely in chairs, and Maria has just started tipping her chair back during direct instruction, simply moving to stand by Maria can communicate "Sit safely" without drawing undue attention to Maria or disturbing other children.

3. Logical Consequences

Logical consequences are another strategy that teachers can use to stop misbehavior while helping children see and take responsibility for the effects of their actions. Logical consequences differ from punishment in that, unlike punishment, logical consequences are relevant (directly related to the misbehavior), realistic (something the child can reasonably be expected to do and that the teacher can manage with a reasonable amount of effort), and respectful (communicated kindly and focused on the misbehavior, not the child's character or personality).

Suppose Jinghua scribbles on her desk. Having her clean the desk would be a relevant, realistic, and respectful logical consequence. Having her miss recess would be irrelevant. Having her clean every desk in the classroom after school would be an unrealistic amount of work, and the uncleanness of the other desks is unrelated to Jinghua's mistake. Saying "You're so rude—you just don't care about anyone but yourself!" would be a disrespectful attack on her character.

References:

http://www.songsforteaching.com/teachingtips/benefitsofmusicwithyoungchildren.htm

https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/article/responding-misbehavior

Workshop day

Third period!!!!!

Workshop day

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” 
― Charles William Eliot

Of course we learn from books, ideas that we find on the internet, tips that people with experience give us and workshops too. Thus, in this opportunity we will learn many activities that come from a workshop day we had in the university in which my friends and I showed many activities or games to use when we run out of ideas and nothing comes to our minds.

While teaching kids, we have to use so many activities that there are sometimes when we just run out of them. However, in this entry I will show you some activities you can use to teach not only kids or basic students, but they can be adjusted to the needs or the level of your students.

Memory games

Firstly, the workshop started with Ileana’s ideas of memory games. Ileana presented different sets of cards that can be used to play with memory in a classroom environment. These cards can be presented with many topics that reflect some specific vocabulary that is legated to an image. This means that abstract ideas can be harder to be represented in a memory game if you want the cars to contain pictures, which is something that makes them more appealing. Nevertheless, you can use them with concepts and words too. The idea with these little cards is that you can have them on the students’ desks and they can play with them in pairs, or to save time and materials you can work on a big set of cards that can be pasted on the board or even on the floor if the classroom and the number of students allow such an activity.

To sum up, it is known that memory games as the one described above help kids practice some specific vocabulary, but also helps kids improve their memory and level of concentration, thus, let’s go ahead and start using memory games in classes.

Boxes activity:

this activity was develop by me, and I taught my classmates how to recycle old boxes of shoes that you have at home to be used in a funny and active task.

· Topic recommended

 for the activity: Pets

· Stage of the lesson in

which the activity can

 be used: practice stage

· Materials to be used:

boxes of shoes, color paper,

glue, pictures of animals,

and balls of paper.

· Cost of the material:

-Empty boxes of shoes that

you have in your house

-color paper: $0.20 cents

per unit in paper stores

-glue: $1.00 the bottle in paper stores

-Pictures of animals: you can print them at home or buy them

in paper stores $0.30 cents per each.

 Take the empty boxes of shoes you have in your house and cover each with paper of different colors. Example: one box can be yellow, another one red, and so on.  Do not cover the tops, just the boxes. We will not use the tops.

 

Then, paste the picture of a different animal like: cat, or dog on each box. The pictures should be big enough so that kids can distinguish them.

 You can paste the pictures on the top of the back side of each box so that they can be seen. Finally just make some balls of paper to throw in the boxes.

 How to develop this activity in the classroom !!!!

To practice whether your kids have already acquired the animal nouns you have just taught them, you have to divide the class in two groups (it can boys against girls or as you prefer)

 Then, make two lines with the two groups and place the boxes in front of the kids’ lines. Give one ball to each student at the top of the lines; next, you say the name of an animal and the students with the balls should throw them into the right box. Write down the points earned per each team if you want the losers to receive a punishment at the end of the activity. Finally, you decide how many times each student can participate!!!

Puppets!!!

Puppets are always a good activity when your kids are getting bored.

This activity was developed by Luis Amaya who did a good performance with his puppets by changing his voice and improvising a story.

You might think that puppets are expensive and you cannot afford them, however, Luis presented a version of puppets that is much cheaper than buying real ones in a store. This idea is about using socks and some other materials to create your own puppet. This will perfectly work with kids who do enjoy talking to puppets, no matter the material that has been used to make them.

Spinning wheel:   

Monika showed a very create way to review topics in the classroom, and this is using a spinning wheel. This spinning wheel can be divided into many sections. Each section can review a different topic, the one that you prefer the most. 

This activity is very innovative and will help students to get up if they are already getting bored, furthermore; this spinning wheel will definitely get the attention of everybody.

How to tell a good story:

Raul did perform a very superior activity to tell stories in an inventive way so that kids can really follow the gist of the stories.

Raul told us a story with the use of a flipchart. While he was saying the story, we were observing the images that really made us get into the fairy-tale.

 

 Flipcharts are very useful tools when reading stories, not only for kids; but also for adults because they help people visualize what they are hearing, and in this way, you as a teacher can assure comprehension of pronunciation that may not be that clear for students; nevertheless, by watching the images students can clarify their ideas in their mind.

Name tags:

Name tags do now work only to label students with their names, but to use them in activities during the class too.  Ingrid showed a way to use name tags in a task. She designed name tags with form of girls and boys faces, but that was not all; inside the name tags were either a word or a picture. Students had to match the pictures with the words to get in pairs for future activities during the class.

I like this ingenious idea because is a way of planning ahead. In this case, you not only save material that is usable twice (as name tags and to make students get in couples too), but you also save time without creating too many pamphlets.

Songs:

Songs are always with us when we have already taught every part of the lesson and we still have time; thus, the more songs you know, the better. Hence, in this occasion Juan taught a song about the days of the week to the tune of the Adam’s song.

Songs not only help cheer the class up, but also help kids remember and internalize vocabulary in a funny way. There are some kids that find difficult to memorize vocabulary; however, a song can help everyone to internalize vocabulary that in this case, it will become in the lyric of the song.

Plates:

This was a very ingenious idea that Abigail taught in the workshop. Plates can be used not only to eat, but also to create different handicrafts with kids; nevertheless, in this occasion she showed how to create a bag with the plates. You just need two plates that should be cut three centimeters below the plastic edge, as simulating a down smile. Then you paste the plates, and you decorate them as you prefer.

This idea can be useful for the kids to keep all the little things they crate at the class. 

Modeling Clay:

Modeling clay is always a good idea for kids because they love modeling clay. However, this activity does not have to work only to entertain children; every activity we develop in the class must be meaningful and related to the topics we are teaching. Thus, in this case, Cristela proposed a topic to be used when using this activity which is animals. You can make students design animals while you teach them the pronunciation of them at the same time. This task can work with fruits too, or any other topic that can be easy to design using modeling clay.

Recycling materials:

There are a lot of ideas to develop in order to recycle materials that we have at home. For example, Jc presented an idea about how to create some recycled shakers. The only thing you need is some empty cans of sodas, any kind of pebbles or sand, and some colored paper to decorate them. First, you put the pebbles inside the can, then you cover the top of the can with scotch tape, and finally you just decorate the can as you prefer.

These recycled shakers can help you keep the attention of the kids if they are a little distracted, they can also work if you need to sing a song. In conclusion, there are many activities in which you can use these cheerful recycled shakers.

Hats:

The last activity was developed by Gloria who taught how to make students create their own hats. The topic recommended for this activity was adjectives such as, happy, sad, angry and the like. Students are supposed to decorate their own hats with the intention of showing the moods they have at the moment of the class.

I like this idea because most of the time, the teachers are the ones who decorate hats for kids, but in this opportunity; children are the responsible ones for the design of their hats, which can be very beneficial for their own learning since they have to use their fine motor skills and also the adjectives they have been taught in the class.

To sum up, all the ideas presented in this workshop are fantastic to work with kids; they are also adjustable to many topics and in this way, we have more ideas to use in our kids’ classes.!!!!