Crash barrier - repaired

Another fantastic use of a heavy blackboard is to prevent over-genki (great Japanese word, add enthusiastic with energetic, excited & extrovert...and any other adjectives beginning with 'e'?) boys from going through the wall.

This spelling race (source book was open at the near-side of the room) was a revelation. T won. He's the sporty one who actually hates English, and doesn't get much support at home; thinks he can't spell and is his own worst enemy reading, wildly guessing when he can do better. Problem with that is the other kids are already laughing before he can actually concentrate & work it out. He's a proud lad and not as thick-skinned (yet) as he wants to be. Y didn't mind 'losing', because he didn't want to keep checking the book (cheating if you like), he wanted to see what he could remember from homework. I love that ethic (with some of that myself I might have learnt a bit more Japanese).

K? Infectious laugh, just like his older sisters, but a deal more competitive. An odd thing works with these guys; if I imitate their dull & dreary spoken production, it's hilarious, and they immediately change gears & totally ham it up. Which for me points out how they are being taught in school/expected to produce. Dull & dreary. Challenged to actually 'be normal', or better, wildly foreign, their intonation, pronunciation and engagement really rocks!

What's this/that? A real dialogue!

Jigsaw learning

At first glance, you might think trying to do a jigsaw puzzle in class is a bit of a lazy cop out!

If you just sit there & don't make any English happen, then you'd be entitled to ask for your money back, that's for sure. However, I'm allergic to refunds!

Aim of this class was some very early prep for the YLE Starters speaking test - these lads are too inexperienced to have a bash at that just yet - and to develop some co-operation/reduce snatching.

Method? Well, kind of made up as we went, because it was pretty tough to predict how the boys would respond to this fairly free activity. They actually surprised me in that they found it very hard at first to "see" the picture. So they started asking me simple questions - pointing at the blank next space in the carpet & asking me "What's this?" !

Once we had the frame sorted out, they were off to the races & needed calming down a bit - time for instructions like "Don't walk on it" and "Let him put it there" etc. I like this puzzle because the bonus baggy has mini cards of all the main vocabulary. First we matched, then some dictation (no writing) - "Put the duck on the tent" and so on.

Do they know all the words? No way. I haven't taught them prepositions either...all about context and experimentation. Trying is not the same as being wrong a lot! They were checking their ideas with each other a lot as we got on with it, and quickly coming to conclusions about meanings & teaching themselves - much better way to learn than being 'told' by me!

As we went, other questions were obvious - asking about colours, shapes, number; "Have you got a ...?" or "Do you like ...?" We had a ball, and truly milked this excellent resource for all it was worth. Only problem is, I have only got the one puzzle!