José de Sousa Saramago

José Saramago was a portuguese writer. He was born on 16 of November in 1922, in the village of Azinhaga and on 18 of June in 2010 he died. In 1947 José Saramago wrote his first book which he called A Viuva ( The Widow ) but, for editorial reasons, it would come out with the title of A Terra do Pecado ( The Land of Sin ). Six years later, in 1953, he finished the novel Claraboia, published only after his death. José won 6 awards, The Big Award by the Portuguese Writers Association in 1992, The Independent Foreign Fiction Award in 1993, The Camões Award and The Career Award of the Portuguese Authors Society in 1995, The Nobel Award of Literature in 1998 and The GajaGranada International Cooperation Award.

Investigate a book

K Torrisi has come up with a list called "Investigate A Book".
It combines Bloom’s, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and De Bono’s Six Hats to suggest activities for students. Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the link.

Introducing Yourself

Hello everyone,

Addressing students by their name is the first step in working successfully with a class. However, it isn’t that simple and it can be quite boring to simply have students asking their names several times. So here’s an activity you can use in your first class that will provide an enjoyable way to learn the children’s names even if they know each other already.

GRADE: 3rd and 4th

AIMS

·        create a stimulating learning environment

·        learning/revising the children’s name

·        learning/revising some vocabulary       

MATERIAL:

·        A4 sheets of paper

·        Coloured pencils, crayons or markers

PROCEDURE:

Hand out A4 paper sheets and tell students to fold the A4 paper into half.

On one side of the card write your name so everyone can see it

On the other side of the card draw something that begins with the same letter as your name. Eg. Patrícia Panda; Susana Sun; Luis Lion

Afterwards, have all students standing up and making a circle. Be the model and introduce yourself by saying “Hello, I’m Patricia Panda”(don’t forget to show the correct side of the card as you are introducing yourself.)

Then face the child on the right side and ask “What’s your name?”

The child, to whom the question has been made, replies:”Hello, I’m Susana Sun.” Then the “What’s your name?”question is made to the student, again on the right. Carry on the activity until each student has had a go.

***

Depending on the level of students you can make this activity into a more challenging one: the student who has to answer the question “What’s your name?” has to tell his/her name as well as the previous student(s).

Eg. Hello, I’m Susana Sun and she is Patricia Panda.

Or

Hello, I’m Susana Sun, she is Patricia Panda and he is Luis Lion.


:-D

Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers

Hello Everyone,

At Pilgrims I’ve attended Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers along with other 19 Primary English Teachers form a wide variety of countries. During the 2 week course the following topics were covered:

•  How children learn and develop
• Characteristics of young learners
• Teaching through Mulpiple Inteligences
• Instructions giving
• Emotions and learning
• Storytelling
• Songs and Games
• Developing the four linguistic skills
• CLIL
• Classroom management
• Adapting materials
• Learning through Arts and Crafts
• Using Drama
• Portfolio Assessement
• Dealing with Special Needs
• IT for teachers

As you can see, we learned quite a lot but we also shared teaching experiences and useful ideas which made our teaching and learning fun! Hopefully the same will happen to you! 

So enjoy this blog, feel free to put into practice the ideas that fit you and be so kind to give us feedback on your personal experience.

:-D

A Multisensory activity

This activity, which was done in our class by our teacher trainer Stefania Ballotto, appeals to different senses. It can show us the senses that are the most important ones for our students, it can give us the idea of how our students learn and it will certainly motivate them to speak when they compare their answers.
Intelligences involved: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, kinaesthetic, linguistic, visual/spatial, logical-mathematical.
The teacher chooses three different places in the classroom – place A, B and C. The students will have some paper and writing material and will have to go and stay at place A, B or C if they choose answer A, B or C in the following multiple choice exercise. Then the teacher dictates this:
Question 1 – Which do you prefer?
A. reading a book
B. smelling a book
C. hearing a book read to you?
When the students go to the place that corresponds to their choice, they will have to write two reasons why they have chosen that possibility. Then they can share their answers with the whole class.
Then, the same activity is repeated with other questions. Examples of possible questions are:
Question 2 – Which do you prefer?
A. kneading dough
B. smelling dough
C. tasting dough
Question 3 - Which do you prefer?
A. feeling the wind
B. seeing the wind
C. hearing the wind
Question 4 - Which do you prefer?
A. stroking a cat
B. watching a cat
C. hearing a cat purr

Activities connected with musical intelligence

These activities were suggested in class by our teacher trainer Stefania Ballotto.

Activity 1 – The students are asked to remember three important moments in their lives and to link a different music to each one of these moments.
They tell their partner about their choices.

Activity 2 – The students listen to a piece of instrumental music. The teacher asks them what colours they can see while they are listening. They compare their answers with their partner.

Activity 3 – The same music is played again. This time the students have to imagine objects and make a list. Students compare their lists.

Activity 4 - This time, while they are listening, the students have to imagine what is happening and they have to write it down.

Other questions can be asked like these, for example:
- What does the music remind you of?
- What feelings does the music bring?
- How do you think the artist felt when he was writing this piece of music?
- What title would you give to this piece of music?

Here there are no right or wrong answers. The students can say what they want. This can be done in pairs but it can also be done together. A lot of vocabulary will certainly be used. The teacher will write the new words on the board.
These activities involve a range of intelligences – intrapersonal, interpersonal, musical, visual/spatial and linguistic.

Some ideas on active listening

In a Workshop led by Mario Rinvolucri, I got some ideas on how to make the students more relaxed when they are listening to the teacher and, at the same time, make them actively participate in the activities.
Activity 1 – The teacher dictates one sentence and the student has to go on with the text, writing one or two more sentences that complete the first one.
Eg: Teacher: “He thought carefully and then opened the door quietly.”
The students compare their work in pairs.

Activity 2 – The teacher dictates one or two sentences and the student has to write the sentence before and after the teacher’s text.
Eg: Teacher: “She got to the top of the mountain. She could see for miles and miles”.
Students compare their work.

Activity 3 – The teacher reads a story and then after reading it, instead of asking questions about facts in the story, the teacher dictates some questions like these:
- When you were listening were your pictures still or moving?
- Were your pictures black and white or coloured?
- Were they big or small?
- Were your pictures blurred or well focused?
- Were they flat or with perspective?
- Did you ever become one of the people in the story?
- Where were you at the end of the story?
- (…)
Students discuss their answers with their partner. This makes them speak a lot about the story, recalling a lot of vocabulary, in a relaxed atmosphere.