SESSION 1

Workshop objectives:

Explore different approaches to teaching poems to children To use poems to enhance the learning of skills and language To make poems interesting and therefore enjoyable to learn To enjoy ourselves – it’s the best way to learn

At the end of the workshop, we’ll come back to these objectives to make sure we have met them.

During the next two days I’d like you keep an open mind, keep your minds receptive to ideas, not only from me but from each other.

The workshop is going to be very interactive so please don’t expect me to stand here and lecture you.

A lot of the workshop is about appreciating how your students feel when they encounter new texts and activities.

Please feel free to ask questions as we go along - you don’t have to wait until the end.

Put up the Multiple Intelligence Posters

We’re going to start with three activities that will:o help us to get to know each other o and also lay the foundations for this workshop.

1. Find Someone Who: Process & Product

Mingle activity

1. Ask if anyone knows the activity If they do, elicit the instructions2. If no-one knows it, do a demonstration3. 4 rules for this activity;

o You can’t turn over the page until I tell you too You can’t ask anyone who’s sitting at your table/on your rowo You can only write one name onceo You’ve got 3 minutesCONCEPT CHECK rules (i.e. ask participants questions to check they understand rules: e.g. when can you turn over the page? How many times can you write one name? can you

ask the person sitting near you?)4. stop activity after 3-5 minutes 5. Feedback - ask one or two participants if they found someone who is happy to be here; who

was it? etc.

6. Elicit aims of the activity – why did I ask you to do it?- Getting to know each other – break the ice

- Communication/speaking/asking questions

- Listening- Writing- Reading

7. What are the speech bubbles for at the bottom of the page?- Writing the questions you need to ask

8. teachers often start by asking the questions politely but they start to cut corners e.g. shouting out months or food randomly, or simply copying names off each other’s worksheets WHY?

o tight time limit AND o their main objective is to complete the worksheet.

This is often what happens in a real classroom!! You teachers are behaving like your pupils!

9. Elicit why does this happen?

Process & Product

The students want to complete the activity o students want to finish the worksheet – Product = the end resulto they cut corners because the task is too difficulto they were not given enough time

Trainers are more interested in the process = the interaction, the correct use of language etc.

As your trainer, I’m not interested in whether you finish the worksheet but how you finish the worksheet.

The product is important - It has an impact on self-esteem, confidence, motivation etc. The product can range from a completed worksheet to sitting for an exam.

The process is equally if not more important If we help students engage with and enjoy the process of learning

o will help them throughout their liveso will give them good foundations for future learning o and for their own autonomy as learners o this makes a teacher’s life easier too!

Support for the learners

10. How can this activity be made easier?- Fewer statements Quantity is a Killer!!- Easier statements

Process languageWhat English language would your students need to do this activity apart from the target language (the question forms)?

They might need:“What’s your name?” “Could you repeat that please?” “How do you spell that”?

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We should not miss any opportunity to give our students chunks of English language, and it is worth writing it on the board and drilling it before the students do an activity.

2. Word Generator: Vocabulary & Grammar

Language game – generating words by using letters from other words

1. Ask participants to think of one adjective that best describes them, it can be: o an adjective of character o or appearance (Teachers shouldn’t write the word or say it yet)

2. On a piece of flip chart paper or the whiteboard write 3 adjectives about me.

Forgetful clumsy happy

3. The aim is to generate as many words as you can from all the letters in the adjectives. For example. For forget plump past

4. Put teachers in groups

5. Give each group a piece of flip chart paper and a marker.

6. Ask them to write their adjectives at the top of the paper in a line just like you did – if 4 in group, then there are 4 adjectives.

7. You can mix the letters up but you can’t add any more letters to the ones you already have.

8. It’s a competition. In groups they have to generate as many words as they can in 4-5 minutes.

Rules!!!

New Words must be MORE than 2 letters

You can only use the letters you have from the combined words, so I could make the word fully from the 3 adjectives above, but I could NOT make fluffy (because there are only 2 f’s, not 3)

New words don’t have to be adjectives

It’s a competition – as many words as you can in 5 minutes!

CONCEPT CHECK rules!!! By asking participants questions about the rules

This is a tricky one to explain: people are often not clear that they can use letters from any of the words in any combination to make the new words. It is worth doing a few examples with the sample words you have on the board, until everyone is clear what they can do.

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Feedback

1. Groups count the number of words they’ve got. They can score bonus marks for longer words, e.g. 3 and 4 letter words score = 1

5 letter words score = 26 letter words score = 3 etc

no prizes, only praise!

2. “You’ve generated a lot of words from just a few – how did you do that?

3. You have 5 minutes:

o In your groups look at the words you’ve generated o What strategies did you use to do this – (some strategies may be conscious and some

may be subconscious). o Give them an example: Adding ‘s’ to make a noun plural e.g. house & houses

4. Feedback on the board:- Tenses – ‘ing’, ‘ed’, ‘s’- Plurals, - ‘s’, ‘es’, change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’ - possessives, 3rd person singular ‘s’- Comparatives - ‘er’ and superlatives, ‘est’, - Prefix ‘ im’, ‘un’, ‘in’, ‘ir’ ‘dis’- Suffix, ‘less’, ‘ment’, ‘ful’, ‘able’- Homophones pronounced like another work but different spelling or meaning

- pail/pale, tail/tale, sun/son- Homographs spelt like another word but different meaning, may have a diff pron.

- tear/tear, row/row, bow/bow- Homonyms spelt like another word (may be pronounced the same) but diff meaning

– top/top, saw/saw, can/can- Synonyms same or nearly the same meaning

– big/large small/little- antonyms opposite meaning

- black/white, up/down- Rhyming words - tear/fear/gear/near/dear/ sun/fun, fit/pit,- Word groups: topics/themes - teacher, class, table, book, board, ruler – classroom

5. Ask: where would you find a list like this?- In the school syllabus: the list above and the school syllabus include, - grammar, - the sound system - vocabulary

this kind of activity can help our students learn vocabulary

6. Which is more important – vocabulary or grammar? – (there is really no right answer)

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Vocabulary and Grammar

Before students can understand and enjoy the poems, they need language support.

easiest way - to teach them the words in the poems.

Both grammar and vocabulary are important but students need vocabulary before they can use grammar.

vocabulary = bricksgrammar = cement, together they make a strong wall.

If you only have the bricks the cement just sits in a pile – without the cement the bricks make a very shaky wall. It’s very important to teach language to support comprehension.

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SESSION 2

3. Important numbers - Multiple Intelliegences 1 2

2

1 1327

25 28

1. Ask Tt to draw me in the middle of a page

2. I Dictate numbers to them: Students write numbers round the pictureo 1327 (house number)o 28 (years in Malaysia)o 2 (sisters)o 1 (brother)o 2 (children)o 25 (years married)o 1 (husband)

3. Participants guess what the numbers mean by asking you yes/no questions. (remember they are important numbers – NOT eg shoe size!)

RULES!!1. I can only answer yes or no2. I will only answer if your questions are grammatically correct

4. As participants guess what the numbers relate to correctly they cross the numbers off to indicate achievement.

5. When all numbers have been crossed off, give participants 1 minute to ask any other questions they like

6. Participants now write Important Numbers for themselves and do the activity with a partner.

FeedbackWhy use numbers?

o numbers are universal – everywhere & same in Malay and English and many other languageso some students are good at maths or they like numbers (logical/mathematical learners)o we can use numbers to exploit language development

you could also do this activity with:o pictures (visual learners) o or words (linguistic learners)

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2brother

7

Children

How can we use these 3 activities with the poems you teach?

FSW –e.g. Poems in Your Pocket: The Wrong Start (page 5) Find someone who…… ate an egg this morning

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket (page 2)Find a picture of someone reading a book, what’s the title of the poem?

Changing Days: Little Things Big things:Find someone who has a catFind someone who can tell you what a young cat is called.

Variation of FSW:

1. Ask Tt to turn to page 72. Find a word beginning with y;3. Page 11 word beginning with h = lots of words, so = easier for weaker students (can be

slower and still get a word)4. Find something yellow in the picture on page 8 what’s the title of that poem / who wrote it5. Find a picture of….6. Find the author who wrote …..

What do these activities practice? o Skimming and scanning reading skillso Alphabet; o vocabulary; o pronunciation; o reading; o following instructions.

Important: ss are turning pages, feeling pages = kinaesthetic =encourages ss to enjoy books and reading

Give your students support : o make sure not too many items/questionso use simpler items: has a cat; has a red toothbrush; likes eggso help ss with the question forms

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Variations of Word Generator o generate words from a poem title o ss choose 3 words from a poem o ss find the verbs/nouns/adjectives in a poem and choose 3 to make new words from.o Play hangman with words from a poem

Support : o Give gapped words eg: P _ _ _ _ o show ss pictures of the words you’re looking for.

Variation: Important Numbers

1. Draw a square in the middle of a page, write the name of the poem in it, then write numbers around the square, related to the poem and/or the picture on the page where the poem is

2. I read a line from a poemstudents say what page it’s on and/or give the title

3. Look on page 5, second line, find the rhyming sounds4. How many animals are there in worms wiggle?(Poems in your pocket) or Little things, Big

things? (Changing Days)

Support?Say and Show the line and ss can ask questions

Multiple Intelligences

o All of our students learn in different ways – they have different learning styles

o we can’t cater to every student’s individual needs every lesson

o we can use VARIETY in the way that we do activities

o This ensures that we are meeting the needs of all of our students some of the time

o Multiple intelligences should not be used to label our students, eg we should not say, ‘she’s kinaesthetic’ or ‘he’s visual’

o but they should be used to raise our awareness of our student strengths and areas for improvement.

o All of us have a different combination of strengths that we excel in.

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4. Running Dictation MY PET (a poem about a snake)

1. In groups teachers have to:o write down every line of the poem o put the lines in what they think is the right order o guess what the pet is.

Rules:

o They can’t take pen or paper with themo They can’t take their mobile phones with themo They can’t remove the strips from the wallso When they’ve finished and think they have got it in the right order they must put their

hands up

CONCEPT CHECK RULES by asking questions to make sure participants know what they can and can’t do.

Feedback1. Ask teachers to read the poems out

2. The beauty about this poem is that it doesn’t really matter what order the lines are in because there’s no rhyme, it’s pure description – this is not the case with poems that rhyme and very often children’s poems do rhyme.

3. Elicit from teachers the different skills they used during the activity – for the PROCESS.Involves and practises:

o all 4 skills: reading, writing, speaking and listeningo memorizingo spelling – ss can go back and check if unsureo collaboration and teamwork

4. Suggest other ways of giving feedback – doesn’t have to be whole class. ego Tt gives the complete poem to each group to check whether it’s in the order the poet

wrote it in.

5. Support for lower level students?

Reduce the quantity of:o the text on strips o and the number of strips on the walls. QUANTITY IS A KILLER!

What process language would the students have needed for this activity?

“ pardon”. “Could you repeat that please?” “How do you spell that?” “Are you sure?” “ Could you go and check again please?”

Drill the process language if and when necessary

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6. Ask participants which of the poems in their anthologies can they do a running dictation with?

The alphabet song – very weak class for students who can’t read in EnglishShorter poems - weaker studentsLonger poems –

different verses on different coloured paper. each group only has to get one colour

Poems with rhyming lines – students have to find the lines which rhyme – practices pronunciation

Almost any of the poems, although the shorter ones lend themselves more easily, the longer ones can be used by giving only one verse, or giving a gapped worksheet, and the students only have to find the missing words.

Pre- and post activity

1. What language support will the students have needed before the activity?

o Vocabulary – check the poem for new vocabulary, you may need to pre-teach the new words, making sure you help with pronunciation.

2. What kind of a lead in could I have used?o Discussing how we are all different – what makes us different?o Drawing peopleo Describing people / pictures of people

3. What sorts of things can we do post activity?

o write a poem about a part of the body5. Haikus

1. Reorganise pairs so that participants work with a new partner

2. Look in “Poems in your pocket” or Changing Days and choose a part of the body or a piece of clothing mentioned in the book. Don’t tell any other pairs of students what you’ve chosen. Keep it a secret!

3. With their partner, participants brainstorm everything they know about this part of the body

4. I dictate, and participants write down this poem

7. Ask the teachers if they know what kind of poem it is (A Haiku = Japanese, about nature)

8. how many syllables are there in each line?1st line – 5 syllables2nd line – 7 syllables3rd line – 5 syllablesTotal 17 syllables

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There are many types of Haikus but the one we are looking at is 3 lines.

9. In pairs, participants are going to write a Haiku10.They will use the vocabulary they got in the brainstorm

RULE!

o You can’t mention the name of the animal in the Haiku o the rest of the class will have to guess the animal

o Remember: Haikus do not have to be grammatically correct!

Display Ask the teachers if they want to read their haikus out. Ask them to draw their animals, cut them out and write the Haiku inside them Display them on the wall. At school, they could make Haiku books

Why stick the Haikus on the board?

o Some students might be too shy/unconfident to read them out.(Reading aloud can increase confidence, but can also decrease confidence – be careful!!)

o Ss might appreciate the Haikus bettero Ss can be creative with coloured paper, drawing etc.

If the participants are reluctant to read out the Haikus, Trainer can read them out and participants can guess.

What vocabulary do the poems throw up?A lot of information about animals:

o Animal bodies (especially adjectives describing them)o Animal movementso animal homes o animal soundso geography

What do Ss need to write Haikus?o Vocabularyo Knowledge of what a syllable is

Haikus can help students witho spelling o stress o pronunciation

Feedback1. Elicit the aims of doing Haikus

- Reinforce/introduce vocabulary- Short (a very tight structure)

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- can be simple - good for lower level students- Allow students to be creative- Confidence building – sense of achievement at having written a poem- Haikus are a very good stepping stone to helping students write simple

sentences.

2. Show the elephant Haiku again and ask what kind of language is missing in order for the lines to become sentences.Pronouns, verbs, Articles, auxiliary verbs, punctuation

3. Show them the following sentences;

It’s a big, wild, grey mammal.It has large ears, sharp tusks and a long trunk.It loves its child which is called a calf.

Generally the elements missing from a Haiku are:o Articleso auxiliary verbso punctuation

– in other words the cement (the grammar words)!

– differentiate the cement and bricks in different colours so that students can see them clearly.

– This takes longer than a grammar exercise, but it’s in context.

Supporting your students

Students will need help with:

vocabulary they need to know what a syllable is give them gap fills bits of paper with one word on it, they can move them around. Syllables are also useful in helping students with pronunciation and spelling If your students are going to successfully write a Haiku you need to go through the

stages very carefully – for the first time, you should do it as a whole class activity giving them clear examples

every step of the way. Process Language?“I think that’s too many / not enough syllables” “How do you spell that?” “Can you think of another word here?”

Multiple Intelligences used in writing Haikus:o Linguistico logical mathematic

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o naturalistico interpersonal

Third Session

Review of the day so far

Vocabulary and Grammar Why are they important?Students need both to make sentencesBoth vocab and grammar are equally important, but vocab comes firstGrammar next.

Language and Learning SupportTo help students with the processDifferentiate activities: make them easier for lower level ss and more challenging for higher level ss

TimeGive students enough time

Quantity is a KillerShorter activities are more engaging and enjoyable

PurposeWhy is this important?You must have a purpose for EVERY activityHow you do an activity depends on your purpose

Multiple IntelligencesIt’s important to help different types of studentse.g. Nicole David – what kind of intelligence will be her strength? (bodily kinaesthetic)Einstein (logical mathematicalBeethoven (musical)Van Gogh ( Picture smart)

Process and ProductThis workshop is interested in the Process of learning: Building confidenceEngaging and Involving learners in the learning processLeading to learner autonomy

Words are PowerThe more words a students knows = greater confidenceeasier to motivate students to read more if vocab is wider

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Form new groups:

Students go outside and form a kline with their birthdays (not years)1 end of corridor = 1st January other end = 31st December

If you get it wrong, you have to sing a song!!

What did that practice? MonthsOrdinal NumbersPronunciationSequencingNegotiation

I divide the line into groups of 4

Tt sit in new groups, and tidy the tables in front of them

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6. Pelmanism (using the cards in Primary Lit. Resource Box)

RULES

Take turns to turn over 2 cards – one at a time

Put them down on the table FACE UP where you found them you have to show the rest of the group what the cards are, otherwise it makes the game very difficult If they match, keep the pair

If not a pair, turn them over and put them back in the same place

Pelmanism is essentially a memory game, if the cards keep changing places, then once again, it becomes very difficult.

The winner is the person with the most pairs

We can use all 4 sets i.e. picture, name of animal, plural and movement for teacher training, but would probably only use two sets of the cards for students.

Elicit Purpose of the gameVocabularyMemoryFun while learning

Elicit what skills involved?Reading; memorising;

Elicit what Intelligences involved?o visual spatial; verbal linguistic; bodily kinaesthetic; naturalistic; logical (matching); interpersonal

Elicit why have we used different colours for the different sets?To make it easier for lower level students i.e. they have to pick 1 yellow & 1 green

Elicit what other activities can be done with the pelmanism cards?

o Spelling gameso riddleso word chaino animal soundso animal movementso constructing sentences – students turn over two cards and link the two words to make a sentenceo matching pairs - adults and their young / singular and plurals / animals and their movemento fill in the blanks – gapped words on worksheet, students have cards to help them complete the wordso word maze (can be made with your choice of words in the website: puzzlemaker.como crossword puzzleo grouping / categorizing eg wild/tame; 2 legged/4 legged; carnivores/herbivores/omnivoreso grammar singular/pluralo guessing gameso Happy Familieso Snapo Parts of animal bodieso Use the cards as prompts to remember stories about animalso Word train, eg: bugwormlionkittendogsnakepuppiesdeer students divide the train into wordso Write similes, eg: as fast as a horse, as long as a snakeo Saying a word then next student saying a word that starts with the last letter of the first word, eg: horse,

elephant, tiger, rabbit

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Which poem do all these words come from? WORMS WIGGLE (in Poems in your pocket)

In class, you’d look at the poem firstUse the pelmanism cards to consolidate

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7. Action poem This activity is one where students decide what action they can put to the words in the poem.

Go through the whole poem with the teachers with the poem on screen Elicit an action for every word. (students suggest all the actions, NOT the teacher,

unless they are stuck)

Stop every couple of lines and review the previous ones =a good strategy to use with students.

e.g. worm = bent fingerwiggle = finger (like a leach)bug = two fingers on headjiggle = hands together fingers interlaced move up and downrabbit = two earshop = whole body or just handsetc

Ask participants if they enjoyed that activity, and ask if they think their students would enjoy it.

WORD GRAB

Listen and grab – use the pelmanism cards

I read out a word, in their groups, they grab a rhyming word.

Multiple Intelligence Mapping - A bit of reflection is a nice way to end the first day.

Give ss MI mapping handout – and show it on the screen

elicit the activities as a whole class (make sure everyone has the same list)

Go through the FSW together, ticking the intelligences with them as an example

Ss do the rest.

Feedback on this the 2nd morning.

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Session 4

Review

1. We’re going to do a quick review of yesterday.

2. Think about everything you remember from yesterday

3. Write it on the board using key words.

4. Anyone can come and write what they want

To get the ball rolling, elicit an example or two of the kind of thing you want participants to write

RULES

Use keywords You cannot repeat what someone else has already written. you have 3-5 minutes.

Fsw; word generator; Running dictation; action poems; pelmanism; Important numbersm haikus;language support; time is a killer; Process vs product vocab (bricks) and grammar (cement); MI; purpose; words are power; quantity is a killer;

Teachers will probably remember what they did first, not necessarily what they talked about – so they’ll put up things like FSW, WG etc.

This is fine - it’s true for most people including our students.

When you involve students in learning, it is far more memorable and probably makes more sense.

Dictate the proverb:Tell me and I forget

Show me and I rememberInvolve me and I understand

(Old Chinese proverb)put proverb on screen

It’s taken you 3-5 minutes to get everything up on the board even though you have notes in front of them and we reviewed yesterday afternoon – even teachers need time to think in order to remember.

Why do so many teachers walk into a classroom and ask students what they did last lesson (which might have been last week) and expect an almost instant answer?

Students need time to remember and also need a prompt – if they aren’t very good at the language and possibly not that motivated, they will need help remembering.

What the teachers write up on the board is a good way of checking if you, the trainer, need to go over anything again. There maybe a point/concept/activity that you wanted them to

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get and yet they haven’t even put it up which means that you probably need to go over it again.

7. B I N G O

1. Ask teachers to draw a table of 3 squares by 3 squares and show it on the screen

2. Ask the teachers to pick 9 ‘items’ from the board and write them in each of the squares. This is an individual exercise.

3. Tell the teachers you’re going to play BINGO!

4. You will read randomly from the board and if they have what you say, then they can cross it out.

RULES

You can only cross out items when I say them In order to get BINGO, they must cross out every square, not just 3 in a row. They must SHOUT BINGO and raise their hands up if they shout loudly enough, they can have a lovely BC pocketbook

5. Everyone eventually gets bingo and a pocketbook. So, once the first teachers have got it, you can hand over the calling out to them and carry on until everyone has finished.

Ask participants if they enjoyed that activityAsk who did the preparation for that?

Ss: wrote on the board, Ss drew their own grids, Ss crossed out. It’s not necessary to give prize, we can just give praise to our

students

Feedback The importance of reviewing Elicit why Bingo is a good way of reviewing What else Bingo can be used for?

o Numberso Animalso Adjectiveso Oppositeso Tense

GIVE OUT Bingo reading handout

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1. Show ss the photocopiable activity = daily routines2. Ask: which of your poems is about daily routines? = the wrong start1. MI Planner review – show it on screen

2. Talk through and check the multiple intelligences for the activities we did yesterday

3. Talk through the action poems Do you think it’s a useful way of doing poems with ss? Why? Helps them remember poems

4. Give Ss TWO minutes to think of what else we could do with Worms Wiggle? Use / make puppets Play Bingo – students write in animal movements, Teachers says animals name,

ss cross out the movement when they hear the name of the animal Running dictation Crossword puzzle Forming complete sentences Role play (better students) Story line (better students) Make animal posters – habitat, food, movement, noises etc. Make animal scrapbooks Make animal journals – “A day in the life of a rabbit” Animal problem pages – what problems do animals have?

o Extinctiono Human’s catching / killing themo Dogs tied up, can’t run around

Create a new animal:o Draw animals, o cut them up into parts o create a new animal, saying why you are using each body part

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The Rain8. Matching words to pictures on the board1. Like pelmanism but almost completely the reverse of it. 2. A relatively quick whole class activity. 3. Stick the words and flashcards randomly on the board 4. Ask one teacher at a time to take a matching word and picture and put them together on one

side of the board. 5. The rationale is basically to introduce/reinforce the vocabulary. 6. Point out to teachers that with their students, they should work on pronunciation. etc.

11. TPR – Total Physical Response activity 1. Students get into groups of 4 or 52. Give every student a word. (from the board if you did the above matching exercise)

OR give students a strip of paper each, and ask them to write a word from the poem on the paper.

3. Ask the student I gave the word to to stand up and show and say word or pic4. Ask ss to look at poem ‘The Rain’ on page 195. Then either play the poem on CD or read the poem 6. Every time the person I gave the word to hears their word, they should stand up and sit down

again. 7. (and grow and grow and GROW = stand up and sit down 3 times!!)8. Lots of fun and lots of variations to this.9. Ask a student to read the poem

Support

Read it more slowly for weaker students

When would you do this activity?Do Ss need to have read the poem before? – NOWhat do they need to know before this activity? – Vocab

With your students, Check pronunciation Grow - Glow

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10. Drawing Dictation - The Garden – drawing and labelling

1. Give each teacher a blank piece of A4 paper

2. Go through the poem and ask them to draw a picture with these things in it.o A little girlo Flowerso Skyo Suno Raindropso Rainbowo Umbrella

this allows the students to be creative and to visualise and personalise the poem.

3. Ask students to label the picture – use the words you have from the last activity, then pass those words to the next table, and write new words on picture.

4. I read out the words above to check the students have them all

Why did we do these two activities? What was the Purpose ?

The Rain TPR activity = helps students to learn and remember vocabulary Drawing a picture and labelling it involves students – they can visualise poetry (makes

the poem visual, they are personalising it too.

Personalisation In the word generator we personalised the activity by using an adjective describing you In the Haiku about My Pet – we personalised it by letting you choose an animal. Could

also have been your favourite animal This picture of the Rain is your picture (they are all different!) you have personalised the

poem

Add “Personalisation” word on to wall

5. This raises a whole new area of recording vocabulary – different ways to record vocabulary to make it more memorable/interesting

6. By using students own pictures, you are making the vocabulary more visible, more personal Classrooms often have wordlists. It’s important that students record vocabulary in a way that is memorable for them There are many ways What could you do next with the pictures?

Add more words: clouds, colours, girl’s body, clothes etc Colour picture Cut them up and make a jigsaw Word generator Write sentences to make a story

o Weaker students could write a haiku just using words

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5 mins: Which other poem could you do this activity with? – wrong start, woods, almost all of them!!

2. After the TPR you could do a matching activity on White board – words to pictures

Why include rainbow? More colour - enrichment New word within context (word generator – one of strategies = in context) Different intelligence – visual spatial

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SESSION 5

Recap of the morning

ReviewWe reviewed the workshop so far with BingoGenerally as teachers, we don’t review enough.

It’s very good to do a 5 minute review every lesson, in the form of a game or a quiz.

Involving StudentsWe talked about involving students,

the more students are involved the more they are engaged the more they will understand.

Building ConfidenceWe talked about building confidence.

In language, confidence is half the battle. If a student is confident - they will be more prepared to take risks. The more risks you take - the more they will learn. If a student is never wrong - it limits their learning.

It’s important to get the level of challenge right.

Confidence and Volunteers: Sometimes we ask for volunteers, and our students are quite reluctant Think about how they feel when you ask them to answer a question!

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11. Group presentations using the Primary Literature Resource Box

Different states are using different anthologies, Poems in Your Pocket; In the Mirror or Changing Days.

The boxes are all the same, for all 3 anthologies So if a word or picture, or finger puppet you want isn’t in the box, you can make it.

You have 40 minutes to think of an activity and create the resources you need for it.

The Resource Box

1. In your groups, choose a poem from ‘Poems in your Pocket’ that you would like to work on

2. Design an activity for that poem using AT LEAST ONE thing and preferably as many items as possible from your resources box

3. The activity has to have clear language and/or skills aims

4. Be creative but realistic – think about your students and what would be useful to them

5. I do not want a lesson plan

6. I would like you to demonstrate the activity using the rest of the group as your students. (about 6 mins each group)

DO NOT tell us the aim of your activity

CONCEPT CHECK instructions!!

Observation Task

While you are watching the other groups, decide:

What is the aim of the activity?

How are the students supported?

Important points to note: Clear instructions Staging of activities important – take the time, otherwise activity doesn’t work. For games/activitiesm, give ss the process language they need to complete the process,

e.g. it’s my turn now. It’s your turn, you’re next! He cheated!! otherwise your ss will naturally use BM make generic game boards that can be used in a variety of ways be efficient on resources Always have a Purpose/aim When are you giving the students the activity?

o Before: To introduce the poemPage 25 of 35

o During: To practice – for consolidation o After: To review the poem, or for enrichment

Always give your students learning support Always put yourself in your students shoes

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SESSION 6

Multiple Intelligence Questionnaire

1. Give the teachers MI questionnaire handout

2. Tell Tt to read the sentences,

3. put a tick next to the ones which are true for you

4. Discuss in your groups: Which numbers refer to which intelligence?

5. I give out the key and graph

KEY - Multiple Intelligence Profile

Type of Intelligence Question NumbersLinguistic 1, 7, 11, 31, 35

Logical –Mathematical 10, 24, 30, 33, 38

Spatial – Visual 8, 15, 18, 20, 36

Musical 2, 16, 21, 28, 34

Bodily-Kinaesthetic 3, 14, 25, 29, 40

Interpersonal 5, 13, 17, 22, 37

Intrapersonal 6, 9, 19, 23, 27

Naturalist 4, 12, 26, 32, 39

6. then show it on the screen

7. circle the numbers that you ticked

8. add up how many circles you have for each type of intelligence

9. plot your intelligences on the graph

10.Discuss questions in your groups: show questions on screen:

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Multiple Intelligences

o How many types of intelligence do you have?

o Which intelligences do you use a lot?

o Which ones do you use less often?

o Can you see any link between the intelligences you use the most and the subjects/activities you like most?

o Can you find any link between the different intelligences and the way that you teach?

o How can you maximise your strengths?

Why did we do this activity?

o Everybody is differento Our students learn in many different ways using a wide range of:

skills capabilities intelligences

How can we help them ALL to learn?

By using lots of different types of activities in the classroom

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE

We did a questionnaire to find out about our intelligences. How can we find out how our students like to learn?

o By observing themo Giving them creative homeworko Noticing what appeals to them

The important thing is not to use only one type of activity in your classes. It becomes boring and doesn’t appeal to every student.

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The Wrong Start – either personalise it to be your wrong startOR write an opposite poem = The Right Start

The Wrong Start by Jane D’Cruz

I got up this morning and meant to be good

But things didn’t happen the way that they should

I lost my hairbrush,My head felt soreI spilled my coffee all over the floor

then I dropped my cupand after that

I ran out of the houseAnd fell down flat

Things may get better I don’t know when. I think I’ll go back and start over again.

What did I change? Some verbs Some nouns

= personalized the poem - made it more relevant for me

You have 10 minutes to personalise the poem for you.Ss volunteer to read out their poems

Support your learners: Highlight/underline the words they can change Brainstorm the things that can go wrong in their day – list of verbs./nouns on board for

students to use.

VariationsMore time: write a poem called The Right Start = opposites

Feedback

Look at MI planner and add today’s activities

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Go back to OBJECTIVES on screen, read them through, and ask if been met

To explore different approaches to teaching poems to childrenWe’ve looked at changing poems, visualising, using actions, playing games.Always try to vary your activities.Think about the language support that will be needed.

To use poems to enhance the learning of skills and languageTeach new words when possible (we added rainbow to the vocab in The RainTeach the process language needed to do an activity/gameUse holistic activities, all students can participate, be prepared to differentiate, so that it can be made easier for weaker students, more challenging for stronger students.

To make poems interesting and therefore enjoyable and easier to learnWorms wiggle, The Rain, Do something interesting, different, it is good for your development as a teacher.Keep in touch with each otherShare, collaborate.Get students to share and collaborate too.

To enjoy ourselvesHave you enjoyed yourselves?Laughter is good – it helps learningWhen you are relaxed, your mind is receptive

English is enjoyable.Students motivation often comes from the teacherIf the teacher is committed and enjoying herself/himself, then the student will too.

This workshop is just 2 days, it is not in depth, it has just touched on topics.

Use this workshop as a springboard for: more development more ideas more resources – add to the resource box, see it as a work in progress.

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EXTRA Suggestions for other activities

Star light Star Bright - Wishing wall - starsA very simple, feel good activity that encourages a bit of reflection and personalisation.

1. Ask the teachers to draw themselves in the middle of a blank page.

2. Then ask them to think about what they would wish for if they could wish for anything in the world – they should write these things around the picture of themselves.

3. They should share their wishes with the person next to them

4. Ask them to prioritise - if they could have only one wish which would it be.

5. Give each teacher a star and ask them to write their wish as a sentence in the middle of it and then stick it on the wishing wall.

11.Let the teachers read each other’s wishes

12. then ask them to think about what wishes their 11 year old students would wish

Warmers

Action Alphabet in groups choose one word. The word must have the same number of letters as people in

the group. Use whole body to show the letter. Can use 2 people to make one letter. Can do whole word at once OR letter by letter.

Birthday line Students form a kline depending on their birthday (not year)

Back to the Board Students sit in groups, one student has their back to the whiteboard Teacher writes a word or phrase on the board The group has to explain in English what the word is without saying the word (or any part

of it) The first group, whose person with their back to the whiteboard guesses the word, is the

winner.Groups then move round, so that a different person has their back to the board.

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Find someone who…………

1. is happy to be here today _____________

2. likes teaching _____________

3. can sing _____________

4. likes the same food as you _____________

5. was born in the same month as you _____________

6. has the same hobby as you _____________

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Multiple intelligence Planner

Activities

MIVerbal

Linguistic

Bodily Kinaesthetic

Logical Mathematical

Visual Spatial

Musical

Naturalist

Interpersonal

Intrapersonal

Linking learners to activity types

Below is a table of learner types and some suggested activities for each type. It is adapted from Jeremy Harmer’s book The Practice of English Language Teaching but was originally taken from How to Use Gardner’s Intelligences in a Class Program by M. Loon for the University of Canberra.

Learner Type Is good at Learns best by Activities

Linguistic Reading, writing and stories

Saying, hearing and seeing words

Memory games Trivia quizzesStories

Logical /Mathematical

Solving puzzles, exploring patterns, reasoning and logic

Asking questions, categorising and working with patterns

PuzzlesProblem solving

Visual / Spatial Drawing , building, arts and crafts

Visualising, using the mind’s eye

FlashcardsColoursPicturesDrawingProject work

MusicalSinging, listening to music and playing instruments

Using rhythm, with music on

Using songschantsdrilling

Bodily / KinaestheticMoving around, touching things and body language

Moving, touching and doing

TPR activitiesAction songsRunning dictationsMimingRealia

InterpersonalMixing with others, leading groups, understanding others and mediating

Co-operating, working in groups and sharing

Mingle activitiesGroup workDebatesDiscussions

Intrapersonal Working alone and pursuing own interests

Working alone Working individually on personalised projects

Naturalistic Nature Working outside, observing nature, studying plants, animals and the natural world

Environmental projects