Lesson: Animals

Lesson: Animals

General:

Topic	What’s this?
Duration	60 minutes
Education Level	Second year of Primary School (2֯EP)
English Level	Pre-A1
Age	Seven  years old
Class size	Four
Gender of Students	Three females and one male
Specific Objectives	At the end of the lesson, students will be able to: 1.       Inquire about the name of an animal based on the image shown using the structured question ‘What’s this?’ with no grammatical error. 2.      Label the picture of two animals with (one or) few grammatical errors. 3.      State the names of four animals in English incorporating the learnt structure, ‘It’s a’ with one or few grammatical errors.
Structures	What’s this? It’s a…
Target Vocabulary	cat, dog, pig, cow, duck, bird, chicken, fish

Materials:

Song	‘Farewell’- Lyrics: So Long, farewell to you my friend, Goodbye for now until we meet again.
Labelled Flashcards	First set (cat, dog, pig, cow) and Second set (duck, bird, chicken, fish)
Stationary	A4 paper, crayons, pencil, markers, eraser

Anticipated Problems and Solutions:

Problems	Solutions
1.      Persistent use of mother tongue	After second warning to speak English, student’s name tag will be demoted to the appropriate section on the stoplight poster.
2.      Evidence of a toy in the class	At the beginning of the class, encourage students to put all items in their bags.
3.      If a student doesn’t know the answer	Provide a prompt by formulating the target vocabulary with my mouth.
4.      If a student forgets to say a word in the chunk	Provide a cue by using my fingers to represent each word in the chunk and shake the finger of the forgotten word.

Lesson Overview:

Warm Up:

1.       Welcoming and seating arrangement

2.      Greetings – Pass the candle

New Learning and Practice:

1.       Introduce structure ‘What’s this?’

2.      Teach structure ‘It’s a’ + first set of the target vocabulary

3.      Play ‘What’s this?’

4.      Play ‘Missing Animal’

5.      Teach structure ‘It’s a’ + second set of the target vocabulary

6.      Play ‘What’s this?’

7.      Play ‘Slow reveal’

Assessment:

1.       Draw two animals.

2.      Play ‘Cross the river’

Wrap Up:

1.       Sing ‘Farewell’ song

2.      Quick Review of Content

Lesson Procedure and Timing:

Warm Up (3 minutes):

1.       Welcoming

Greet each student by name. Say ‘Stand here + [Student’s name]. Use gesture to indicate that he/she should stand behind a chair around the round table.

2.      Greetings – Pass the candle

Take up the red candle and ask the student to my immediate right one of the learnt question (What’s your name?). After the student responds, he/she takes the candle. Say to him/her ‘Ask [Student’s name] the question’. This activity continues until the candle is in the teacher’s hand. Repeat the process using another one of the learnt structured questions (How are you? Or how old are you?). The candle is passed until it is back into the teacher’s hand. Say “Sit down!”

New Learning and Practice (30 minutes):

1.       Introduce structure ‘What’s this?’

Say to students, ‘look’ and ‘listen’. Say the structured question first in two parts, (‘What’s’ then ‘this?’). Say the structured question in its entirety, (‘What’s this?’) along with its accompanied gesture in order to aid in student’s understanding that a question is being asked. Say to students ‘listen’ and ‘then repeat’. Say ‘What’s this?’ twice.

2.      Teach structure ‘It’s a’ + first set of the target vocabulary

Say to students, ‘listen’ and ‘be quiet’ using the appropriate gestures. Hold up one of the flashcards from the first set and say the featured animal on the flashcard to ensure proper pronunciation. Then say ‘It’s a + featured animal’. Say to students ‘listen’ and ‘then repeat’. Say ‘It’s a + featured animal?’ twice. Continue until all animals in the first set of flashcards have been said.

3.      Play ‘What’s this?’

A.     Hold up a flashcard to each student and ask the structure, ‘What’s this?’ Students reply.

B.      Say ‘look’, ‘Raise your hand if you know’. Hold up a random flashcard from the first set and pose the structure, ‘What’s this?’ The student who answers correctly gets the card. Continue until all the flashcards are gone. Say ‘Cards, please’ to students.

4.      Play ‘Missing Animal’

Say to students ‘close your eyes’. Lay the flashcards on the table in front of the students. Flip one of the flashcards on its back. Say to students ‘open your eyes. Encourage students to raise his/her hand if they know the answer.  Point to the faced down flashcard and ask the structure ‘What’s this?’ Choose a student, if the response is correct; it’s that student’s turn.

5.      Teach structure ‘It’s a’ + second set of the target vocabulary

Say to students, ‘listen’ and ‘be quiet’ using the appropriate gestures. Hold up one of the flashcards from the first set and say the featured animal on the flashcard to ensure proper pronunciation. Then say ‘It’s a + featured animal’. Say to students ‘listen’ and ‘then repeat’. Say ‘It’s a + featured animal?’ twice. If the target vocabulary contains more than one syllable, break the pronunciation into syllables. Continue until all animals in the second set of flashcards have been said.

6.      Play ‘What’s this?’

A.     Hold up a flashcard to each student and ask the structure, ‘What’s this?’ Students reply.

B.      Say ‘look’, ‘Raise your hand if you know’. Hold up a random flashcard from the first set and pose the structure, ‘What’s this?’ The student who answers correctly gets the card. Continue until all the flashcards are gone. Say ‘Cards, please’ to students.

7.      Play ‘Slow reveal’

Encourage students to raise his/her hand if they know the answer. Using A4 sized parchment paper, hold the second set of flashcards with the pictures facing towards the teacher.  The first card should be turned around so it is facing the students but is hidden as it is behind the parchment paper.  Slowly pull the flashcard up inch by inch so the students can only see part of the flashcard.  As the picture is slowly revealed pose the structure, ‘What’s this?’ to the students so they can try and guess what it is.  The first student to guess correctly keeps the card. Continue until all the cards have been revealed. Ask for the flashcards back from the students.

Assessment (20 minutes):

1.       Draw two animals and label them

Give each student half of an A4 paper. Put the pencil holder, crayon box and marker holder on the table. Say ‘Write your name’. Model the instruction. Say ‘Draw an animal’. Model the instruction. After students have completed this step, point to the crayons and say ‘Colour the animal’. Model the instruction. Upon completion of this step, hold up your drawing of an animal and ask one student, ‘What’s this?’ After that student responds, say ‘[Student’s name] ask the question to [Student’s name]’. Ensure everyone has had a chance. Take a marker and say ‘Take a marker’. Say ‘Write the name of the animal’. Model the instruction. Repeat the steps for the second animal. At the end, collect the students’ papers.

2.      Play ‘Cross the river’

Place all eight flashcards on floor in winding manner and a ruler to show where the game begins.  Stand behind the ruler. Say ‘Line please’. After all the students are cued behind the ruler, model the activity. Each card represents a stepping stone in the river. A student begins the game after the class shouts the structure, ‘What’s this?’. Students must say the structure, ‘It’s a + featured word’, in order to step on it and cross the river. If a student doesn’t know the featured animal, he/she has to stop on the known animal. Another student gets to begin the game. After all students have begun the game, help will be provided by the teacher to students in a descending order. Once help has been provided, all the students repeat the stated chunk and then that student has to start over. Whenever a student successfully cross the river or say all the words on the flashcard, the class shouts ‘hooray’.

Wrap Up (5 minutes):

1.       Sing ‘Farewell’ song

Encourage students to pack up his things. Say “stand up! It’s time to say goodbye” to indicate the beginning of the song. Everyone sings the song and do the associated action two times.

2.      Quick Review of content

Take up flashcards. Stand at the door and say ‘Line please!’ Hold up a random animal flashcard and ask ‘What’s this?’ to each student. Change the flashcards for each student. Student answers then leave the class. If a student answers incorrectly: a) Change the flashcard and ask the question again, b) help the student by formulating the word with your mouth or sounding out the word and ask student to repeat it.

Predict It! Reading Activity

Predict It!

Lesson Plan: Large class size

Outline of the Lesson Plan

Topic	Predict It!
Duration	60 minutes
Education Level	Fifth year of Primary School (5֯EP)
English Level	lower B1
Age	ten years old
Class size	small to large

Main Aim: 
Students will be able to practise making predictions and supporting their thinking with evidence from the text.
Specific Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Describe pictures from a story incorporating the present continuous tense with one or few grammatical errors. 
•  Construct sentences predicting the outcome of a story using one or two of the formulaic prompts with little to no grammatical errors.
• Evaluate provided information from a story to support their predictions using the formulaic prompts with a few grammatical errors. 
• Create a short story including the given prompt using at least 5 sentences.

Material: 
Story entitled ‘Good Neighbours
’https://www.englishclub.com/kids/stories/good-neighbours.htm
Graphic organiser sheet

Graphic Organiser

Formulaic Prompts:

Predictions	Evidence
What will the story be about? What will happen next?	Why ?
I think that…My guess is that…I predict that…I suspect that...	Because I read Because I saw

Warm Up (5minutes):

What’s in the box: Teacher shows students three pictures which are related to the item in the box. Teacher asks the class to use the picture cues and guess the item that is in the box. Students will raise their hands and the teacher will accept guesses from the class. Teacher introduces the topic of predicting.

Before Reading (5minutes): 

Teacher introduces the title of the story and check for understanding.
Tell me about the pictures: Teacher shows students the pictures at the beginning and end of the story. Students are required to describe the pictures taking into account the season, the number of people and actions of the people while using an appropriate learnt structure such as, ‘I can see’, and ‘It’s + weather conditions/season’. The students will be encouraged to use the present continuous tense when describing the actions of the people in the pictures.

Predicting related to title and pictures of the story (5minutes): 

Teacher gives each student a graphic organizer which has a table with three headings: Prediction, Evidence and Confirm. Teacher asks students to use the title of the story and the pictures to write one sentence predicting what the story will be about. Teacher gives students a list of possible prompts to use to begin their sentences. At the end of 3 minutes, the teacher asks each student to share her sentences from the prediction and evidence columns.

Predicting related to the first part of the reading (7minutes):

Teacher gives each student the first part of the reading. Each student will be assigned to a paragraph. Students read their assigned paragraphs. At the end of the reading, the teacher asks one student to give a brief summary about the story thus far. Students are encouraged to check their first predictions to see if they want to adjust or change it. Teacher asks the students to write one sentence about what they think will happen next using the possible prompts as a guide. Teacher asks each student to share her second prediction and evidence with the class.

Predicting related to the second part of the reading (7minutes): 

Teacher gives each student the second part of the reading. Each student will be assigned to a paragraph. Students read their assigned paragraphs. At the end of the reading, the teacher asks one student to give a brief summary about the story thus far. Students are encouraged to check their first predictions to see if they want to adjust or change it. Regarding their second prediction, students tick if their predictions were true or not. Teacher asks the students to write one sentence about what they think will happen next using the possible prompts as a guide. Teacher asks each student to share her third prediction and supported evidence with the class.

Predicting related to the final part of the reading (7minutes): 

Teacher gives each student the third part of the reading. Each student will be assigned to a paragraph. Students read their assigned paragraphs. At the end of the reading, the teacher asks one student to summarise the story. Students are encouraged to check their first predictions to see if it came true or not and to tick the appropriate box. Regarding their third prediction, students tick if their predictions were true or not.

After reading (15minutes):

Teacher asks students to write a short story using beginning or ending their story with “I looked in the shop’s window and I saw exactly what I wanted.” The story should include at least 5 sentences.
Students will share their stories with the class. The teacher will encourage self-correction. Students are encouraged to comment on the stories of their peers.

Wrap Up (5minutes): 

Hangman:

Teacher chooses a word from the lesson and draw lines on the board corresponding to the letters in the word. Teacher provides students with one clue and they attempt to guess the word by providing a letter. If the letter does not exist in the given word, a part of the man’s body is drawn. The students continue to make attempts until there is a full man. When there is a correct response, the student, who gave the response, gets to provide the word and the clue. Game continues until time runs out.

Rose in the Classroom- Portfolio

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."– Benjamin Franklin

A rose in a classroom might be an absurd thing to see. However, in my class a Rose is always present...

Who Am I?

My name is Rachel Rose and I'm from the beautiful island of Jamaica . I am a teacher of Foreign languages. You might be wondering what other languages I am capable of teaching. Well, I can teach French, Spanish and English as foreign languages. I am currently doing a Masters in Bilingual and Multicultural Education at Universidad de Alcalá in Spain. My desire to teach has been present for as long as I can remember. I can recall when I was eight years old, I would set up my pretend classroom with my dolls where I was the teacher. I know I wanted to be a teacher but it was at Secondary school I decided to choose teaching the languages.

Teaching Background: Philosophy, goals, qualifications

In 2017, I finished my undergraduate degree in Secondary Education and from there I set out to be a certified teacher. I spent a year in France as a Language assistant and part-time ESL teacher. I used that experience to improve my French Language competences. Then in September 2018, I went to a small city called Ciudad Real where I was a Language Assistant in the Meddeas programme. I also did a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate at a university in Barcelona, thanks to the Meddeas programme. This is my first year being in the Spanish Ministry’s programme. I will share with you my experience thus far as a language assistant in the Spanish capital.

Before I get all excited telling you the story of “Rose in the classroom”. I want to share the main goals that I have for myself and my learners and my teaching philosophy.
The main goals that I have for my learners is that their confidence level increases as they are motivated to speak English with ease and fluency.  In relation to my self goal, I want to create a safe and authentic environment that promotes the usage of the target language and encourages effort even if it is littered with mistakes. In addition, I strive to make learning a language fun and exciting.

My teaching philosophy is Every child can learn and Every child must learn. I believe that students can demonstrate their learning in different ways and at different levels of achievement. As such I strive to not compare the levels of my students to each other but rather I view each child as an individual who has the capability to improve and grow in their way. My role is to assist each learner in developing their own potential while catering to their learning styles.

STORY TIME: (Highlight of my experience)

"Let’s listen to Hugo, ‘Yes, Hugo what do you have to say?’, I bellowed to my little clique of students... It seemed like just yesterday, when the sun was reaching up to give me a kiss and my little hands grasping my favourite spanish breakfast, porras, that I received an email from La Comunidad de Madrid. It was my assignment: CEIP García Lorca, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid)... Now look at me, laughing with my students and watching them explain the current tea of the day, in English, of course! Each student is serving tea and every now and again, he/she stops to ask with a strong Spanish accent, “Rachel, how do you say …. In English?” and continues his/her version of the story. I provided the missing word, interrupted to correct a prolonged error and gave a face of interest as I listen. Did you know that 5th graders tell the best stories! I got the tea and we started asking questions from the Cambridge pack. I gave them the option of asking me a few questions provided that they cannot repeat any of the already asked questions. With flushed cheeks and googled eyes, Ana asked “Rachel, what is your surname?”. I answered in a robotic way, “My surname is Rose. The group grasped as if they had a eureka moment and in unison said, “ah como un flor”. I pretended not to understand what they said, “could you repeat?” They said, “Rose like a flower”. I said, “Why yes, I am a Rose in the classroom” and I laughed. No one got my pun. My English pun (it wasn’t funny). 

A rose in the classroom is who I am. I consider myself a rose because of two reasons. The obvious one is my surname. The second reason is the significance of a rose. Roses have convey different meanings according to their colour. I strive to be a yellow rose. A yellow rose means joy, delight, friendship, welcome back and new beginnings. I am a teacher who helps her learners find joy and delight in learning. A teacher who helps her learners to forge everlasting and meaningful relationships both with their peers and with her. A teacher who creates a safe space where her students know that it is okay to make mistakes; to not be the smartest student in the class; to be him/herself; to feel free to express themselves; and to grow and learn.
As you can see from the story, I work with 5th grade and by extension all the grades as I see each class once per week. I am only in the English Language classes. There are five language assistants at my school and we collaborate with the Teachers of English in order to teach the students. In a class, each assistant is assigned a small group of five students. We engage the students in varied conversations in order to practise the learnt grammatical content and structures.
The school comprises of the infantil and primaria sections. There are three classes per grade and approximately 25 students in each class. The students are friendly and by the sixth grade, they have a good command (B1) of the English Language.

Expectations of LA Programme:

• An exposure to the Spanish culture and language.
• Share the Jamaican culture with the students at my assigned school.
• Learn new classroom management techniques.
• Becoming knowledgeable about current foreign language teaching methodologies.
• Becoming a source of motivation for students to learn a foreign language.
• Collaborating to create exciting and fun activities for learners.

Contributions to the LA programme:

The assistants work as a team and all our activities were collaboratively made. We help the students in their preparation for the speaking part of the KET and PET examinations such as describing pictures, and using pictures to tell a story.Also, we focus on popular celebrations in different Anglophone Countries.

For Example: Halloween, We created various outdoor activities for students of infantil and primaria. 

Two of such activities were One two three red-light and Pick up Monsters:

Instructions for 1 2 3 red-light: 

One player stands at the front while the others are about 15 feet away from him or her, on the line.

The singled out player turns away from the others and say an expression related to Halloween (walk like a mummy) then after shout "1 2 3 red light". The others try to reach him or her before he or she turns around. The aim is to not be seen while moving. Whoever is seen upon the target person turning around has to return to the starting point. This is continued until someone reaches that person. The winner takes over and the game starts again.

Pick up monster and put them in a can: (Designed for infantil)

Teacher puts students into three teams. Each team represents a monster. Teacher randomly places cards with the three items on the floor and put the three cans at least 10 feet away from the students. The teams make 3  lines representing each can. At the sound of the bell, students take turn running and picking up one of their items and put it in their respective can. Then stand behind the can. The other team member runs, picks up an item and drops it in the can. (A child can pick up one item at a time) The first team to have all its members behind the can is the winning team that shouts 'hooray'.

We helped the students of the first cycle (1st to 3rd grades) to colour and describe their monsters. Then the students got to paste their monsters on the classroom's door.

Finally,

Activities with Flashcards

1. Cross the River

Place all flashcards on floor in winding manner and a ruler to show where the game begins.  Stand behind the ruler. Say ‘Line please’. After all the students are cued behind the ruler, model the activity. Each card represents a stepping stone in the river. A student begins the game after the teacher shouts the structured question. Students must say the structure in order to step on it and cross the river. If a student doesn’t know the featured vocabulary, he/she has to stop at the last known card. Another student gets to begin the game. After all students have begun the game, help will be provided by the teacher to students in a descending order. Once help has been provided, all the students repeat the stated chunk and then that student has to start over. Whenever a student successfully cross the river or say all the words on the flashcard, the class shouts ‘hooray’.

2. Jump and Say

Line the flashcards in a straight row with space in between on the floor. Have one student or one student on each side of the line. Students jump and say the flashcard they land next to. Students hop along saying each card. Variations:  You can make it a race or lay out a circle instead.

2. Slow Reveal

Encourage students to raise his/her hand if they know the answer. Place the flashcards behind a solid colour paper. The first card should be turned so it is facing the students but is hidden as it is behind the parchment paper.  Slowly pull the flashcard up inch by inch so the students can only see part of the flashcard.  As the picture is slowly revealed pose the structured question to the students so they can try and guess what it is.  The first student to guess correctly keeps the card. Continue until all the cards have been revealed. Ask for the flashcards back from the students.

3. Missing Flashcard

Say to students ‘close your eyes’. Lay the flashcards on the table in front of the students. Flip one of the flashcards on its back. Say to students ‘open your eyes. Encourage students to raise his/her hand if they know the answer.  Point to the faced down flashcard and ask the structured question. Choose a student, if the response is correct; it’s that student’s turn.

4. Run and Touch

Encourage students to stand in the centre of the classroom. Post the flashcards around the classroom. Say ‘question’ at which the students will pose the structured question together. Give a response. Students will run to the stated flashcard. The first student to touch the flashcard gets to be asked the structured question and gives a response. Continue playing until all students get a chance to say a response at least once.

5. Find Baby Rabbit

Post all the flashcards on the blackboard/whiteboard. Introduce Baby Rabbit to the students. Say ‘Close your eyes’. Hide Baby Rabbit behind one of the flashcards. Say ‘Open your eyes.’ ‘Raise your hand if you know’ and pose the structured question. Choose a student to give a response. After the response, lift up the stated flashcard to reveal if Baby Rabbit is there. The student who finds Baby Rabbit gets to hide baby Rabbit and pose the structured question.

6. Slap the board or Floor

Lay out the flashcards on the floor or put up on the board so the students can reach them. Decide to call one or two students up at a time. When you shout a word, they should hit it with their hand.

7. Quiet to Loud

Hold the flashcard in front of you and squat down. Whisper the vocabulary word. Rise up slightly. Say the word quietly. Rise up more. Say the word in a regular voice. Continue until when you hold the card over your head and are standing straight up the students shout the word. Allow one the students to hold the card then repeat the steps.