Today I have been thinking about the activity that we have to do with the characters that each of us had to invent one month ago. I am going to write only one idea that I consider better or that it could be great to do with our characters.

I know that some of my classmates did a very good effort and a very hard work with their characters but other classmates did less work. Based on my opinion, we could work with our character, but instead of doing a poster and related with literature, we can do a little book with our character, with ten chapters more or less. The teacher, Raquel Fernández, could say for the chapter one you have to introduce a sword, for example. Then, the same with the second chapter, but instead of a sword, you have to introduce a tower, or a car… And for example, in the chapter five and in the ten we can collaborate with other characters also introducing something that Raquel said. You can decide the character that you want to introduce in each of the collaborative chapters. I think it could be great, but I know that we have no time, it was only a reflection that I wanted to share with you.

Hi everyone,

I think this post could be the last one at least for now. For the last post, because this is ending, I would you to talk about the great experience during this last week that I could put into practice on Monday. I cannot say a lot of things, because there is a group that left to do it some activities that I did on Monday but I want to say you some of my experiences during the class.

First of all, I am going to star with the first day. It was Monday, and as all Monday people came to class a little bit tired because of the weekend. We were in a different place, not in our class but in the “Polivalente” building. This was the first thing I liked because I consider catchy and motivate for us to change the space in which we normally have the classes.

I am 28 years old, but in that class I felt like a child of 8-10 years old because I loved the things that I was doing. Each activity was better than the previous one. It was not only a literature class, but also it could be useful for a Science class, Physical education class and also for English class (using some tenses, such as past continuous, past simple, etc.)

It was really funny, because we could relate with the workshop of Aladdin, due to in some cases we have to imitate some characters of fairy tales, and some of us chose this film to imitate characters because it was recent. But it was not so easy, only Aladdin, also the Lion King, Rapunzel, Cinderella, etc…all the fairy tales that we can remember in that moment.

Is there any better idea to motivate them for the reading than this?

In my opinion, it is very important to maintain the attention of your students and for this it could be great to do some activities similar to the activities that we did on Monday. On Monday, it could be related also with role playing. Related with role playing and the motivation in class, I have been looking a website in which tell us a project that they did for Infant education, but I consider fantastic and perfect for our future students, maybe changing the topic of the project depending on what we want to work with them, or maybe some activities or some things that in this project are very easy for students of Primary. I love the idea to prepare and motivate our students for the topic we want to. I have to say that I know it is difficult to do all of these activities in class in our daily life because we have no time, but I am talking about one or two topics in a year not all the topics doing the same.

Here you have the link if you want to take a look. http://dulceinfantil.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/proyecto-bienvenidos-bordo-piratas.html

Welcome again. For this post I am going to talk about the last medium gorup class in which we were working with “Special poems”. First of all, I want to say that this activity was very useful for me thinking in the future, and I am sure that i will use it.

It was Monday, the first hour and usually everybody use to be tired. But, this class was different. First we have to choose one video and make an activity with a Bidi Code for the rest of the people of the University. This part was really funny because we can see the videos that our partners did the last day. It was very curious how with a same poem or rhyme each group decide to do in a different way. That is the power of the mind and the imagination. The second part, it was the part that I liked a lot and I will use in the future with my students. Why? Because in my opinion, poems are a forgotten part of literature. Maybe children relate poems with some books that they have to read compulsory or some definitions related with poetry such as: rhyme, meter, etc…

But, why not change this way to work with poems? Why not use other types of resources to motivate students and make more catchier for them? For to do this, I consider very useful work with poems in a special way, poems with different shapes depending on its topic. It could be a great idea because not only work with poems but also with the developing of the creativity, creativity that in many cases teachers forgot with their students and I consider one of the most important part in each student. With this kind of poems, in Spanish called “caligramas”, children can feel more motivated because they can create their own poems. Related with this and with our future students, it could be great to make a competition of Poems with shapes in which all students can be participate individually or maybe as a group to encourage the team work. This kind of activities that we have been doing during this term, are some examples of things that we can do to change the teaching style which we want to criticise when we are students and we forgot it when we are teachers.

Rememeber, your imagination and your creativity not have to have limits. You always have to develop the creativity and the enthusiasm in all the classes you are.

First of all, I have to say I like a lot this activity or project. For me, has been very useful because I have learnt more about how can I create a classroom library and the things that are able to do or not.

Maybe, at the beginning you can think is an easy thing to create a classroom library, but I have to say that is not as easy as I thought when I started the project. When you think in your classroom library, you have to think not only in a space the other way round, you have to thing that it has to be the SPACE, the space in which students feel comfortable and confident with themselves. Also you have to think that it has to be a very special place for them that motivate to read but also you have to think in your Head Department of your school and the budget and more things that if you don’t try to create a classroom library you don’t realize.

When I thought in that space, I thought like a child, thinking the things that I would like to have in my class when I was a child. I considered very important to be catchy with the space and also with the books that they have to read. Why also the books? Because in my opinion, at least when I was a child, some books are really boring for children, and it can cause the frustration of the student or maybe the dislike for reading books.

As teachers, we have to take into account all of these things, and pay special attention on it. My classroom library it based on some activities that we considered interesting to motivate them to read, but maybe, we have a problem with the budget and also with the things that we want to do. For this reason, I think that I have learnt form my mistakes, and it is not only select good books or create a good space and environment or create good activities for separated. It has to be all together, a good space in which there was good books and also we could do an useful activities to motivate them.

Remember! It is very crucial your election of your classroom library and for this reason you have to be responsible to take the best decision and try to do the best activities to improve and motivate them to reading books.

To finish with, I want to say that there was some Classroom library’s exhibition that I like it so much. For example the Stork’s project was for me one of the best projects next to Rocio’s group. Congratulations to all the groups because I think it was really useful for us and you did it very well.

As we all know, it is quite important that our students since the early ages acquire the reading habits. Anciently, the way to tell stories were oral. Oral is crucial in children’s literature.

One important thing is that a good reader is who starts being before to start reading, with the stories of his dad or his mum which stimulate his imagination and curiosity for the story. For this reason is very important child feels closeness and involve in the story not only listening the story but with the participation of the narrator who is one of the most import part.

Last week I asked my mother about my reading experiences and she made me remember a lot of things that I can not remember well. When I was a child, I enjoyed a lot listening to my mother tell me a story slowly and carefully. She tried to make the effort telling me stories when she had time and I have to recognise it because she had not much time. When she told me stories, she used all of her love, using intonations, breaks and also she stopped when some word was new for me and she told me the meaning using examples and then she continued. Those moments were the best for me. I think that the more time parents spend to reading more they will like it. Only if parents get pleasure in their children during telling stories, children will reach understanding and learning.

Why is the role of parents so important?

Because children are imitators of their parents and they admire all the things they do. To accompany and facilitate the reading since the early ages at home is crucial to create good readers. It is necessary to create permanent bonds and feelings. On one hand reading is a leisure activity but on the other hand is also a very important resource for the learning and to acquire more culture.

Motivate children to read must be a continuous and daily activity.

The infancy is the beginning of that race without end, but do you think all parents try to encourage the reader habits on their children? As teachers, what things do you think we can do to improve the love of reading in class?

To finish with, I write a link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVk6jv4hjG4) in which talks about the importance that I have been talking in this post. Also related with the role of families, I show you a website that I have considered interesting (http://i-elanor.typepad.com/casadelarbol/actividades-para-fomentar.html).

Thanks for your attention. See you in the next post! I wait for your inquietudes, doubts, answers or experiences when you were a child.

]]> http://blogs.cardenalcisneros.es/childrenslit/2014/10/13/the-power-of-the-family-the-relevance-in-reading/feed/ 1 http://blogs.cardenalcisneros.es/childrenslit/2014/09/28/thinking-about-the-world-of-jolly-phonics/ http://blogs.cardenalcisneros.es/childrenslit/2014/09/28/thinking-about-the-world-of-jolly-phonics/#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2014 22:06:02 +0000 http://blogs.cardenalcisneros.es/childrenslit/?p=214 Nowadays, the problem related to education that concern of everyone is to improve the level of English in the classrooms. There are lots of research works about the best way to teach English to our students.

Twenty years ago, we only learnt English using books and practising with some exercises filling the gaps.

Fortunately, that methodology has changed or it is changing. Have you ever heard about Jolly phonics’ method?

Jolly phonics is a fun and child centred approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics using actions and gestures for each of the forty two letters sounds. It is very motivating for children and teachers who can see their students achieve. The letters sound are split into seven groups according to the frequency we use them and its difficulty of learning.

Looking for information about Jolly phonics, I have found a lot of interesting investigations. Coral George (2012), verified that learning through Jolly phonics, students get better in one year the average level of reading and grammar compared to other students with the same age. Dr. Martynne is also agree with Coral George’s argument.

Another research work that I have found interesting is the idea of Yagüe del Real (2012), who is the headmaster of the Eurocolegio Casvi. He supports that Jolly phonics complent and improve the traditional method of learning English used during this decades. He believes that this approach helps to solve some common mistakes in pronunciation or fluency that spanish people have when they are adquiring the foreign language.

Related with the methodology and schedule the seven groups are divided into two groups: the first five are recommended for the first grade meanwhile the last two and the tricky words for the second grade.

According to these research lines and based on my opinion I found this purpose quite interesting,

but what do you think? Do you think that this division is the correct one? Would you do it in a different way?

Maybe, would it be better to teach all the sounds in the first grade and review them in the second grade? Do you think that Jolly phonics can be used in the other grades?

because it has a lot of advantages like the motivational part for our students due to their improvement their pronunciation and their reading. But i also found some disadvantages like the time that we have to spend to learn each sound and the level of each student.

In this blog, I’m going to write each week a new post related with the things that we do in class, some relevant things that i consider interesting or i like it, my own experience with some activities….

I hope you enjoy them and it will be useful and helpful for you. If you want to comment whatever, you don’t have doubts, do it.

Thank you so much for visiting us!!