alice’s posterous

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grade6.informal.doc (35 KB)

I was observed last week with a group of 15 grade 6 pupils (around 11 years old) learning Spanish. I planned a lesson mostly based on collaborative and group work. The main part of the lesson was to listen to different people talking about themselves: their name, age, nationality, if they have pets... This listening activity was quite challenging as the people on the CD are talking at normal speed (but "too fast" according to my students) and with different accents from Spain and Argentina. So I decided to make the students work in groups and help each other. First, each group had a different question about the listening, then they had to take notes, share them and collect as many details as they could.
I found they really enjoyed working as a team trying to answer a question together and then collecting all the details from the different people. It helped them coping with a challenging activity and also they had the opportunity to help each other out.
You can see details of my lesson above.

What about you? what do you do with challenging listening activities?

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In 1956 while working at the University of Chicago, Benjamin Bloom developed his theory on Educational Objectives. He developed a taxonomy of activities and behaviours that exemplify higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and lower order thinking skills (LOTS). It is used to rank and structure different classroom activities and plan the learning process. In my classroom, I have this poster:

In 2001, Lorin Anderson and others revised Bloom's original work which lead to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy:

Picture from http://teachershelper.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Taxonomy

One of the major changes is going from Nouns to Verbs, as the verbs imply an active process. Also the focus is now on creating.
However, I still don't have this poster in my classroom!

What are your thoughts? do you use these areas when planning a lesson?

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I am still in the process of re-learning my German!
Previously I blogged about reading GermanHeit everyday. Now, when I am in the car going to school or going home, I listen to Michel Thomas CDs. It is a fairly intensive course based on a suite of 10 to 12 lessons at a time with lots of repetition, which suits me fine especially when it comes to get used to the way the German build their sentences!
The method is interesting in that it is based on understanding patterns in a language, how sentences are built and on its links with English. I am French but fluent in English and I can really relate to the countless similarities between German and English. Instead of having to learn long lists of words and phrases, it focuses on understanding and forming your own sentences which gives you confidence to speak. Michel Thomas is also a positive teacher who encourages you to think things trough.

I came across Michel Thomas whilst doing the creativity CPD course back in November. His method was tried by a comprehensive school as a pilot project to stimulate and and engage students. At the end, it had a significant impact on a top set year 9 (13-14 years old) and a middle set year 8 (12-13 years old)  learning Spanish. Teachers at that school noticed that "pupils came to language lessons showing levels of excitement not previously observed before ... One teacher quoted the example of catching a pupil with a bar of chocolate, telling him "no es possible comerlo ahora". The pupil nodded that he understood that comment and promptly replied with "Lo siento pero tengo hambre"
Now I have never experienced that level of spontaneity with my pupils! so this is an approach I am willing to try next year.

You can read the full Michel Thomas report from Association for Language Learning here:

Michel.thomas.approach

And you? have you tried a similar approach in your lessons?

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Looking at affordable ways to get an Interactive Whiteboard. This video shows how to create your own with a Wii remote and a LED.

Have a look at this video. What do you think?

When choosing the right IWB, Nick Peachey's post on the British Council website is also full of useful tips:
http://teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/nik-peachey/some-thoughts-choosing-right-iwb?mtk=20

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I follow http://www.boxoftricks.net/ in my Google Reader and I really liked this post:

In it, I explore my own understanding of what it means to teach and learn today and I invite those who watch it to share their thoughts and opinions.I teach, therefore you learn… or do you?, Feb 2009

You should read the whole article and watch the movie:

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