Μήνας: Οκτώβριος 2022

On the 27th of October we celebrated the OXI day 1940 of Greek resistance at school. We had the chance to watch videos documenting two very important dimensions of this particular historical era.

First, it was important to discuss the cirmustances under which children experienced the war days. To this end, the following video offered a visual and audio background to our discussion.

https://youtu.be/BGjYmVLxo84

Second, for grades 5th and 6th another video watching stressed the importance of Greek OXI DAY and the Greek resistance in general for the outcome of World War II since as it was unanimously stated that it was the defining factor for the delay of German troops to their way to Russia and their resulting failure to win the war. In the following video many well known personalities from around the world express their admiration and recognise the importance of Greek resistance.

https://youtu.be/yYGuMNj6VKw

“Anna Frank’s diary” is also an animated film which will be a great stimulus for a more in depth exploration of the turbulent days of the war from the eyes of a young girl whose diary became the symbol of antifascist movement around the world.

https://youtu.be/qAIRFyR6NyQ

“Where is Annie Frank?” is a great after war film and a great suggestion for the follow-up discussion on the impact of Anne Frank’s diary.

https://youtu.be/CiV7sR5VMRU

An idea based on 5th Grade Student’s book (page 134)  was the creation of an intercultural project in the form of a time capsule for each country presented. The project was presented in steps and students involved were given the following written instructions so as to be able to follow them by having a clear idea of what they are expected to create.

STEP 1: Finding people coming from different countries in our class.

We wrote down the names of the countries of those coming from them and agreed on the creation of time capsules of some other countries that interested the students as well. For example:

COUNTRY- NATIONALITY (in our class)

• Albania
• Australia
• United Kingdom
• USA

STEP 2: Gathering information

Students were explained that for the creation of this project they will need to gather the following pieces of information:

1. Greetings: These could be in simple phrases such as “hello”, “goodbye”
2. Favourite song: This could be a traditional or a contemporary one. Students were encouraged to use the link of YouTube and/or write the lyrics or a verse on a piece of paper.
3. Favourite recipe: This could be given in a form of ingredients-instructions or they could find a picture of it.
4. Map: This could be a picture from the internet.
5. Landmarks: These can also be pictures coming from the internet and a very short text about their importance or history.
6. Literature excerpts (my favourite one): Students bring some work or part of the work of the most well known writer of their country.
7. Famous people ( I think students’ favourite piece of info): Students find pictures of famous singers, actors, painters, athletes etc.
8. Any piece of information they consider important because it represents the country.

 

STEP THREE: Presentation

The teacher collects the information and creates a sway presenting EACH country guided by the corresponding student.

Μετάβαση στο sway.office.com.

https://sway.office.com/wP3P22wYU7GaDhnt?ref=Link&loc=play

STEP FOUR: Time capsules in store

Store the material in a capsule to keep it in our class. To this end, we used some plastic bottles and stored the information in little pieces of paper.

Finally, this project was assigned to students with a two week deadline and judging from everyone’s reaction the day of the sway presentation I can say that they really enjoyed it.

 

 

I will approach this matter by presenting the strengths & weaknesses of the use of state books in my opinion and from my experience.

Strengths

• CEFR levels are covered in particular hours and that is 115 hours for A1, 230 for A2, 460 for B1, 720 for B2, 1040 for C1 and 1680 for C2 according to Common Programme for Foreign Languages Studies (ΕΠΣ-ΞΓ). Practically this means that each school year ONLY a part of each CEFR level is covered. As a result, CEFR levels may take two or three school years to be completed. For example A-, A, A+ for the third, fourth and fifth school grades correspondingly. To my mind, this works in favour of students as they have time to drill and absorb the new knowledge.
• Units explore GRAMMAR phenomena in 2, 3, or 4 lessons because they explore one grammar rule at a time.
• VOCABULARY thematically follows a vertical and horizontal pattern. This means, it follows the structure of topic related vocabulary according to the most common knowledge areas the other books from local and foreign publications follow but at the same time they are age and school subject related on a cognitive level i.e Geography, History, Maths, Language wise. In other words, methodologicaly it is crosscuricularly oriented.
• There is no rigid LESSON PLAN -only suggested one- as to how a teacher can work on a lesson and the little number of exercises leave time and space for using other resources which I believe enriches the possibilities of fruitful teaching and learning.
• Teachers can cover a course in whatever order they wish. This FLEXIBILTY of the course give them the opportunity to create their own time schedule and mini curriculum according to their students’ potential and needs.

Weaknesses

• Some exercises lack CONSISTENCY between their description and their practice or might be more complicated than they should be. This results in discouraging students from doing them.
• Reading, speaking and listening SKILLS definitely deserve and need more time and that is why I suggest the extension of time and classroom limits by using certain apps (see article about “my edu tools”) but this is really on students’ good will, not in their school material.
• Some TOPICS and related material such as listening tasks, songs or projects are outdated so this fact leaves students indifferent and less motivated to get involved.

Any other strengths and weaknesses YOU spotted?

This is a 4th Grade crosscurricular project and it is based on the school student’s book Unit 1 Lesson 3 “This is my school!” Students will take an interview from a school teacher in Greek so as to gather the information needed and then they will use flipgrid app to present an interview between them with the linguistic purpose of practising their speaking skills. The project is structured in steps and instructions were given as follows: 

Step 1: 

Read the questions carefully and write down the answers.

• Where is your school?
• How old is it?
• Is it big or small?
• How many floors are there?
• How many classrooms are there?
• Is there a large playground?
• Is there a computer room?
• Is there a music room?
• Are there any football fields or basketball courts?
• How many classes are there?
• How many teachers are there?
• How many pupils are there?

Από <http://ebooks.edu.gr/ebooks/v/html/8547/2266/Agglika_D-Dimotikou_html-empl/index1_3.html>

Step 2:

Take pictures of some classes and any special rooms your school has. You can also draw a map of your school. Your English teacher will help you take the pictures and print them. You can create a photo album/poster for the class. 

Step 3:

Visit the following link www. infoflipgrid and record your interview on Flipgrid on CAMERA OR AUDIO ONLY: Join the group by using the code:

Join Code:

Parent Consent Signature: