The Greek Online School helped me with an article to discuss the historical moments of Politechnio Day on the 17th of November. Using this article as a stimulus students were given the opportunity to discuss an important part of Greek history and learn related vocabulary to communicate ideas and concepts which could not be found in a regular unit of our Coursebook.
UNIT 1. My Geography Project: My Greece (6th GRADE)
This project was based on the layout of the Geography project, Lesson 3, Unit 1 of the 6th Grade Coursebook and its purpose was to foster the 4 Cs (Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication) on an educational level and to practise Speaking and Writing skills on a linguistic level.
The format of their educational product followed the layout of the book because this would give them a rubric to refer to. More specifically the layout was the following:
- Name of Country-Borders
- Landscape
- Weather
- People
- Feelings
Students were divided into 5 groups of 4. They needed to compose a product namely write a report by working the first 4 parts. Each group needed also to decice who of its members would undertake to find the material for each aspect of the topic apart form the last one -Feelings- which they had to discuss and write on a plenary level in class time. When they finished, their report was handed in and made into a presentation which was discussed in class.
https://sway.office.com/lnyvprOPVC2Qqqw6?ref=Link
Corrections and new instructions were given and the groups were assigned with a different task: Each group needs now to work on ONE of the five dimensions of the project and bring visual material as well.
Project in process….
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Halloween festivities are always great fun for children and an effective way to teach related vocabulary. This year we watched short informative videos on YouTube https://youtu.be/L_eAKG1paUk about the origin of Halloween and explained customs and traditions. But it didn’t stop there!
The following site gave me the idea of constructing a catapulting trick or treat basket and make a funny activity for my students. https://www.weareteachers.com/halloween-classroom-games-activities-crafts/
My educational scenario was the following: if you want to take a candy out of the box you need to throw a skull or a spider into the trick or treat basket using the catapult!
As a witch I got guided by a tricky spirit who got in my way all the time preparing my basket. Τhis functioned as a role play between the witch (me) and the spirit who wished to make the skill test more difficult! So as I was filling my trick or treat basket with candies, it prompted me to put spiders and skulls in the basket to discourage students to get the candies. This was actually a dialogue between me and myself as I was playing both roles by changing my voice but it made students laugh and cheer so it created a nice interactive atmosphere for the task. Progressively, all students tried their powers and managed to get their candies. They had three shots to achieve the goal and they were cheered on by their fellow students.
Needless to say that Halloween festivities lasted for three days as I’m teaching 3rd graders to 6th graders and all students wanted to test their catapulting skills and taste the candies!
For the 3rd graders there was also art and craft Halloween activity. We created ghosts, bats, black cats and halloween pumpkins for our in class poster and their personal cut-out on sticks to take home.
All in all, we really celebrated and had a happy Halloween this year!
OXI-DAY CELEBRATION
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
Cross-cultural Project: Time capsules
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:
- Greetings: These could be in simple phrases such as “hello”, “goodbye”
- 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.
- Favourite recipe: This could be given in a form of ingredients-instructions or they could find a picture of it.
- Map: This could be a picture from the internet.
- Landmarks: These can also be pictures coming from the internet and a very short text about their importance or history.
- Literature excerpts (my favourite one): Students bring some work or part of the work of the most well known writer of their country.
- Famous people ( I think students’ favourite piece of info): Students find pictures of famous singers, actors, painters, athletes etc.
- 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.
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.
State school books
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?
Project: My school
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:
