The tenth lesson.

PLANNING FOR EFFECTIVE USE OF ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM

 As we have said in the other lessons, we can work and teach the second language to pupils as same as we do it in our mother tongue. So in this way we must provide them fun activities and situations in order to get a natural atmosphere, considering that in their daily life they learn playing, talking, touching,...

 But to make this possible it is necessary to speak them in English as much as possible.

 In the first point Helping children learn and improve the authors remind us several methods to use the English in class, for example to begin the session with routines, to give them easy instructions, to make a break, to talk about their personal lives and so on. It is really important too, the use of our body and the intonation when we are explain something or when we are talking with them.

 On the other hand, we can utilize the first language (Spanish) when children have one problem to comfort them or when they don't understand what we say. Also we use the recasting if they are talking in their mother tongue, for example repeating in English what they were saying in Spanish, in order to improve their English skills and to show our pupils that we understand them.

 As we have mentioned in many times, if one child makes a mistake the best way to correct him it is repeating in a better English, since they will learn the right way to say something and their self-esteem won't be wounded.

 In the second point Using your coursebook as a resource, they tell about the coursebook can be a support and help us in our planning. We can work the contents and activities that the book suggests but also we can add other topics related with them. For example we teach them using flashcards, pictures, video recorders, stories, games or working with festivals. We must always keep in mind the age and level of our students.

 In the last point, Planning your lessons, we have seen that we have to prepare before the English sessions and make sure about the space available in order to design the activities. We have to reflect on the knowledge of our students, the way they learn, the order of the activities, the resources we have, the groupings, if we want to follow a pattern (first routines, later introduce the topic with flashcards, review the topic with song, a break, the main activity, bye bye song),...

 To end, if we want they improve their English, we must repeat a lot, speak slowly, tell about interesting and attractive topics for them and encourage and reinforce them when they take part in the class.

  See you soon my friends!

 M.R.M.

The eighth lesson.

READING AND TELLING STORIES

 Assuming that children love tales and the fact that tell them stories, we can take advantage of this and using it to teach them values, to introduce another culture, work with the feelings and emotions, to review vocabulary,...

 However, telling stories to very young learners is not easy, for that it is pretty important to adapt it to their cognitive development and their English level and to employ the intonation, the gestures and our body language in order to make easier the understanding.

 In the first point, Telling a new story, they tell about when we tell a story for the first time we must explain the new vocabulary and revise the words they have already learnt using pictures or flashcards. Later when we are telling the story we use a basic and easy language and we can help us with gestures since in this way they understand better the tale. 

 Moreover, when story ends encourage your pupils asking them questions about the story.

 In the second part, Reading a story to very young learners, we have learnt that when we read a tale to the students we must show them the pictures or real things to help them to understand. Also we can make the sounds and mime the actions, because children love them and later we ask or answer questions about the narration. 

 If there are difficult or key words we must repeat them to avoid breaking the yarn of the story.

 In the third point, Ways to retell a story, the authors explain that if we have already told a story in class and we want to tell it again, we can motivate their involvement asking them that mime the actions, point the right picture or correct in groups the mistakes. In addition they can tell among all of them the story, obviously with our help.

 And finally we have the fourth part, Retelling a story as a class. As i have said above, we can let them tell the story and they will count with our help when they need it. 

 But also, we can provide them the opportunity to tell the story from another point of view. They will invent and add some aspects to the original tale. It will be really positive and enriching for their imagination and creativity and for their confidence to do things in English.

 To finish, I want to show you an incredible book to work in English with stories and much vocabulary with your very young learners.

The very hungry caterpillar's book.

 That is all for today. I hope you have enjoyed with the post!

 See you!

 M.R.M.

The fourth lesson

SPEAKING WITH SUPPORT

  In this fourth unit we have learnt how work in order to children start to speak.

 So we can Use classroom phrases, where we tell them about things in which they are interested or about useful vocabulary with they treat in their daily life. For example we can teach them the clothes, colours, phrases to ask permission like "Can i go to the toilet?" although the very young learners say only "toilet, please", but it is really positive because they are improving the speaking and the pronunciation. Also they love repeating so it is very probably that when you say to them a word later they will repeat it.

 And if they make some mistakes the best method to correct them it is repeating again in the right way and reinforcing them a lot with a smile or with words like "Good job", "Right!", "Perfect", ...

 We must use easy and short sentences better than individual words because pupils learn by the context.

 Other important thing is Saying rhymes and singing songs to practise pronunciation, stress and intonation. Children love the songs and in their life they spend much time singing, so we can use them to improve the oral skills both listening and speaking, the intonation, and also to teach vocabulary about the seasons, the weather, the colours, the animals,.... In addition we can put them when we want to change in activity to warm up and to stretch.

 It is really useful using flashcards or pictures to Practise new vocabulary, because you can show them at the same time that you are telling the word with the purpose of the students repeat it later. Also when you are teaching new vocabulary, you can give to the classroom realia which pupils can touch and work with them, and in this way maybe they learn better the contents.

 We can Play vocabulary games, to revise and to check if pupils have learnt the vocabulary, and to improve the intonation and pronunciation. For example with the game "I spy with my little eyes..." at the beginning the teacher will start the game and later the child who guesses the word will be the person who is it now. Other typical games are "Finding pairs", "Shopping games" or "Happy families", in all of them we practise much vocabulary, verbs and the English oral skills.

 As it has been said above, we can use some games to Practise pronunciation of new sound, being that they learn the second language in the same way they do in their first idiom, listening, speaking and making some mistakes. So if we want that they learn properly we have to repeat, speak slowly and reinforce and praise them a lot.



 See you round here soon!

 M.R.M.