Let the kids talk!

Three videos here, highlighting how even very young learners can quickly become content creators in their English langauge learning journey! Each of these examples are a result of after reading projects, from graded readers, which all of our students at Luna invest in. We use these readers in a myriad of ways - not 'just' reading...we try to 'milk' them for all the're worth!

Misaki's Cake is the outcome from Oxford University Press' Read & Imagine graded reader called 'The Cake Machine'. Inventor Grandpa has a fairly calamitous baking experience...our children do better with a drawing project (homework) & then guided with a writing task in class to describe their lovely, dreamy, cake creations.

My approach as teacher is to do the background prep quickly, then let the students take control of the creative process, using the iPad + Chatterkids app intuitively. Recording themselves & criticising their own speaking (want to be smoother, or quicker, or not stop in the middle or get a word wrong...) is an easy fix - just re-record against the thirty-second limit. Their own pressure, not teacher's! As you can hear, the focus is on far more than just a list of ingredients - a proper description. As a quick finisher, Misaki was first - after that, she was first assistant & bling direction for whoever finished next. Teacher - job done (help the slower finishers with gentle suggestions & corrections).

 

What do you think of Misaki's cake?

A twist on this exercise I love with slightly older young learners, is to have them interview each other about their after reading projects. Here is Moe's description of her favourite animal (her real pet), from OUP's Read & Imagine title 'In the Treehouse'. Here the pressure is on both learners to ask, and answer, a set of questions quickly...so of course they want to practice a few times before hitting the record button - who said 'drilling' is boring?! Love Moe's "Wolfie"?

And from another class, Yuri & Koharu tackle the same task from their reader. 

Extensive reading has obvious benefits - so does intensive reading...the two do not need to be mutually exclusive. As you can hear, students are empowered with being able to share their imaginations and are unencumbered with stage fright, instead collaborating and being bold. Love these outcomes!

Magic Ingredients! App-smashing with a reader

One app I really enjoy using with our graded readers as a boost to after reading projects, is to make sure that all of the students have taken time (and been shown how) to produce full, grammatically sound, sentences.

In this case, after reading OUP's Read & Imagine beginner level title The Cake Machine, easy homework was to draw their own 'dream' cake. The blank space below 'describe your cake' is a forbidding prospect without guidance...teachers job to ask leading questions, and then help everyone agree on their responses (all different, of course, but simliar in structure.

Obviously, most of the structures & vocabulary they need are high frequency from the book they've just read (and enjoyed) + the Picture Dictionary at the back a rich resource. "New words" (our own ingredients) an easy share on the whiteboard.

Bit of teacher speed needed to photo & crop drawing into the app, and then gave a example of 'how to' for early finishers, who get on with their project enhancement. Then they help the slower finishers through the tech hurdles and encourage the narrating part (they read their own writing into a 30 second limit). 

 

On Thin Ice - the graded reader (not the state of Greenland)

Reading for detail - Read & Imagine

As you can easily see, there's a lot of text on the page, which most learners in Japan would baulk at immediately!

Our 'can do' learners at Luna have got used to this psychological barrier & can jump it with ease.

• Quiet reading? Yes
• Reading independently (at home)? Yes
• Overcome 'new' words? Yes
• Familiar with characters? Yes
• Enjoy the storylines? Yes
• Recycle language? Yes
• Personalisation with 'after reading' projects? Yes
• Work together with comprehension tasks? Yes
• Gain confidence with pronunciation of longer words? Yes
• Notice direct speech markers (punctuation)? Yes
• Read ahead for markers? Yes
• Look back in the story to refresh? Yes
• Travel in time & space, around the world? Yes
• Learn really cool stuff? Yes
• Put proper intonation into longer utterances (taking turns 'in character')? Yes
• Listening skills explored? Yes
• Gain confidence spelling? Yes
• Volume of vocabulary? Yes
• Expanding vocabulary sets beyond limited textbook content? Yes
• Yes.Yes. Yes.

There are so many benefits to our dedication at Luna to incorporating graded readers into our students' language learning careers. One of them is our adoption of Oxford's Read and Imagine + Read and Discover series - designed for young language learners with audio and activity books to enhance the learner experience. In our opinion, Oxford's Reading Tree is not fit for purpose, and the Extensive Reading Foundation's continued idolisation of that culturally loaded & unsuitable series is frankly annoying - driven by 'experts' who lecture from their high perches at universities without any idea what they're talking about wrt young learners, accessibility, learning styles, affordability. You never saw Oxford's Story Tree, which WAS ideal for the EFL classroom & independent home-readers?

Rant over? Not really!

Saaya's favourite animal is...

 Check out Saaya, telling her classmates about her favourite animal!

Great pic, lovely answers...outcome from an after reading project of her graded reader (Crocodile in the House).  Animated version created with Duck Duck Moose's app 'Chatterkid', which my learners could manipulate immediately!

Nice work Saaya!

Meet Moe's (talking) pet dog!

 

Check out Moe's project from her reading book (OUP's "Read & Imagine" series 'Crocodile in the House'). In this Chatterkids talking photo, she's interviewed by her classmate to read her own answers from the prompts provided. Yes, one word answers would 'do' but why not 'go for it' and fully exploit the chance to say more?!

Cute drawing, and lovely pronunciation = great job Moe!

 

Haruki's after reading project

Listen to Haruki being interviewed by his classmate Moe, about his original artwork & description of his favourite animal!..Unusually for most japanese kids his age, he likes snakes...budding herpatologist?

This is a project derived from an after reading task, following up 'completing' his OUP Read & Imagine graded reader "Crocodile in the House". I'm a big fan of getting 'more from less' - here exploiting the Chatterkids app to anonymously add audio to a picture, and to have to hurry up within a 30 second limit. Thus, no teacher pressure to get on with it - a timer. Ideal, as this means students can practice, restart, retry before agreeing that they could do it to their own satisfaction (not the teacher's!).

Great practice for Cambridge exams or any speaking activity; personalised and with a peer, importantly not getting interrogated!

 

Let's talk! Students with after reading projects

We think these two young learners really do speak for themselves! 

 

Milking a glossary with Wordwall

Making the most out of even the simplest graded readers!

Familiar vocabulary recycled in any good graded reader series, but the secret is to make sure students can actually read and spell the words, use the vocabulary flexibly (not just recognise a particular picture & blurt it)!

We love using the various applications/games that wordwall offers, with the added twist of PC skils (mouse/keyboard), letter recognition (upper/lower case) & QWERTY layout (not a linear ABC from the poster on the wall). Have a go yourself here, and consider all the ways your learners can recycle, drill, revise (you know, the deadly sins of teacher talk!) both at home, or in the classroom when a buddy is absent.

Yukihi's snow animal

 

Check out Yukihi's lovely after reading project - created with Chatterpix in a matter of minutes. Student's own design on paper, descriptive writing & then reading own work fluently :)

China's snow bird - a writing & speaking project

 You've read the book, and enjoyed the thrills & spills with familiar characters...digested new vocabulary and recycled more; read bits out loud and shown understanding of the text.

Make your own character - a snow animal - including a bit of 'dictadraw' (add a scarf/hat etc), then write a description of your new animal with words from the glossary...and then read your work.

Win win using chatterkids app (students quickl learnt how to manipulate/edit/enhance their own creations!), following up our OUP Read & Imagine graded reader. After reading = fun activity & a legacy moment!

Boring glossaries...gamified!

DIY gamification

I've been wondering how to 'make more' out of the graded readers our younger students are enjoying reading, and in particular to exploit the target or new vocabulary.

I came across a tweet from @HancockMcDonald which reminded me of a favourite game I'd long forgotten - his Chinese Chequers pronunciation game. A quick little think and some eager readers with 'finished ' books handy, I asked them what their 'hardest' six words were, and to circle them with a colour pencil. Then I asked them to write their chosen words onto the blank game template, at random (importantly, not clustered together!), with that colour pencil. 

Then we looked at the second glossary page, and did the same thing with a different colour pencil. Another reader, two more pages & different colours, and a third book leaving us with seven blank spaces for the last group of words.

 As you can see, this became a very engaging activity and proved to have very valuable spelling practice built into it (which never hurts, and is always really hard to squeeze into a lesson plan!). Important to use pencils (not crayons) for ease of corrections (and fitting words into small spaces - I insisted on getting words 'on' one line).

The words I want to learn!

So why the six colours? It's a dice game...we will be exploring our own games next week, and then asking our young learners to challenge mum & dad at home for 'homework'! Stay tuned :)

Hope you like the idea - we did!

Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits!

Ruka's "great escape" rabbit

In the summer, Rabbit and Ruka were playing on a farm.

The rabbit escapes.

I find the rabbit eating grass and carrots.

 

Arisa's after reading story :)

Pandasssssssssssssss!

 In the spring, Panda have a baby.

A small baby panda was born in China.