Rafael Lima/Lucas Gontijo
February 22
Back to school and Black History Month
Hi there! Teacher Rafael Lima here. February 22nd was back to school day for our Access Program students and they started with a discussion about the most important things in their lives. Students wrote their ideas on sticky notes and taped them to the board.
After working on their life priorities and talking about what is important to them, students watched an excerpt of Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic speech "I Have a Dream", delivered at the Civil Rights March in Washington in 1963. To celebrate Black History Month and inspired by King's words, students had to write their own speeches comprised of a set of sentences starting with "I have a dream", stating their dreams for a better life and future. They were divided into five trios and produced a video with their speeches. Here is what they've got!
November 23
Thanksgiving + Roleplaying
This last Friday time was the time of the year in which we express how thankful we are for everything we have again. Our students joined us for a Thanksgiving lunch and had a lovely time among their peers and teachers. This tiem, we had a catering service at the school. Our students loved it.
In class, students had a lesson about means of transportation and different professions. They had to roleplay meeting new people at a party and talking about what they do professionaly and how they got to the party (by car, by bus, on foot, etc). First, students created a new ID card (name, age, job, how they go to the party). Then, I played music and students moved around introducing themselves. They had a blast. Check the video.
November 16
Guest speaker talks about life in the USA
To allow our students to interact with a a native speaker of the English language, we had a talk on Skype with Nina Liakos this last Friday, a political activitst and English teacher who lives in the USA and that was able to share her story with the students. She also shared her thoughts about the United Sates of America and the current political situation there. After her talk, the students asked her great questions and then, she asked them questions as well. The students were also able to follow her talk by accessing her slides on through the link bit.do/ninaslides.
November 9
Cooking Class + Recipe Writing
This Friday, students had a blast as they baked cookies together. The four EAP teachers decided to have their groups together in the auditorium for a cooking class. Ater studying structures with "how much/ how many" and quantifiers, the students were able to participate in the session actively. This is how it worked:
- Teachers José Antônio and Rachel instructed four students (representatives of each class) regarding the kitchen utensils, ingredients and steps needed for the recipe.
- The other students were supposed to observe, take notes and ask "how much/ many" questions in order to find out the necessary amounts of each ingredient.
- While teachers José Antõnio and Rachel revealed the amounts, teacher Lucas wrote them down on the white board so that the other students could check spelling and take the necessary notes.
- Once the cookies were baking in the oven, teachers Leonardo, Rachel and José Antônio distributed cookies that had been made beforehand so that students could enjoy them without having to wait.
Then, back to my classroom, I had my students engage in a writing follow-up activity. They had to access a Google Doc template through a link and create their own recipe of the chocolate chip cookies they had just baked. Students were split into groups, used the cell phone of one of the students and went on replacing the words on their template to make the recipe. It was a great activity because they had the chance to gain even more vocabulary they had already learned up to that point. Having to write the recipe down pushed them forward and they learned words like "baking pan", "parchment paper" and "dough". You can check out what their recipes looked like in the end by clicking on the links below.
Lucas's group's RECIPE /// Giselle's group's RECIPE /// Yasmin's group's RECIPE
October 26
Halloween
It was time again for students to celebrate Halloween. Instead of having them make spooky decorations like last year, I had them engage in creative writing and learn digital skills.
The students were split into groups and each group received an ipad. Then, each group accessed the link bit.do/eaphorrorstory, a link which contains the template of the work students had to do: a slide presentation to tell a horror story. Students made their own copies by logging into their own accounts and started working on the slides.
They were challenged to explain what happened to the man on The scream by Edvard Munch. They did so by answering some guiding questions on each slide. At the end of the class, students were tauch how to share their production with the teacher's email and how to see the teacher's comments on their text. They were also told to add images to illustrate their slides. Below you can check the links to each group's slides.
October 19
Democracy
The students had the experience of launching a political campaign for changes in their regular schools. They were first divided into groups. Then, each group engaged in discussion to list problems and proposed solutions. After that, they made a poster in order to adivertize their campaign and chose a number to represent their party.
After each party presented their proposals, we held a poll and found out which party got more votes. The students had fun, used many language skills (writing, speaking, listening) and also 21st century skills such as collaboration and leadership.
October 5
Native Americans
This week was time for students to get some cultural knowledge about the USA. First, the students watched this video about misconceptions people might have about native Americans. Then, they were divided into groups and received a poster each. The groups then had to select a native American tribe and present a poster with information about this tribe. The students were given the ipads and did a reserch on native American tribes.
The students collaborated together and learned vocabulary as they read articles about the lives of the early Americans. In the videos, you can see the awesome presentations they put together.
September 21
Special guests + Playing with verbs in the past
Last class, we had specials guests from the Embassy. Jennifer and Solange came to talk to the students. We also had two trainning teachers (ETAs) interacting with the students in class and conducting an activity to allow them to use their English.
At the beginning, Jennifer started off in the auditorium, allowing the students to ask her questions. It was a fun and relaxed moment. Students participated and asked great questions. Then, they went to their classes and had the four guests rotating between the groups to interact with them.
The whole experience was great for the students' self-esteem, since they all feel more impacted and encouraged when they get to speak to native speakers of the English language. They all loved it.
At the end of the class, students played a board game to practice questions and answers in the Past Simple tense.
They had a blast, as you can see in the video.
August 17
Talking about tiny houses in the past + Stop Motion Video
Last Friday, I took the students on a trip to different countries. Since they had decided where their tiny houses had been set, as you can see on the collaborative wall (bit.ly/tinyhousewall), I told the students that they would then be allowed to buy one of the houses. To start this activity, each student was given a slip of paper. By drawing lots, each tiny house group was assigned a different house to analyze (Paris, Texas, California, Australia, the mountains). The students were given the ipads and accessed the link to the tiny house wall. Then, they were give tie to watch the videos and make two lists on their slips of paper: positive aspects and negative aspects of the tiny house.
Since they all had their lists ready, they were instructed to talk to their peers saying whether they would buy the house or not and why so by using there is / are structures, e.g. I will not buy this house because there are no windows in it.
Once the trip was finished, I had them pretend that they were now back to Brazil and had to talk to their Brazilian friends about whether they bought the house or not and why so. Having been given prompts, the students were able to use there was / were structures to do it, e.g. I bought the house because there was a beautiful living room.
Still in the theme of houses and furniture, the same five groups from the previous lessons were given 5 minutes to design a bluprint of a house. When the time was up, they had to pass their design to the next group clockwise and then draw furniture to the new blueprint they had just received. After that, the students put up a blueprint exhibit on the classroom walls and walked around saying whether they liked the houses and their rooms by using there is / are structures, e.g. I like this dining room because there is a table and there are some chairs.
Finally, the students were allowed to have one last maker experience on this day. I told them that there was a big problem to solve: their houses had been infestated by mice at that point and they would not be able to sell them if they did not find the mice and killed them. The students then practiced prepositions of place on page 11 of the Student's Books (under, on, above, next to, between, etc).
The students were then introduced to their next challenge by watching this stop motion video. After that, the students received a video planner on which they were able to create a story board of a stop motion video to talk about prepositions. They had to think about the material they would use, the sentences they would record and how they would do it. Once everything had been planned, I took them to maker corner in the Resource Center and they were given the ipads to create their videos. Take a look at how awesome their production looks below.
August 10
Making and advertising tiny houses
In this class, students were given time to finish off their tiny houses, adding color and furniture to it. They received lego to make furniture. Once they had finished, this was the follow-up:
- I had them pretend they were real estate agents. Their objective was to create an attractive description of their tiny house in one paragraph using there is / are structures in 5 minutes only (I played the timer on the board).
- Once they had their descriptions, they had to record a video of their house, presenting its rooms and qualities and narrating the description they came up with.
- Finally, each group posted its video on a collaborativepage on padlet.com. They used their cell phones and accessed the link bit.ly/tinyhousewall in order to do so. You can see the page below.
- The students were also allowed to watch their peers' tiny house videos and rank it from 1 to 10 according to their own opinion.
This activity was great beacuse it helped students practice not only specific vocabulary but also structures with there is / are through the skills of writing, speaking and listening.
August 3
Exploring tiny houses
To start our second semester excitingly, we, Access teachers, designed a way to make our students fix the vocabulary related to furniture and rooms in a house. The lesson presented the cutural aspect of tiny houses in the USA and, thus, we decided to have them create their own tiny houses or tiny rooms. Each teacher did it in a different way. My students were split into five groups. Then, they received cardboard, box cutters, scissors and glue and started creating their tiny houses at the end of the class. To help them do this collaborative activity using English only, they were told to access the link bit.ly/collabwork and were provided with tips and prompts on how to collaborate and work together in English. As you can see in the videos below, the students only spoke in English all the time. It was fantastic.
June 22
Independence Day
During break time, we took our students to the auditorium and we all celebrated the 4th of July. The room was all decorated with flags and banting. We ate typical food such as hotdogs and watermelon. The students took pictures and posted them on a collaborative wall through the link bit.do/eapjuly4.
June 15
Father's Day
After studying verbs that are followed by another verb in the -ing form (e.g. I love exercising) and to practice forming sentences, there was a very dynamic activity at the beginning of the class in which students had to form three different groups and create three sentence puzzles by writing each word on a different card. Then, the groups exchanged their production and had to figure out the sentences the other group came up with.
Our students also celebrated Father's Day last class. They listened to Father and Son, by Cat Stevens, and completed the words that were missing on the song worksheet I gave them. Then, they compared their answers in pairs, saying some of the sentences in the song. By doing that, the students practiced and gained vocabulary. To check their answers collectively, I elicited their answers and asked comrpehension questionsso that they would also understand the meaning of the song.
Then, students gathered in groups and engaged in a discussion about generation gaps, parenting and communication. It was amazing to see that our Access students do have vocabulary and critical thinking so as to talk about deep and meaningful topics.
June 8
Flag Day
This last Friday, students had an amazing experience. Still in class, I showed them this video riddle so that they could start thinking about what we would talk about. Then, they watched this second video which shows interesting information about the American flag in a very visual and captivating way. We then had a discussion in class about the importance of the American flag and nationalism in the USA. After that, we, teachers, took our four groups downstairs to the Resource Centre in order to allow them another experience.
There, we drew lots and each pair of students was told of their American state. By using paper, colored pencils, scissors, glue, crayons and paint provided, they had to work in pairs to make the flag of their American state and write information about the state on its back. They had to write 5 facts about the states using "there is / are".
This whole activity was amazing because the cultural input was imense, and the students learned a lot more about specific places in the USA. It was nice to see that some of them even began wanting to go to the places they were writing about.
May 25
Memorial Day + Brochure making
Last class, our students got to understand a bit more about the American culture by reading about Memorial Day and answering questions about it. They were given slips with information about the holiday. Then, we had a class discussion about how we could celebrate Memorial Day here in Brazil. They understood that the holiday is really about remembering the good people and things we have in our life apart from all the trouble and violence that surrounds us.
They also had the chance to put into practice the skill of writing in a meaningful and attractive way. The book unit which was studied presented a dialog between two people analyzing a brochure and talking about the existence of certain places and facilities in a city. The characters used the verbs there is / there are to do so.
In order to make learning more realistic and meaningful to the students, I took them to the computer lab and had them create brochures in the Canva website, advertizing the city of Brasília or specific neighborhoods of their choice on it. The students worked by themselves not only on the text but also on its design and pictures.
May 11
Gospel show + Mother's Day
This Friday, we took our students to a gospel show so that they could be in touch with some of the American culture. On the way to the show, we gave them a handout and they did a QR code activity on the bus in which they had to search for the answers of biographical questions about the band that they were going to watch. At the show, students had a blast.
Back to school, students worked on a collaborative wall on music in which they shared music videos of their favorite songs and artists. Some students even posted videos of their favorite gospel songs. Then, they spent some minutes watching the videos and grading them according to their personal taste.
Later, they also worked on making cards for their mothers to celebrate Mother's Day.
May 04
Practicing structures with can + vocabulary on clothes
It is possible to use simple resources, such as paper, to allow our students to have fun and a more meaningful learning experience. Last Friday, students had to practice questions with can, so played a really simple game in which they are supposed to find out the profession that has been stuck on their forehead. To do it, they have to ask Can I... and Do I... questions. The students also practiced short answers as they answered their peers' questions.
In order to practice vocabulary and a specific structure on clothes, my students used the ipads and accessed bit.ly/fashionwall to create posters with pictures of fashionable looks according to their personal taste. Then, they wrote sentences describing what their models were wearing. Finally, they rated their peers' looks (a feature of Padlet) and we ran a contest to find out which was the best look.
April 27
Press Freedom Experience + Earth Day
This Friday was time to talk to student about press freedom. To do so, teacher Rachel and I decided to allow them to experience something completely different: they worked on building content for an online paper themselves.
To start this exciting task, students had to check the paper's website with the ipads in class. They were all given the link bit.ly/earthdaypaper and took a look at the website. In pairs, they discussed the questions:
- What is this website about?
- Why is it important?
- What kind of content does it have?
- Is the content there or not?
By doing this, the students got familiar with the idea of the website before having to produce content for it. Then, we told them that they were going to create all the content of the website, and that this website would soon be available for other people to see (right now, we are in touch with the Reso
urce Centers at all CTJ branches in order to make it happen).
Next, the students were told about the four possible jobs they could sign up for to work for the Earth Day Paper, we had a press meeting in the auditorium in which they decided what they would do and off they went with their partners and trios to produce the content.
Back to class, we talked to them about press freedom in Brazil and the importance of it. The experience was extremely enriching because students took charge of their own learning, used their creativity and produced all sorts of online content to raise awareness for environmental issues. They worked as true journalists. Check the pictures and the website itself to see what students are capable of.
April 20
Earth Day
Our students also have the chance to learn about and take care of our planet in the English Access Program. Last class, they found out about this international day by watching this video and checking the official website. Then, they played a Kahoot quiz about the topic.
At last, the students were invited to plant some trees in order to leave a better legacy to the planet and help solve environmental issues. Check the pictures.
April 13
Present Continuous for future
Last class, students began learning the use of Present Continuous in the sense of future plans. To allow them to be more independent in class, I gave them the link bit.ly/eapmyplans and had them work in pairs, checking the slides and sorting out the questions and answers in each dialog. The students always benefit from working at their own pace and taking their time.
March 23
Easter
For Easter, we had the students join a traditional Easter Egg hunt. It envolved language and technology, though, and students had to collaborate and help each other in order to follow the clues and get the prize (chocolate cookies that had been made just for them).
The hunt started in class, when students used their cell phones to read the initial QR code projected on the board by the teacher. The code sent them to their first quiz. As soon as they got it right, they would be sent to a different place at the school and there they would look for a new QR code to take a new quiz.
All quizzes focused on Present Continuous questions, which was what they were studying at the time. The idea of this activity was to allow students to participate in an American cultural tradition as well as encourage them to use the language in order to communicate with each other and make decisions together. The students ont only had a blast, but also practiced language skills.
Use a QR code reader app on your phone and see how it woks.
March 16
St. Patrick's Day + Making tiles
One week after the field trip, it was time for our students to give voice to their inner artist. After having studied about Athos Bulcão, his life and art and having created interactive tours of it, the students were invited to experience his own practice and become tile artists. They gathered in groups and developed 21st century skills such as collaboration and leadership as they engaged in the totally hands-on activity of making tiles. They not only had a blast but also produced amazing pieces of art.
March 16 was also an important day because the students celebrated St. Patrick''s Day. To do so, they watched a video about it and realized how big this day is in the USA and in the American culture. Later on, the students had fun dancing the Celidh celtic traditional Gay Gordons dance, a sort of square dance that is done in traditional parties in Scotland and Ireland. They had a lot of fun.
March 9
Athos Bulcão Field Trip
We took our students on a
field trip to "Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil" to allow them to learn about Athos Bulcão and his legacy to our culture and history. On the way to CCBB, the students worked in pairs and checked a slide presentation on the ipads about Ernest Batchelder, an American artist who also created art tiles.
The students were given some guidelines with questions and had to walk around to collect information about the artist. They had been told that afterwards they would use that information to make interactive tours to tell Athos Bulcão's life. They were also encouraged to create a tour to tell Ernest Batchelders's life if they wanted.
There, the girls had the opportunity to celebrate women's day by writing their wishes and protests on a glass board that had been set up. They wrote about respect and democracy. They expressed their rights and citizenchip as women.
Take a look at the amazing tours some students created by clicking on the links below.
Giovanna's Tour on Athos Bulcão
Thaís and Sarah's Tour on Athos Bulcão
March 02
Making a Personal Tour
This class was special because it was time to teach our students some digital skills. Since we wanted to encourage out students to write in English and tell their story, I took them to our computer room and taught them how to create their own personal tour to tell the story of their life using Tour Builder (www.tourbuilder.google.com). The tool is amazing. Through it, the students were able to create interactive maps and upload personal images and videos in order to tell the story of their life. They felt empowered and heard.
The students worked in pairs, created their account on the website and started making a personal tour so that visitors could know more about who they are and where they have been. Students continued the creation process at home and came up with amazing interactive maps. Why don't you go on their tours and see it yourself?
Thaís's Life The amazing life of Erick Cardoso Pedro's Life
Bruna The amazing life of Giovanna Castro
February 23
Black History Month
Black History Month is really important in the USA. For that reason, students were encouraged to reflect on its importance. To do so, I showed them an amazing tool developed by Google called Arts & Culture. Students then downloaded the Arts & Culture app into their phones and began surfing in the Black Hitory Month section in the app.
The app contains information about historic figures and culture related to black people and all their achievements and importance in history. The students presented what they learned by creating posters with texts and drawings. The students seemed really inspired by it. Take a look at their posters.
February 16
Valentine's Day
For Valentine's day, we had the students create 'palentines' cards for their buddies and family members. They had a blast making the cards and writing short messages in English. They even made some GIFs showing off their cards.
December 1 Talking and writing about food
My students were working on Present Simple questions on food vocabulary, such as “Does Linda like potatoes?” and “What does she have for breakfast?”. To help them practice and have more fun, I decided to come up with a communicative and dynamic activitiy using a Google Form that I had created previously, containing only the name of each food in the questions.
My students, then, used the iPads and went on interviewing each other, marking the answers on the form and finally submitting it. They switched roles so that everybody would interview and be interviewed.
As soon as they all finished interviewing each other and submitted their responses, I opened the Google Spreadsheet that had been previously selected by me as the destination to which their answers would be sent. The spreadsheet contained one first column with their names and the next ones with each answer recorded by them about their personal tastes on food. To view it, click here.
After having my students pick a random name card, they worked in pairs asking and answering questions about a third classmate as they used the prompts and analysed the spreadsheet on the screen.
Then, after producing the language in an inductive way, I took my students to the computer room and had them access our Google Classroom in order to open a collaborative doc I had posted there. They all opened the doc and I instructed them to work in pairs and use my text as a model to write their own texts about eating habits in different countries in the world. They were allowed to do researches on the Internet in English to look for information. Some students are still checking my feedback and making some corrections, but you can see the work that has been done so far below.
November 24 Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is not part of the Brazilian culture, but in order to let our students have the whole experience of the English language, we had a special lunch with them. When the students arrived at the school, the tables had been specially set for them and there were decorations everywhere.
Our team had also put together a beautiful Thanksgiving tree made with leaves that contained messages of gratitude from each individual student.
During lunch, the students were also invited to write grateful messages on a collaborative wall. They loved it.
November 10 Veterans Day and Job Fair
My pupils' language skills are improving and they are getting sharper at English. In this class, they practiced the formation of Present Simple questions and answers to talk about other people (the 3rd person of singular).
Then, the three English Access Program classes that are led by Leonardo Jucá, Rachel Mendonça and Lucas Gontijo joined together in order to deliver a fun and interesting job fair. The students had been preparing their posters and slide presentations for a couple of weeks.
When the fair began, half of the nearly 45 students presented as the other half would just move about and check the presentations out. Then, their roles inverted and all of them had a chance to participate in both ways.
It was a really enriching experience for them as they all researched specific vocabulary and demonstrated concern in using the right pronunciation in their performance. Check the videos out.
To celebrate Veterans Day, the students played two game quizes on Kahoot, answering questions and guessing about the veterans and what the day represents to the American culture. They had a lot of fun.
November 03 Present Simple Games
Everybody is gradually developing their language. Now, it's time for the students to focus on forming questions in the Present Simple. They learned how to ask questions directly to another person (the 2nd person of singular). They practised that task in two ways.
- First, they worked in pairs or trios to form questions by sticking the words in the right order on their own posters.
- Then, they left the classroom and went to the school patio to do a fun and lively activity. There were stations indicated on the floor. The students received scripts and talked in pairs in each station for some time, asking and answering questions. As the teacher clapped his hands and shouted "change!", the students would exchange scripts and move on to a different station to play a different role and talk to a different peer.
October 27 Halloween!
The students were exposed to a cultural experience of the American tradition. They came to class dessed up in costumes, made Halloween celebrations in class and went trick-or-treating through the school. They loved it!
1) The students gathered in groups and used their own ideas and creativity to come up with original and spooky decorations. Check it out.
2) They went trick-or-treating.
3) They posted their work on a collaborative wall.
October 20
Talking about jobs
The topic of the class was JOBS! The students worked in pairs on the iPads, forming dialogs and guessing people's jobs. They accessed two links given by the teacher and interacted a lot.
1) They first practised new vocabulary and the dialogues on this Google Slide.
2) Then, they interviewed each other through this Google Form.
October 6 Columbus Day
Columbus day is a traditional holiday and we couldn't simply pass it over. Students worked in pairs as they played a guessing game about Columbus projected on the slides. Then, they used the app Chatterpix on the iPads to create a virtual avatar and record a personal introduction as if they were Columbus himself. They had a blast and the final product was great!
September 29 Talking about celebrities and going shopping
Our deepest desire is to expose students to authentic and interesting experiences as they learn English. To do so, we must create a learning environment that feels real and relevant to them. A way to do this was to give them the iPads and have them work in pairs as they ask questions and come up with answers about celebrities. The students were also invited to "go shopping". They were given checklists and moved around the class counting the items they would buy. That was a much more fun way to learn numbers than simply read them on a book page. Check out the videos to see how engaged they were.
September 22 Celebrating Literacy day
When I proposed the activity, my students didn't demonstrate much excitement, but as soon as they began making their mini books to celebrate Literacy day (September 8), I got impressed with their commitment and desire to do a good job. Teenagers don't usually reflect on the importance of reading if you don't give them an opportunity. The idea of this activity was to have them share their favorite stories and books, as well as make them aw
are of the access they have to these resources at our school's resource center. The steps were: 1. Work on the origamis to make the mini books; 2. Write down what each page should contain; 3. Go to the resource centre and pick one book of their preference; 4. Make mini books based on the information of the books they picked (drawing the cover and writing about the main characters and the plot). The students had a blast.When I proposed
September 15
Roleplaying dialogues
A talking corners activity is a good way to make the students practice intonation and creativity. The students had to move about in pairs and roleplay the dialogues, replacing the information in red with their own personal information. They had just learned about formal and informal greetings and, thus, each corner refered to a different situation (party, hospital, hotel, bus stop etc).
August 25 Recording and posting
The students are now using Google Classroom to post activities and be connected. First, they used the app "Talk & Comment" to record dialogues in pairs. Then, they posted them into our online classroom.
They have also begun to post personal profile posters onto our collaborative wall on padlet. The purpose is to give them a sense of publicity. The students have to write a paragraph about themselves and post their pictures.
August 18
FIRST CLASS
In their first class at the English Access Program, the students learned how to introduce themselves and greet other people. To make learning more exciting an
d interesting, they created personal ID cards on a Google Slides web page provided by the teacher. At the end of the lesson, the students were guided by the teacher to the computer room and worked in pairs to access the link and fill out their ID cards.
