Readers' Theatre, It's Showtime!!!!!

Hello again readers!!, this week I would like to dive in the exciting world of the theatre, but from a different perspective. During the last seminar with Raquel, we discovered an extraordinary resource called Readers' Theatre. Besides, we had the opportunity to work with different scripts designed to different cycles, and I must say that some of the voices of the classmates were hilariously funny. Moreover, this tool is completely feasible with the CLIL approach, because using it you are going to work:

• Communication, through the preparation of the performance.
• Culture, depending on your approach to the text.
• Cognition, because the students can develop themselves their scripts helping them to develop the learning to learn.
• Content, because you can use any text even if is a part of a book lesson.
• Language literacy, because children can adapt and rebuild the text eliciting their language comprehension.
• High Order Thinking, at the time of create the script of the texts.

But, what is it exactly?, it is a dramatic performance of whatever written text, in which the students reads aloud the text emphasizing the expressions, pace and articulation of the words rather than just act. To do that, they use a script as a guide or way to divide the text into the different students or characters. Besides, it is not necessary to have any costume, background stage and all the things that usually accompany the theatre plays.

Equally important is that, it is not based on memorize the text, because each student held their script. The real focus is on reading comprehension. Moreover, and in order to contextualize the text, the children should read the script with expressive voices and gestures. Furthermore, using the Readers’ Theatre scripts you are going to encourage the students to monitor and improve their reading fluency and also to foster the cooperative and collaborative work.

• Example of implementation in Science: "The types of Ecosystems"

Firstly you should provide them some guidelines and scaffolding, showing them examples of scripts and how they can do it in order to work as a model for them. Then, students should elaborate  in small groups the script following the textbook (depending on their age the teacher maybe have to provide them the script). After that, they should highlight the part of each one in order to follow better and underline the key words in which they are going to put more emphasis. Finally, they will perform the script taking into account for example the different animals related to each type of ecosystem and at the time that they read, they should imitate the sounds that the animals makes as well as using body language to move like them.

As a conclusion, I must say that as far as I’m concerned this could be the most suitable way to adapt the texts for your students enhancing the comprehension and promoting meaningful learning in a funny way. Apart of that, and as I said before, I believe that using the scripts we help the children to develop their fluency and their reading skills as well as improving their pronunciation and their pace at the time to speak. 

As a Christmas gift, I leave you some interesting links about this tool in which you will find lots of scripts to use in class and relevant information about how to use it, enjoy:

• Scripts:
• The Best Class.
• Readers' Theatre.
• Fiction Teachers.
• Aaron Shepard website.
• Additional Information:
• Education World. 
• Reading Online. (there are a great procedure for implementation)
• Aaron Shepard website. (good tips not only for scripting, but also for reading and stating)

See you soon Readers!!!!!!

Digital Storytelling Tools

Hello everyone, this week I would like to show you some digital resources to create stories and comics in class. There are several free tools that you can use with your students, but I would like to focus on just two, which are Storybird and DomoAnimate. Moreover, at the end of the post I will add a short list with other digital tools that I have been testing.

First of all, I would like to highlight that telling stories is a powerful way to communicate with others. Besides, if we combine this with a suitable digital tool the result is an amazing learning experience in which the student get involve with a higher degree of motivation. Furthermore, it has many benefits for the students such as:

• It Develops creativity, critical thinking and problem solving abilities.
• It encourages writing and emotional literacy at the time that they express their feelings.
• They are challenging to use High Order Thinking Skills in order to create their stories.
• It develops their decision-making and their communicative skills.
• It helps the student to reflect their acquisition of knowledge and promotes independent learning.

These are just some of the benefits of promoting this practice in the classroom. Besides, as I said before there are many free tools to create digital stories for educational purposes, for example:

•    Storybird:

It is a fantastic tool to foster the students to write not only stories, but also poetry. I discover this resource thanks to my teacher Raquel, and I was amazed since the first time that I visit the website. It consists on make up your own books, and includes a huge variety of illustrations that you can use. In fact, these draws can be perfect to contextualize you poems or stories, or even to find the inspiration to start your book. 

Apart of that you can also share you creations and printed. It also includes the possibility for teacher to create a task or assignment online, and the students are able to finish it at home or wherever they are because the interface is compatible for tablets and smartphones. As far as I’m concerned, it is the most intuitive to use and also the results are simply amazing.

•    DomoAnimate:

It is not as artistic as the previous tool, but it provides students much more freedom and flexibility at the time to create their stories. Furthermore, It is has two options:

1. Create a slideshows, in which you can upload some random pictures related to something that you work in class and children should create the story from it. Another way to work with this option is to let the children freedom to invent a story and then helps them to find the pictures to illustrate it.
2. Domo Animation Studio, which in my opinion it is the more creative option. It has a library of backgrounds, characters, music and random animation effects to create your video story.

As I said at the beginning of the post, here you have the link of some of the digital tools for teacher that I like most:

• ZimmerTwins, similar to Domo Animate.

• Piclist, you choose a picture and create a sentence or a quote to accompany the image.

• Animoto, you can combine images, songs and text in a video, but the free version is only 30 second videos.

• Zooburst, to create 3D popup books (check the video in my post about technology).

• MakeBeliefsComix, to create stories out of comic strips. It is very easy to use in class.

• Comicmaster, it is a bit more complete than the previous one.

 If you want more information about digital tools, please do not hesitate to contact me.

See you in the next post!!!

Poetry in Class, Leaving Aside the Stereotypes.

Hello everyone, this week I would like to stand out this literary genre avoiding the stereotypes that are behind it. During the last middle group session, we have been working about poetry and how to change the perception of the student towards this genre. Besides, Raquel show as the point of view of some students about poetry and that is in what I would like to focus on.

First of all, we should think about what kinds of clichés are behind the poetry and the people that read it or write it. Usually, most of the people, and including the children, tend to think that it is a genre for women, which is not true because there are several well-known poets that are men and nothing is exclusively for men or women. Another cliché is that poetry has to use an unusual language. Which is also not true, because you do not have to use a specific language for a poem, you just have to transmit something through it. Moreover, related to the rime and the length of the verse, it is not necessary to write with a perfect punctuation or the most imaginative rhyming.

 

Accordingly, poetry is a way to explore your feeling, your concerns, your interests and also a way to show the world around you from your own perspective. Furthermore, if you promote this genre in class, the students will be able to leave aside all the stereotypes and clichés mentioned before, as well as to improve their confident to use the language to express themselves, even if it is in a second language. But, how can we work it in class?.

• A practical application:

As a first approach we can use the Haiku, which is a Japanese poetry. It is a style in which a poem should have 17 syllables maximum divided in 3 verses, and normally it is about nature. I consider it perfect to start to work this genre in class. For instance, before start you can make a brainstorming about the rainy weather, how it sounds, how you feel these days, and so on. After that, you will provide them some modelling, through which you are going to create one Haiku using words that came up with the brainstorming. You will also provide some literacy support, give them structures and key words to use in their Haiku. Then you can divide the class into tree homogeneous parts (A, B and C), the students in the “part A” are going to write one verse, each, with five syllables about the rainy weather. The “part B” is going to write one verse with seven, and the “part C” with five syllables. When they finished, you will create groups of tree with one member of each part in order to create their Haiku, and finally they will read it aloud in class.

Through this simple activity you can introduce the poetry into the class in a funny and easy way, leaving aside any kind of prejudices.

To conclude, just say that, as far as I’m concerned, it is extremely important to work this genre in a primary class because it is a great resource to work many aspects of the language literacy as well as the imagination playing with the words. I would like to finish the post with this poem called "A Poem is a Little Path"(take it from http://www.gigglepoetry.com):

                                      A poem is a little path
                                      That leads you through the trees.
                                      It takes you to the cliffs and shores,
                                      To anywhere you please.
                                      Follow it and trust your way
                                      With mind and heart as one,
                                      And when the journey's over,
                                      You'll find you've just begun.

                              See you in the next post!!

Frozen Frames, The Multi-Task Tool

Hello again readers, as all of you probably know, I’m trying to use this blog to show you, weekly, different tools with which you can work children’s literature and boost the literacy of your students and kids. This week, I would like to present you an activity that my teacher Raquel showed us the last week, which is the “Frozen-Frames”.

The freeze frames, also known as snapshots, are an extremely useful and funny technique. The purpose is to perform a specific moment or an abstract concept in a concrete way. The only things that you need are actors (your students) and a space to do the freeze frame. Besides, you can work with it in many different perspectives and topic. In fact, you can use it to set a scene of a tale, or whichever concept of science, maths, history among others. Moreover, through this tool you can reinforce some key vocabulary, elicit the acquisition of a range of concept, and enhance the communication as well as their imagination of course.

• A practical application:

First of all you can divide your class in small groups in order to perform a scene. Then, depending on what you want to work with, you can give a sheet of paper to each group with a topic that they should perform. In this way, they will work their reading skills, their comprehension of the text and the collaborative work. As well as their speaking skills in order to have an agreement about what the text is about and how they will perform it. After that, each group should set the scene, as clear as they can, and the rest of the groups must to figure out the topic and the concept. It is convenient to provide them with some scaffolding at the beginning of the activity to let them know what is the purpose of the activity. Apart of that, you can give them some language support for a further understanding.

Furthermore, if you want to work with a story, you can read it and let the groups to choose one moment of that story, for instance the worst moment or the funniest one. Then, after the performance, you can ask them why they chose it or encourage the class to talk about the difference between the performances, just in case that there were some groups that make the same scene.

A further example of how to use it in class can be, just to reinforce or introduce some vocabulary. In this case, they can work individually or in pairs in order to set a freeze frame of the meaning of some key words related to a topic. To do that in pairs, you can give them a piece of paper, come with the word and other just with a definition o meaning. Then they will have to mingle and try to find their partner, promoting in this way the socialization between the classmates. After that, they should understand the concept and perform it, and the rest of the class should predict what it is. In the case of that nobody guesses it, the students that have had the frozen frame should explain it to the class.   

As you can see, it is a very complete tool, easy to carry out and with endless possibilities of application in class and at home. I hope you enjoy the post and it would be great if you try to do it in class and tell me the result and your impressions. For further information, do not hesitate to contact me.

See you in the next post!!!