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Connecting stories in the classroom: fables, Halloween and Pokémons

Nathalie Kappke

Introduction

In the present days, many teenagers and children have been

hooked by the revival of the Pokémon fever. The coming of

Pokémon Go app connected a considerable number of people and

made they interact with each other. Having this in mind, I thought

working with Pokémons in the classroom would be a great idea. During

the observation period, I asked the students what topic they would like

to study in the project. I wanted the students to feel engaged in the

project and I also wanted to have a democratic environment in the

classroom. I suggested working with Pokémons, some students loved

the idea, but others did not feel so excited about it. Then I asked them

to come up with their own ideas and we had a vote. The winning topic

was Stories/Legends.

The project was developed with the 5th grade group in Colégio

Estadual Barbosa Rodrigues, located in downtown Gravataí, RS. It was a

requirement from the discipline Estágio de Docência em Língua Inglesa

II and it happened in ten classes between September and November

2016. Each class was composed by two periods. The group I worked

with had 32 students who were between 10 and 11 years old. Although

they had basically the same age, the group was very diverse. As the

school is located downtown, it accepts children from many different

parts of the city. The English language is not in the 5th grades’

curriculum, so it was being offered as an extra course, in order to

prepare the students for the next year, in which the discipline would be

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mandatory. The group was very friendly and most of the students was

really excited about the English classes.

The Project

To start the discussion about legends and stories, I asked the

students in the first class if they knew the differences among the

concepts of myth, legend and fable. After listening to their opinion, I

clarified the meaning of each term. The discussion was lead in

Portuguese, because it was a warm-up activity. Subsequently, I asked

them if they knew “Little Red Riding Hood”, which is a fable. This story

was chosen because of its popularity among children. The idea was to

enable students to relate their version of the story with the version

brought by the teacher. Some of the students told me the version of the

story that is familiar to them and I gave each one a matching chart with

the pictures and the names of the four main characters of the version I

brought. Then, we read a version of “Little Red Riding Hood”.

Subsequently, the students had to answer (in English) some written

questions such as “What is the story about?”, “What are the main

characters of the story?” and “What did Little Red Riding Hood have

inside her basket?”. These questions were discussed and the students

enjoyed the opportunity to tell the group which version of the story

they know.

In the second class, we had two other versions of “Little Red

Riding Hood”: one was a short text and the other was a comic strip (you

can see it below). After reading the story, the students told me their

impression of the new version and answered some questions in their

notebooks, which were checked in class. This is a very important thing

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to do, because it helps the students to feel the activities they make are

being valued. When you take a look at their notebooks, they receive

some attention, you can solve their doubts (a considerable number of

the students are really shy to ask something in front of the group) and

also review their writing and misspelling mistakes. After we worked we

the text, we read the comic strip. We compared the two versions, the

differences concerning the story and the characters.

Before the preceding of the third class, the teacher of the group

and the school supervisor asked me to work with Halloween, because

all the English teachers of the school would work with the topic. The

school would have a Halloween party on October 31st and they wanted

the students to get in the mood for it. I agreed, because then I would

make connections between the Halloween symbols and their legends,

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beyond working with cultural elements of English speaking countries.

I introduced the new topic to the children in the third class. As a

pre-reading, I asked them if they knew what Halloween was, when it

was celebrated, if they enjoyed it or not. After that, we read a text

about how Halloween is celebrated nowadays. The vocabulary

presented in the text was new to some of the students, so I motivated

students to ask questions whenever they had doubts concerning the

text or some specific word. Finally, the students answered some WH-

Questions about what they learned.

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In the fourth class we worked with another text about

Halloween, but this time it was related to its origins. I wanted the

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students to know where this tradition came from. I believe this kind of

text helps them to expand their cultural knowledge. Furthermore it also

may help them to see how the things they are studying have an impact

on their lives. In order to prepare the students to play a Halloween

Bingo in the 5th class, I brought worksheets with the main Halloween

symbols and a crossword about the topic.

The Halloween bingo created by myself is composed by eight

different models of cards. Each card has nine Halloween symbols.

Before we start playing the bingo, I made a review of the vocabulary the

students would need to play the game. I wrote on the blackboard all the

words I would draw from the bag, and we practice the pronunciation of

each word a lot of times, until the students show some confidence to

play the game. I believe I also must add that this class was attended by

fewer students, because we had a rainy weather. In general, the

students seemed to have really liked to play the Halloween Bingo.

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Besides playing Bingo, we also worked with a short text created

by the teacher. Its title is Fred, the vampire:

Fred is a vampire. He is 12 years old. He is very white. He lives in a haunted house and sleeps in a coffin during the day. He is happy, because he has two friends.

This text gives us a basic description about Fred and his life. It is

shorter than the “Little Red Riding Hood” and Halloween texts with the

purpose of serving as model for the final production. Besides the

vampire text, we also worked with two other texts with similar styles in

the sixth and seventh classes: Johnny and Carl, the ghosts and Jane, the

witch. The students not only read the text, they also had to answer

questions about it and True or False exercises.

In the sixth class the students painted drawings related to Halloween. This

activity was planned with the intention of providing funny moments, in

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which the students feel free to express themselves. We used the

drawings to decorate the classroom, as you can see in the pictures

below:

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The Halloween Party happened on October 31st, 2016. In this

class, each student brought a dish or a drink and we had a group snack.

After the snack, I asked the students to organize themselves in a circle,

because it was time to share some Halloween legends. I told them the

legend of Jack O’Lantern and The Halloween Haunted House. Then, all

the children groups of the school went to the playground. Most of them

were wearing a Halloween costume. Some of the children asked the

teachers “Trick or Treat” while others played soccer, ran or danced.

It was really nice, because the children were able to interact with children

from different grades and they all seemed really happy.

Final Production: Product:

The three last classes were used to produce the final product. In

the eighth class, I started preparing the students to think about their

production. Since the students were very excited by Halloween and

Pokémons we decided to mix both topics and create a Halloween

Pokémon card. Each student had to draw his own Pokémon, name it

and write a short description about it. The students also had to think

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about what abilities they would like their Pokémons to have.

First, I asked the students how many of them were used to play

Pokémon cards and if they enjoyed it. Most of them said they knew how

to play it and like it very much. Then, I distributed a Pokémon card

model for each one (you can see it below). I explained how the card was

structured and I asked the students to pay attention in the details,

because they would have to describe the Pokémon in the card. I read

the card with them just as I do with texts, solving their doubts and

focusing on new vocabulary and pronunciation. They also answered a

True or False exercise about it.

After that, I gave the students another card model. This time

created by myself. The card (as you can see in the picture) has a space

for an image of the Pokémon, its data, such as name, age, description,

power, damage, health points and resistance. Next to the card, there is

a worksheet made in order to help the students to schematize their

Pokémons. The plan was to start thinking of the Pokémon and writing

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something about it. Some of the students could do it without making

much effort while others faced some difficulties, but I tried to give all

the students as much support as possible.

In the ninth class they produced their Halloween Pokémon

cards. Unfortunately, some of the students forgot their scheme at

home, which made they spend more time in their production. There

was also the case of students who did not have the scheme, because

they missed the last class. The students who brought their scheme to

class and did not have difficulties in the final product help the others.

Most of the students were able to finish the cards; others would finish

their Pokémon cards in the first moment of the next class. I asked the

students to give me the cards, because I wanted to make sure they

would not forget their cards at home.

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Finally, in the tenth class, the students finished making the necessary

adjustments in their cards and we made an exposition inside the school.

Other groups came to see the Pokémon cards and my group was really

proud of showing their production.

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Conclusion:

When you work with children, you have to try to make things

interesting. Bringing something they like to the English class helps them

enjoying studying. During my internship I tried to give all the students

the same amount of attention, because I wanted all of them to feel how

important they are. I learned that the clearer you are in your

instructions, the faster the students understand the activities. By

making an exposition with the students’ final products, you value what

they are doing. Their self-esteem increase and they feel more motivated

to study. They start to believe that it is possible to use the foreign

language to produce something connected to their reality. As teachers,

we must encourage the students and always nourish this belief.