Samantha rose early on her
inaugural day at school, her heart racing with a mix of anticipation and
trepidation. As she donned her clothes and packed her bag, she couldn't help
but feel a sense of desolation that had been gnawing at her for months.
Growing up in a broken home,
Samantha had become accustomed to a life of emotional deprivation. Her parents'
ceaseless bickering had created an atmosphere of hostility and neglect, leaving
her feeling like an outsider in her own home. With no siblings or extended
family to turn to, she often found solace in the company of her books,
conjuring up a world that was far removed from her own.
As she made her way to school
that morning, Samantha couldn't help but feel like a fish out of water. Her
clothes were nondescript, and her backpack was worn and frayed at the edges.
She longed to join the groups of girls who were chattering and laughing, but
she was paralyzed by fear of rejection.
Desperately lonely, Samantha
retreated to a secluded corner of the playground, perching on a bench and
watching the other children at play. Her heart ached with a sense of
alienation, and she wished fervently for a friend to share her misery with.
Just when Samantha had given up
all hope, the bell rang, and she dragged herself to her classroom. As she
shuffled through the door, her favourite teacher, Ms. Ahana, was standing at
the front of the room, beaming with a smile that could light up a room.
"Greetings young
ladies!" Ms. Ahana exclaimed. "I trust you're all brimming with excitement
on this momentous day. And Samantha, my darling, it's such a joy to see you!
How are you feeling today?"
Samantha was taken aback by her
teacher's warmth and sincerity, and she felt a glimmer of hope ignite in her
heart. With a hint of a smile playing on her lips, she replied, "I'm
holding up alright, thank you."
From that instant on, Samantha
knew that she had found a confidant in Ms. Ahana. She immersed herself in her
studies, contributing eagerly to class discussions and relishing the
opportunity to learn from a teacher who believed in her abilities. Though the
other girls continued to give her the cold shoulder, Samantha no longer felt isolated
or alone. She had Ms. Ahana in her corner, and that was all she needed to
navigate the rough waters of adolescence.
Beneath the embrace of Mother nature, we found our oasis for Aidilfitri at Pn.Aida's quaint farmhouse. The Senior Assistant indeed played hostess par excellence, her warm hospitality embodying the very spirit of this joyous festival. Picture this if you will: a charming farmhouse, nestled on the banks of a serene river, ensconced amidst a flourishing tableau of verdant flora.
Every moment dripped with sweet serenity, like a languid river floating lazily by the emerald greens. What an unparalleled backdrop to an afternoon that unfolded like a symphony of merry sounds! The chortles and chuckles, the light-hearted jests exchanged, the rib-tickling anecdotes - the air was positively saturated with mirth and cheer. One look at the clock, and lo and behold, two glorious hours had slipped away, lost in the mazes of delightful conversation and hearty laughter!
And the pièce de résistance: the delectable spread laid out by Pn.Aida. Oh, the gastronomical delight! The food was nothing short of ambrosia. We were pampered, spoilt, and showered with love, evident in every bite we relished.
The day, unforgettable and precious, was undoubtedly worth every moment invested. But now, as twilight peeks from behind the curtains, it's time for this chatterbox to don the hat of a wordsmith. Scribbling away into the dusk, a guilt-free Saturday awaits.
The Gossip Village, is an activity that I developed based on the materials that I picked from various sources to develop reading and speaking skills of my form 5 students. I decided to do this activity as the first reading lesson for unit two before exploring the reading task entitled 'Winchester Mystery House'.
Preparation
To carry out this lesson the teacher needs to prepare the following :
a) Eight texts on different mysterious houses. Teachers may use the text I used for my lesson, but it may need to be simplified if your students are very weak. You know the level of your students better, so improvise it accordingly. You may click here to download the materials.
b) Next, you also need some 'monopoly money' for students to use for transaction purposes during the activity. If you have Monopoly or SAHIBBA at home, you may use those money for the activity. As for me I have money templates which are designed for my classroom activities. The money templates were shared with me by a trainee teacher who came to my school many years ago. I can't recall her name, so I am giving credits to her. If you want to use the money template that I am using, you may download it here.
c) I prepared task sheets to be given at the end of the activity, to be done as a homework. It is more like a reflection than a practice task. Click here for the task sheet.
Preparation before you start the activity
To carry out this activity the teacher first needs to divide the class into 8 groups. I have 24 students in my class so, I put them into eight groups.
Each group will be given equal amount of money ( Depends on the 'amount' of money you have). I gave them 500 dollars per group.
Each group will have labels on their respective tables which is the name of their houses.
Task
The classroom is going to be turned into a 'Gossip Village' - a place where everyone is gossiping about the past of everyone's house without the knowing the past of their own houses.
Part 1
The first 10 -15 minutes of the lesson
Pupils dress up and get ready to become gossip queens. They can wear scarfs, sun glasses and other appropriate accessories. (I did not want to allow them to change clothes as it will be time consuming).
Pupils get into each group and they are assigned a house and a 'gossip' document which contains information of the people who lived in one of the houses in the 'Gossip Village'.
The village has eight houses, and each house has a name such as, Grey House, Rose Cottage, Annie's Cottage, HoneySuckle Cottage, Manor Farm, Willow Cottage, Hazel Cottage and Home Farm.
Pupils should be informed that they have just moved in into Gossip Village and each group owns as house here and in each of the house they discover a document related to one of the houses at their neighbourhood. For example, Grey House might have a document related to Annie's Cottage.
The document could be a love letter, a bill, a report card or a post card that may reveal some information about the past owners. Their task is to find out what happened in their respective houses many years ago.
Pupils are to read the documents carefully and identify all the important details. They are to discuss these details in their groups for the first 15 minutes. Pupils should not write notes.
Pupils are all dressed up and discussing the secret document that they have discovered
Part 2
20 minutes
In the second part of the lesson, pupils are to go around and share the information with their neighbours and at the same time they need to find the secrets of their own houses. They need to get at least 5 information about their own houses.
While they carry out this activity they have to follow the restrictions given below :
a) Every conversation should start by introducing one another, exchanging pleasantries or praising each others' scarfs.
b) Pupils should only speak in English. A fine of 100 dollars will be imposed if any other languages are spoken.
b) Pupils should not directly share the information to the owners of the houses, If they do, a fine of 100 dollars will be imposed. For example, if Grey House has a document about Annie's cottage, they should not talk directly about it to the owner's of Annie's Cottage, but they can tell to anyone else. So, the owners of Annie's Cottage will get the information concerning their house from people who have heard from the members of the Grey House.
c) The information shared should be negotiated for a certain amount of money. The higher the price the more detailed the information should be. For example, let's say the owners of Home Farm, has heard something useful about Annie's Cottage from Grey House. The owners of Home Farm can offer the information and negotiate the sum that they would like the owners of Annie's Cottage to pay them. This is how each house should negotiate to earn money and exchange information.
d) The information exchanged should be from the text. Pupils cannot make up stories.
e) The conversations should take place in pairs. However, if the class has odd numbers, three students in a group can be allowed. (all the three must be from different houses)
f) Pupils are not allowed to carry notes or any documents during the speaking part. All information shared should be based on what they remember from the reading.
exchanging information
trying to get information
gossiping girls!
Part 3
15 minutes
After the 20 minutes of information exchanging session, pupils are to return to their own houses. They are to share and discuss the information that they have gathered about their own houses and they need to explain what actually happened in their own houses in the past to the class. Each group takes turn to explain and the group that actually keeps the documents validate the information shared by the house owners. Pupils also share their opinions on the events happened at their houses. ( How they feel about it?)
Pupils are also to count the money that they have and the group that has the highest amount will be declared as the winner and they will be given the title 'Gossip Queens'.
Pupils counting their money
Part 4 (Closure)
10 minutes
Teacher sums up the lesson, distributes the task sheet to be completed as homework. Pupils are to write reflection on what is learnt during the lesson and what can be improved (I always forget to take pictures of my students' reflections, will remember the next round).
Teacher's Reflection
The lesson was conducted as planned. My role as a teacher was to make sure they understood the text, and discussed appropriately using the sequence connectors, linking words as well as appropriate vocabulary. This activity has helped students to develop better reading and speaking skills. While reading, they learnt to pick the important details to narrate to their friends and when narrating the ideas, they used the past simple and past continuous as instructed by the teacher ( me).
Dear teachers, you may develop and improvise this activity according to your own mould!
I completed the first writing task in unit one (pg14) with my form 5 students this week. Before the lesson, I prepared a task sheet for them as I did not want them to scribble on the textbook. If you are interested in using the modified task sheet, you may click here. If you are interested to
Preparation
a) Task sheets
b) Mini whiteboards
c) Marker pens
d) Post - it notes
Lesson introduction
Teacher begins the lesson by asking pupils to sit facing their should partners. Pupils are then asked to answer the following questions to each other. They are given five minutes. the questions are:
a) Tell your friend about the most important person in your life?
b) Who is the person? ( describe the person)
c) What is your relationship with the person?
d) Why is that person important to you?
After five minutes, teachers uses the ice - cream stick to pick names random to share what their friends has shared with them ( this is fun as they have to tell the class the information that was shared by their partners with them). Pupils are then directed to the textbook page 14.
Lesson Development
Activity 1
Pupils are asked to read the email from the English - speaking friend and identify all the questions that they are required to answer (students are given 4 to 5 minutes to do this depends on their proficiency level). After identifying the questions, students are to volunteer to read each and every question that was asked in the email. Teacher then directs students to the notes on the top of the textbook and explains on the importance of reading for details properly and understanding important points. Students are then directed to the questions given in the textbook to identify SITUATION, REASON, TOPIC AND LANGUAGE in the email.
Activity 2
In activity one, the pupils with guidance from the teacher have explored and dissected the email received from the English - speaking friend. In the second part of the lesson development, the teacher, with the students should explore on how to reply to the email. In this part of the lesson, the teacher shows a sampler to the students to read and identify the answers to the questions asked in the email. The sample is shown below :
This is a sampler shared with the students for discussion purposes
Note :
While discussing the sampler, I usually do not allow my pupils to take notes or copy down the important words. I just allow them to read, and discuss. I will only share the printed version of the sampler with them after they have submitted their work. Why do I show a sampler? I want my students to know what is expected from them. It is unfair to tell the students your expectation if you can't show what is expected from them. The sampler above is for a good class. If you are teaching students with low proficiency, you should simplify the essay to suit their proficiency level.
As students read the essay, they are to discuss in groups, the questions that are answered and if there are any unanswered questions (Teachers, you may leave some parts unanswered if you want your pupils to identify them).
Activity 3
In the first part of the lesson development, the question was dissected, in the second part the teachers explores the nuances of writing a reply to the email through a sampler and what's next ?
It is important to practice what students have gathered thus far. So, pupils are required to work in pair and write a reply based on the email that they have received from their English - speaking friend.
First pupils are given a few minutes to plan and write their drafts on the mini - whiteboard. This is a pair - work.
Pupils are working on their email.
Once they have completed their replies, pupils are required to do gallery walk. They are to spend 1 to 2 minutes (I used a whistle and blow it every two minutes to indicate the time) at each station reading and responding to their friends work. Pupils are asked to write one good thing that they have learnt and one improvisation that can be done to their friends essays ( this will work well with high proficiency students, if you are working with the lower proficiency ones, just ask them to identify whether their friends have responded to all the questions asked in the email, and leave a note which one they have not responded to)
Pupils are in the midst of analysing their friends' work
A piece of work that has received four responses
After the gallery walk, pupils are to reflect on their own work based on their friends' responses. Teacher responds to some of the outstanding work and also points out the areas that need improvisation. Pupils are then required to write an email responding to their English - speaking friend in about 140 - 190 words, as their homework.
Post - Lesson
Pupils are to write a 20-word reflection on three new things that they have learnt today.
Teacher's Reflection
When I look back at my lesson, I believe I have adhered to the learning standards and ensured that the students learnt what they are suppose to learn. As a teacher, when I plan my lessons, I don't plan it to make it impressive to others but plan it in such a way that learning occurs. That's all for now!
One of the ways to encourage your pupils to speak in English lesson is by developing lessons that would engage them. With the right activities, speaking lessons can be both fun and exciting for pupils.. The following is a speaking activity that I carried out recently. It turned out well as I could see the productive skill (Speaking) were being built among students when they attempted to speak throughout the lesson. This task is based on the Full Blast English language textbook page 12.
Preparation
The preparation for this lesson is very simple. All you need to do is prepare cards with the words learnt in the vocabulary section and also the words and phrases given to describe the activities in the pictures ( page 12). I had eight sets with 36 cards in each set. The number of sets you need depends on the number of students in your class. I have 32 students in my form four class and I wanted to put them in groups of four, so I needed eight sets. I printed them in different colours so that it would be easier for me to sort them out if the get mixed up.
Please click here if you want a pdf copy of the cards. Please bear in mind that we don't teach the same pupils so you may need to use simpler words if you are teaching the low proficiency group.
Lesson Introduction
Teacher begins the lesson by asking pupils to talk to their shoulder partner about an activity they did the most during the MCO. Then, pupils are then directed to the four activities shown in the pictures (page 12) . Pupils shout out loud the names of the activities and teacher writes them down on the whiteboard. Pupils are then directed to the vocabulary section (page 12) to just look and refresh on the vocabulary learnt previously. They are also asked to look at the list of words given in the box for speaking activity. Teacher explains the unfamiliar words with examples. After the explanation, pupils are then directed to the next activity.
Activity 1
The 'speaking cards' are placed in the middle as shown in the picture above. Before we start the activity, it is better to ask pupils to label themselves as student A, B, C and D. In this activity, pupils are to pick the card from the middle of the table and use the words in the card to describe one of the four activities (video gaming, bungee jumping, painting and American football). Pupils are free to speak on any of the four activities. They are to use simple present tense or present continuous tense only. Once they have spoken, they should not return the card but keep it with them. Pupils take turns to speak until all the cards are taken. At the end of the activity each student should have 4 to 5 cards in their possession (depends on number of cards you prepared).
Activity 2
With the cards that they have with them, pupils are now to start interacting with one another. For example, Student A would start using her speaking card containing the word 'Dangerous' by saying
"Bungee Jumping is a dangerous activity, do you agree with me student B?
Student B should respond by using any of the words she has with her. For example, let's say she uses the word 'thrilling' and she might say ;
" I agree with you to a certain extend but I feel that it is both thrilling and exciting. I would
love to give it a try one day. What is your opinion on this Student C?
Student C might say
" Bungee jumping is too risky, I rather spend my leisure time painting the pictures of nature. It is more relaxing. Do you share the same opinion with me, Student D?
So, the activity continues until all the cards are used up. Pupils are to place the cards to the middle of the table once they have used them. Pupils should also be reminded that they must use one card at a time. If they are unable to respond to their friends, they would miss a turn and the next pupil can answer the question using any of her speaking cards. In this task, students listen to their peers' statements or questions and respond appropriately.
If have tried this activity and I could see that students were able to use all the cards successfully. Students may agree and disagree, ask questions and respond to a question using the speaking cards they have relating to any one of the four activities given for their speaking task.
After completing the second task, students are then directed to the third activity.
Activity 3
Teacher picks one student from each group to redistribute the speaking cards to all the group members. This activity starts with student D. Student D, places one of the cards in the middle of the table and using the word in the card, she talks about one of the four activities that they have been discussing. When student D is done sharing opinion/feeling/fact/question any other group members can respond immediately by placing another card in the middle. The response could be agreeing and disagreeing or simply comparing with another free time activity ( from the four). Pupils continue to respond to one another as quickly as they can. The one who finishes all the cards first will be the winner. This task requires pupils to listen carefully, think and respond immediately to the statements/questions offered.
Please take note that, pupils can only respond using one card, and they need to wait for another person to speak before they could speak again. And if there is anyone in the group who is unable to use all her cards at the end of the activity, she should continue speaking while the rest of the members observe and help her. This activity can also make the class a little noisier as students race with one another to speak.
Activity 4
Students speak to their shoulder partners by referring to the questions given in the textbook (page 12).
Closure
Students write on the exit cards on what went well in their learning today.
Teacher's role throughout the lesson
The teacher observes the task. Walk from group to group and offer help where needed while assessing the students. Also observe students' use of simple present and present continuous tense. The should be using these two tenses and they have learnt them in lesson two previously. This is a place for them to practice the tenses in communication with their peers. Teacher also corrects students where appropriate but should refrain from doing overt correction.
Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create and facilitate video discussions. Teachers can create groups for each classroom and in each group teachers can post questions or topics of discussions. Students can respond to the questions and topics by responding through video responses that appear in a display. The videos can be shared with classes, small groups, or any collection of users interested in a common strand of questions. However, in order to protect my students' privacy I have made the setting private and the video responses sent by my students are only available for viewing and commenting by peers from their own classes.
What do I use Flipgrid for?
I find Flipgrid to be a student - friendly application and it makes my speaking lesson more interesting and interactive as I could see my students' responses via video messages in Flipgrid. This helps me to assess their speaking skills especially during the pandemic where teaching and learning is conducted via online and conducting speaking lessons online is very challenging. Besides, making all 24 students in a class to speak during an online lesson is an invitation for disaster. Therefore, I have started using Flipgrid to facilitate learning during my speaking lessons. Flipgrid allows me as a teacher to take time to watch and listen to my students' spoken responses and also provides opportunity for them to practice their speaking skills from time to time. (from one unit to another)
Not only has Flipgrid made it easier for me to carry out online speaking lessons with ease, it also has a large space for storage (this storage is free if you use your MOE account to register) that I could keep all my students' video responses as evidence for their learning (PBD filing purposes). Flipgrid makes it so much easier for me to organise students' tasks and keep their responses without endangering my devices.
Records in my Flipgrid 'Teacher Account'
Another good thing about Flipgrid is that it is linked to our MOE _ DELIMA account, so teachers can actually 'import' students' name lists and monitor their video submissions via Delima account. I watch my students responses on Flipgrid and keep their scores in Delima. I also leave written or sometimes video comments at the end of their videos to help them to look into mistakes and contents.
The video below shows some examples of students' video responses :
Please be reminded that students can respond via the Flipgrid with any camera - enabled device. Teachers can also set the duration of responses for the topics given. Responses can be as short as 15 seconds and the longest response can be five minutes. Another interesting feature in Flipgrid is that teachers can also enable peers to respond to their friends' videos via video replies. I have enabled this feature for students within the same classroom.
If you are interested in using Flipgrid in your lessons, click and watch the videos below and after that you will be all set to get started!
Technology has become a significant bridge in keeping up with our lessons at a time like this. However, the use of technology should not overshadow the objective of a lesson. As a teacher, the one thing that I constantly remind myself is that the purpose of using tech tools should aid students' in their learning. Therefore, when I plan my lessons I would ensure that the use of tech tools should have a purpose and lead towards effective learning. As such, in this article, I am sharing one of my lessons where I have used tech - tools such as Padlet, Quizizz, Edpuzzle and Google Classroom effectively to keep my students engaged throughout my lesson.
This lesson is based on the Full Blast textbook page 105 - 106.
Pre - Reading Activity
As a pre-reading activity, students were assigned to a listening task on Edpuzzle. The task was taken from the Full Blast textbook page 106. I uploaded the audio on to Youtube, then linked it to Edpuzzle and created a quiz. To learn more about Edpuzzle please read my previous post. Please click here to get the link to copy the video task to your own account.
Pre - Reading Task
In the next task, students were asked to answer the following questions on Padlet. The link was shared with them via Google Classroom.
a) What do you do to protect the environment?
b) What more could you do?
Examples of students' ideas are shown in the picture below.
Students shared their responses in Padlet
After they had completed the task, I randomly picked some of the answers and responded to the ideas on Google meet. After the discussion, students were directed to the next task, which was a pre-reading quiz. The purpose of the quiz was to familiarise students with words/phrases that they will come across in the text. The quiz consists of 10 questions and was developed on quizizz. If you re interested to use the quiz you may get it here.
Pre - Reading Vocabulary Quiz on Quizizz
Reading Task
Next, students were asked to complete the reading task assigned on Google Classroom as shown in the picture below. You can get the link to the reading task here.
The Reading Task
Students' answers were then instantly checked and shared so that they understand the text better. I also shared some of my own ideas to get my students connected to the text.
Reflecting on the Lesson
The last task for the lesson was sharing their reflections. Students were required to share three things that they had learnt in the lesson. The reflections were typed on a Jam in Jamboard as shown in the picture below :
Students' Reflections on the Lesson
I used quite a number of tools for my lesson as I found that google meet is becoming less and less effective and students are getting bored. Lessons on Google meet are becoming equivalent to 'chalk and talk' method and we teachers do not know what is happening behind their screens as many of them may not be doing what we expect them to do. So, I decided to use a plethora of online tools to keep my students engaged throughout the lesson and of course to ensure the effectiveness of the lesson you should have trained your students to use this tools beforehand so that they would be more adept when using all of them at once.
Besides, those who do not turn up for the lesson, will be able to do the task whenever it is possible for them, all they would miss is the little teacher talk in the class.
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