Daily Routine Song

This song can be used to teach Daily Routines to 5th grade students. You can include many differents activities according to your students needs.

STORYTELLING

Considering Joan Kang Shin advices about storytelling (http://www.rmm.cl/usuarios/afaundez/doc/200903192250480.Storytelling.pdf) , I made up the next activity: 

Little Red Riding Hood

Required Story:  Little Red Riding Hood

Level: Kinder Garden

Time Required: 20 Minutes

Course Objectives:

By the end of the class, the students will:

• Recognize color RED and GREEN.
• Identify RIGHT and LEFT.
• Describe talking to strangers as a dangerous behavior. 

When I was asked to prepare this activity, inmediatly came the complete picture to my mind. At that very moment I thought in Little Red Ridding Hood, the paths, and the "right and left" concept. Then I remembered that there are some schools were little kids wear red and green ribbons sewn to their sleeves in order to make the learning of "right and left" easier. 

I decided to make very big paper bracelets and give them to my students before the storytelling. That way, it was easier for me to explain them what I meant when I said "red" by pointing the bracelet that, of course, I wore, when I narrated the story.

 

One of the challenges that presented was the adjustments that I had to make to the story. 

As I decided to make the asociation "Red-Right / Green-Left", I needed to put a color sign in the paths. But I didn't want to add lots of unknown words to this activity, because we are talking about a Kindergarden ESL class. We have to be aware that English is not the mother tongue of this students. So, as "flower" is a known word, and, if it wasn't, it's very easy to illustrate, I made up, in my mind, a right path plenty of red flowers.  I modified the story, and made up that Little Red Riding Hood's mom told her to follow the red flowers. It was a great idea, in my opinion, but you'll never find that picture in the net. Don't try it, I already spent a lot of time in google. But, if you have that kind of problem, you just have to superimpose images. And that way I was able to make all the pictures I needed.

After the story we played a game. I ask them to line up and, if I said "right" the jumped to the right, and if I said "left" they jumped to the left. The students had some help: The bracelets!, and I told them a secret: "RRRRight and RRRRRRed start with RRRRR".

"PLEASE CHECK THIS"

Miss Carla, I'd like you to correct this entries:

http://englishishappening.blogspot.com/2011/03/attention-perceptions-and-connections.html

http://englishishappening.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-neccesary-is-coursebook.html

http://englishishappening.blogspot.com/2011/04/coursebook-evaluation.html

I know you already saw the two first entries and that's why I add one extra in case you want to check something else.

SUPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

9 Extra Tools for English Teaching

 1. Podcast

A podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication. The word replaced webcast in common vernacular due to the fame of the iPod and its role in the rising popularity and innovation of web feeds.

The mode of delivery differentiates podcasting from other means of accessing media files over the Internet, such as direct download, or streamed webcasting. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/aab#playepisode5 This is a podcast provided by the BBC, which is specially prepared for ESL students and contains real information about Britain, in this case, info about the couple of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

http://www.podcaster.cl/category/educacion/a-welcome/ This material was uploaded by a teacher of English for reinforcement.

2. Wiki

A wiki (/wɪki/ WIK-ee) is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative works. Examples include community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management systems, and note services. The software can also be used for personal note taking.

Wikis serve different purposes. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access). For example editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules can be imposed for organizing content. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://esl.wikia.com/ The ESL Wiki is open to all matters relating to the teaching and learning of English as a second language.

A brief list of suggested topics for contributions might include pedagogy, language acquisition theory, corpus linguistics, grammar, phonetics, pragmatics, authentic assessment, literacy, etc.

http://inspireenglish.pbworks.com/w/page/19992455/FrontPage This page was completely created by the students and they are still adding to it. 

3. Webquest

According to WebQuest.org, a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. These can be created using various programs, including a simple word processing document that includes links to websites.

Research demonstrates that using WebQuests at the elementary level can be beneficial to students. Depending on the age group of the learners, teachers can design WebQuests that are more general or specific in nature. The key to designing an effective WebQuest is to have a clear purpose and objective in mind.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webquest , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://webquest.org/index-resources.php

http://www.wagner-juergen.de/englisch/quests.htm

 4. Youtube Videos

YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.

Unregistered users may watch videos, and registered users may upload an unlimited number of videos. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb2Z_Z19CSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twOiWxxlk3E

  

5. Hot Potatoes

The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. It is not open-source.(http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Quizzes/Hot_Potatoes/

http://une.education.pour.demain.pagesperso-orange.fr/rodsex/rodsindex.htm

6. Audio Books

An audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiobook , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/

http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks

7. E-Books

An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a text and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebook , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://www.free-ebooks.net/

http://www.getfreeebooks.com/

8. Forums

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user and/or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

http://www.eslforum.com/

http://www.eslcafe.com/

9. Online Newspapers/Magazines

An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_newspaper , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control. Magazines typically have editors or editorial boards who review submissions and perform a quality control function to ensure that all material meets the expectations of the publishers (those investing time or money in its production) and the readership.

Online magazines that are part of the World Wide Web, that is, all or part of a website, are sometimes called webzines. An ezine (also spelled e-zine ...) is a more specialized term appropriately applied to small magazines and newsletters distributed by any electronic method, for example, by electronic mail (e-mail/email). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_magazine , available on April 3^rd, 2011).

www.santiagotimes.cl

http://www.seventeen.com/

COURSEBOOK EVALUATION

American Shine for Teens – Macmillan

Coursbook Evaluation

Surfing the net, I found that there is a big amount of ESL books that are described as the best tool ever. Choosing a book could become a hard task if all of them are “good”. As Penny Ur suggested (A course in Language Teaching), is very useful to use a chart where we can present different qualities of a book and then, evaluate.

This chart, taken from Ur, consists of three columns: At the left-hand side it’s presented the importance that I give to that specific quality , in the middle, the quality is named, and at the right-hand side, is the evaluation of the coursebook. Today I’m evaluating “American Shine for Teens 2” by Judy Garton-Sprenger and Philip Prowse for Macmillan.

At the Importance column you`ll find ticks and crosses.  Two ticks – Very important, One tick – Fairly important, Question mark – Not Sure, One cross- Not important, Two crosses – Totally unimportant.

When, in the chart, it is said that a quality is not important, means that you would buy the book, even if that quality didn’t exist.  

 

As you can see, the most important qualities in a book, for me, are:

• Objective in the introduction and implemented in the material
• Interesting topics and tasks
• Content sequenced by difficulty
• Plenty of authentic language
• Good explanation and practice of pronunciation and grammar
• Fluency practice in all four skills
• Audio CDs
• Readily available locally

I’d like to explain why in the left-hand side  are two crosses:

The encouragement of learners to become independent is something more personal that I really prefer to do by my own. I think this specific task is based on the personality and context of each student as individual. And Periodic reviews and test sections are very useful, but If I have a good book in my hands that doesn’t contain that section, it would be fine. I’m sure I can do it without that section. Anyway, it is the teacher`s duty to reinforce what is needed and create the tests. If you read my last entry, you know that I consider coursbooks excellent tools. But we should create our syllabus considering specific contexts and specific needs of our students. And books will never fill every need. That’s why we have to do more than just follow a book. We are able to modify and, of course, to create activities by our own. Sometimes we are going to add contents that are not in the coursebook, or just put a different emphasis. That’s why I think teachers should create their own tests and make up their own reviews; a review is a perfect ocassion to reinforce, according to YOUR students needs.

“American Shine for Teens”, as you can see, is a book that contains everything I consider important.

The objectives of every lesson, are named at the beggining and developed in different activities. It contains interesting topics such as how do astronauts live in the space, dancing, watching TV, ghosts, and, of course, traveling.

What I really like about this book is that there are practical activities for the four skills. It put special attention on pronunciation and entonation. Each two pages you will find pronunciation activities, even phonetic symbols, which include vowels and diphthongs.

What is sad is that this coursebook is not available locally. As it belongs to Macmillan, it was available at Librería Inglesa a few years ago, but right now, they have a different newer version called “American Inspiration for teens”. But it’s not impossible to get it. Mackmillan official webpage http://www.macmillanenglish.com/ offers to deliver it in Europe and that means that it is available. I’m sure there is a possibility to ask for it in advance in Librería Inglesa. Anyway, if you are interested, I saw second-hand books in Mercado Libre, and this one is available.