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!!!

Jazz Chants, Keep The Beat!!

Hello again, this week I want to share with you one technique called “Jazz Chants”. To be honest I didn’t know about this, until we worked with it last Wednesday in class. However, since the first activity that we did with it, I realize that this can be a wonderful technique to develop speaking skills in children. In fact, it was created 35 years ago by Carolyn Graham and still be widely use nowadays.

Firstly, this technique consists of linking the rhythm of the spoken language with the rhythm of music. Through this, you will help your students to improve their fluency, pronunciation and many other aspects related to the spoken language. In fact, it can be use in a variety of fun ways in order to practice greetings, review vocabulary or grammar, practice stress and rhythm, and so on. Besides, it is not necessary that the teacher create all the chants, the students can also create their own ones. As a matter of fact, Children are extremely creative and if we prepare a suitable environment with proper scaffolding, they will be able to make it without any problem.

Moreover, you can scaffold the activity in many ways depending on their previous knowledge about the topic and their cycle. On top of that, this tool is used not only for children lessons, but also it may be implemented in any kind of ESL class. That is why, Carolyn Graham recommends to establish a set of guidelines for the proper development of the activity, nonetheless you may adapt it depending on the needs of your students. You can find this guideline and more information here.

• Practical Application:

For instance, if you want to practice the vocabulary related to the parts of the body, the farm animal, the fruits and vegetables, etc. using a cumulative chant, a good way of work with it can be using TPS (Think, Pair, Share). First you should ask them about the parts that they remember and then they must write them on a piece of paper. After that, they can work in pairs or threes in order to compare their answers and make a list. Finally, all the groups can share their answers to check if there some parts missing.

After that, you can show them how start, following and structure and a simple rhythm (you can set the beat tapping your fingers on the table), like:

“What are the parts of my body? (From the top to the bottom)

In my head, I have an eye.

In my head, I have an eye and I have a nose.

What do you have?

In my head, I have an eye, I have a nose and I have an ears. 

…

Then, the students have to add more and more parts following the same structure and the rhythm. After this example you can encourage them to create their own chant and also to perform it with gestures. 

To conclude, and as far as I'm concerned, the possible applications of the Jazz Chants in class are endless. What is more, this tool offer strong benefits to the students such as, their develop of High Order Thinking Skills at the time that they should create their own chant using their previous knowledge, as well as the improvement of their fluency and pronunciation, among others. 

If you want to know more about the "Jazz Chants" click on the link and watch the video: 

Teaching Jazz Chants - Carolyn Graham

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions"Albert Einstein