30 MINUTES

While we discussed last Thursday in class (15/11/2012) the theme about the time dedicated to "serious" tasks in class, it came to my mind a situation I learnt when I was on teaching practises (TP) last year.

Ales, the teacher I spent the most time with when I was on TP, told me that children, above all when they are very young (1st and 2nd year) tend to get bored or not to pay attention after they are required a lot of effort on an activity or this is the same once and other again. He told me (and I was able to prove it by myself while I was with him in his classes) that he prefers to spend a little time with a task (no more than 20 minutes, unless it´s needed) and to play games (referred with the task as well of course) or talk about something that worries to the children; ablout this last point, he told me that it doesn´t matter if they talk in spanish if the theme discussed is something very important, so that children could understand every word.

He taught me that there´s no problem if one day you don´t finish all tasks you had scheduled. The important thing is that children learn not the maximun things (altought is an objective, but I would a secondary objective) but in the best way these things they study. We could say is not a matter of quantity but QUALITY!!!! So it doesn´t matter if one day children only learn one thing, that if this knowledge they have interiorized very deep in their brains it will be much more important than having had learnt more things and the day after they couldn´t remember a single thing.  

Víctor Pérez

"THE SILENT WAY", A CURIOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD

Some days ago, I looked for some information about silence and its importance for teaching. I found two or three interesting things on this topic but I especially like one of them. It is possible that this will be studied in class in the followings weeks but I would like to share it with you because it is a curious language teaching method.

This method is called “The Silent way” and was created by Caleb Gattegno. It consists of a curious way of teaching where silence is extremely important so it is related to Unit 0 that we have studied.

The teacher is silent for most of the time and students have to try to speak in the language studied as much as possible. The session starts from what the students know because they are the main characters and they are the ones who want to learn a new language.

Most of the activities used in this method are speaking, pronunciation and vocabulary. It avoids using memorization and imitation activities. The materials that the teacher uses are very curious, for instance; sound-colour chart (for phonics), pronunciation and vocabulary rods, etc.

The teacher, who is in total silence, uses non-verbal gestures to guide the class. There are different signs to represent “Stop”, “Repeat”, “Speak louder”, etc. Students learn a new language without imitating the teacher and they develop their autonomy and their creativity.

The contents that students learn are reviewed and recycled over and over so they work with new vocabulary and grammar structures without forgetting the old ones. However, I think that this method was created for small groups but it cannot be used in big groups: Will all the students work if the teacher is silent? Besides, I believe that it could be useful in advanced levels but I don’t know if we could use it with twenty five children.

This quote summarizes the methodology of the “The Silent Way” Method:

“The teacher works with students; the students work on the language”

Caleb Gattegno

The following webs are good to get more information:

-          http://myenglishpages.com/blog/the-silent-way-method/

-          http://www.uneeducationpourdemain.org/en/silent-way-en/213-caleb-gattegno-silent-way-presentation

(Gonzalo García)

ROCINANTES

I have just found in a folder a “Rocinante” card and it has remind me Paula, a young teacher who I met in the practice period last school-year. She taught Spanish Language, English Culture and Arts and Crafts in 5^th year of Primary Education. I was lucky to see some of her sessions, to work with her making some tasks and to learn from her methodology.

This is a TRULY WONDERFUL
HORSE...

What I really like of Paula is how she behaves towards the students. She doesn’t mind to spend some time of her sessions to solve possible problems that pupils might have in or out of the classroom. Furthermore, she is a positive person full of energy and that motivates the students. When they are checking activities or reading aloud, Paula almost sings their names changing continuously the person who is talking, so students must pay attention and not get distracted. She also loves introducing different topics in a “non-usual way”, for instance, explaining Easter playing common Easter English games.

The best think of Paula’s sessions is that students feel comfortable in them and, in general, they do their best in every task. They also talk to her about their feelings and problems in her sessions, in other subjects and in their personal life and, of course, Paula does everything she can to help them.

Returning to the beginning, I want to explain one special “trick” of her methodology, her system of positive points. She prints many pictures of one literary character which is different each trimester. When I was at school the character was Rocinante. She cuts the pictures and gives one to the student who shares to the rest of the class something relevant or curious, for example the name of people born in Calatayud (bilbilitanos). So, students can collect a lot of “Rocinantes” and they can redeem each one for 0.1 points in different tasks.

I think that giving these cards is a good way to reward students’ effort and participation, to “invite” them to search information and share it with their classmates and also to use them as a part of the continuous evaluation during the trimester. But, in my opinion, the cards could be redeemed for something different instead of 0.1 points, what do you think? Do you have any suggestion?

(Cristina Lázaro)

THE POWER OF MUSIC

A  new contribution for all of us to ENJOY AND PONDER ABOUT...  

THANKSSSS!!!!!!!

I was thinking about when I was at the school and high school. I remember how upset I felt when the teacher 'jumped' the song-activities which where in our Student's English Book. Some of those English teachers were too busy to 'WASTE the time' doing a song-listening-activity, when they needed to finish whatever Unit. However, we could practice English grammar, vocabulary,... doing the song-activities, in a funny and real way, couldn't we?

(Elena Regaño)