English Workshop: Developing and Activating Skills in English

For the new visitors of this blog, you have to know that it has been the collaborative virtual site of two training courses at CEP Córdoba aimed at teachers of English and at those who teach their subjects through English:

ENGLISH WORKSHOP: 

DEVELOPING AND ACTIVATING SKILLS IN ENGLISH (2013)

and

LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH CELEBRATIONS (2012)

Participants on both activities have been collaborating in the blog sharing their ideas, lesson plans, didactic strategies and resources they use/have elaborated in their teaching practice to develop the contents of both of them  (click on the links above to see them).

Thanks everybody for their participation and contributions to the blog, and thanks to Neda Mirova, the speaker, whose materials, links and presentations are also uploaded to the blog. 

You can access the activities by clicking on the labels:

 

English Workshop: Skills: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Interaction.

English celebrations: 

Trooping the colour, Scottish Dances. Sports in Britain, Saint Valentine's Day, Saint Patrick's Day, Pancake Day. Charles Dickens, Olympic Games and Fifth of May, Mother's Day, May Day, Independence Day , Easter , Diamond Jubilee , April Fool's Day , St. George´s Day

We will keep on using the blog for future activities to share strategies, materials, lesson plans, etc...
Nevertheless, feel free to add any comment on the posts or suggesting activities related to teaching English as a second language whenever you feel like.
 

Hope to see you again!

Some photographs of the sessions:

ENGLISH WORKSHOP: SKILLS IN ENGLISH 

 
ENGLISH CELEBRATIONS

Celebrate Pi Day tomorrow (14th March)

Did you know that 14th March is International Pi Day? Have a look here...
http://pinterest.com/tesResources/pi-day/

Picture tale

Hello everyone!!! First of all, thanks for this nice time we shared and thanks Neda for this useful course.

I´m a teacher in 4th course Primary. They are lovely kinds and at lovely age..My favourite listening and writing game is “Picture tale”. First I give a paper to my pupils. Then, they have to draw in different colours.  I choose a traditional story or tale and I read a short part of it. They have to draw or write all they understand about it and make the pictures for the tale. It´s easy for them because they know the story, but depending on the unit, grammar and vocabulary,  I try to put an emphasis on the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, prominent figures … and they learn and identify each one easily.

It´s a funny activity and they are happy because they understand and they tell the tale with their pictures.

Finally, they show the pictures and  share with the class. Some pupils like telling the story to the others and, so they practice the pronunciation and the different tenses or grammar structures.

Thanks and see you soon.

By Victoria Navarrete Sánchez

LISTENING webpages

I think our students need a lot of listening practice, as we have seen in this course. I give you some interesting links you can use with your students (they are just a bunch of links, there are thousands of interesting listening webpages).

BBC podcasts
Listen to English
Listen a minute
123Listening
News in English

I hope you like these webpages.

It's always a pleasure to listen to Neda. Thanks a lot for everything!

Gabriela Mª Alonso

Pre-primary experience

Hi everyone!Zdrasti!!Azsam Marta... 

First of all I would like to thank Neda for this nice English Workshop and the other participants for their contributions in the blog as well as in every session. As an English teacher and from my own experience, I teach the youngest students in my school, from three years old, I need to pay more attention to listening skill. It does not mean the other skills cannot be worked. My little students are starting to speak in their mother tongue and it is a great time to introduce a second language. In that way, music is already an important part in their lives. Youngest pupils are able to feel a strong motivation when they listen to the songs. 

Now, they are "their own songs". You know the vocabulary and structures we work with in these lower levels are so simple but with this resource children learn them in a funny and natural way. 

We also develop the teaching-learning process by using authentic materials, of course other games and any kind of visual support. Teachers have to create a natural and contextualised environment and of course, the necessity of communication. Giving simple commands and instructions or using Total Physical Response games is a suituable way to start to motivate them. This kind of work can be so exhausting but we also have an amazing reward... 

C U soon! Marta Reig

SPEAKING: LINKS AND RESOURCES

Hi everyone,

Here is a brief list of some articles and resources you may want to have a look in relation to the Speaking session.

Speaking: Links and Resources

Hope to see you all soon!

SPEAKING: PRESENTATION

Hi again,

I've been having problems uploading the presentation, but it look like I've found a way at last...so here it is!

Slideshows, Podcasts etc...

A couple of links:
Firstly,
http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark
 Here you can do a few things, for example:
- upload a Powerpoint presentation and add voice to it
- create a posdcast

Here is my example, which you saw last Wednesday in our brief Bulgarian session!

Secondly, you can create quite fun presentations (flicks) with your photos at:
www.picturetrail.com
There are many special effects, wallpapers, backgrounds to use...
Here is mine:

MY EXPERIENCE USING MUSIC IN CLASS

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to say that this course has been very benefitial for me as I have taken plenty of great ideas to try with my students. When we spend a long time with no contact or without sharing ideas with other English teachers, we tend to become monotonous in our lessons and do always the same boring activities. With this kind of courses we activate our creative side again and motivate ourselves to become better teachers and enjoy teaching, which in short is what we all love doing.

I tried one of the activites in class and students really enjoyed it. It was the one using music and writing what each song inspired you.This was with my first ESO stduents, and in order to help them and review the vocabulary they have been learning so far, I gave them different categories, like colour, action, animal, feeling adjective, etc. I played a few minutes of 5 songs and they wrote a word for each category. They really like activities involving music and it's quite relaxing for them.

The songs I used were: Jungle song, life of the ocean by Enya, welcome to Panem (from Hunger games soundtrack), one song from twilight soundtrack and Jason Mraz's Freedom song.

Last but not least, thanks Neda for her time and sharing her knowledge and everyone for your contributions.

Estrella Cánovas Rueda

Thanks...

Hi everyone,

Firstly, I apologise that I haven´t uploaded the materials from the last session yet. They´ll go up throughout today and tomorrow.

Secondly, thanks so much for your lovely comments about the course. The truth is that it´s been hard work preparing, but you made the sessions very easy going and dynamic by participating and having such a positive attitude. I myself have learnt a great deal from the course and from your experience, so all in all it has been a very enriching experience.

I am happy to read that you are putting some of the ideas into actions in your classes. Tackling the 5 skills in 5 weeks has felt somewhat like a race; getting the balance right between giving a theoretical background and presenting practical activities has been at times challenging, but  I think that overall we have managed to cover a great deal of material and generate some interesting ideas for you to take into the classroom.

Please, let me know your comments, either through the pot or through my email, so I can take them into account for any future activities.

See you soon!