vamenro's blog

Have you ever thought on creating the best

looking

mind map

online and share it with others?

 Now it is possible following this link:

www.mindomo.com

&

Enjoy mind mapping by brainstorming collaboratively on ideas and projects.

I tried it few months ago when I thought how to structure my TFM. It is about the development of critical thinking in adolescents learning English:

Mindomo Map

Teaching culture is a MUST in our English class,so…

here there is a proposal:


Pre-teaching: the teacher has prepared a mute map of the UK. She will explain the regions in which the country is divided and she will provide the students with general information about England. Afterwards, the teacher will divide the classroom into four groups (the four regions of the United Kingdom: Scotland, England, North Ireland and Wales). And the teacher will take a picture of each group and will stick it into each region in the map. Each group will have a full day to present their work and to create activities for their classmates (recipes, games, plays…). 

–> see the map

Actual Teaching: during one or two sessions students will prepare their posters and oral presentations in class looking for information about their region. The teacher will provide the students some magazines, articles, links, etc. to help them. 
While students are working in groups, the teacher will go around helping them if they need it. 

http://www.infoplease.com/country/united-king…
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/united_…

Post-teaching: Each group will use a full session to present their classmates about what they have looked into. At the beginning, they will have to give some theoretical information helped by posters or maps they have created. After that, they will do the activity they have prepared in which they will have to make sure that the rest of the class has understood what they have presented.

Here are some games in order to practice vocabulary in

class.

Our lecturer Laura Angelini gave us several links with interesting games to teach & learn in class. We chose 4 games from the links 7, 8 and 9:

The first game is called ‘choose the correct word’. These are the steps:

• First of all students have made in class a list of vocabulary from the unit.

• Students write each word in a card and stick them to the blackboard.

• Then, students are divided into two teams and the two teams form two rows.

• The teacher reads a definition with a blank.

• The two students in front of the rows race to the board to choose the right word.

We have chosen this game because we think that it is a good way to remember vocabulary more easily and in an enjoyable way. With this method they don’t have to study the words, they will remember them because little by little they are thinking at the same time they are playing a game.

The second game is called ‘who is wearing that?’. The steps to play the game are:

• One student stands up in front of the class.

• She or he describes one student from the rest of the class.

• The others try to guess who the student he or she is describing is.

• The one who knows it and answers it correctly wins and asks the next turn.
  

We have chosen this game because we think it is a good way to practice adjectives to describe people as well as to acquire vocabulary from clothes and colors.

The third game we have chosen is called ‘Scavenger Hunt’. The steps are:

• They have to find 20 objects.

• They will have a list of the vocabulary.

• They’ll go on teams to look for the objects and take a picture.

• The first one finishing, wins.

We have chosen from link number 9, ‘The Drawing Game’ a game to have the whole class involved and avoid having bored students or hearing ‘I never get picked’. We have chosen this game because we think is another way of learning vocabulary and check if they have learned in the last unit.

1. Draw a…. (30 seconds)

2. ‘The boy on the chair’ chooses their favourite drawing. E.g. the one drawn by ‘number 2, green’.

3. ‘Number 2, green’ becomes the judge, and will sit on the chair after the game.

4. Red or Blue erases the blackboard, and the other one chooses the next players.

5. The teacher can quickly go through the whole class,

6. The teacher also keeps the students that are sitting now and watching the game intrigued, so everyone is involved in the game.

Making projects will be easier for our students if we

motivate them to use GLOGSTER

Me and my classmates (as future teachers) tried it in a funny & interesting class:

http://www.glogster.com/teacher-miss-gil/pinboard-glog-by-teacher-miss-gil/g-6k5rkm5o6e392r90iv3571c

Here is a simulation in order to practice human rights appearing in the book ‘Noughts & Crosses’. This exercice has been done in group in a class of the Master of Secondary Education.

          NOUGHTS & CROSSES – Malorie Blackman

BRIEFING
Goals: to promote equality through Malorie Blackman’s book Noughts and Crosses. Students have to read the book.
Course: 2º Bachillerato
Groups: students will work in teams of 4 (6 groups). In each group there would be 1 chief leader, 1 advisor, 1 secretary and 1 language monitor.
Background documents: the book itself and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Scenario: students have to focus on the chapters 66-67.

 
SITUATION
You’re in a courtroom, and you’re part of the public gallery, composed of twelve Noughts (white people) and twelve Crosses (black people). Remember that Noughts and Crosses do not mix, and that in the Noughts group, the son and wife of Ryan Callum McGregor take part of it.
Ryan Callyum McGregor, a Nought, is on charge of Political Terrorism.
The clerk stands up and faces Ryan, asking him if he considers himself guilty or not.
After having repeated the question several times, Ryan finally answers with a:  Not guilty!
The clerk keeps blaming Ryan, and adds that he has been charged with the murder of Aysha Pilling. The same question is asked by the clerk to Ryan, who answers with the same words as before.
Next day, Callyum  is questioned.
‘Callyum Ryan McGregor, Do you belong to the Liberation Militia?’- Pingule asked.
‘No I don’t ‘– replied Callyum.
‘Does your father belong to the Liberation Militia?’
‘No he doesn’t’ –Callyum answed while glancing across to where his father was.
‘Does anyone of your relatives belong to the L.M. or has talked about them?’.
‘No’.
‘How can you be so sure?, Can you tell me what you were doing in the Dundale Shopping Centre at this time, approximately ten minutes before the bomb went off?’.
Callyum was recorded running out of the Shopping Center, getting her friend Sephy out of it. He defends himself by saying that he wanted to show his friend, a Cross, something, but that he could not remember what.
The following day, Sephy was called to testify, she was asked why Callyum took her out of the Shopping Centre and if he had given her any reasons, plus, what was her relationship with him, to what she answered that she assumed Callyum wanted to show her something outside, and that they were just really good friends.
Another witness was called to testify, this time, a Cross police officer, Kelani, who said that after seeing the boy dragging the girl out, she asked the little girl who was he and if he was bothering her, to what the little girl replied that he was just a friend of her and that he was taking her out to show her something.
The last day, Callyum Ryan is judged, and Governor Giustini sentences him to life imprisonment instead of hanging him.

Game: the aim of this game is to find the different roles that take action in each group.

            – How to play: we divide the class in 2 groups of 12 people. Without talking and standing up in chairs, they have to find out how to organize themselves according to the mark in their last English exam. They cannot get off of the 12 chairs. Later on, they will have 3-4 minutes in order to carry out this game. After that, the teacher will make them realize who will be the leader of each team. The leader of each group has to decide the members of their teams.  

ACTION
Once they are in groups, they will have to discuss about the trial and to decide, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their own prejudices, if Ryan is guilty or not and if his son was aware of what was going to happen. Moreover, they will finally have to come into a decision of which human rights are the ones that appear in the chapters studied. Then, the leader of each team will have to come together and they will have to reach a final common conclusion.

DEBRIEFING
Students have to think about the following questions:

– What have you learnt about human rights?
– What have you learnt linguistically speaking?