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| DIY - The big clock | I had the chance this year (during a second training) to teach young learners of English – aged 11. It was their first year. I had to teach them about telling the time, which led me to make up a big clock, with my own little hands ! I did it from scrap and the pupils loved it ! So here are my tips:
Take some rough carboard – from boxes or bought in a stationery shop. Cut a round (approximately 30 to 40 cm diameter). Stick blank paper on one side (you may need several sheets). Write the numbers with a thick black pen. You may also draw a face to make it funnier. Make the hands also out of cardboard. Don't forget to make the ends round to stick them in the middle of the clock. Colour them all in black.
And now you need the essential tool: a “pin” (attache parisienne in French) like this:
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| With the legs spread (please don't laugh) on the back side, like this:
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| You need a bit of force to pierce the cardboard; you may want to “pre-pierce” with another tool beforehand.
Then, to protect your clock, you need to laminate it. Doing it in shops or buying a machine can end up being quite expensive. I bought plastifying cover for books in a roll. It's called Tesa®. It's like this:
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| It's hard to put correctly (because it keeps rolling!) but it looks good in the end !
Here is the result:
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| I did another clock with colours to distinguish “past” from “to”. It corresponded with the pupils' book. Here it is (it's the same principle except that I used coloured paper):
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| How to use it in class:
The young pupils love to manipulate things so this big clock is above all made for them.
You can act a bit to make things funnier. Keep the clock hidden in a bag and reveal it when all the pupils are ready to work. Whispering a “oohhhh” gives a better effect. I gave a name to my clock (since it has a face) – “Look, It's Jim the clock!”. I just think it's funny ! ;-)
Sure, first you need to introduce the new structure (telling the time). You can hold the clock in front of you and show with your finger. For example, you can say “it is five o'clock” by showing the “5” and the big hand while you say o'clock (it means that you have seen or revised the numbers beforehand with them). The same principle applies with “past” and “to”. Do it in the right direction. I mean you turn the big hand 10 minutes by 10 minutes for example while telling the time and making them repeat. Make a full round so that they see what happens when you come to “to”.
You introduce the question and make them find the answer.
After some minutes of practising, you can hand the clock to a pupil who s going to stand up, go to a friend and ask the question. You can already start this activity just with the “o'clock” structure.
You let the pupils go around, asking the question while you turn the hands everytime.
Just ask for correction when there is a mistake.
You can do this activity for most of the class. Make sure you have enough time to hand out a sheet with several clocks on it to write the times – and therefore to have something written in their copybook.
They never seem to be bored while manipulating the clock so you can start again the next class to make sure everybody understood. You can then hand the clock to one pupil directly at the beginning of the class.
Have fun ! |
| DIY - The flashcards | Using flashcards is very useful when introducing new vocabulary without speaking the pupils' mother tongue. It allows you not to speak any other language than English because you refer to an image and not to a word.
The image is placed on the front side of a sheet and the word on the back side. Then you are free to show the word or not. It's usually better to pronounce the word first without showing it so that the pupils don't focus on the spelling (thus provoking pronunciation mistakes). Then you can turn the card and show the word.
Everytime you want to introduce new vocabulary (for example: daily activities), prepare your set of cards and show them one by one and make your pupils repeat. You can then use the vocabulay in structures once it has been introduced.
The flashcards also have the advantage that they can be manipulated by the pupils. When forming sentences, pupils can stand up and choose the word they want to use. Flashcards can also be used in games, can be exchanged between pupils to make them speak. There are many uses and if you have suggestions, don't hesitate to comment and share!
Some flashcards are sold through the internet but they are hard to find, expensive and not very satisfactory. They often present the word on the front side, which I don't like. They are sometimes too small. Indeed, if you want all your pupils to see them (above all if you have a large class), the flashcards should be quite large, on A4 sheets. I also have flashcards on half of this format; it is possible and it saves paper but you should be sure everyone can see them.
The best thing is to do your own flashcards. It is a long and boring process but the result looks good in the end !!! It also allows you to personalize them.
To create your own flashcards, you need to:
- make a list of all the images you need (list groups like sports, school objects, feelings, etc).
- find the images. The internet is a great source of all sorts of images. You can use Google Images but you may lose a lot of time in the end. Some websites exist:
www.fotosearch.com
www.picto.qc.ca
www.mes-english.com/flashcards
http://www.childrenonlyesl-efl.com/mainpages/tourcategori...
http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/home/home.aspx
You can also find images around you: on advertisements, food packages, in magazines, etc. Try to find funny or original images that the pupils will like and remember better. For example, to introduce spinnach, I used a Popeye image because an image of spinnach is not... well not very recognizable. Those associations can help your pupils remember the new vocabulary.
- buy “cardboard paper". Your flashcards won't be rigid enough if you use regular 90g paper. You need something much thicker. A lot of stationery shops sell this kind of paper. I bought 100 sheets for 5 euros.
- insert this paper into your printer.
- insert your image in word and place it where you want it to be. You can also resize it. Print it.
For black and white pictures, you don't need to print on high quality. The low quality is usually enough. You'll be able then to save ink.
For colours, you may need to use the high quality because otherwise the image won't be clearly seen by the pupils at the back of the class.
- write the word on the back side of the flashcard with a big black pen.
- cover your flashcard with Book Cover Foil, the same type I used for the big clock (see here).
Covering is a long job but your flashcards will last longer and have a professional look that your pupils will appreciate !
Covering is not easy because the material keeps rolling while you stick. Think about using a ruler to help you unroll and stick. You will then also avoid air enclosures.
A quicker way to cover is to use a special machine called “laminator":
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| It is more expensive though (you have to buy the machine and then the plastic sheets). You can find those machines for a reasonable price on Ebay.
Some tips:
Colours are better for flashcards because it makes them more lively. Printing in colours can turn out to be expensive so a solution is to have your flashcards coloured by your pupils!!! It works well in the smaller grades (11-12 year olds). If one of them has finished a test early for example, propose him/her to colour until the end of the test – they still like colouring at that age. He/she will then be busy and won't disturb his/her classmates who are still writing the test. Always have some B&W flashcards when you do tests! But in that case, don't cover them! Do it afterwards. Don't forget to use them in class so that the pupils can see you liked their job.
If you have talented pupils in your classes, ask them to draw for you!!! (according to the vocabulary you want to introduce next). They'll usually be proud to show you how well they can draw (especially if they're not too good in English) and they'll be even prouder when you use the flashcards in class!
If you print a lot (and when you start doing flashcards, you DO print a lot), you're going to run out of ink very soon. Ink can be very expensive. Think about ordering them in the internet where they are usually cheaper.
Here is the result:
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| Having your own classroom |  I know what it feels like to have one's own classroom now. I asked... and I got it. I'm so happy! You can't imagine how nice it feels. It's a bit like feeling home. I can decorate, I can put tables and chairs as I want, I can move the desk, etc.
So I reorganized the classroom. I made a big U shape with 19 chairs and tables and a smaller U inside with 6 chairs. In front of the whiteboard are 2 chairs (for very talkative pupils!).
Why a U shape? For some of you (especially American readers I guess), it seems obvious. Well, here it's not, particularly in my school. All the classes, ALL of them are not in U shape, but in rows. A bit like this:
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|  | For a foreign language class, I think this is awful beause kids can't see each other and therefore talk to each other in English. They have to turn on their chairs, in uncomfortable positions. So I asked them to move the tables to create a U shape. But as I used to change room every day, tables had to be moved and re-moved again and again. It was a pain.
Now the problem doesn't exist any more.
The U shape makes sense, above all if you use groupwork with your pupils. I started using groupwork quite recently. I only had a vague idea of what it meant when I was a trainee. I never did it back then. Last November, somebody came into my class to see how I was doing. She encouraged me to use groupwork, to "maximise every pupil's speaking time". I was doubtful. Wouldn't they speak French? Would they be serious enough to do it ? Would it work? Well, I had to try. And it worked. And I try to do it more and more.
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| Groupwork | How does groupwork work?
Well, you need a simple communicative situation. For example, asking questions. Questions with a simple pattern (you can even do the questions beforehand so that they just need to ask them).
Let's take the "back from holidays" lesson plan. There were questions about preterit: what the pupils did during the holidays. We did a couple of questions together: Did you sleep a lot? Did you eat chocolate? Did you visit your family? etc. Then we wrote them in a grid which I had handed out.
I then expain the work in French to make sure everybody gets it. They have to stand up and go and ask questions to other pupils, all at the same time. Sure, there is some noise but come on... languages are made to be spoken. So they get up and they actually love asking each other's questions, more than I thought! The activity lasts about 5 minutes, not more. They have plenty of time to ask their questions several times, therefore practising the structure A LOT.
Then, they come back to their seats and tell the class what they found out.
It works great and I'm now convinced that it's the right way to do it. Surprinsingly enough, they don't speak that much French. Most of them speak English all the time. It's like a game for them.
I'm trying to find any situation to pracise this activity. I'm not doint it every week, but I'm trying to do more and more. With more practise, I guess I'll find more situations.
If your practise this, you'll realise that it makes sense to have a U shape. Pupils (and you!) can move much more freely. You also have more space.
While pupils are doing the groupwork, you just watch and help correct if needed. The beauty of it is that they do it on their own. they don't need you any more. |
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