Practical activities to teach reading and writing - Cristián, Jessica, Ricardo

 

Week No. 9.  This is our CHALLENGE # 5. GROUP WORK ON LITERACY. 

How can we foster Literacy when Teaching English to Young Learners?

Early Childhood Teaching and Learning: TEYL & LITERACY

Group members: Cristián Bastidas, Jessica Rodriguez, Ricardo Yepes.

To face this Challenge, you need to be based on the key reading Chapter 10 on Developing Literacy (Brewer, 2007) from this last week.

Objective: Design Literacy Activities (on the selected TOPIC for your PBL*) to teach and practice English to primary school kids.

1. Look at the different Literary Genres below. Explore and Choose one of those (except from Informational). Look for and select an already written text from the chosen Literary Genre that is related to the TOPIC of your PBL. What literary genre did you select? Poetry 

 TOPIC for your PBL? Growing a plant

Poem taken from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Poem-of-the-Week-with-Original-Poetry-and-Activities-1179100

REMEMBER: In Challenge #1 the Topic, the language focus, the population, and the context were already defined. Please keep the same (if possible) so that the following activities fit your PBL. If you have made any changes/adjustments in that regard, please include the new complete text here (Maximum 3 lines).

For our PBL, the topic selected is growing a plant. The language focus is Simple Present Tense. The population is children from third grade who are eight or nine years of age. The context is a bilingual school.

2. Design each LITERACY Activity. Start with a very simple and clear instruction. Be creative! Use visuals here.

Based on the Literary Genre and on the Reading Text (the ones you have already selected in item 1); plus, keeping in mind the Topic, language, population, and context; and making connections with Chapter 10 on Developing Literacy; design:

A). A Pre-reading activity

B). A While reading activity. Include the complete text here plus the link. A nice illustration should be here, too.

C). A Post-reading activity.

D). A guided-writing activity.

E). A free writing activity. Provide an example and visuals here that can help the kid generate ideas.

CAREFUL: Avoid typical, traditional, common activities here. Make connections with the Seminar Readings and contents from last semester and from this semester, too.   Surprise me!

TIPS:

Ø  Always provide simple and clear instructions.

Ø  Always Model and provide examples for the kids to see/learn how each Activity would work. That is, make sure you give an example of what you want kids to do or achieve.

Ø  Always provide audio visual aids for kids to enjoy and make the best of the learning experience.

Ø  Design with a nice, colorful, attractive, and neat layout.

Ø  These activities are a key section of your PBL, so make sure there’s coherence and connection with it.

Ø  Proofread your work before submission. Credit the sources and include the references at the end.

3. As Teachers of English we need to know why we design each activity. Thus, for each activity:

   a) Identify the Domains kids are developing. Say why briefly. (See Tassoni, 2016 & Brewer, 2007).

   b) Identify the purpose of each activity in terms of Developing Literacy (See Brewer, 2007).

   c)  Make at least two connections with the base reading (Chapter 10 on Literacy Development).

Remember: These Literacy Activities are related to Language. The purpose is to answer the Guiding question at the top of this document: How can we foster Literacy when Teaching English to Young Learners? Do your best! Enjoy it! Surprise me!

Evidence to be send:

1. This Word doc file. It should include the answers to items 1 and 3, plus the Literacy Activities you design. 

2. Optional: A different type of file for item 2, just in case you consider it necessary. Have fun!!

Ø  Before you e-mail me the files: Name each file with your own names (only one name and first surname as in the list, of each group member) and the challenge number, in this case, CH#5

Ø  Due date: Tuesday 3rd November by 9:00 a.m. (“by” means any time before the date/time given).

Ø  Please, do not miss our next Zoom session. It’ll be key to develop your CLIL and PBL projects.

LITERACY ACTIVITIES

A). A Pre-reading activity

Materials:

-Printable maze.

-A colored pencil.

Instructions:

Help watering the plant! First, look at the steps of the life cycle of a plant.

Draw a line through the maze to connect all the steps and to get to the plant.

Maze and pictures taken and adapted from 123rf.com

Domains
Cognitive	Developing concentration and solving problem skills by trying to find out the way out of the labyrinth.
Language	Learning new words while reading the steps.
Physical	Improving fine motor skills by tracing a line through the maze.

 

Purposes

To help children find a concrete connection between sounds and their visual referents.

To encourage children to monitor their listening and visual comprehension by finding the correct way out of the labyrinth.

Connections with the base reading:

ü  Children create meaning by using cues (illustrations).

ü  Children use information in meaningful activities.

B). A While reading activity

Materials:

-Scissors.

-Glue stick.

-Printed sheet.

Instructions:

Cut out the images that are in the chart on the left side.

Read aloud the poem "The cycle of a plant" as many times as you want.

As you read, paste the pictures in the boxes with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, according to the order that is read in the poem.

Poem taken from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Poem-of-the-Week-with-Original-Poetry-and-Activities-1179100. Pictures taken from Shutterstock.

Domains
Cognitive	Comprehending the sequence of the life cycle of a plant. Organizing the stages of the life cycle of a plant.
Language	Associating the words of the poem with the visual representation of the different stages of a plant while it is growing.
Physical	Working on fine motor skills by using the scissors to cut out and glue to paste.

 

Purposes

To practice sequencing skills.

To help children recognize a logical order of a story or event.

Connections with the base reading:

Children engage concepts of print and experiment with the reading.

Children work on phonetics and phonology while reading aloud rhyming words.

Children take responsibility for the learning from the poem.

 

C). A Post-reading activity

Materials:

-Printed sheet.

-Newspapers.

-One dice.

-Paints (yellow, blue, red, green, etc.)

-Brushes.

-Tree leaves.

Instructions:

Cover your work area with newspapers.

Roll the dice and paint the part of the plant that is indicated according to the number on the dice.

If you get a repeated number, roll the dice as many times as you need until all the parts of the plant are painted.

Tip: To paint the leaves of the plant, take one of the tree leaves and paint it the color you prefer. Then, press the leaf down on the paper and remove it. So you will have a beautiful painted sheet!

When you’re done, collect all your materials and organize your work area.

Pictures taken from https://pin.it/5E3tXpK

Domains
Aesthetic	Appreciating own paintings.
Physical	Developing fine motor skills.
Cognitive	Understanding symbols (the faces of the dice) and making connections.

 

Purposes

To support children's ability to scribble.

To encourage children to produce meaningful forms and lines

Connections with the base reading:

Children demonstrate they know what is expected of them.

Children use the learned information in meaningful activities.

 

D). A guided-writing activity

Materials:

-Printed sheet.

-A pencil.

-Scissors.

Instructions:

Read the following text.

Look at the images that are in the blanks and remember the poem “The cycle of a plant”: What are the missing words in this text?

Trace the dots of the words on the right side to recognize what they say.

Cut out the words and place them over the image to which each one corresponds.

Own design. Images taken from Freepik, 123RF

Domains
Cognitive	Using short term memory to find out the missing words in the text. Analyzing the pictures to find the word that corresponds to each one.
Language	Practicing receptive language (reading) and productive language (writing).
Physical	Working on fine motor skills by tracing, cutting out, and placing the words.

 

Purposes

To recognize children’s efforts in writing by focusing on the knowledge of words and not their spelling.

To help children appreciate the usefulness of writing.

To practice the use of space between words.

Connections with the base reading:

Children are encouraged to write by providing guidance to them.

Children read and understand by the understanding of cues (illustrations).

Children achieve conventional spelling by writing simple words that they have just learned and practiced.

 

E). A free writing activity

Instructions: (Expected to be read aloud, so kids make connections between sounds and letters).

1. Firstly, write your full name in the first line of the piece of paper.
2. Draw your favorite stage of the life cycle of a plant.
3. Write the things you like the most of that stage.
4. Form groups of three.
5. Share with your classmates your draw and text.

An audio giving the instructions is attached to the email.

Piece of paper to free write:

Example to help kids generate ideas:

Own design

Domains
Aesthetic	Appreciating own drawings.
Language	Using the learned vocabulary to express ideas and likes.
Affective	Sharing with classmates personal thoughts.
Social	Interacting and discussing with classmates visual representations and ideas.

 

Purposes

To give children the opportunity to express their opinions, interpretations and likes in both visual and written form.

To give children the opportunity to explore writing and make mistakes in terms of spelling avoiding judging.

To recognize children’s efforts in writing by focusing on the knowledge of words and not their spelling.

To allow children’s speaking interaction in English avoiding isolation.

To practice read-alouds in small groups where children can feel confident.

To practice the use of space between words in English.

To help children appreciate the usefulness of writing.

 

Connections with the base reading:

Children are using necessary tools that encourage them to draw pictures and move to writing messages and recording ideas.

Children are immersed in a supportive classroom since they are encouraged to participate in experiences in which they create and share their experiences.

In general, all these activities want to avoid the correctness of grammar and spelling mistakes. Because as future teachers we are aware of the fact that understanding is what we should care about when teaching literacy. We want children to feel successful. Therefore, we want to recognize their efforts when reading and writing, putting aside the mistakes they might make and highlighting their motivation to use English in a meaningful context. This is the first connection we can make with the text “Developing literacy” (Brewer, 2007) in which it says that teachers should take into account children’s performance in reading and writing in order to motivate them to keep learning and practicing these skills. This is one of the goals teachers should have: to ensure in each child motivation to keep learning about literacy. Because if teachers do not recognize children’s efforts, they will probably continue having struggles and will develop a sense of dislike and hate towards reading and writing. Consequently, they will block themselves to continue learning.

Another connection we can make is the use of English in a supportive literate environment that fosters reading and writing appropriately to children. The activities that we have designed aim to encourage children to use this language in a fun and active way. With the hand of visual tools, games, not traditional resources and most importantly accessible materials that allow them to learn and practice both individually and in groups. A final connection is the aim to help children associate words with sounds and words with images. Since (Brewer, 2007) states that literacy implies among other other things, comprehension and the ability to learn new information, our activities give the opportunity to children to combine what they listen to, read, watch and write based on our topic and put it in practice. On one hand there is the use of visual images and words to allow them to interpret what they see and achieve an objective. For instance, the pre-reading activity in which they need to find the way out of the labyrinth And also the guided writing activity in which they need to fill in the spaces with certain vocabulary.

References:

●        Brewer, J. A. (2007).  Introduction to early childhood Education. Chapter 10: Developing literacy

●        Create Dream Explore. (2014). Teachers pay teachers. Poem of the Week with Original Poetry and Activities. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Poem-of-the-Week-with-Original-Poetry-and-Activities-1179100