St. George's Day

At the beginning of the school year, we decided that April was going to be the "month of English language and culture" in our school (IES Santos Isasa - Montoro). We had exhibitions, lectures given by our language assistant, sport competitions, a typical English breakfast and even a karaoke contest. First, we put up some decorations (two big clocks that represent the Big Ben and the London Eye, striking the English time, and garlands with the English red rose and St. George's flag).

                                         Click on the picture

One of the activities in which all the students in the school took part was called "The most beautiful words in English". The students put up a piece of paper with their favourite words in English. You have the typical words, like "freedom", "peace", etc. but also some unexpected words like "moustache", "disappointment", "never mind" or "myself". (see pictures above).

On the 23rd of April I did the following activity with my 3rd of ESO students. I asked them why April 23rd was a special day and everybody knew about Shakespeare's and Cervantes' death, but few knew about St. George and the legend. I had found a text with one of the versions of St. George's legend on this website, and although it was a bit long and complicated I decided to use it, so that they could learn about the knight and the dragon. I shortened and simplified the text a little bit and after pre-teaching some vocabulary and showing some pictures, I divided the class in several groups and I gave them the story cut in several paragraphs.

The task involved reading the paragraphs to unjumble the story.
After that, we read the story together and the students asked and answer questions about the legend.

Once everybody knew about St. George, I asked them to think and come up with some ideas about how to explain St. George's legend to younger students (1st ESO). This is what one of the groups suggested:

• They prepared a short, easy to understand power point presentation.

• They acted out the legend. We had St. George, the dragon, a princess and the speaker. The speaker explained that if the audience wanted St. George to save the princess, they had to answer some questions correctly. In the end, that was what happened and St. George slayed the dragon.