Nursery Rhymes, traditional tales and variations of classical tales.

Nursery rymes and tales

LOGBOOK

WEEK: Monday 25th November, 2013 to Sunday 1st December 2013.

DATE: Monday, 25th November, 2013

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LEARN ENGLISH KIDS ON YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/user/BritishCouncilLEKids

When I looked at my Symbaloo, I realized it urgently needed of resources based on nursery rhymes. Children learn through repetition and exposure to input on the language, and nursery rhymes are really useful because they provide children with the means to widen their vocabulary range at the time they practice pronunciation, intonation and listening comprehension.

Learn English Kids was already a useful website, offering a huge variety of resources for English teachers and learners. However, its YouTube channel proves better better when it comes to ease a quick access to a selection of the best tales and nursery rhyme in class. The teacher can play nursery rhymes and make children repeat them, make them learn what these mean by visualization, gesticulation and gist, and also develop classroom activities focused on the story or the nursery rhyme of choice.

Teachers can stop the tale/nursery rhyme at a certain point, and try to help pupils understand what the text means. They can also make pupils think about the story, complement the information given in the tale, changing the tale and predicting futures outcomes within. Nursery rhymes are present in traditional tales, and can be also worked separately, through the display of print-rich musical videos in which the rhymes are sung and their meanings are easily visualized by looking at the pictures and animations.

Teachers can also take the opportunity of using nursery rhymes in class to introduce cultural aspects of English tradition, as well as other countries from which the tales/nursery rhymes come from.

EDEWCATE

http://www.youtube.com/user/eDewcate?feature=watch

Edewcate is a website specialized in nursery rhymes. Its YouTube channel has many videos in which nursery rhymes are sung in a karaoke fashion, accompanied by subtitles in English and cartoon animations which made these videos a print-rich resource for meaningful learning. These rhymes can also be found, not only in English but also in many other different languages.

COOLSCHOOL

http://www.youtube.com/user/coolschool?feature=watch

Cool school offers an alternative to traditional tales. It widens the vocabulary in the tales and changes the plot to the point that no-one can predict what is going to come next anymore, despite knowing the tale by heart. The level is for sixth grade grown up pupils to secondary school students and tries to explain matters in a funny way. It is more bound to sixth grade or high school students than lower grade ones, due to it being politely incorrect sometimes, and because of the complexity of the language used. However, the website is a unique resource which can be used by secondary school teachers willing to encourage pupils into learning English language. Feel free to have a look at it. Either you love it or hate it, there is no in-between. However, despite its drawbacks, it can be a good way to motivate upper stage learners who might be bored of traditional tales or nursery rhymes.

Encouraging discouraged pupils into learning is a hard task, but this website can encourage them to do so, provided the teacher had allowed pupils to reach a high level of English required to understand the meanings of the different tales, chants and nursery rhymes.

Time learning activities AND helping children with difficulties.

LOGBOOK

WEEK: Monday 18th November, 2013 to Sunday 23rd November 2013.

DATE: Wednesday, 20th November, 2013

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MATH’S FRAME: TELLING THE TIME IN WORDS:

http://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/117/telling_the_time_in_words

When I was performing my role as a learner primary English teacher in practicum II, the English teacher told me to help some children review the hours in English, as many of them could not understand how time telling construction was done in English.

 The problem was children with difficulties had not been told the hours in their mother tongues, so it was way harder for them to understand these concepts than it ought to have been had they known the hours in Catalan or Spanish. It was a challenging experience for me to teach children two-week contents in half an hour, especially to those who had to learn it from scratch. Finally, I managed by drawing a clock in a piece of paper I gave them, making sure they copied it into their notebooks so that at home their parents could help them review the hours in English.

By the time I did so, however I had not discovered this fabulous website, which could have otherwise simplified my drawing task or even the assessment task had I known it actually existed. I have to confess, having to admit this is quite embarrassing for me, however, better late than never.

This tool has amazing potential when it comes to teaching the children different times in English. The idea is to project the clock at the digital blackboard and display the different minutes from 5 to 5. This way, pupils will understand that, for example, when the long hand is in the right side of the clock, it means the time is “past” the hour “o’clock”, while when it is in the left side, it means it lasts x minutes to reach the hour specified.

This resource is specifically focused on practice and assessment, for the teacher to make sure pupils have understood the concept before facing a whole-unit exam, whose result might demotivate the children only because they did not know the hours in English, which, aside from being pointless, should be avoided as it could be harmful for them.

When clicking on next, a multiple-choice answer will be on display. Children will have to choose wisely….I mean, accordingly to what they can see in the clock. It is a print-rich resource as hands are represented with different colors and pupils can easily visualize and count the minutes past or left within two different hours.

WMNET’S CLOAK

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/503/clock.swf

This resource is similar to the previous one, however, while the other is meant for assessment this one is for explaining how the hours in English work. By clicking on each +5minutes buttom, the teacher will show pupils a diferent hour and they will be allowed to see how it is written in the Language. By practising a little bit, they wiull learn time mechanics in an easy and meaningful way.

LEARNING LINKS:

http://www.learninglinks.org.au/

Helping children with difficulties to cope with scholar tasks is something we will have to do in our future as language teachers. Sometimes we will have to treat with children whose disabilities are unknown to us and having sometimes not been told about how to cope with some of these difficulties at the University, we find ourselves hopeless when it comes to make these children progress as they should be able to.

Worried about this matter, I came up with this website, in which it explains teachers how to motivate children with specific difficulties. It is wonderful because you can not only understand how these children are, but to think of solutions for their learning difficulties, which is our matter of concern as teachers. I recommend you to have a look at it as it is highly interesting. I will go to this website at once when I have a pupil with learning difficulties or disabilities, so as to make sure it is not excluded from the English classroom.

A new website regarding several resources.

LOGBOOK

WEEK: Monday 11th November, 2013 to Sunday 17th November 2013.

DATE: Friday, 15th November, 2013

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BARRY FUN ENGLISH

http://www.barryfunenglish.com/tools

  

“Barry fun English” is a website which includes specific teaching tools to play games in class, such as a score board or a stopwatch. The website also includes activities for students to acquire learning outcomes contents related to vocabulary. The website also includes several games such as the hangman, and many other ones. It also has worksheets and finished presentations available to be downloaded amongst many other tools.

Although the website is not as complete as others the likes of Learning English Kids, and despite its drawbacks –it requires registration and many resources are not for free either-, it can be useful for teachers to log in into this website, especially those who are going to make an English classroom substitution. These can play the hangman in class with the children, or any other game included in the website, which can be handy, especially when they are not given instructions by the English former teacher.

Feel free to have a look at my previous posts, in which I have included more information on meaningful English print-rich TIC resources. I would also encourage you to comment on the ones you like the most and how useful these have proven to you, if you have/would include them in your lessons, etc. See you next week!

"Interactive virtual board games" logbook entry.

LOGBOOK

WEEK: Monday 4th November, 2013 to Sunday 10th November 2013.

DATE: Friday, 8th November, 2013

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ESL GAMES PLUS

http://www.eslgamesplus.com

“ESL games” is a website including different interactive short games which focus in certain classroom contents. These are free, do not require registration and are short enough for pupils to make quick and meaningful vocabulary reviews at the time they learn new vocabulary. I think it is a really interesting resource, which should be considered by teachers in search of consolidating activities, presented in a board game format.

THE PIRATE BOARD GAMES

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/adjectives-antonyms-esl-vocabulary-grammar-interactive-pirate-waters-board-game/

The pirate board game called my attention due its similarity to the activity we proposed in class today. It is an online board game in which pupils can make different teams in the classroom. Each team will have to throw the virtual die to make the ship go forward certain squares. To make the boat able to remain in a certain square, pupils will be asked a certain question they will have to answer.

The questions vary depending on the teachers’ needs, being able to choose different games which work different contents. I would recommend you all to have a look at this resource, because it can help you to motivate your children at the same time you encourage them to review and consolidate specific vocabulary regarding different topics.

New round of meaningful resources (including pedagocical material and audio books)

LOGBOOK

WEEK: Monday 28th October, 2013 to Sunday 3rd November 2013.

DATE: Friday, 1st November, 2013

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ELLO

http://www.elllo.org/

Ello is a compilation of several English listening recordings regarding different interesting and appealing topics. All of the audio files come with their transcription, so that readers can follow conversations on different topics by reading, so as to increase their listening comprehension at the same time they receive pronunciation input.

After a wide research on the website, I saw it includes different level listening activities. I was hugely surprised when I saw readings about the recent Halloween festivity. Not to say a reading on the significance and origins of Cosplaying, in regards to the recent Manga Exhibition present in Plaza España.

Having discussed the possibilities this resource could bring us as future teachers with my partners, we came to the conclusion that it could have many uses. First of all, we could make comprehension questions for the pupils to answer them after having listened to the text. We could also use them to ease pupils practice pronunciation. They could also prepare a presentation or even a Prezzi on a specific topic by using the information given in a specific listening, or to promote simple debates in classroom. Should we be interested in material for beginners, we could pay for a licence on different PDF transcripts and listening activities, although we could use some of the free ones for third grade pupils to use.

SPOTLIGHT ENGLISH

Spotlight English is quite similar to Ello. However, it includes different topics from the ones in Ello, which can prove really meaningful for all children, as they can choose to read and listen to the dialogues on a preferred topic. One example of this can be found in a listening about the significance and origins of Cosplaying, in regards to the recent Manga Exhibition event being held in Barcelona’s Spain Square. The best part is that all of the audio files and transcribed dialogues can be downloaded or played for free.

Feel free to have a look at it:

http://spotlightenglish.com/listen/cosplay-playing-your-favorite-character

SUPER SIMPLE LEARNING

http://supersimplelearning.com/halloween/

This is not a resource I came up by myself. However, I felt I had to include it in this Blog, because appealed as really interesting to me.

I was astonished at the possibilities this web-site proposal could bring, especially for English teachers, and at the possibilities it offers. Super Simple Learning does include everything! Songs, games, party ideas, flashcards, worksheets, lesson plans… Even videos showing examples of the activities developed in class!

In my opinion, some songs for children are overused and overrated, being insufficient to please them and encourage them into learning. This website, however, offers not only simple songs for children but also funny and encouraging ones.

I decided to share it with you because I am convinced that, either being you a learner or a teacher, you can extract plenty of ideas from your website, as well as use its material in your own classroom, the same way I feel inclined to do. I hope you enjoy this wonderful website, full of resources!

CCCProse YOUTUBE AUDIO BOOKS

http://www.youtube.com/user/CCProse/videos?flow=grid&sort=p&view=0

YouTube audio books are a resource for advanced learners to develop reading, intonation and pronunciation skills. Although these are way too age and stage inappropriate when bound to a primary school student group, they can be really useful for High School learners to become more fluent and practise English at home.

The website includes many audio books pupils can choose from and read for free, only by sitting in front of their respective computers, headphones on and get into the task. Feel free to have a look, as you might find really interesting ones.

CCCProse YOUTUBE AUDIO BOOKS (FOR KIDS)

When writing the last entry on CCCAudioBooks, telling its main drawback was the difficulty of the books exposed, I found out a variant of the website especially bound to kids. This one includes way easier books to be read, not as long or tricky as the other ones.

I think as a teacher I could use this resource, especially for kids whose parents did not have the money to be spent in books to read or who could not help their children to practice pronunciation by themselves. Children could either work audiobooks along the English classroom or read them outside school.

Personally, I would show my pupils the website and read an audiobook together in class, so that they would get familiar with the format. During the reading/listening, I would teach them comprehension strategies they could later apply at home so as to make the comprehension of the books easier, being able to progress by them.

These strategies are basically: before, during and after reading questions, which could help the children understand the meanings by gist, at the time they get familiar with the stories.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CCProseKids/videos

ALBA LEARNING AUDIO BOOKS

This is a website regarding Spanish audio books. It can be used for Spanish teachers, not really useful for English teachers though. Still, having to do a substitution, I would like to have this resource at hand, especially if asked to do it in a Spanish language classroom.

http://albalearning.com/

ANOTHER BLOG WITH SOME RESOURCES

Finally, I would like to share a Blog from which I got some resources from. It is really useful, as well, so feel free to have a look at it.

http://formaciononline.eu/10-recursos-para-aprender-ingles-gratis-online/