Old fashioned, but it works!

I've always liked making materials for classes but kind of got out of the habit with so many digital resources to play with.

My number one preference with younger learners is Wordwall, as I can easily import class sets from Quizlet (been using that site for over 20 years) from resources previously compiled - be it text book lexical sets or glossaries from readers. The twist with Wordwall is that any images offered will not be the same as Quizlet = students do not just memorise the pictures. Once made, any one set can be used in a variety of different game options, and also be printed out as worksheets.

However, screen time can be overdone and younger learners need "hand time" as well - feels like something new & different.

Two halves of the 'gap fill'

To encourage question asking - and a follow up - as well as requiring students to actually listen to the reply and 'do something', this pair work exchange is easy to prepare and engaged students from start to finish. Target language was vocabulary items (classroom/school bag objects + colours)..."What is it?" (pointing at a blank square) then "What colour is it? Listener draws the item in the colour, and labels their picture (book open to spell OK if necessary). To fill up the grid I also added students' names = draw portraits of each other. 

Only 'banned' item = erasers, to stop this turning into an art class!

This worked one-on-one with "can do" kids...in teams when the group needed a bit of peer-support = added bonus of "your turn" etc classroom language.

Exercise complete

Students themselves decided to label their pictures, which was an added bonus to plenty of speaking/listening, with teacher gently making sure good intonation/full answers, and not too much time spent drawing (a relief to the less artistically gifted like me!)

This suited reviewing 2 units of vocaulary from OUP's Everybody Up 1

The second activity, to also review the same content...downloaded & printed the picture dictionary from https://elt.oup.com/student/everybodyup for the relevant units (Although from 3rd Ed, matches 2nd. Ed content)

Four-in-a-row template

Then a scissors & glue job (could also be a digital effort with excel I know, but this was quicker for me!) to fit onto a Mark Hancock game template of old. Can be played 1 v 1, or two teams; both worked equally well, and generated a lot of chatter. Quite a lot L1, but that was totally focussed to game play strategy/winning, with team mates (which was beyond my young learners in English)...whilst at the same time they were code-switching to read the vocabulary/name the pictures or ask each other "What is it?" & "What colour is it?"...because they really wanted to. When a drill is not a drill :)

Play? Roll the dice & choose a word from that box. Aim = 4-in-a-row. First past the post or fill the whole board, depending on time etc. Use - two different colour pencils. Use one board for each pair/team to share, or just one board to get passed backwards & forwards - I decided against this option as I realised half the class was always looking at the words upside-down.

Teacher? Sit back and enjoy the reading/speaking/writing magic :)

The template I made on the right - obviously colour needed for colours, but b/w will usually work nicely as the artwork is clear/matches the text book.

Game over!

The finished (yeah, messy!) Books open? If necessary...I prefer a sneaky peak only if "stuck". It worked out that teams helped each other or not very 'sotto voce' giving the game away if they knew the word first eg "Oh no, pencil!"

Easily replicated for any review a language teacher can think of!

Hazuki's pizza presentation

 

Haruto's curry recipe

 

Talking about my family...Sawa says

 

Sawa loves to draw, and loves to talk - I KNOW she is going to be an English teacher when she is a little bit bigger!

Here she grabbed Jim sensei's iPhone & monstered the tech to make this multi-faceted interactive presentation in no time at all. Asking really smart questions about 'how to' with intuitive ideas about what she thought she should be able to do (eg add an icon/change the colour of the background/switch sides...).

Love using students' native talents to produce a complete package - artwork, digital skills, digital navigation, decision making, composition, voice, reading skills...and a topic we all love to talk about ;)

***And a non-humble brag from Jim = he used to teach Sawa's grandmother (thank you former Young Australian of the Year - now Professor Belinda Tynan for introducing us!); grandpa brings her to class every week and they say "hello"... her older sister has been his student since she was tiny and he's worried she's going to be taller than him by the end of this year! Definition of Luna's Family!

This is my family: Riku

 

Taking advantage of Riku's lovely drawings of his family members, we used Adobe Spark Video (iPhone app) to put his commentary together - I say "we"... I showed him where the buttons/tabs/options were & he dived into creative mode like the digital native he obviously is! ("Get out of the way, Jim!").

Riku has recently joined us at Luna, and I could see his shoulders going back as he gained confidence from doing this 'first' in our group. I think you'll agree this is an awesome little project?!

Young Learners - making things "harder"

colours & shapes

We love teaching children at Luna, and we particularly enjoy students who come to every class with big "Can Do' attitudes, like gannets hungry to learn & use English.

You'll notice in the photos our textbooks are not front & centre; we really like to encourage our learners to become independent of the printed word (massively useful to set out structures etc, for sure, and provide direction + continuity)...but to get language properly into heads we need to use it variously, flexibly & realistically.

Problem I have as a teacher with this class is to slow down ravenous appetites for progress! Instead, add on a lot of extras & let our students really go to town with their awesome willingness to jump into challenges bravely and intelligently, teaching/helping each other and being very positive.

"Outer Space" (Learning Resources)...was on the table five seconds when these two started playing (first time!) asking each and answering questions "What is it? .. "It's a blue circle." then game play asking each other Yes/No questions. Winner irrelevant as loads of great language work, prompting/correcting each other nicely. And the teacher lost!

Everybody Up on the board

Song "It's a book, it isn't a notebook" from Everybody Up 1 (Unit 1) > listening task & digging out the flashcards to pop on the board & then point along as we listened again...'narrate' it at their own speed, then join in & switch places half way through. "Re-write" the song by choosing other vocabulary items...and then try with the reverse sides (words) only...still too easy!

Can't wait to get into our new graded readers, but somehow I doubt they'll help as sheet anchors either...full speed ahead!
 

We like our veggies - meet the munchies!

 Created with Chatterkids on iPhone, in no time at all!

Recycling a song - and avoiding having to sing?!

What do you do with a young learners song, after they've sung it once?

Milk it to death!

An idea sprang to mind - Adobe Spark Video - as a way to recap/replay/rework one of the songs from our Young Learners' text book (Everybody Up Starter from OUP). Chicken, fish, rice & beans works very nicely as a back and forth (question and response), and it's easy to switch parts half way through. So we did. I like this exercise as it gets the students to read the words - a catchy tune helps them bounce it along with proper intonation as well.

The #Edtech a bit too much for my little learners to manage alone, but they were very quickly directing me what to do - how to spell things, which icons or images they wanted, and counting each other in to record their panels, and putting panels in the correct order. Then they decided when they'd recorded their voices to their own satisfaction (after practice goes) and completed with big smiles.

Adobe Spark Video is great for this kind of 'challenge', as the sections are ideally short, and you can re-record until you are happy to move on. Looks great, seamless transitions, and piece of cake to do on your iPhone or iPad.

Your welcome!

My Neighbourhood/Neighborhood - Takahiro

My Neighbourhood/Neighborhood - Kaito

My Neighbourhood/Neighborhood - Masato

My Neighbourhood/Neighborhood - Daiya (JH 3)

My Neighbourhood/Neighborhood - Taiki

Best friends at school

This is me - a teen intro

Kotone's selfie

I'm a student. I'm studying at Luna.  I'm studying English with Jim. I go to English class on
Thursdays.

It's seven fifteen in the evening. I ate dinner at six o'clock. I'm not hungry. I ate miso soup and rice.

My desk is next to my bed. My favourite subject is art. I like drawing pictures. I draw pictures at school.

My favourite colour is purple. I'm wearing a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans and black socks.

Posted for Kotone, on starting Everybody Up 3

Miyu's Fotobabble

We think this speaks for itself!

Better than karaoke - What do you have?

Everybody Up is a popular series here at Luna and after watching the following clip you can understand why. The songs are wonderful and allow for us to add our own actions to get our students interacting with each other. The following video is from my new Monday class and there's no lack of enthusiasm! Leave a comment of your favourite song from the Everybody Up series.

Zoo book – Lets find the animals!

Hard at work

Satoka and Keina have been learning to ask and answer where to find zoo animals, using the prepositions in, on and under. We have been using the zoo scenes from Everybody Up 1 as well as playing hide and seek with animal flashcards around the classroom. Unfortunately we exhausted all of the hiding spots in my classroom very quickly. It would be fantastic if we could organize a school trip to the zoo for some language reinforcement and a way to blow off some steam, but sadly we don’t have any money trees currently growing in our garden.

Our very own zoo library

As an alternative, we embarked on creating our own zoo book, filled with our favourite animals hiding on/in/under various nature items such as trees or lakes. We folded an A3 sheet of card in half to create our books, instilling life into the empty double spread with our own creative ideas. Satoka and Keina got to show off their wonderful creations to a very proud mummy. They were also able to explain to her where all of their zoo animals were hiding! Smiles all around, even without splashing out on a trip to the zoo.

We're cool - shades & ABCs!

Hiro cracked me up yesterday (for once not belting me in the gonads) with his super cool Korean dictator look, clinging to his cell phone throughout class. The girls are always cool anyway, and have lovely singing voices as you can hear. You can hear lots more Fotobabble creations we have created in classes at http://www.fotobabble.com/media/list?username=LunaJim

We'd love to know what you think - leave us a comment below?!

Fotobabbling along a Luna!

Check out our top of the pops this week!



Above, very early progress in Everybody Up (Starter) with 4 & 5 year olds.

Below, a curtain call for two students quitting to go to a juku - they have to 'learn' a different kind of English to be 'successful' in school tests. I have ranted and raved about this insanity before, but it still makes my toes curl. Both these lads started on the carpet at Luna in pre-literacy classes and are now on the cusp...over which I doubt they will clamber with katakana-isation, translation, death by grammar, insensible reading tracts etc. Goat? Has been got. So, one for the archive very soon, from English Time 4.