“English” will possibly become more alive and lively through different learning techniques the teacher may include in his/her lessons. What about offering the student the possibility of facing real life English in a real life situation? The task requires complex organisation. Nevertheless, the results are worthwhile. That’s why we have discussed the process in order to put into practice a real life simulation activity today.
First, the topic must be chosen carefully so that it attracts the students’ interest. Television or radio programmes are usually an appealing option for a teenager since, who hasn’t dreamed to be a news broadcaster in his/her adult life? And that’s what we are going to sort out today, we are going to allow students to dream for a while, but they will dream by means of their English.
Second, the task must be introduced properly so it is correctly understood. We may endow the students with some previous activities pre-teaching vocabulary, provide preceding discussion activities dealing with their own interests in or everyday habits towards certain radio programmes, etc.
Third, we will organize the groups, the roles, set the concrete situation where they have to work out their own news programme and present the activity with some details which make it most interesting: while they are preparing their programme (which is required to last exactly, exactly ten minutes) for example, lots of news letters, opinion letters, advertisement information… will be arriving regularly in such a way that the group of students will have to decide hurriedly which ones are going to be on, which ones are going to be left out, which ones are going to be kept just in case, which ones should be rewritten, if there will be headlines, which ones will be useful for an interview…etc. (As they are real life journalists who have to fix the most attention-grabbing radio programme of the day)
And then, after a time of preparation, they will be given their opportunity to be on the local or national network. They will be given the opportunity to dream and enjoy English while their mates are listening to them or/and the teacher is recording them.
Of course, after this listening, writing, speaking and reading activity the teacher may draw attention to different aspects such as the different ways of classifying the news information detected in the different groups, the ways of summarizing a piece of news, grammar, pronunciation mistakes… etc.
See you after “Fallas”. By Adelaida Blasco.

Repte als profes d'anglés

DIDÀCTICA DE L’ANGLÉS: English alive. Dimarts a les 17.30 a la seu del CEFIRE de Sagunt, a partir del 17/01/06. Amb Tim Herdon.

How do we get students to see English as a living language used all over the world, and not just another school subject, imprisoned in a textbook? By getting them to use it as a tool of communication. This refresher course for teachers of English will explore different ways of providing students with opportunities to practise and improve their oral English, in situations that they find stimulating and motivating. We will work on a range of different activities such as role plays, drama activities, simulations and games. All the activities are transferable to different teaching situations and part of the course will focus on teachers designing their own tasks for speaking activities. The workshops will be highly practical in character and so participants will have the opportunity to extend their own speaking skills.

¿Cómo lograr que los alumnos vean el inglés como idioma vivo utilizado en todo el mundo, y no solo como una asignatura más, encarcelada en un libro de texto? Haciendo que lo utilicen como herramienta de comunicación. En este curso de reciclaje para profesores de inglés se investigarán diferentes maneras de proporcionar a los alumnos oportunidades para practicar y mejorar su inglés oral, en situaciones que les resulten estimulantes y motivadoras. Trabajaremos una gama de actividades diferentes como los “roleplays”, las actividades dramáticas, las simulaciones y los juegos. Todas las actividades propuestas son transferibles a diferentes situaciones educativas y una parte del curso enfocará el diseño propio de actividades para la práctica oral por parte de los profesores. Los talleres serán de carácter muy práctico, así los participantes tendrán la posibilidad de ampliar sus propias habilidades orales.

English alive

La setmana passada començàrem el curs amb Tim Herdon titolat "English alive" amb unes expectatives interessants. El taller s'articula a partir del projecte de treball "The stories in our life" i s'acompanya d'una pràctica d'actualització lingüística, complementada amb reflexions didàctiques sobre el tema de les narracions orals com a vehicle per a planificar les nostres sessions.

Cada setmana una persona del curs farà un resum de la sessió per tal que tothom sàpiga que anem fent. Acompanyarem el post amb alguns enllaços/hipervincles relatius als aspectes treballats. Tim va mostrar les seues dots per a la narració oral amb el llibre Orange Pear Apple Bear, d'Emily Gravett. Esperem escoltar cada setmana una bona història que ens servirà per a portar-la a l'aula. Aquesta setmana el resum l'ha fet fet Pilar Sotos:

First of all, we introduce ourselves in a peculiar way since apart from personal information we said one characteristic differentiating us from the rest of people.

Then, we concentrate on storytelling as a didactic way to teach, we reflect on stories’ elements, conventions and how useful can be to use stories as a didactic resource.

We work in groups to reconstruct one of Chaucer’s stories “The Wife of Bath”: we reorder and comment on the story from different points of view: a priest, a prostitute, a wise woman…… this activity is quite interesting and funny for us.

Tim tells us a joke and then asks for us to invent a new end for the joke but keeping the original sense of it.

Finally, we write our expectations about this course.
It seems the course is going to be original, funny and useful for us as teachers.

WEBGRAFIA:
- The children's Literature Book Club (blog molt animat sobre literatura per xiquets).
- Fomento a la lectura (La Comunitat de Múrcia fa temps que va incorporar l'animació lectora com a "matèria optativa" d'oferiment obligatori als centres i els resultats no s'han fet esperar. Una bona pràctica de la qual aprendre).
- Short Stories in English (Un wiki on compartir històries curtes).

English alive 1

Tim Herdon Sagunt, Tuesday 17th January 2006

If you like communication, practising English and education this is the perfect course for you. I felt so happy before, during and after going to the Cefire that afternoon because it’s as if we were abroad in a summer course learning and having good time.
In order to introduce ourselves Tim proposed some short, funny activities:
- Say a few sentences about our lives.
- Stand in a line following the alphabetic order of our names: Antoni, Àngels, Anna, Isabel, Nydia, Marta A, Marta G, Pilar, Rosa and Tim.
- We have to stand considering whether we live near or far from the centre of Valencia.
- The same activity but following the order of our birthday’s month.

After that warm up Tim started a short but interesting reflection about language learning and he asked us if we consider that that involves learning knowledge or learning skills or the two of them and we all chose the last option.

Good communication involves:
-Using linguistic systems: phonology, grammar, vocabulary.
- Showing awareness of function.
- Showing awareness of social and cultural rules.
- Using communication strategies.
And we checked all that with a practical example, asking for a beer in an English pub. Tim explained that teaching in a communicative way is like learning cycling. So we all jumped into the pool without any planning and we started doing the role play with different situations Tim proposed working in pairs. We realize that we get humour, fun, confidence, the use of all the skills doing that and they allow the students to show their own personality or try to be another different one if they want.
A good communication activity needs some conflict. Otherwise there is calm, peace, like Japanese people that are not so talkative as we are. So Tim has made us work in two teams and choose a representative who sits down in a chair facing the other and behind the representative the rest of the group giving ideas. This situation was as if we’re in a clothes shop and a customer wants to return a jumper because it has one sleeve longer than the other and the seller can’t do that because the manager is out at that moment. We change three times each representative and find lots of fun and use different resources.
The last activity was very interesting too. We worked together in threes, we had a letter to Holmes asking for help in a strange case. We were in three teams and each one worked on a different letter and then we changed groups and mixed them. The new group knows the contents of the three letters and it is like a jigsaw, so we find the solution to the case.
To finish the first session we wrote a letter to Tim setting out our expectations for this course and we exchanged our e-mail addresses.

By Pilar Puerto

Taller de competència lingüística en anglés

En aquest curs hem decidit que cada dimarts intentarem posar-vos un resum del que ha estat la sessió anterior. Un professor-a s'encarregarà de fer aquesta tasca (moltes gràcies a tots ells i elles pel compromís) i aprofitarem per enllaçar una pàgina relacionada amb el tema o amb la didàctica de l'anglés en general. De mostra un botó:

http://www.onestopenglish.com/

During the first session, Tim Herdon started off by introducing himself and the main aim of the course. This being, the improvement of our command of the English language, as well as the development of linguistic strategies which could afterwards be used on our daily teaching practice.

Once this had been settled, Tim continued by telling us how the session was going to develop and which were the topics we were going to be dealing with during the three hours the session was to last. Beginning by introducing ourselves, then we were to deal with “Possibility and Probability”, which was to be followed by a ten minute break, and lastly, we would do an activity related to literature. The session was to finish with a conclusion in which each of us wrote our expectations on the course and which could be the topics or activities more appealing to our tastes and needs.

The first task, namely, introducing ourselves, was carried out through a series of activities. First, we sat on a cemicircle and said our names. Then, we stood up and we had to say the name of the person on our left and on our right. While on the circle, we made a ball of paper and had to throw it and say the name of the person receiving it. Finally, the person receiving the ball was the one who had to say the name of the one throwing the ball.

Once, we knew each other’s names, we had to try to speak to as many components of the group as we could. We did so by arranging ourselves in a line according to the kilometres we had walked or driven that week. Once this activity was over, and in couples or threes, we had to write three numbers and say why we had chosen them. Finally, we told the group what our partner had told us.

The next task was a content one related to “Possibility and Probability”. Tim showed us a series of pictures and we had to make sentences and guess what we thought they were. We obviously did so by using modals of possibility and probability. Then, and in order for us to reinforce our knowledge of these modal verbs, we carried out a series of written activities which had the rules of usage of these verbs. Finally, we were to make up a story based on some hints Tim gave us, and we put into practice what we had just learnt on possibility ans probability.

After the break, we were given little cardboard cards which we were to arrange according to its content. Each group had afterwards to explain which had been the pattern followed. Finally, each group summarized the contents which were regarding different books. This activity was to help us choose the book we all have to read during the course.

The session ended up by our writing of the topics we would like to see, activities we would like to do, and so on and so forth. The course is highly orientated towards the improvement of the comand of the English language, as well as towards the reinforcement of grammatical and other aspects which can be very helpful in order to achieve this end.

by Mª Jesús Julià Bayarri

English through films

Laura, Pilar i Rosa del curs "Englihs alive" han creat un Seminari de treball i estan elaborant materials per a treballar la didàctica de l'anglés a través dels films. Ací teniu un dels PPT que han elaborat per al film Nightmare before Christmas.

També han creat un blog des d'on volen compartir amb tots nosaltres les idees, experiències i recursos que sobre les festes populars i el cinema troben per aplicar a l'àmbit de l'assignatura d'anglés. El nou blog s'anomena, com no, English through films, visiteu-les>>>

Storytelling

It was half past four in the afternoon. I had just woken up from my nap and I was yawning and stretching. Grrr! I was tired and I didn’t really want to go anywhere, not even to the English course, but Shhh! Don’t tell the Tim! I told my husband, I’m not going to the course, but he was like: Tut-tut!, come on, you cheeky little girl, “you’d better leg it over to Sagunto and do what you have to do”. Well, I shrugged and that’s how I ended up writing this summary of last session.

We began with a warm-up activity. Following Simon’s instructions (what a bossy person this Simon is!) we spent some minutes standing up, touching our left ear with out right hand, jumping, sitting down, etc. At the end, it became a sort of contest and Enna won. (As in the film: The Immortals, she was the only one left). Second, we did an activity about idioms with parts of the body, for example: give a hand, face the facts, etc.

Then, we continued with some activities from the book: 700 Classroom Activities by David Seymour. First, we learned some vocabulary related to body movements and gestures like: smack, nudge, wink, frown, etc. We were divided into groups. Each group prepared definitions for some of the words and the other group had to find out which words they were talking about. It was a fun way to learn this sort of words. After that, we learnt some exclamations related to feelings. Some of them are similar to ours like Shhh!, Mmm and others are completely different like Ouch! (to express a kind of little pain, when someone pushes you, for example) or Oi! (to call someone’s attention when s/he is about to do something wrong).

During the break, someone said something about a “chutney.” I didn’t really get what it was so here is the dictionary definition: a pickle of Indian origin, made from fruit, vinegar, spices, sugar,etc. Then Tim suggested a gastronomic session. Please Tim, don’t forget it. I commit myself to cook something, maybe nachos dip or brownies (or maybe both).

After the break we became overwhelmed by the enormous amount of onomatopoeic sounds that the English language has, animal noises, metallic noises, non-metallic noises: purr, tinkle, thud, etc. Finally, we learned some interesting things about our senses. First, we tried to answer some questions related to senses as for example why we don’t like the sound of nails against the blackboard. Then, Tim gave us a text where we could find some possible answers to these questions. During the discussion of the text some interesting questions arose such as: are human beings the only ones that have sex for pleasure and not only for reproductive purposes? There wasn’t a general agreement on the answer. With these philosophical questions about human and animal nature we “almost” ended the lesson, and I say “almost” because the real end came when Tim played a Buenavista Social Club song and we all had to dance and follow the rhythm of the song with exclamations and onomatopoeic words. Quite an interesting way to put into practice what we had just learnt!

by Carolina

Aquest resum de Carolina en forma de conte ens suggereix que el contar contes a l'aula de llengua és una activitat molt eficaç didàcticament i que els ensenyants de llengua hauríem de saber utilitzar. Ací teniu un enllaç sobre el tema STORYTELLING.

OHP

It was our third day going to Sagunto for our English Alive! classes. Everyone was feeling so cold… but then Tim arrived, he told everyone to stand up, and we started with the warming up… nothing similar to what one can be thinking of for an English lesson, but really useful to get in touch with your students!!!
The activity goes as follows: The teacher gets an object (in this case first it was a pen, and then a chair!). The students, and the teacher, stand in a circle. The aim is to find a different use for these objects… a pen can be a toothpick, or a microphone! And a chair can be a formula one car, or an umbrella!
Next, as everyone is standing up, we did an exercise we were already familiar with. This can be useful with students, they can identify what they are going to do and feel more confident. We did some sentence ordering, each one of us was a different word, (the teacher whispers the word to the student) and we had to order the sentence but without saying the word, guessing where our place might be. This was the first contact with miming this lesson…
Continuing with miming, the teacher cuts up a story which they have previously studied in class, in this case we met “Willy the Kid” again. Each student is given a piece of this story and without speaking they have to get the story in order (lining up in chronological order). Once they are in order, the first one will mime the scene he/she has, and the person on his/ her left will tell the story, so that they practice some grammar -for instance, past tenses-.
And finally we sat down! The class continued with putting things together… a poem by D.H. Lawrence was the material, verses had been cut apart by the teacher, now the students had to rearrange them, and more than one order was possible here, so students have to think of the reasons why they put one verse first and the other one next.
We had not used the overhead projector (OHP) yet… it was time for a story, A lot To Learn. So working with the OHP, the story was revealed little by little, and we were guessing what could come next, surprisingly (or maybe not) we guessed practically all of them!).

Think about INFERENCE for a moment: thinking of what will come next.
Next, we jumped to the past, to the Phoenicians, and we had to barter, that is, exchange our goods for something we need, without money. We had a text (in pieces, of course!) and were divided in groups. The teacher gives out, at random, 10 paragraphs to each group. The game consists of bartering with the other groups so as to complete your text, but there are two different texts going around, so one must be careful and only get those the group needs. Here students will practice speaking and listening.

To finish up with the exercises, we did some more miming. Imagine you are in a Hotel reception and you are the customer, but you are dumb. You need to communicate some very important things to the receptionist… you need to mime the actions! Two groups, one representative from each group will mime each sentence. The competition is on!
To end the class we discussed a little how we could apply these techniques with our students, some of us have already tried, and we have been really successful!
And remember, whenever you feel cold… you need to move your whole body, so stand up and jump, run, clap your hands…MOVE!

*Inference (From Wikipedia): Inference is the act or process of drawing a conclusion based solely on what one already knows. Suppose you see rain on your window - you can infer from that, quite trivially, that the sky is grey. Looking out the window would have yielded the same fact, but through a process of perception, not inference.

WORKING WITH STORIES: Common points

It was another long Tuesday evening. The day had been hard for all of us, struggling to make our students learn some English. Probably knowing this, tim decided to start the lesson with a kind of joke, English humour? Could be. He pretended to tell us a story with a happy ending which happened to have a terrible and shocking ending, in fact. It was a story about an Englishman killed by the elephant he thought was a friend of him. Nice, isn't it?
After this funny introduction, we began working seriously. Tim told us to reviewed the stories we had seen in the previous lessons: the letter by Ian Brown: "The Old Days", the article about the Pacific Islanders and the story of The Rabbits. We did the following:
First, we discussed the topics or ideas of the stories in groups of two. Then, we tried to find common ideas for two of the stories and finally, we looked for the common point in all three stories. This apparently simple activity led us to a wild discussion about changes in society, about nature and civilization, about good and bad… and so on. Therefore, when Tim saw that the discussion was becoming wild and philosophical, as if Plato or Rousseau had abducted us, he had the excellent idea of stopping us. At that time, we really needed a break!
After the break, being more relaxed, we continued with the lesson. We began working on "The Crocodile Blues", which we had read in a previous lesson. Tim gave us the texts we had written about the story and while he was reading his own version, in pairs, we edited our texts making some changes we thought were suitable. At the end of the activity, Tim made some comments about the importance of making our students interact with texts. As an example, he told us to make our students write not the exact words we are dictating, to make them do some paraphrasing.
The lesson ended with a game intended to make us remember the onomatopoeic words we had learnt with "The Crocodile Blues" story. Tim read a poem, "The Sound Collector" then we were divided into two groups. One part of a group had to remember, without writing, the onomatopoeic words they were hearing and the others had to remember the household items associated to these sounds in the poem. At the very end of the lesson, Tim read the poem "Gruesome". And that's how the lesson finished, with some of us wondering what "gruesome" meant, others not knowing what was better: nature or civilization, and some others probably thinking they had to improve their onomatopoeic vocabulary. I

Carolina Rodriguez Contreras

Two brain hemispheres

The session today started with an exercise to practice the connection between the two brain hemispheres. As you know the right hemisphere rules the left part of our body and vice-versa. Sometimes the orders given by one hemisphere come into conflict with the orders given by the other one because our sight sense sends deceitful signals to the brain. We could prove that with the following exercises:

All of us were sat down in a circle with both hands on the table and with the fingers extended. We had to tap the table once in order: first one hand and then the other one keeping on the next person and following a direction. If somebody tapped the table twice, the direction changed.
Then we crossed our arms with the classmates on either side of us in such a way that our hands were as follows: - my left hand, my classmate’s right hand, my classmate’s left hand, my right hand., and so on. We had to tap the table in the same way as the previous exercise and made a lot of mistakes because when we were looking at one hand we thought it was ours, but it wasn’t.

Following this we did an exercise with an object, for example a pen. We had to pass it to the person on the right hand with this dialogue:
a) “This is a pen” (and giving it)
b) “A what? (holding it)
a) “ A pen”
b) “Ahhhh… a pen!

Then this person does the same with the following but the question “A what?” is made to all the people who had passed the pen before and all of them answer “A pen”. The game became more difficult when we did it with two objects: a pen and a phone. The pen in one direction and the phone to the contrary. It was very fun and mistakable.

After that and in pairs we did a doodle, which consists of letting your hand draw lines freely on a piece of paper, with no aim at all. We usually do it when we are thinking, listening to a speech.., and things like that. We doodled with the two hands at the same time on an A-3 worksheet making a symmetrical picture first one person on the left side and later the other person on the right. When we finished we repeated it to connect both drawings.

In the next activity we were given some vocabulary concerning the sense of touch. We worked on some words, for instance tickle, stroke, nudge, thump, sniff, slap, munch, smack, pinch, squeeze, rub, clap, pat, hug, frisk, shove, wink and scratch. We mimed them. Tim told us all these words are nouns and verbs, except munch, clap, frisk, spit and tickle which are only verbs.

Then, three of our classmates, Juan Pedro, Mª Paz and Enna did their book reviews. Juan Pedro and Mª Paz before the breaktime and Enna later. By the way, Enna had prepared two Lebanese recipes to eat during the breaktime and they were very tasty. Congratulations Enna!

Next, Tim gave us a worksheet to keep about examples of cooking words when they are used with a metaphorical meaning. And to continue we moved on to metaphors connected with light and the sense of sight. In pairs again we matched some examples of metaphors with the following categories:
- Visibility and lack of visibility
- Understanding
- Complexity
- Goodness
- Badness
- Uncertainty

To finish the session we listened to the song “Always look on the bright side of life” by Monty Python from the film “The Life of Brian” (see the YouTube). We whistled the chorus and filled ten gaps with the missing words.

by Mª Luisa Blasco Casas

El curs de Competència lingüística (en anglés) s'acaba ací fins a setembre, que tindrem el de English alive que també impartirà Tim Herdon. Entreu a la pàgina del CEFIRE per a veure detalls. L'evaluació ha estat molt positiva i nosaltres destacaríem l'habilitat de Tim per incloure aspectes metodològics relacionats amb l'art, ja siga la música, la plàstica, l'expressió corporal o la dramatització (veieu els posts de cada dimarts) com es proposa a aquest Museums of the Mind.

Front a una realitat escolar que ens demana cada vegada més dominar les estratègies comunicatives de dinamització pensem que necessitem exemples de persones sensibles no només a les llengües en contacte sinó també als diferents llenguatges expressius.

An Inspiring Session

Last Tuesday 30th was a cold and grey afternoon not at all inspiring for attending the week session of English Alive. When I arrived there I saw smiling faces, some of them confessed liking this kind of “British weather”, romantic people I guess or maybe just crazy. Anyway, I was encouraged by their happy faces for a while until Tim said that Russian people smile a lot in winter, not because they are happy but because it’s the only way to prevent their faces from freezing up. Then I understood my partner’s smiles. However, I didn’t have time to moan (to myself) because the teacher quickly lead us kindly (and craftily) to the first task.

We first commented on two articles: one written by an inspiring teacher and the other one written by one of his students. The task was followed by a debate about the most important qualities in a good teacher. Most of us agreed that an inspiring teacher should be understanding, patient and somebody who likes students (but does not necessary love them). Our opinions were contrasted immediately afterwards with ten commandments for motivating language learners provided by the teacher and which we had to rank ourselves. As a result, most of the teachers agreed that making the classes interesting and creating a good atmosphere in the classroom was crucial for motivating students. Therefore, we concluded that learning should be enjoyable and meaningful (not necessarily fun) and it was surprising to realize that fifty years ago not many teachers would have reached the same conclusions.
In this way we were approaching some of the keys for becoming or being closer to being inspiring teachers.
Finally we took a further step into inspiration and creativity to find ourselves writing our own variation of a poem by Walt Whitman (or better destroying it. Sorry Walt). This task exemplified to perfection how easily you can encourage students to work with language by means of an enjoyable challenge. We were all playful and excited writing our lines. A nice spectacle to watch! Or were the smiles in last Tuesday’s session due to the cold weather after all?
by Enna

WEB RECOMANADA: com veieu el curs de didàctica de l'anglés està molt animat. Les activitats de reflexió sobre la nostra pràctica docent afegeixen motivació i desig de participar. A més, una de les activitats interessants consistia en una introducció a la poesia en classe de llengua, és per això que us volem recomanar un bon portal de poesia en l'eduació, per si algú s'anima a seguir l'exemple:

The Poetry Society

Friends, Books, Food and Music to say go on working Teachers!

Com sabeu hem acabat el curs de "Competència lingüística" amb Tim Herdon i ara només ens queda referir-vos al proper curs de didàctica de l'anglés "English alive" que farem el 1r trimestre del proper curs o als altres cursos de metodologia didàctica (dramatització, web educativa, animació lectora) o a les Jornades. Ara només queda agrair a totes les persones que han participat al curs la seua predisposició i demanar-vos que estu atents a les eines didàctiques que anirem presentant ací al blog i que us poden ser d'utilitat per la planificació de les classes. Per exemple, ací teniu el PowerPoinT de Pilar Puerto per a la seus exposició sobre les lectures que cada alumne del curs va preparar, i altres de l'àmbit lingüístic en Slide Share, un programa específic per a pujar PPT on line (està considerat el YouTube dels PPT). Compte! Si voleu pujar PPT més grans necessiteu el pptminimizer.


Today’s the 1st (for last thursday) of March and we’re going to have the last session of Tim’s course.
What do you think teenagers, apartheid, nutmeg, Brooklyn, family, tapenade and songs like “Our house” have in common?
The answer is... that all this you can find it if you follow us. Have you guess it?
It’s our last session and we`ve plenty of things to do. Tim’s infected us by his enthusiasm and the way all becomes more attractive.
So we’ve started listening about the books our mates have choosen to read. Remember the aim was to read something we don’t usually read, something different.

The first one is Raquel talking about “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. She’s told us that she hasn’t liked this book because it is so depressive and repetitive. Tim explains that it is based on the point of view of teenagers and that is very popular among them.and that perphaps Raquel is a very optimistic woman far away from that perception

Marisa has the same feeling reading “Riotous Assembly” by Tom Sharpe, she hasn’t enjoyed reading it because it’s a kind of black humour that she doesn’t share.

However Begoña Fe-Castell has enjoyed reading “Nathamel’s Nutmeg” by Giles Milton, an interesting historical fiction book. With a power-point presentation she introduces us the author, plot, characters and place in an attractive way.

After her MªJesús, doing a big effort to come today (she’s been ill and we hope she gets well when she reads that), has told us about “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith, a story about two different families: one liberal, the other one conservative and two cultures: British and American. She’s really enjoyed reading that book because she must be guessing all the time and the more you read the more you find, it’s made her think.

Begoña Martí tells us about Paul Auster and his book “The Brooklyn Foolish”. According to her opinion it’s a macrostory full of microstories that is a metanovel. She explains that it’s an extremely optimistic novel where everything ends happily. She recommends us to read it in an intensively way.

At the end Tim summarizes the experience:
We’ve read and worked about: historical fiction, modern fiction, authors never heard of, two plays, a parabole, themes distant from our own experience…
We all agree we’ve found the whole process very interesting: selecting, reading, preparing the presentation, listening to the other companions. We’ve shared interesting ideas and attended to a wide range of presentations. So it has been very gratifying and enriching.

As we were very happy and we wanted to celebrate all that, we've drank beer and ate “tapenade”, following with the inicial idea someone has had to bring some special food to taste at the break time. Thanks you to the cooks!

The end has been with music: “Our house” and “We’re family”.

See you soon at the dinner we’ve planned next 28th March, contact with Toni at the CEFIRE.
And don’t forget all that we’ve shared if you also want to enjoy with your students.

by Pilar Puerto

PALE fase III

Comencem la III fase dels PALE amb una programació específica que ha de girar al voltant de tres aspectes claus en la formació del professorat de llengües en general i d'aquells que utilitzen una llengua estrangera per a programar unitats didàctiques o projectes de treball específics:

1. La competència digital. No de forma aillada sinó integrada amb la resta de competències bàsiques de la LOE.
2. Desenvolupament d'estratègies basades en l'AICLE Aprenentatge Integrat de Llengües i Continguts.
3. Elaboració d'unitats didàctiques (en funció de les competències bàsiques).

Els del PALE d'ITALIÀ (blog, wiki) ja han creat una xarxa web des de la que podreu veure els materials que van elaborant per introduir l'ensenyament d'una llengua estrangera. Més endavant els del PALE d'ANGLÉS també afegiran els seus treballs a la xarxa d'internet.

A continuació us posem algunes referències sobre didàctica de l'anglés per tal que orienteu la vostra recerca de materials a partir de propostes que ja s'han posat de manera eficaç per altres col·lectius de professors:

- Referències sobre didàctica de l'anglés al llarg d'aquests tres anys que estem impartint el curs "English alive" i que podeu trobar a aquest blog.

- Enllaços arreplegats al MARCADOR SOCIAL de L'ÀMBIT LINGÜÍSTIC de l'assessoria de Sagunt relacionats amb la didàctica de l'anglés.

- Xarxa social de professors de llengües estrangeres interessats per la didàctica.

Storytelling

In the last session of English alive we worked with the story: The rabbits.

See John Marsden's homepage

The rabbits is a deeply impressing book both regarding the story and the pictures. Once more Tim showed us that children’s literature is not just for children and that books with pictures should not be always in the children’s section at bookshops.

The book tells the story of the arrival of a group of rabbits to an unknown place inhabited by other animals. It is always seen from the perspective of the other animals that merely observe the incomers.

The book is an allegory of colonisation and of the arrival of Englanders to Northern America which deeply changed the way of life of the natives. The book faces us directly with the issue of the use of natural resources and the destruction of the environment. Tim gave us a nice worksheet to work on so that we drew attention to the detailed pictures and extract conclusions. The gradual way in which we worked was great!

Programació 07-08

Ja tenim preparada la programació dels tallers per al curs 2007-08 Veureu que hem posat el focus en les tècniques dramàtiques pel seu potencial en la resolució de conflictes a l'aula, com a recolzament per a les tutories, i per desenvolupar tots els aspectes d'educació emocional que contribuisquen a la millora de la convivència als centres educatius.

D'ací a poc la trobareu a la pàgina del CEFIRE de Sagunt per poder inscriure-vos. De moment us la pengem ací perquè aneu planificant-vos el proper trimestre.

• La dramatització com a eina didàctica. Dimecres de gener a març.
• De tarimes i escenaris (curs pràctic per a professors i professores que volen pujar a escena). Dimarts del mes de gener.
• Dionisíaques: tècniques de teatre clàssic a l'aula. Primera setmana del mes d'abril.
• XIII Jornades de didàctica de la dramatització. Darrer dissabte del mes de maig.
• Didàctica de l'anglés. English alive. Dimarts del primer trimestre del 2008.

Més endavant us posarem la informació dels altres cursos de l'àmbit lingüístic que estem preparant, dels cursos sobre P.A.L.E. i d'altres sobre competències en l'àrea de llengües i literatura segons la L.O.E.

Dia europeu de les llengües

Demà, 26 de setembre de 2006, celebrarem el DIA EUROPEU DE LES LLENGÜES organitzat pel Consell d'Europa. Els objectius d'aquest dia europeu de les llengües és molt similar als que buscàrem l'any passat amb el curs Italià per a principiants de Gianpiero Pellegi i el d'English alive amb Tim Herdon, que enguany repetirem a partir de gener. Aquests no són altres que:

• Despertar el desig de tothom en general i del professorat en particular envers la importància de l'aprenentatge de llengües.
• Sensibilitzar a les persones sobre la importància de totes les llengües parlades a Europa i al món.
• Animar a tots i en particular al "professorat de llengua" a aprendre noves llengües al llarg de tota la vida.

Com haureu vist hem fet nostres els presupòsits d'aquesta efemèrides i els hem adaptat al nostre destinatari que sou tots i totes vosaltres profes de llengua. La reflexió final seria:

"Els profes de llengua que estan aprenent una altra llengua, forçosament han de reflexionar sobre les seues formes d'ensenyament-aprenentatge"

Declaració de Roa per la integració de les TIC en l'educació

Com ens hagués agradat participar en el 1rEncuentro de Edublogs però obligacions professionals ens ho han impedit. Amb tot, teníem la certesa de què per mitjà de les TIC al servei de la comunitat educativa, ens arribaria puntual informació sobre les conclusions. Efectivament ací les tenim en les diferents llengües de l'Estat i arreplegant el millor esperit de l'escola pública. Com sabeu els que heu participat a les activitats de l'Àmbit Lingüístic del CEFIRE de Sagunt, enguany hem donat un gran impuls a la utilització de les TIC en tots els nostres cursos (els blocs de Didàctica de la dramatització, del d'English alive, Chiodo schiaccia chiodo, Blosisbloc, el grup de google italianoperprincipianti, etc.), a més hem contribuït a dinamitzar el planeta dels blocs de primària de Sagunt que prompte veureu créixer. De moment, vaja per endavant aquesta reflexió dels companys blocfessors, reunits a Roa, mentre preparem les conclusions que des de la nostra assessoria us presentarem com a cloenda del curs 2005-06.

Declaració de Roa per la integració de les TIC en l'educació

L'efectiva incorporació a la Societat de la Informació i la Comunicació ha de ser un objectiu prioritari per a qualsevol sistema educatiu i per a qualsevol país. La institució educativa ha d’assumir la responsabilitat d’aconseguir l’alfabetització digital i l’accés de la ciutadania a les TIC. Però la integració de les TIC necessita un impuls molt més decidit per part de tota la comunitat educativa; en conseqüència, el professorat reunit en Roa realitza la següent declaració per la integració de les TIC en l’ensenyament.

1. La incorporació de les TIC facilita l’aprenentatge i la comunicació de tota la comunitat educativa, i resulta un objectiu irrenunciable.

2. És necessària una política decidida de les administracions educatives perquè les TIC formin part del currículum i s’integrin en ell amb competències definides.

Per continuar llegint o llegir en altres llengües entreu ací>>>

“Creativitat i muntillenguatges”

XI JORNADES de DIDÀCTICA de la DRAMATITZACIÓ
“Creativitat i muntillenguatges”
Organitza: CEFIRE de Sagunt i A.V.E.C. Col·labora: Ajuntament de L’Eliana

Dissabte 20 de maig
LLOC: Centre Socio-Cultural de L’Eliana

Coferència -10 h. José Luís Alonso de Santos "Del texto al espectáculo"

Tallers - 11.45 a 14.30 h.

• English trough Drama (Tim Herdon),
• Jocs creatius amb objectes reciclats (Guixot de 8),
• Italià per a principiants (Gianpiero Pelegi),
• El llenguatge de la dansa (Richard Kobena),
• De les narracions orals i la música popular (Rodamóns Teatre),
• Entorns virtuals d’E/A a l’aula (Begonya Mezquita i Amadeu Sanz).

Posada en comú, comunicacions i Clonclusions – 16.00 a 19.30 h. Coordinada per Valentí Piñot

Espectacle de cloenda (gratuït i obert) les 22.30 h.
“Illes flotants” per TrENcACLoSQuEs

Music and songs in the classroom

For our last English Alive session at the CEFIRE of Sagunt we looked at ways of using music and songs in the classroom. The activities fell into four different categories.

First we looked at ways of working on the text of the song. We listened to Abba’s “The Winner Takes it All” and filled in the gaps. Then we moved on to “I Will Survive”, and this time we had to spot which words in the lyrics had been changed and provide the correct word. One or two of us mentioned what associations the song had for us: for one it was a song played at her wedding reception, for another it recalled a group of women having a great time in a disco, dancing around a pile of handbags on the floor. It was also pointed out that this was another song about resentment (female) over a relationship that has ended. Finally we looked at “You’re So Vain” also with gaps but with clues about the missing word (e.g. a kind of animal, a weather phenomenon etc). Using these clues and predicting the rhymes we saw that students could work on their inferencing skills with this activity. Unfortunately it was yet another song about female indignation and male insensitivity. Where are all the songs about caring, intelligent men?

The next two activities involved moving around to song. First we used “Everybody Needs Somebody” for an activity with large cards. As you heard the word on your card you had to raise it above your head (the person with the word “you” was particularly busy). A fun activity that works well with a fast song with a lot of repetition in the lyrics. And great fun if the teacher forgets to bring the actual music and agrees, despite the risk to the windows, to sing it instead. The second activity was a kind of musical chairs: words from the song were spread all over the floor and tables and you had to rush to put your hand or foot on the right word when the music stopped. Not good for people with claustrophobia.

The third kind of activity was about responding to music, regardless of the lyrics. Everyone paired up to mime cooking pancakes together. Each pair had to cook in a way that reflected the mood of their particular musical excerpt. Hilarious performances from one pair miming to a march from Puccini’s La Boheme and another pair that turned cooking pancakes into a sensual, samba experience… I haven’t laughed so much for ages.

But of course the best thing to do with songs is actually sing them, and if possible with others. It has been said that group singing combines three benefits in one: physical (controlled breathing), artistic (musical self-expression) and social (group cooperation). So we ended the session, and the course, with a song. Adapted from a Zulu freedom song called Akanamandle, we sang: “He’s got no power over us no more,
He’s Got no power, Hallelujah.” Although a political song, it seemed also to fit the unplanned sub-theme of the day:– women breaking away from men.

And as we said our goodbyes, we all promised to see each other again for dinner in Valencia.

NOTA: Tim Herdon donarà un taller en les XI Jornades de Didàctica de la Dramatització (entreu a l'àrea d'Àmbit Lingüístic del CEFIRE de Sagunt i ja podeu fer la inscripció).

Writing activities

1. Last Tuesday we started with a funny warm-up activity called “Lateral Thinking Problems” where Tim told us a piece of a story with missing information and we had to guess it. We had to guess through questions but the answers could only be “yes” or “no”. If we went directly to the answer we would probably fair so we had to ask as many questions as we could. This was also a Task-Based Learning activity in order to introduce us to the main activities.
   One of these activities was: “A man goes into the bar and asks for a glass of water. The barman doesn’t give him a glass of water and instead of that he shows him a gun. The man says thanks and left the bar”.
   After that, Tim gave us a long list of similar PUZZLE STORIES and some IDEAS FOR WRITING ACTIVITIES. For example, we can mention the followings:
   1. Written arguments / conversations: Give everyone situation and first line; they pass papers to the right and write a reply, then pass back to the left and continue the argument / conversation.
   2. Thank-you letters that don’t name the gift / favour. Others have to guess what it is. And finally, for example:
   3. My life story: can be spread over several sessions, with more stuck on walls each time.
   Before going deeply with the writing activities we sat in pairs and we discussed some statements according to the way we have to correct or to introduce a writing activity. We reached that “In England everyone is a cyclist while here in Spain we are all mechanics and we don’t know how to ride a bicycle”. Because English students differs from Spanish ones that they are focused on speaking and writing instead of grammar.
   The following activity was a Pre-Writing Activity getting students to think before they written assessment: Tim gave us a topic (hobbies) and we wrote down our favourite hobby: “My hobby is collecting cinema tickets”. Each piece of paper passed round and a new question added each time, e.g. “Do you go to special places to buy or find them?”. These questions then form the framework of the main writing activity and we have to tell to the rest what is our hobby and answer at least one question.
   Then we continued with a similar activity but instead of writing questions we wrote a story. Each of us wrote a sentence or a pair of sentences with a word given by Tim. The first one was “Stormy night”. Then the sentences passed round and a new sentences added each time and we must incorporate our new sentence into the story. Every time Tim gave us a different word, as for example: “huge oak door”, “large rat with bloodshot”, “terrifying scream” and so on. It was funny because finally when we read the whole story, some of them were really unbelievable and it was funny to know how imagination can be a good tool to create a story. This activity is very useful for students because they can think and write at the same time.
   At the last part of the lesson we did a dictation but this was a mixed of the genres of dictation and free-writing. This is called “Skeleton Dictation”. It’s half dictation and half free-writing. Another Skeleton dictation is called “Memory dictation”, basically the teacher shows us a picture and we have to continue writing. The first half what we hear and the other one what we remember of the picture. We finished the last lesson with this activity.