module 25 tefl notes

Unit 5: Activities

Here are some general examples which may not apply to all levels but which should apply to all good storybooks: 1. 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' mentions different kinds of fruit. This could lead to a discussion on fruit and likes and dislikes. The learners could then choose their three favourite fruits (whether in the story or not), put them in order of the most favourite being Number 1 and do a drawing beside each fruit. Where language allows, you could then ask them to say why. 'The Gruffalo' lends itself well to a discussion about animals. You could follow the same procedure as above in relation to animals. 2. To reinforce the point that good storybooks almost always offer similar useful opportunities for activities, you could do the following activity for both 'The Gruffalo' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. You could get the learners to work in groups. Their task is, say, to find out the three most favourite fruits or animals which they and their classmates like. You could give them a list of all the learners' names and they survey all the classmates asking and then noting what each individual's top three fruits or animals are. All the other groups do the same. In the end, each group produces a similar list, but in their own way. It doesn't matter if any of the results are different. It'll be a little bit of a melee but it helps to teach them many skills of planning, organising, asking appropriate questions, noting data, analysing data, counting etc. 3. A simple but important follow up activity would be to get the young learners to draw a picture of the main character, perhaps showing some emotions; for example, the look on the faces of the fox, snake and mouse when they do, in fact, see the Gruffalo. Or the look on the face of the Very Hungry Caterpillar when he is hungry, has stomach ache and then eats a nice, green leaf. 4. Another important activity is adding new vocabulary into their learning bank. You could get them to choose four or five new words that they like and want to learn. You can anticipate this by printing out some sheets that have, say, a picture of the Gruffalo with severalwords printed and arrows pointing to specific characteristics of the Gruffalo. For example, the mouse in the story repeats several times that the Gruffalo has: terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. So, to start with, you have tusks, claws, teeth and jaws The narrator tells us that: He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose. His eyes are orange, his tongue is black; he has purple prickles all over his back. So there are plenty other words you can put on the sheet for the young learners can choose. Ensure you practise the sound of the words with them. Then they can take the sheet home to show their parents, with their specific words underlined and they can get help to practise them. Even where the parent is a non-English speaker, the encouragement will be valuable. Remember this: Non-English speaking parents can access websites that help with English pronunciation of words. Most of the words in the excerpts above can be heard by accessing, for example, www.howjsay.com. There will be other sites. This will help them to help their children. Next time they are in class, you can pair the learners up with friends and get them to say to each other the words they have learned. You will go round the class monitoring this. This is a good example of self-directed learning. 5. An excellent task that requires a bit of organisation is making a recording of the story that they can take home with them. You would do the recording. The only real issue is the cost of giving all of them a copy, e.g. a copy on CD or MP3 player or USB stick. Perhaps the parents can be encouraged to help pay for these or can send in a in a CD etc. to enable you to record the story. In this way, particularly for younger learners, they hear your voice, the same voice as they hear in class. This opens up a host of opportunities. You could set them simple tasks for homework, one or two at a time, ensuring beforehand that they know what to do. Your tasks could include: How many times does the mouse in 'The Gruffalo' say: He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws? Try and learn this: He hasterrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. Which animal slid away? Which animal sped away? Which food does the Gruffalo like to roast? Which food does the Gruffalo like to scramble? In the story, there are sometimes two words together that start with the same letter; for example, terrible teethstart with the same lettert.Can you find any other examples? Next time in class, you can check and praise their efforts by playing your recording. This is an excellent way to enhance their listening for detail skills. 6. Young learners can be helped to improve their discourse skills by: Learning as best as they can the dialogue and acting out the story. Children love this. You can simplify the dialogue if necessary and give them picture prompts to remind them of the bit they are acting out (with or without words as needs be.) Retelling a tiny bit of the story. Again, you can give them picture cards to focus on and the written words if they are capable of reading all the words. You could give the whole class a tiny bit to do individually. After all the practice is done, the final event would be a recording of every one of the learners doing their bit in order. They will be delighted listening to the story, listening avidly, of course, to their own contribution. They'll want to take a copy home to their parents. We've used 'tiny bit' to emphasise that retelling a story in a foreign language isn't easy. Never set your expectations too high. Make it easier for them by reducing and simplifying what they have to learn and aim, in this activity, for a shared experience. 7. Writing activities based on a story offer up, as the cliché says, endless possibilities. Activities from 'The Gruffalo' could include: The children could pretend they are any of the animals, say, the mouse, and could write to a mouse friend telling them how frightened they were when they saw the Gruffalo. They could describe the Gruffalo using the repeated phrase: He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jawsor any other words or phrases from the text. This makes the activity a little bit easier, whilst at the same time further embedding these phrases in their memory banks. They could take on the persona of the mouse, writing to a friend to tell her how he fooled the Gruffalo. They could take on the persona of the Gruffalo, writing to a friend to tell her how afraid he is of the mouse. They could write a dialogue about the mouse returning home and telling his partner about the narrow escape he has just had and how he fooled the Gruffalo. They could write a short piece on why they like or dislike the snake or the fox. And so on.There are so many activities you could develop. 8. Finally, depending on their level, the storybook can be used for reading practice. With beginning readers, the focus will be on areas such as Letter/sound recognition Concepts of print (letters, words, spaces, simple punctuation, front and back of books etc.) Phonological awareness: recognising a word in a sentence, recognising a rhyme, recognising a syllable etc. Those who are more advanced in reading can listen to and follow your reading, then perhaps join you and read as you read, culminating in the ability to read aloud on their own. The more you use familiar stories that they have listened to many times, the better their reading skills will become. In activity 1 above, we mentioned that after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar there could be a discussion on fruit and likes and dislikes and a drawing activity based on their favourite foods. And with the Gruffalo there could be a discussion and similar activities centred on animals. What we are seeing here is the potential for a story to lead into more in-depth project-based activity based on content in the story. What is happening here is that the story is providing you with a theme for further exploration by the learners. The story is the catalyst for launching into a theme-based project.

Unit 4: Strategies

It's easy to pick up a storybook and read it to your young learners. But to get the best out of the experience for them and you, it needs proper planning. Here's what to do: 1. Decisions to be made before the lesson Before introducing any storybook, there are some important decisions you need to make. The first is: How will I deliver this story first time? When introducing the story to the young learners for the first time, some teachers like to keep up the long-standing tradition of storytelling by narrating the story to the children without the storybook. This method has shown to be popular with young learners. They will have your full attention and won't be pointing to the illustrations or discussing them with their friends. This requires a lot of preparation on your part, just as you would do for any presentation. It will need lots of rehearsal, perhaps in front of a mirror or in front of your friends or family, to get it right first time. But the benefits are great: You will not be constricted by looking at the storybook and holding it. As a result, you will be able to maintain full eye contact with the children and have the opportunity to be much more animated with your expressions and gestures. You may, of course, occasionally show an illustration of what the character actually looks like, e.g. the Gruffalo. By telling and not reading the story, and looking at them every second, you will be more aware of all the children's reactions, which helps you to make swift decisions on pace or repetition of a phrase or heightening the volume. By only pointing to a few illustrations on this occasion, you will whet their appetite and anticipation for more illustrations on your next reading. Whether you opt for telling or reading the story when introducing it for the first time, you will still need to do some dry-runs yourself to identify: Areas where you will change your pace or volume Where you may stop to ask any questions (although you may wish to leave this till the second reading) Words or phrases or sentences which need to be simplified Any bits which are long-winded or peripheral and which need to be adapted or removed 2. During the lesson There are usually three stages in reading or telling a story: the pre-storytellingstage, the during-storytelling stage and the after-storytellingstage. Pre-storytellingstage In the pre-storytelling stage you: prepare the young learners so that they can better comprehend the story raise their interest and motivation, so that their attention will be focussed on the storytelling episode set the scene and create the context for the story so that the young learners can draw on their existing knowledge and experiences, where possible, to better understand and meld with the story explain any new and key vocabulary to make it easier for them Sometimes it will be helpful to show them an illustration before you read the story. For example, the Gruffalo is not quite like any other animal, so it's probably better to let them see what he looks like upfront. A Gruffalo puppet would be even better and you could show him upfront and use him during your reading. A puppet would definitely activate interest and motivation. During-storytellingstage Sometimes some teachers like to do a straight telling or reading of the story first time. That's fine. They will then often say : Would you like to hear it again, children? The answer is almost always a resoundingYes! In this second reading, the aim is to ensure they are active participants in the process and not just passive listeners. Here you will have prepared a range of techniques and activities, all designed to help them understand the story better, and all designed to maintain their interest and attention. These could include: Asking the young learners to guess or predict what comes next Identifying the characters and their prominent traits Looking at big illustrations (or copies you have handed out to all them) to discuss characters or the setting Why did he/she/it do that? types of questions On some occasions, your questions or help will be to ensure they get pleasure from the story. On other occasions you will also be helping them to understand the story. But you may also be doing some assessment work, e.g. who noticed what and who didn't, who chose the right word and who didn't, who had difficulty pronouncing a word or uttering a sound and who didn't etc. For example, you may feel it is the right time to introduce them to alliteration, so you might show them an example and explain what it is and later read out another example to see who notices it and who doesn't. Children love humour, so ensure you ask them some silly things too:Have you ever seen a Gruffalo on the school bus? Why not? And stories are excellent vehicles for getting them to notice little bits of grammar. For example, in 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', there are excellent opportunities for helping them to spot the letter s at the end of words when there is more than one of them (plurals, of course, but you wouldn't mention the word 'plural' unless you're teaching older learners): On Monday he ate through one apple On Tuesday he ate through two pears The excellent illustrations help them to notice the difference. There are other activities you can do which involve movement and action. These activities encourage them to listen very carefully. In 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' lots of types of fruit and other food are mentioned. You could give each learner a card which represents one type of fruit or one type of food . When they hear their item mentioned, they have to stand up quickly, run to your desk, put their card in a box and run back quickly to their position. Or you can get them to mime out certain parts of a story. Once you have read the story several times and they know the actions of the characters, they will be very willing to act out the story as you read it. After listening to the story or a part thereof, you should always encourage the learners to express their feelings and emotions as best they can. Keep your reflection questions simple: What do you like best?Why? What do you think of the Gruffalo? Why? Do you like the Gruffalo? Why? Why not? Would you like a Gruffalo as a pet? Do you like the same food as the Very Hungry Caterpillar? Why? Why Not? So, you like eating a leaf too? You can use the same types of activities with older learners. Lots of older learners like the telling of a story by you as opposed to you reading it. Older learners can also read stories on their own at times and here you can assist them with activities such as story timelines, predictions, lists of character traits, etc. Post-storytellingstage After the storytelling has finished, it's time for some consolidation work. The activities you choose will depend on what language learning goal you are aiming to achieve. Generally, during this period you will certainly want to check their understanding but you will also want to engage them with issues in the story that might relate to their own lives or other activities which reinforce and expand on the content. Remember! You can use the story as a catalyst or springboard for a wide range of curricular-related activities.

Unit 3: Choosing a Class Book

There are many factors you need to consider when choosing a storybook. We have listed the key factors below, in the form of questions that you should ask yourself. Not all storybooks will contain all these factors but they should at least contain a fair number of them. Key factors to consider 1. Linguistic level Will it be too hard, too easy or just about right, with an appropriate level of challenge? Remember this: It's important that learners are able to recognise a good part of the vocabulary in a story. Research has shown that learners should know around 75% of the vocabulary to understand a story/text. 2. Content Are you enthusiastic about the story? Will this story help you meet the language goals you have set for your young learners? Will the story engage the learners? Will it stir their imagination? Will it be memorable so that they'll remember it in time to come, and you can refer back to it? Will they be familiar with the story? Familiar stories help them to use their prior knowledge and make some predictions. Is it interesting enough to motivate them and hold their concentration? Is there some humour in the story, where they can laugh together? Is it an appropriate length? Can it be broken into parts, if need be? Does it contain interesting characters that they can empathise with? Do the characters do things that the learners understand? Does it have a clear storyline, so that the learners are able to get along with the bulk of the story without being dependent on teacher or parent input most of the time? Is the plot clear and does it, perhaps, have a surprise ending? Does the story offer good opportunities for participation, e.g. guessing, anticipation, discussion of illustrations, repetition of phrases along with the character etc.? Does the story provide good opportunities for follow-up activities? 3. Structure Does it have a structure in line with the typical fairy tale structure we have already explored? Such stories are likely to be most accessible to most children. Is there some element of surprise or unpredictability in the story which will keep their interest and involvement at a high level? 4. Balance What is the balance of dialogue and narrative? Where there are lots of pieces of dialogue, this will be relevant for learning conversational phrases and role plays. Where there are lots of pieces of narrative, this will hopefully offer intentional repeated patterns of language which will help grammar and vocabulary learning. The best option may be to look for a fairly equal balance which will offer more opportunities for learning and assessment activities. 5. Illustrations Are the illustrations clear and not cluttered? Are they attractive and colourful? Do they depict life in the English-speaking cultures? Are the illustrations appropriate, i.e. not frightening or culturally-inappropriate, and appropriate for the age of the learners? Do the illustrations support the meaning and understanding of the text or not? Is there only going to be one big storybook used by you; if so, will all the learners be able to see the illustrations clearly? 6. Values and attitudes Are the values and attitudes expressed in the story acceptable? Does the story address universal themes, e.g. diversity, disability, human rights, gender, race, right and wrong, good and evil, tolerance, the strength of family, protecting the environment etc.? Will it help to give them a broader view of the world and promote intercultural understanding? Will it encourage the learners to collaborate and share emotions? Will it help the learners to develop a better understanding of themselves? 7. Language and literary devices Is there sufficient language in the story that children have met before and will be able to recycle? Does the story contain examples of rich vocabulary? Is there sufficient new language which will be useful and relevant for all? Is the language authentic? Is the language appropriate and is it representative of spoken English? Is there plenty repetition of some grammatical structures and phrases, e.g. in 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears': Someone's been eating my porridge. Someone's been sitting in my chair. Are there adequate literary devices that the young learners can be helped to notice and can learn from, e.g. rhythm, rhyme, predictability, the building of suspense, anticipation, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, metaphor, simile etc. - depending, of course, on their language level? 8. Cognitive and Social Aspects Does the story introduce and reinforce concepts? Does the story help them become aware of some basic learning strategies? Does the story provide content which links with other subjects in the curriculum? Does the story cater for different intelligences and learning styles? Will the story arouse their curiosity about the language and language learning? Will the story provide a positive learning experience? Will the story help to build their confidence, both linguistically and socially? Will the story encourage their desire for more learning?

Unit 1: The Advantages of a good Book

Unit 1: The Advantages of a good Book The Benefits Derived from Using Good Storybooks in the Classroom In this Part we will explore stories. Out of all the activities in the young learners' classroom, these ignite great interest and enthusiasm throughout the classroom. In other words, they are a bit special. 1. Some Key Benefits Derived from Using Storybooks in the Classroom In the EYL classroom, storybooks are used for a number of purposes, e.g. pleasure, fun, learning how to read, and language learning. In this section, our focus is on good storybooks which offer language learning opportunities and the development of other skills along the way. Not all storybooks are good for language learning, so it is imperative that you choose the storybook carefully. Across the globe, storytelling is widely accepted as one of the most natural, popular and effective ways of introducing young learners to continuous and spoken discourse. When chosen well, stories can provide a natural and meaningful learning context for learning language. Assuming that the storybook is carefully selected to meet the needs of the learners and assuming the appropriate methodology is applied by you, there are several strong benefits derived from using storybooks in the EYL classroom. Here are just some of these: 1. Learners are opened up to, and involved in, rich and authentic uses of the English language for particular content. But it's not only language development and content knowledge that comes from storybook listening and reading. Other strong elements such as communication skills, cognitive skills and an understanding of culture are developed at the same time. 2. Stories create a wonderful and imaginary world, created purely by language (often assisted by drawings and pictures), that children step into and enjoy, learning language as they go along the story journey. 3. Stories help develop learners' creative powers by nurturing their imagination. They get personally involved and can often imagine themselves as a particular character. This creativity can often be witnessed in the school play areas where children re-enact their character or some part of the story. 4. In addition to fantasy books which stir their imagination, storybooks introduce young learners to universal issues such as the family, right and wrong, caring for the environment etc. which stir ideas and feelings and memories of what's important to them. 5. Listening to a story practises and enhances the ability to hold in the learner's memory bank the meaning of a continuous piece of spoken discourse. 6. In the modern EYL classroom, you will gather the learners around, getting them to sit on the floor, perhaps in a particular area of the room. Huddled together, listening to you telling them the story creates a shared social experience. They share in the laughter and sadness, the sometimes silly actions of the character, the excitement, and the wonder of what's coming next. They share their feelings with others. Their reactions may be verbal or non-verbal. No matter which, these repeated activities will enhance their communication and interaction with their peers and you and will contribute to their social development. 7. In or out of classroom, stories give young learners opportunities to retell the story to others (and sometimes themselves) and to re-enact a character role or make a different ending. As a result, stories help learners to increase their language fluency and to increase their content knowledge. In addition, retelling a story enhances learners' cognitive skills. For example, often in discussion with others or on their own, they will compare characters and their behaviours. Clearly, this is an example of developing thinking skills. And when the learner decides to give the story ending, she is developing her creative skills. 8. In the modern EYL classroom, there are often learners with varying levels of English and diverse learning needs. Learners will take what they can from the story, according to their current linguistic level and their cognitive ability. Thus, storybooks are an ideal resource for meeting these diverse needs. 9. As mentioned earlier, there has been a significant move in the modern language classroom to take account of intelligences. The richness and variety of storybooks in terms of content, illustrations and the activities that can be derived from them allow you to cater for all learner types, styles and intelligences to make the learning experiences more meaningful for the young learners. Stories allow children to focus on different environments, to solve problems, anticipate and provide solutions, and express their feelings and emotions. They can also provide the context and setting for movement through drama and dance, a focus on pictures and drawing and a focus for music and singing. 10. Most young learner storybooks, no matter the language, are formulaic, using repetitive and memorable expressions. In their native language, young learners will already have listened to, and will be familiar with, many stories with approximate formulaic and repeated expressions and techniques such as Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in or Once upon a time ... Thus, due to this familiarity, storybooks are excellent vehicles for introducing learners to the English language. Young learners want to and enjoy reading the same story over and over and this frequent repetition embeds language elements, e.g. some vocabulary, phrases and structures. This encourages anticipation and participation. 11. When the learners are listening in these repeated, familiar contexts, this allows you to encourage the learners to notice certain language elements, e.g. Notice, children, that when there is more than one pig, we say two or three or four...What? Pigs, that's correct 12. Listening to familiar stories being read to them by you, young learners gradually become aware of other important language elements, e.g. pronunciation, rhyme, rhythm and intonation. 13. Stories can help to promote positive attitudes. For example, they can take the learners into new worlds and diverse cultures and give them an awareness and understanding that people may do different things in different ways and live differently from them but their way is just as good and important as the learners' way. 14. Listening to stories encourages the development of learning strategies bit by bit. Aided by visual prompts from illustrations, audio effects from the tape or you, the young learners start to build strategies such as predicting, guessing and hypothesising. 15. Stories are good tools for enhancing the learners' understanding of concepts, e.g. size, shape, colour, cause and effect, problems and solutions. 16. When storybooks are chosen well, they can be used for continuity of learning and reinforcing learning in other areas of the curriculum. For example, in Eric Carle's storybook 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', there are opportunities to strengthen the learners' knowledge and use of numbers. In addition, this small but excellent storybook lends itself to many other activities which will reinforce learning in other areas of the curriculum: •Science: the life cycle of butterflies and other insects and animals •Art and Design: making a caterpillar with a range of materials •Movement- groups: linking together and moving like a caterpillar Storybooks, when chosen well, can provide a sound alternative to coursebooks. This requires a lot of planning and preparation by you but experience shows that a good storybook can provide as much, if not more, than a coursebook.

Unit 2: What creates an appealing book?

What Makes a Good Story for Young Learners? In our description of typical story features below, you'll notice in particular that we mention a plot, i.e. a problem and resolution. A plot will fire the young learners' imagination. However, in the early years, there are excellent little texts which help the learners in the first stages of English language development. To save them being too complex, there may not be a plot; instead, there may just be a sequence of events or activities. In essence, they're more a text than a story, but the tendency is to call them all 'stories'. That's fine for these early young learners. The features we have set out below are those where young learners are ready to grasp the idea of a simple plot with a simple problem and a simple resolution. Here we focus on the learners and their expectations. By the time you are teaching English in the EYL classroom, your learners may have listened to many stories, read to them by parents or by teachers in the kindergarten. So, they should be used to a story formula. What makes a good story is adherence, to a degree, to the typical features in good fairy tales, some passed down over the centuries. For example, there are written examples of stories similar to Cinderella in Chinese manuscripts from as early as 850AD. Charles Perrault (1628-1703) is credited as the author of Cinderella, as well as of Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Bluebeard. These features include: 1. An opening This opening is often formulaic and creates anticipation in young learners, e.g. Once upon a time ... 2. Description of the setting 3. Introduction of the characters This often immediately sets contrasts. For example, we quickly find out that Cinderella is not ugly, wears rags and has to do all the chores. Cinderella's stepsisters are ugly, wear nice clothes and force Cinderella to do all the chores. So, very quickly in the story , elements of good and bad are introduced. 4. Introduction of a problem In 'Little Red Riding Hood', the little girl leaves the path despite her mother's warnings. 5. A series of events, heightening the suspense and anticipation, which lead to the resolution of the problem In 'Little Red Riding Hood', the little girl is about to be eaten by the wolf when, just in time, her father arrives and kills the wolf. 6. A closing which, like the opening, is often formulaic: They lived happily ever after. 7. A moral or morals The moral(s) may be explicit or implied. 'Little Red Riding Hood' has two clear morals: Children should learn from their parents and do what they are told Wickedness will eventually be overcome These then are the typical features we would expect to see. But there are some other features which may be found in good stories, to different degrees: Repetition of phrases and patterns Dramatic irony Predictability Sense of inevitability Rich vocabulary Alliteration Metaphors Surprise or twists at the end