secondrunnerup

Second Runner-up of The Best Activity for Crowded Classrooms Category
Esra Tultak, Cemil Yörük İlkokulu, Van

Information about the Teacher
Grade level(s) the teacher is teaching: 4th grades
Year(s) of experience as an English teacher: 5
Information about the Activity
Primary Category: Speaking
Students’ English Proficiency Level: Elementary
Students’ Age Group: 10
Students’ Grade Level: Primary
Purpose of the Activity: The main goal of the activity is to create intercultural awareness in the unit about countries and nationalities. Thus the students will recognize that there are different nations, countries, flags and continents around the world.
Another purpose is to help the students use the second language through simple dialogues. (Asking for and giving short answers. Ex: Where is she/he from? Are you from..? What nationality are you?)
Class size : 40
Group size : 8
Materials Needed: Glue, stick, crayons, paper, student’s book are essential for this activity. Each group will prepare a poster (the flags of some countries) Also a world’s map will be necessary showing the countries.
Technology Needed: Interactive board (Smart board) It is one of the most innovative technology of this age. It provides multiple-learning environment. In the unit, the smart board will help us for videos and songs.
Brief Description of the Activity: 1-Warm-up Activities At the beginning of the unit(countries and nationalities),I enter the class with a world map and a poster with flags of some countries so that the students can get some clues about what they will learn in the unit. The unit will take four weeks, 10 hours total, 2 hours lesson per week. Because that the students are very young learners, my main concern is to develop their speaking and listening skills at first.
First of all, I introduce the words of the unit with flashcards. As for developing their listening and pronunciation skills, students will watch videos on the smart board. These are:
1) Youtube/countries and nationalities with sound: the aim is teaching them correct pronunciation.
2) www.mapleleaflearning.com: talking flashcards.
3) www.kidsTV123.com:”the continents of the world song.
After these videos, our first lesson (2 hours, first week) finishes. Now the students have clutched the words.
In the SECOND LESSON, 2nd WEEK), I separate the class into 5 groups, each group consisting of 8 students, and each group is called with a continent’s name. 1) Asia 2)Europe 3)Africa 4)America 5)Antarctica. Students in each group prepare a poster with flags and stick a boy and a girl wearing traditional dress of each countries near each flag. Students prepare their own flags or alternatively they can cut the flags at the end of their student’s book/activity part. Thus, each group create their own portfolio, different-skilled students come together so that they learn cooperation, peer learning and team spirit. In the THIRD LESSON (3rd WEEK),each group finishes their poster and make dialogues with each other by turns looking at the poster and ask questions: “where is she from? what nationality is he/she? etc.
I want to emphasize that during the lesson there may be some slow learners. In this case, me, as a teacher, use my MIMICS and GESTURES and give them some CLUES. (Ex: saying the first stress of the word) during their dialogue.
4) EVALUATION-4th WEEK
Students in the groups take individual tests consisting of multiple choice questions, word puzzle, matching, and filling in the blanks. I give individual homework assignments to those having failed in the test.
NOTE: In case of winning the prize, I want to emphasize with my regards I will donate the money to “Her Çocuk Bir Umuttur” institution (www.hercocukbirumuttur.org.tr) that is active in East Anatolia Region distributing boots, stationery, coats to poor students and children in the villages.