alice’s posterous

After having successfully learnt Gloria Fuertes' poem Mi escuela, mi escuela, I asked my students to copy the poem as a calligram. I had already read a very good post from Claire Seccombe about calligrams and I wanted to try it out with my students.

You can use calligrams for lots of different activities such as "displaying key words, introducing new vocabulary or including a glossary on a worksheet". For example you write the word "grand" in big letters and the word "petit" in small letters. This way students "visually" remember what the words mean.

It could also involve sentences and even a poem, as I did with my Spanish students. I asked them to be creative and think of a shape which reminded them of the poem. Lots of them thought of the peace and love symbol to represent it and others had great ideas too!
I then took photos of their calligrams and posted them on the school blog so they could all see their imaginative work :)

What about you? Have used calligrams in lessons? 

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Click here to download:

GFuertes.escuela.ppt (583 KB)

Christian Jacomino created a wonderful method for French children to learn how to read, but not only how to read, how to enjoy reading French literature, something that schools omit to do nowadays because "it is too hard"!. His method focuses on the reconstruction of oral and written literary works such as poems, stories and songs and it revives the tradition of memory exercises.Through this method, Christian has created presentations of several literary works called Moulin à paroles (m@p) and he offers workshops (only in France at the moment) to help teachers and pupils use those presentations in a creative and suitable way. So far this method has been very successful with students who have been struggling for years with reading.

There is a poem called ¡Mi escuela, mi escuela! in the Spanish textbook Gente Joven I am following with my students. I thought it would be nice to create a Moulin à paroles with this poem and make my students follow this method although they are Spanish beginners. So I asked Christian if I could create a similar presentation to his and of course he said yes and helped me start on a shared Google document. So this presentation has been the result of a truly collaborative work. I have never met Christian physically, but we have been able to work together on this poem thanks to the magic of web 2.0!

Today, I have delivered the lesson to my students following the instructions on the presentation and I am proud to say it has been a true success. Students loved repeating each verse to each other and they were very proud to be able to remember a poem in Spanish although they only started to learn the language a few months ago. At the end of the lesson, I could hear a student who usually doesn't seem so keen on Spanish, reciting the poem to a friend who studies French. What a better example to show students how to enjoy literature!

I cannot thank Christian Jacomino enough to let me work with him and share his method with my students, and also write this moving newsletter on his website.

What about you? have you taught a poem in another language to your students?

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As I mentioned in my previous post, we celebrated the European Day of Languages at my school with a little competition I found on the mflresources forum. The students really seemed to enjoy guessing the different languages spoken by the staff and all the staff contributed which made the day successful. You can view the competition sheets adapted from the ones on the mflresources forum below.

In the lower school, each class had planned a little activity based on languages and presented it during an assembly. One class sang "Frere Jacques" in French, another class read a poem in Japanese, another one sang a song in Zulu, another class said "my name is..." in different languages. It was great to see the whole school involved to celebrate languages.

What about you? Was your EDL a success?

Click here to download:

Pupil answer sheet.doc (54 KB)

Click here to download:

Pupil notice.doc (46 KB)

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There are already great contributions with videos, poems, articles and websites, as well as ideas to implement reading strategies in the classroom. I have added my little contribution today with resources related to the 20th century's writer, Jean Giono and his book L'homme qui plantait des arbres (The man who planted trees).

I do believe reading books in a another language and understanding the literature of another country helps you to better learn a language and understand the culture behind the language.

So if you:

• need help with your plans for literature/reading in the classroom, click on the Discussion tab and start a thread with your question and/or comment.
• have a link to a video, song, poem, article, website, etc. for a reading, click on the century for which you have something to share and get started today!

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