LOGBOOK
WEEK: Monday 18th November, 2013 to Sunday 23rd
November 2013.
DATE: Wednesday, 20th November, 2013
------------------------------------------------------------
MATH’S FRAME:
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
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:
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.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario