Eight years ago I went through a pretty significant break-up. I dumped my textbook. Sorry, Valette and Valette, it's not me, it's you. When thinking about my teaching, I have found myself in situations recently where I take a step back and say to myself, "Wait a second....am I organizing my lessons by groups of vocabulary?! NOOOO!!!" I mean, I "do" modes of transportation and body parts with kindergarten. My first graders learn rooms of the house. My fourth graders do some significant work with fruits and vegetables. But I have come to the conclusion that while I do work with themes, I do not really have units based on certain categories of vocabulary. Seem contradictory? I know, I get it. But let me explain. You may want to start thinking about this by reading my post about the unit with which I start the year with my fourth graders. We start by talking about their culinary food preferences and things go from there. We then look at photos from the book Hungry Planet, which shows what families around the world eat. Finally, we finish with a Movie Talk with the animated Disney short Feast. So now let me elaborate a little more. Sure, when I think about it, I am working with sets of words that could be considered categories. But I really believe the difference between teaching focusing on themes and teaching focusing on vocabulary is how the teacher introduces the words and how the students interact with them. Let's take my kindergarten unit that highlights transportation. The culminating activity is a Pocoyo video, "La Course" ("The Race"). It has a tortoise-and-the-hare flavor to it, and we do a lot of activities leading up to that. Here's a PDF file of the Notebook file I use when introducing the structures featured in the video. I use one of the stories in the Stories by Gus on the Go app, which is actually the tortoise and the hare. Through that story I can teach the words fast and slowly. We talk about which modes of transportation move quickly and which go more slowly. We have races with actual toy planes and trains and automobiles. We play "What's in the Bag?" with different toys, and I ask students to make predictions. I happen to have a taxi that is smiling, so let's bring in emotions. I have a Thomas the Tank Engine toy, and his friend Percy. Enter colors. Everything we do circles back around to things we've already discussed, recycling vocabulary and making our discussions totally comprehensible for my students.
NB-The video on the left is in the gym and there's a PE class going on the other side of the curtain, so it's noisy! Plus, this was the day before vacation, so...!! We talk about what animals move quickly and slowly, and how they move (jump, swim, walk, fly). We play some games on the Linguascope website that focus on different vehicles but also require students to think and process vocabulary differently. Students do some categorizing, drawing different things (animals, vehicles) that travel at various speeds.
So what's my point with all of this? That it's OK to work with different groups/categories of vocabulary and words, as long as the students are given a context in which they can use the words. We teach language, not words. We cannot teach things in isolation, especially when dealing with young children. So sure, I can tell someone that my kindergarteners learn modes of transportation, but the way they process the vocabulary goes so much deeper than simply looking at a list. Sometime soon I hope to write a similar post about my "body parts unit" with kindergarten, or my "farm animals unit" that starts my year with second grade. But I needed to get this post out
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Back in April I had a couple of lightbulb moments with some modifications to one of my favorite Brain Breaks, Qui a volé les biscuits de la boîte à biscuits? (And I'm just now getting around to posting them!) There's a significant shift in the structure of these activities, but the kids like them!
Both of these new games are rooted in specific units of our curriculum. My second graders were watching the second "season" of the Muzzy video series. In the early episodes of that season, Corvax kidnaps Bob and Sylvia's baby Amanda. (Don't worry if those names don't mean anything to you, just know Corvax makes off with Amanda.) I have a little Playmobil baby that represents Amanda. Students sit in a circle, and one student leaves the room; he or she becomes Bob or Sylvia, on the quest to locate their poor missing daughter Amanda. I hand Amanda to one of the students seated in the circle, and all students in the circle clasp their hands together in front of them. We call Bob or Sylvia, the student who had gone into the hall, back into the room. That student stands in the middle of the circle and looks around, trying to figure out which classmate has Amanda. They have three chances to find Corvax. When they have chosen someone to accuse, they look at that student and say, "Tu es Corvax?" ("Are you Corvax?") The accused responds with either, "Oui, je suis Corvax" ("Yes, I'm Corvax") if they are indeed the kidnapper, or "Non, je ne suis pas Corvax" ("No, I'm not Corvax") if they didn't take Amanda. If the accuser is unsuccessful in locating the kidnapper, the kidnapper opens his or her hands and reveals Amanda. Regardless of whether or not the accuser correctly identifies the kidnapper, the student who played Corvax and stole Amanda becomes either Bob or Sylvia in the next round, searching for their kidnapped daughter. The modification I made for my sixth graders came to me while we were reading Pirates français des Caraïbes, the French adaptation of Mira Canion's Spanish reader. This plays out almost identically to the Corvax scenario above. In the novel, François the pirate captures a sailor named Charles, who is under the employ of Antoine Médina. I place a little toy pirate (who happens to be holding a telescope, which is what Charles actually has in the book!) in the hands of one of the students sitting in the circle. When "Antoine" comes back into the room, they ask, "Tu as capturé Charles?" ("Did you capture Charles?"). The accused responds either, "Oui, j'ai capturé Charles" ("Yes, I captured Charles") if they are indeed the kidnapper, or "Non, je n'ai pas capturé Charles" ("No, I didn't capture Charles"). Once again, the kidnapper becomes Antoine. Can you think of other ways to adjust Qui a volé les biscuits? to fit into your curriculum? Bises. Anyone who doesn't think that "spring fever" is an actual thing is NOT a teacher! We are all doing what we can to keep our sanity right now. (I just realized that we only have 2 weeks of school left!) So here are some simple concrete activities and tips to help you make it through the final push. And be sure to follow Justin Slocum Bailey's advice and cut yourself some slack.
1-Write, Draw, Pass (From Martina Bex) This is one of my favorite super-low-prep, fun, and engaging activities. The potential for amazing follow-up activities is huge-kids write true/false questions, cut them up and have the kids match the drawings to the sentences, cut them up and play Memory. So many things! 2-Running dictation (Also from Martina Bex, but this post is from another blog) Get your kids up and moving with another low-prep activity. (I have some videos of this on my Instagram page.) 3-Qui a volé les biscuits de la boîte à biscuits? There are a lot of ways to modify this, and I'll soon be publishing a blog post highlighting a couple of my adaptations that connect directly to what we're doing in class. 4-Kahoot/Socrative/Quizlet-Not only do these activities take some of the pressure off of us, they are great assessment tools. 5-Textivate-These take less than 5 minutes to prepare, and have a TON of activities. Great for days when you just need a little down time (or for a sub!) 6-Tongue twisters-Always good for a laugh, and great pronunciation practice 7-Movie Talks-Don't reinvent the wheel, STEAL ALL OF MY STUFF!! 8-Guess the number-I often use this as a brain break because it's quick and easy. Write a number on a white board or piece of paper, and hide it from the students. Students guess numbers, and you tell them either "too high" or "too low." The great thing about this is you can do it with any size group of numbers. With my kindergarteners, I start with 0-10. I will increase the range as the kids get older and have a greater knowledge base with numbers. For more activities and ideas, check out these other posts from Justin: Zero prep activities That thing you used to do And be sure to visit my blog! Courage!! I have uploaded a bunch of resources to my TPT page to accompany both the French and English version of this story. (I'll add more English resources if there's an interest, so let me know if that's something you'd like! Enjoy!!
Bises. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE
The intimate setting allows participants to interact with each other and the presenters in casual settings. And boy, do we have some powerhouses! The fact that I am able to put my name along side Justin Slocum Bailey, Joey Dziedzic, Tina Hargaden, Linda Li, well, gosh all hemlock!
We will also have some evening activities planned! And it's in my neck of the woods (the Upper CT River Valley, or the Upper Valley), so come and hang out chez moi! Soo...here are the details! Registration: options for lunch and no lunch Lodging: Comfort Inn in WRJ, discount available; you must call (you CANNOT make the reservation online) before 1 July and reference code Express Fluency Conference) Travel info: Manchester NH airport: 1 hr 20 min Boston Logan: 2+ hours Burlington VT: 1.5 hrs The Dartmouth Coach is an easy way to get from Logan to the UV. Drop-offs in Lebanon, NH and at the Hanover Inn in Hanover, NH. (It has snacks and a movie!) There is free public transportation in the Upper Valley with Advance Transit. There is a line that goes to the Comfort Inn from the Hanover Inn. It is also possible to get from the Comfort Inn to the HACTC, where the conference is, but does require a line change. There is also an Enterprise Car Rental in WRJ, close to the Comfort Inn. LOCAL ATTRACTIONS AND SITES (all sites are in Vermont, unless otherwise noted) Montshire Museum of Science (Norwich) King Arthur Flour (Norwich) VINS-Vermont Institute of Natural Science (Quechee) Hood Museum of Art (Hanover, NH) Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) Quechee Antique Mall (Quechee) Simon Pearce glassblowing (Quechee) Quechee Gorge (Quechee) Main St. Museum (WRJ) Billing's Farm (Woodstock) Dan and Whit's(Norwich) Upper Valley Aquatic Center (WRJ) Saint Gauden's Memorial (Cornish, NH) Hopkins Center (Hanover, NH) Here is a list of additional activities! HIKES Dartmouth Outing Club website Appalachian Trail (NH/VT) Mt. Tom (Woodstock) Boston Lot Lake (Lebanon, NH) Hurricane Hill (WRJ) Hazen Trail (WRJ) Ballard Trail (Norwich) Milt Frye Nature Area (Norwich) RESTAURANTS Here are some of my favorites! Tuckerbox (WRJ): coffee shop and Turkish food Thyme (WRJ) Trail Break Taps and Tacos (WRJ) Phnom Pehn (WRJ): Vietnamese Yama (Lebanon, NH; the Hanover location is no longer open): sushi and Japanese Carpenter and Main (Norwich) Molly's (Hanover, NH): very family friendly Tuk Tuk (Hanover, NH): Thai Market Table (Hanover, NH) Ramunto's Brick and Brew (Hanover, NH) Salt Hill Pub (Hanover, Lebanon, and W. Lebanon, NH): three locations in the UV Elixir (WRJ): my favorite bar! |
AuthorAllison Litten, the 2019 VFLA TOY, teaches French at the Marion Cross School, a public PreK-6 school in Norwich, Vermont. This is her twenty-third year teaching, and twentieth at Marion Cross. Archives
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