Comedies

I have decided to try CLIL with my oldest students who are 14-16 years old. As a topic I chose something I am familiar with - comedies. such words like "slapstick", "sitcom" or "canned laughter" are quite unknown to them and to be honest, I got lots of satisfaction from teaching them something I learnt being much younger during my studies.

Task 1

HOTS and LOTS questions were about films they watch, their favourite comedies, the reasons why they find a film funny. I also asked if they have ever come across these notions I mentioned before. They tried to quess their meanings and I have to admit they were pretty close giving the right answers! 

Task 2

Students were given a short original descriptions of the types od comedies: a slapstick, a stand-up and a sitcom. Their task was to match the descriptions with the names.

(a slapstick)

Comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, often violent action. It took its name from a paddlelike device, probably introduced by 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupes, that produced a resounding whack when one comic actor used it to strike another. This comedy became popular in 19th-century music halls and vaudeville theatres and was carried into the 20th century by silent-movie comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops and later by Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges.

 (a sitcom)

Radio or television comedy series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession of episodes. Often the characters are markedly different types thrown together by circumstance and occupying a shared environment such as an apartment building or workplace. Typically half an hour in length and either taped in front of a studio audience or employing canned applause, they are marked by verbal sparring and rapidly resolved conflicts.

(a stand-up)

This kind of a comedy can be defined as a comedy that is performed by an individual who stands in front of a live audience and tells jokes while speaking indirectly to them. The comedian performs with the aid of a microphone, which is either hand-held or mounted. There performances are later released on DVDs, internet or TV.

 

Task 3

We checked their answers together wondering what the characteristics of all types are. After each piece we watched a short film to see if all the elements were in:

SLAPSTICK

We watched old movies and Mr Bean to compare if the genre is still the same.

SITCOM

Here the task was different as students were shown the film without a canned laughter. Their job was to tell me what was wrong, akward in the film.

STAND-UP Comedy

In this case I put a pressure on the fact that a stand-up sometimes can be offensive, politically incorrect but that is one of its features.

Task 4
CLIL wants students to be creative and using the content in their culture (do you remember 4Cs?). Students got the homework:
- prepare a stand-up
- perform a slapstick

More details in the file: CLICK

Book Swap and the Flying Library

Reading activities are crucial in CLIL methodology. It was pleasant to get to know about it especially, that the idea of borrowing graded readers to my students appeared in Rainbow English many years ago. To be honest, I find reading tasks a waste of time during the lesson. I simply can't imagine the situation when my students spend half of the time reading a part of a novel. They wouldn't be able to concentrate to understand what they'd be reading, the whole thing would be artificial and unproductive. In my opinion, two things are necessary if we want a reading task to be successful and positive - a student has to do it in their own pace and of their own free will. That's why, I keep on buying new copies and distributing them among my students.

The Flying Library

Rules

The rules are simple. A student chooses a book, takes it home together with some after-reading activities that I print beforehand. The book should be taken back in the possibly shortest time for the sake of the other users who might be waiting for it to be available. The condition of the copy must be the best possible so no folding, tearing apart or handwriting on it.

Students are not forced to read. They are encouraged. In most cases seeing that their colleagues borrow the readers, the rest joins the project.

Evaluation

Each student gets a copy of the after-reading activities that usually are downloadable from the official website. Sometimes there are a few activities already included in the reader but I always ask students to leave them empty. First of all, doing these exercises would ruin the book (constant writing and erasing the answers). Moreover, I have no time for checking the books and rubbing out the students' notes. So we only take into account the extra activities handed out together with the book.

If a student wants to be evaluated, gives the hand-out back. Sometimes they don't. I respect this.

If the tasks are done in a proper way, proving the fact of reading the book, the student gets a grade. In 99% of cases the highest possible.

Parents' involvement

Parents are encouraged to help, accompany and sustain interest of their children. They are also informed how NOT to act - no forcing, no analysing ("What does this sentence mean EXACTLY?"). I try to explain that the whole thing about reading is to teach to love the activity itself. It isn't aimed at proving that the child doesn't remember the words he or she SHOULD (in parents' opinion). Reading should be a way to learn how to understand the content, how to construct my own sentences. To realise that the content given in a foreign language can be understandable and inspiring.

Positive Results

I will start saying that I cannot find any drawback of the Project. The only inconvenience is that I have to buy, bring and collect the readers but to be honest, it's nothing in comparison to the advantages. 

Firstly, students get rid of their fear of reading in a foreign language. Each time students are anxious but after the first trial they find it inspiring and satisfactory. The fact of being able to read in English means really a lot to them. They prove THEMSELVES that their level is good enough to manage. What is more, they come asking to get "something more demanding". There was a case of a 9-year-old boy who wanted to struggle with the top level, recommended for more advanced learners. He tried, read but didn't do the exercises. We talked about it. Some would call it a failure but for him it was a trigger to practise more!

As half of the readers (if not more) are CLIL-like, explaining various content from school subjects the students actually learn. There was a boy who got a high grade at his Science lesson for knowing something about food chains that was not included into the textbook. He came to my lesson grinning and said "Eventually I understood why it is worth learning English!". Yes, the truth is the CLIL gives a chance to revise, expand and research.

The last great positive outcome is connected with family life. In some cases the Project enabled parents to spend some time with their children doing something together. If their approach is relevant, they do not put too much pressure but enjoy the fact of learning, this might be a great way to discover the world (of English) hand in hand. One mum already phoned to thank for giving them this chance.

Some statistics:

Number of students involved: about 70

Number of books in the library: about 60

Parents involved: 1/3 of cases

Duration this school year: 5 weeks so far

The highest number of books read by a student: 6

And we have just started!

Primary and secondary colours - Years 1 & 2

This is a lesson designed to prove that teaching about colours doesn't have to be limited to dictations, simple colouring or talking about your favourite ones. This CLIL lesson includes elements of Art, Music and Science. 

I have to mention about my assistant, Ms Ewelina Stus, who is also a teacher in my school and eagerly engages herself into CLIL lessons and their planning. Most of the activities were designed by her.

Aims: Students can name three primary and four secondary colours. They can do an experiment with milk and food colouring, they can sing a song about colours.

Task 1

I talk to my students asking whether they know any names of colours in English. I ask them some simple questions asking to indicate examples of these colours in the classroom. Then, I explain that today we are going to do some colourful magic. They are always intrigued hearing that :)

Task 2

I show them a song by Sesame Street.

After watching it a few times depending on students' willingness, we talk about the colours presented in the song and the whole process - if they have noticed what happens when two colours are mixed.

The conclusions should be:

blue and yellow = green

red and yellow = orange

red and blue = purple

Variation! If you have time and an access to the IWB a perfect idea would be to ask students to become these colours (as the men in the song) and try to mime as it follows.

Task 3

I introduce notions: "a primary colour", "a secondary colour", "to mix". Now we can go straight to the experiment.

I show the instruments: a plate, a paintbrush, milk, food colouring in three primary colours, dish soap.

I explain that this is the part with magic and I will need their help. Giving all the instructions in English we go through all the steps:

1. Pour some milk into the plate.

3. Drop some food colouring in three different places of the plate.

5. Touch each spot of paint gently and see what happens.

6. When you have all three secondary colours on your milk, stir everything up and see what colour you have now (brown as we get it when red, yellow and blue are mixed).

1. Pour some milk into the plate.

2. Wait until the milk is still.

3. Drop some food colouring in three different places of the plate.

4. Pour some dish soap onto the paintbrush.

5. Touch each spot of paint gently and see what happens.

6. When you have all three secondary colours on your milk, stir everything up and see what colour you have now (brown as we get it when red, yellow and blue are mixed).

IMPORTANT! The milk should be fat about 3%. Less fat can result in the failure of the experiment.

If you have some time left or your experiment has failed - show this film.

Task 4

Especially for this lesson I bought some dry pastels in three primary colours. Each student gets three pencils and using only them they have to colour the worksheet according to the instructions. This is also a chance to show them how to use this kind of pastels, how they can mix colours using their fingers etc.

Sometimes they have to exchange pastels as the number of them is limited and it is a chance to practise asking for objects: "Blue, please", "Here you are", "Thank you".

Task 5
We arranged a display of their works.

What can you do with an interesting book?

Children's library can be inspiring. The idea was to teach a bit of science. I thought about life cycles. Then while looking for activities I realised that in my kids' bedroom I have an excellent book - a gift from their aunt living in the UK. "The very Hungry Caterpillar" is over 40 years old but still attracts children's attention. This book was a base for two different scenarios.

Years 1-2

As you know, the hungry caterpillar gobbles more and more every day. The whole story may be treated as a great way of revising/introducing (!) names of weekdays and/or plural forms not to mention food. The story is quite short and simple so accompanied by some worksheets makes the whole lesson. Exactly 45 minutes - perfect timing.

Years 4-6

The story tell us a lot about life cycle as well. It starts with a tiny egg laid under the leaf, reveals details of all the stages - egg, larva, chrysallis to end up with a beautiful picture of an adult butterfly. I used it as an introduction to a more "serious" teaching about a life cycle of butterflies.

Both lessons started with a short discussion about the topic. It is important to involve students into the topic by allowing them to brainstorm and say what they already know about the matter.

I described the schedule of the lesson and the book itself. Then, we watched a film and the book.

Years 1-2

I asked if they remembered what the catterpillar ate each day. Together we quickly revised dishes of all days. The next step was a hand-out found here. Children had to cut out and stick the dishes on the right weekdays. Evaluation? We simply watched the video again. I asked children to remind me the story asking them some questions:

1. What day does the caterpillar eat through an apple?

2. What does he eat on Friday?

3. What about Wednesday?

4. What on Saturday? (that is a difficult question even for me! But they managed as a group to answer it).

The catterpillars before colouring

The last task was to colour the food. All the works are hanging on our CLIL board.

Years 4-6

After watching the story I asked if they could elicit all four stages of the life cycle of the butterfly. I wrote their answers on the blackboard.

Then, I handed out two worksheets found on Education.com. Both of them describe and visualise the stages.

Life Cycle - education.com

A report about the Life Cycle of a butterfly - education.com

To check if the students were right we read the texts together and watched a film made by Chicago Nature Museum.

It is great as the timelapse technique shows perfectly the metamorphosis. What is more, the whole film has got subtitles, so it was easy to understand what was happening on the screen. For me - a great use, as I could find the best words to describe the processes.

Then, I distributed the last task - a pie chart about the monarch butterfly. It also comes from Education.com. Students cooperated in pairs trying to fill the chart according to the data provided in the task.

All of them were provided with a list of vocabulary to be learnt for the next lesson.

Somebody to love by Queen

Sometimes the best ideas come to your mind out of the blue. This time I got to know, that I was supposed to hold a lesson with over twenty students aged 12. Two groups of various English level, a typical school class. First, I had to find a common topic, then make up a lesson in about 2 hours. The course of events led me from a chart with some basic vocabulary straight to Zanzibar. How come? Let me explain.
The students were to learn about prefixes like SOME, ANY, NO and EVERY. I prepared a chart that they copied to their notebooks. I knew that that lesson was just a start of something bigger, so I didn't care about the fact they they will not accomplish the learning process. The lesson was aimed at indicating that there is such an element of English grammar and vocabulary. I had only 45 minutes, so the amount of time I could spend explaining grammar was also limited. What is more, during the lesson it was clear that most of the students knew the vocabulary perfectly. I just had to organise their knowledge.
After introducing words like "somebody, anybody, anywhere, nowhere, everything" etc. we moved to more exciting tasks.
Task 1 - "Somebody to love"
I asked the students whether they had ever heard about the band Queen. I was not sure of the answer in the age of Justin Bieber but to my surprise and relief they could even elicit some titles of their hits! Amazing! Then, it was an easy job to encourage them to listen to the song, which is full of the words I wanted to revise.

Before listening to this piece of music, students were given the lyrics and their job was to underline all the words of the lesson and notice in what kinds of structure they are used (somebody for positive sentences, anybody for questions and so on). After analysing this part, we had a chance to enjoy the masterpiece.
Task 2 - Mercury Rising
Then, I asked them what they knew about Freddie Mercury. After receiving some information on his biography, I handed out a reading task that comes from "Inside Out" by Macmillan. The text is not easy for students of primary school, but they managed to scan it and choose the right aswers in the quiz. Definitely, they succeeded in improving this exam technique which was one of the aims of the lesson.

Task 3 - Zanzibar
Well, I have to say that this lesson is an outcome of my fascination. With every moment of preparations I got more and more interested in Mercury's biography. The most shocking information for me was that he was born on this beautiful tropical island of Zanzibar. I decided to show my students how picturesque it is.

And that was the end of our lesson. Unfortunately, I have no chances to continue with the whole class, but the next thing my group is going to do is to deepen their understanding of the grammar topic itself. Maybe we will use the knowledge in some kinds of activities? I am waiting for an inspiration to come :)

Mind maps - Years 4-6

Mind mapping is quite popular but as a tool of creative thinking doesn't exist in Polish primary schools . For my students it a novelty so I spent a lot of time explaining why it is in use. As I ran this lesson is several age groups I tried different scenarios - sometimes the topic changed, sometimes I omitted a few parts of the lesson plan.
I always started with asking my students how they prepare and plan their birthday parties. If they even make a list of tasks. Then I told them why a list is not a perfect tool - limited space, hierarchical order, linear way of expression, hard to remember, missing colours and other visuals.
Then, we analysed the picture shown below:

Now it was a time for variations. Depending on the students' language level and ability of self-studying I gave tasks:
1. Make a mind map titled "ME" - individual work
2. Make a mind map "Ideal day" - group/pair work with a lot of help of the teacher (tips on categories and vocabulary)
3. First, in groups, prepare a list of all the words and phrases that come to your minds while thinking about "Ideal Birthday". Then, try to group the phrases into categories, name them, transfer the data into the mind map. (The process illustrated below):

Students brainstorm and write down phrases connected with ideal birthday

After organising the data into the categories, they construct a mind map

Use of colours for groups helped them organise the data

Students transferred all the data into the mind map

The collection of mind maps is vast. Some groups were asked to present their works to others, some discussed the outcome in their own groups. All the products are hanging in the classroom so that the rest of students might admire what we did in our classes. The profits of the lesson? Some of the students use mind mapping technique as a method of brainstorming and organising data for different topics and ideas.

At the end of the presentation you can distribute a checklist to evaluate the project in a formative way. The homework - a list of vocabulary that is a result of the brainstorming. To be checked at the next lesson - a summative form ( a test).