Session Five:
Joy in learning from your friends
English in Israel has the wonderful advantage over all other subjects in that we do NOT have specific content which we must complete in a specific time frame. We can teach the English language using any content, the best being as relevant to our students as possible. Utilizing this advantage, try letting go of control over specific content and allow your students to choose some of the content they would like to learn about. Each student or pair of students can choose content which interests them and teach it to the rest of the class. Sound familiar????
It's Show and Tell for Middle School!
All language skills may be used in the learning and teaching of new content. Students learn MUCH BETTER from their peers than they do from their teachers.
Let's make up some guidelines for simple projects, which will incorporate the 4Cs we learned about in Session 2 and where students can work independently and share knowledge with each other.
SHOW and TELL in JHS (in EFL) !!!
Show and Tell holistically incorporates the 4C's + Choice, getting to know your students, allowing for different levels and different personalities, creativity, fun, learning and a whole lot more. It is the ultimate combination and activity for the classroom. Show and Tell has shorter prep time for the student and perhaps less "research" time, but it does require more improvisation by the student than a longer practiced presentation.
Both have great value in the language learning classroom.
You can also take traditional Show and Tell one step further into more collaborative presentations:
SEE HOW BELOW!
1. Choose your topic
- What interests you?
- What did you see on Facebook or Instagram which left you curious to know more?
- What did you hear about from your friends which you wished you knew more about?
- Ask a friend to recommend a topic to you.
2. How to begin
- You begin of course with a Google search.
- Choose the words you want to search for by name of topic and maybe another keyword (for example: "Soccer Messi")
- Search for sites for kids (scholastic, history4kids etc) to find interesting facts about your topic. (For example: "Soccer Messi for kids")
- Write down/type in a WORD file short sentences that are important and that you will want to write and speak about.
- Choose 2-3 sites that have interesting information and keep the URLs in a WORD File.
You can print out the sites and bring the pages to class.
3. Collaborate
Sit with your partner and his 2-3 sites.
Think and decide together which information you want to present to the class and in which order.
4. Write
Write up your draft copy of the presentation and send it to your teacher to correct.
After she has marked what needs to be fixed, sit with your partner and correct the mistakes. Print out your final draft.
5. Plan the presentation
There are two parts to the presentation:
- Speaking - don't read from the page!
- Performing - Be creative!
Decide with your partner, who will be doing which part or will both of you be doing both parts.
You can include a PowerPoint or a video clip but remember.....
Plan out your time carefully - you have 5-7 minutes total for everything.
6. Practice your presentation
Practice, practice, practice!
The more the better. Practice alone, practice together with your partner, practice with your dog! (It'll be fun!)
7. Present !!!!!
Remember:
- Be active and enthusiastic
- Perform
- Speak Clearly
- Ask if there are any questions
- Thank your friends at the end for learning with you
You can do this kind of Show and Tell/mini-project with any class and on any level.
Allow them to do this in class NOT at home.
The difference will be in the resources (Internet sites) and the level of English in the presentation.
Students can present on any topic, on any level.
They get to Choose, Collaborate, Communicate, use Critical Thinking skills and be Creative!
Task One: Search Google :"middle school projects for language arts "
- Go into at least 3-4 different sites.
- Do you use any of the ideas that you found? What do you like/dislike?
- How could you use them in your classroom to motivate your students better?
- Post a URL where you found a really exciting idea to use in the classroom on this GoogleForm.
- Compose 4 or 5 questions for your students to ask the student presenting in the the Show and Tell session.
- Write those questions on the Googleslide with your name (Click CTL + F to find your name).
- Be sure not to change the order of the Googleslides (the names that were missing have been added to the end).
TIP for Session Five
Instead of oral presentations , you can also use the tri-fold poster board idea of displaying student's Show and Tell through writing and decoration. See this Pinterest site to the right for many ideas and templates to enthuse your students!
See one of my favorites below!
