Making phonics fun ( Maureen Howah)

Songs/chants/rhymes

Objective: Using a simple rhyming string or alliteration to teach phonic

Estimated Time

15 minutes

Materials

• pen, paper, course books and internet access

Procedure

1. Have teachers listen to first three ( A to C ) alphabets of the song “Ants on the apple”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFFyS3PrjZk

or teach song to the tune of  “skip to my lou tune “.

Ants on the apple, /a/, /a/, /a/ .

Ants on the apple, /a/, /a/, /a/ .

Ants on the apple, /a/, /a/, /a/ .

/a/ is the sound of A

2. Pair up teachers and have them make up chants or alliteration using their partner’s first name.

Eg.  Siti sits silently /s/, /s/, /s/

       Siti sits silently /s/, /s/, /s/

     Siti sits silently /s/, /s/, /s/

     /s/ is the sound of S.

3. Have teachers work on their own chants. They must not let their partner see their work.

4. Ask partners to predict the last word of each other’s chant. They then share their written chants.

5. Have one teacher sings and the other partner makes appropriate actions (using jolly phonics or other actions they are familiar with).

6. Have teachers sit in a circle and have each sing/share their chants with the class.

6. Tell teacher they can adapt to any context eg. instead of using children’s names they can use course books eg. (from Yr 1 book, p. 14 - Listening) phoneme /m/

“mop on a mat” /m/,/m/,/m/

/m/ is the sound of M

Or change the words to suit the lesson.

Making phonics fun ( Maureen Howah)

Name Match—Activity

Children's names are an excellent source of examples for initial activities. The Name Match can be used in circle time or outside, with a group large enough to include a wide variety of examples, or with a small group (chosen by the teacher in advance) to practice only a few phonemes.

Objective

To provide children with practice in identifying initial sounds in words which are meaningful to each child.

Estimated Time

15 minutes

Materials

• List of teachers’ first names, organized by phonemes

Procedure

1. Create a list with the names of your teachers and the phoneme that represents the first sound in his or her name.

2. Have one teacher stand in front of the group. Ask the teacher if he or she sees someone else whose name begins with the same sound. If the teacher is correct, have the other person stand. If not, ask if anyone else in the group has a name that begins with the same sound.

3. When a match is made, have those teachers sit together, and ask another teacher to come forward. Continue matching names until all teachers whose names have the same initial phonemes are sitting together.

4. If some teachers have names with initial phonemes that do not match those of anyone else in the class, see if he or she can find an object or a picture in the room whose name has the same initial sound.

5. If anyone still doesn't have a match, ask the teacher if they know anyone with a matching name or have them make up a name that would match.

6. Have teacher s figure out the number of initial sounds that are represented by their names by counting the number of groups that were formed.

7. Teachers then work individually (or in pairs). Have them choose one of their classes and create a similar list (2 to 3) of name match of the initial sounds of their students. They then share to the group.

THE DICTOGLOSS METHOD OF LANGUAGE TEACHING

A TEXT-BASED COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO GRAMMAR

(Ruth Wajnyrb)

METHOD

Dictogloss is a teaching procedure that involves the normal-speed dictation of a short text to a small group (4 – 5) of language students. The students take notes during the reading of the text.

Then, working in small groups, they piece together (reconstruct) the text as a cooperative endeavour. This is achieved by pooling the group’s notes and making grammatical decisions about the text. No dictionaries are to be used.

Finally, after each group has produced its own version of the text, the whole class gathers and the different versions are analysed, discussed and corrected.

STEPS

A.   PRE-DICTATION PHASE

1.    Choosing the text

·         The teacher chooses an appropriate text, perhaps practising a particular grammar point, involving vocabulary to review or on a particular theme / topic

·         Text-book texts may be used

·         Texts may be simplified first

·         A picture helps the process greatly.

·         3 – 5 sentences long. Cohesive across sentences. Longer texts can be used with more advanced groups.

2.    Prediction

·         brainstorm possible vocabulary from the title and picture

3.    Lexical Pre-teaching

·         pre-teach unfamiliar content words

·         students should be seated in their groups and be quite clear of the nature and aims of the task (perhaps need to explain the method in L1)

B.   FIRST DICTATION PHASE

Dictation

·         The text is read at normal speed

·         2 readings – during the first reading students listen without writing anything – during the second reading they write down content words as they are heard on their own paper – it is important that each member of the group writes down as much as he/she can understand, in order to participate in the group reconstruction

C.   RECONSTRUCTION PHASE

1.    Reconstruction

·         students pool their notes and construct a text – not trying to re-create the original text, but to produce a group text which is grammatically correct, contains the same information and is cohesive.

2.    Final Dictation

·         one final dictation (third dictation) at normal speed, during which students attempt to add further content words to their first list

3.    Final Reconstruction

·         students reconstruct a final group text on a large piece of poster paper and on an OHP transparency

D.   ANALYSIS AND CORRECTION

·         all texts are placed on the wall for other groups to read

·         texts are then corrected for grammar and meaning, or teacher can collect the final texts and use as a base for remedial grammar teaching

ADVANTAGES OF THE DICTOGLOSS METHOD

·         can be used in any cultural setting, with any language and with any level of student

·         teaches grammar in context and in response to need in a particular situation

·         motivating for students and teachers

·         task-based learning

·         student-centred learning

·         communicative – to complete the task, the students must work cooperatively and use language (discussion, negotiation) – inevitably, some L1 will be used, but keeo this to a minimum

·         exposure to the concept of a text, on which many modern language curricula are based

Taken from:

Wajnyrb, Ruth 1990, Grammar Workout: The Dictogloss Method of Language Teaching: a text-based communicative approach to grammar

NARRATIVE TEXTS

Forms of narratives:

Traditional Narratives: fairy tales, folk tales, myths and legends, parables, fables, moral tales

Modern narratives: science fiction, adventure, mysteries, heroes and villains, cartoons, horror stories, realistic fiction.

Structure of Narrative Texts

1.      Orientation

Who? (characters)                           Where?                                              When?

Writer sets the scene for the story, informing the reader of the time, place and main characters of the story. Often gives an idea of the action to follow. For beginning writers, this would be one or two sentences.

2.      Complication (What?)

Something goes wrong or a problem arises. This usually involves the main character and one or more of the minor characters. This is the part of the text which makes the story interesting, by developing problem situations which can then be resolved.

What went wrong in the story?                              Why did it happen?

Which characters were involved?

3.      Resolution (How?)

This is where the problem or complication is resolved. The events and characters return to normal in a satisfying way. However, there can be an unhappy resolution.

How was the problem solved?                              Who solved it?

How did they solve it?

4.      Re-orientation (or Coda)

Optional. The reader is made aware of how the characters have changed and what they have learned from dealing with the complication and its resolution. It may be written in the form of a moral to a story (such as in a fable).

Language Features of Narrative Texts

·            use of the simple past tense

·            contain characters which may be human, animal, realistic or imaginary

·            sequence of events shown through the use of conjunctions (‘joining words’) which build up relationships of time, addition, cause (eg because, so)

·            can be written in the first person (I, we) or the third person (he, she, they) Some may use the passive voice.

·            descriptive adjectives are used to enhance the visual imagery

·            use of adverbs and adverbial phrases

·            use a variety of verbs to refer to a character’s actions and thoughts (think, feel, do)

·            when dialogue is included in a narrative, it involves a change of tense: eg When he got home, he walked in the front door and went through to the kitchen. “Trish, what are you doing here?” he said. (He asked Trish what she was doing there?)

TEST YOUR AWARENESS

THE COLORS SONG

THE SHAPES SONG