Search results matching tags 'communication' and 'creativity'

1036. Starting to write, like other pioneers

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:50:00 GMT

Teacher A said to teacher B, “Writing is a process. Writing compositions can be like writing about one point, period, next idea or point. It’s a sequence. An imaginative one.

Have your students write like I’m telling you. If you give them linkers, they’ll have more weapons to carry on writing. But, also, however, and... henceforth, therefore.

They will write chains of ideas, then paragraphs.

Yet, each writer is different in his views of writing.

You can have them recall the lexis and grammar they’re learning lately.” / Photo from: ctie monash edu au. The McCormick-Romme 'Umbrella' airplane preparing for a test flight, c.1911.

933. Teaching to write

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:06:00 GMT

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “About writing essays or stories, you can tell your students to write an outline or a summary. Or just start to write – with some idea in mind – and more ideas will come up whilst writing.

I see this in many students from one part or another: young people simply don’t know how to express their ideas. Because of that it’s a nice thing to make them practice writing, perhaps with some ouline in mind or a written one.

Before, when I said some – many – students don’t know how to utter their ideas, I was thinking in our L1, namely Spanish: so think of much more difficult in English can be.

Many coursebooks have a part at every unit where students have to write.

Just so as to finish, you can write an essay or a story yourself, and explain that it has an introduction, development, and a conclusion. Kids like stories: they can like writing stories; I’ve seen that.” / Photo from: newcreationschapel org. young girl thinking

897. Aural practicing in class

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:21:00 GMT

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “You know what? I’m eager to start the academic year. I’ve got some experience from last year and am pretty eager to begin.

This evening I’m trying to get some time to sit in front of the screen of the computer and just think of the things I can do this year; also the necessities and expectations of my students, and also some ideas I can use to foster speaking in English, like discussions. What about? For example, something really interesting about yesterday, late world and home news, their concerns and interests, their opinions about the topics the coursebook brings about at the opening... whatever things to try and open up their minds.

Some students will say a lot and with others I’ll try to get something said, dunno, things that have to do with the topics: from colors, yes/no questions, dates and times – gently praising their achievements... I’ll let you know about all this when we begin within a few days.” / Photo from: blogs sfu com. classes of French language

Back to School: Reading Camp Movement Fun! Dancing to Stories

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:00:00 GMT

August 22, 2012

Back to School: Reading Camp Movement Fun! Dancing to Stories

Bookstore Story/Movement Time!

More Movement Fun and Games!

Hello EC Community,

I am temporarily interrupting my DANCING THROUGHOUT THE DAY series (which will return next month with Part 6: A Movement Exploration That Addresses Social Studies) to bring you some ideas for dancing to three favorite children's books. I helped to develop a curriculum for a six-week reading day camp this summer. The camp's mission is to help bring children up to the 3rd Grade reading level. Thirty books were studied, one each day, and my part in the lessons was to get the children up and moving, while reinforcing the learning. Right up my alley, of course! On the list of books were a few that I had already developed for movement activities, but most were ones that I have not used before. The books are a little more advanced than the early childhood levels, but I have found that the preschool set loves to dance to stories such as these.

Moving and dancing to the stories can help the children, through kinesthetic learning, with sequencing, identifying with characters, exploring and learning about the setting and background, vocabulary acquisition, and many other valuable pre-literacy and early language skills.

So, I decided to share in this month's blog entry three of the activities that I developed, in order to pass them along to you and your students. School is starting soon -- I hope you can incorporate some of these lively and fun ideas into your children's day! Photos on this page are from recent visits to bookstores where I presented workshops about dancing to books and stories.

Children Dancing to Stories

1. Imogene's Antlers, by David Small

This is one of my favorite children's books. A creative, imaginative story told with fun and grace, your students will love this dramatic play and dancing activity after you have read the story aloud.

Music: One lively, upbeat instrumental musical selection

Space: The children can move all together in the shared space, or you can divide them up into two or three groups, one group dancing while the others watch. Give the audience group a task, such as, What do you think it would feel like to have enormous antlers on your head?

As you give a movement prompt, allow time for the children to develop each idea in movement. Say to the children:

Imagine waking up in the morning. Stretch, yawn, and suddenly you notice something unusual coming out of your head. You have antlers! Feel all around your head. Reach as high as you can -- they are very tall antlers! Let me see your surprised face, your happy face, your scared face, your silly face.

Now jump out of bed and run to the mirror. Let me see your surprised face again!Try to get dressed. Can you pull your shirt over your head? Get your shirt stuck in your antlers like Imogene did. How about trying to comb your hair? What else do you need to do to get ready this morning?

Now try going through the door. Imagine you are bumping your antlers. Let’s try it three times, 1, 2, 3 . . . but you can't do it! Figure out that you have to turn sideways and scoot very carefully through the door.

Now let’s slide down the bannister, here we go! Uh-oh, your antlers are stuck in the chandelier! Twirl around as you hang from the chandelier!

Imagine you are Imogene’s mother when she first sees the antlers. Gently fall to the floor as if you were fainting. Now imagine you are the person carrying her all the way upstairs. It is hard to carry someone up the stairs, isn’t it?

Hang some towels to dry on your antlers! What else can you hang on them? Put some donuts on the antlers. Go outside and imagine all the birds coming to eat food off of your antlers.

Imagine you are a bird -- fly through the sky! Come in for a landing. What an exciting day! Now stretch, yawn and get ready for bed. Lie down and pretend you are sleeping. It's difficult to find a way to put your head on the pillow! You have had quite a big day, dealing with those huge antlers.

Now it is the next morning. Wake up, yawn and stretch. Suddenly you remember about your amazing adventure yesterday with your antlers. Reach up to touch your antlers. Surprise -- they are gone! But now, another surprise -- peacock feathers! Imagine you are a strutting peacock, showing off your tail.Now take a bow with your enormous tail to end our story.

Play the music and ask the children to do a free dance about all of the movement ideas they just explored. Finish once again with a big bow and a flourish of the imaginary peacock tail.

2. The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco

This is a story about how a beautiful family quilt can be passed along from generation to generation. The quilt is used in many different ways, which sparked the idea for this movement activity.

Music: One lively, upbeat instrumental musical selection

Space: Divide the class in half. One group will be the first to dance. The other group will be the first group to be the audience. Give the audience group a task, such as, Do you see anyone imagining their fabric is a magic carpet?

Materials: Bring scarves or fabric scraps about 12" square (the fabric squares should all be the same), enough for about half of the class.

After you have read the story, show the class one of the squares of fabric. Prompt the children to imagine the fabric square can be many different things. Offer them some ideas, starting with ideas from the story: a babushka to dance with, like Anna; a quilt; a tablecloth; a bedspread, a baby blanket. Then ask them to imagine the fabric can be other things, such as a tail, wings, a superhero cape, a magic carpet, a bridal veil, etc.

Once the children have mentioned many ideas, pass out the fabric squares to the dancing group, one fabric square per child. Play some lively music, and ask them to dance about all of the many different ideas that were mentioned. At the end of the music, ask the children to take a bow, holding their square of fabric high in one hand and then bringing it across their body as they bend over for the bow.

Switch groups, and let the second group dance about all of the ideas. Finish with a bow as above. Repeat the activity as long as the children are engaged.

3. Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen

This is a beautiful book with a simple, magical story, and different animals hidden on the pages. It takes place in winter, so it can be incorporated into any lesson plan about that season. Once you have read the book to the children, try this movement activity:

Music: A soft, instrumental musical selection, such as a selection from Wyndham Hill
Space: The children can move all together in the shared space, or you can divide them up into two or three groups, one group dancing while the others watch. Give the audience group a task, such as, Watch the children dance and see if you can imagine what an owl looks like when he is flying through the forest at night.

Say to the children:

Now that we have read the story, let’s imagine we are the owl from the book. You have big owl eyes that can see in the dark, you can turn your head very far in both directions, and you have huge, feathery owl wings. I will play some music (lyrical, quiet music) and we will take off from our branch high up in the tree, and fly into the forest. What does it feel like to be an owl? What do you see far down below? (Allow time for the children to develop each prompt through movement, picking up on their ideas as well. Then move on to the next one).

Continue the activity:

What other animals might you see in the forest at night? Did you see the bird, the deer, the fox, the raccoon, the field mouse, in the pages of the story? Let’s dance about each of those animals now.

Now let’s imagine we are the little girl, trudging back home in the snow. The snow is very deep! Take big steps and lift your legs high to get through the snow. Make shapes with your footprints: circles, squares, what other shapes would you like to make in the snow?

Conclude the activity:

Look, there is your house in the distance! We are almost home. Imagine you go inside and are finally warm. Walk up the stairs, lie down in your bed, pull the covers up, and think about the amazing owling adventure you had in the cold winter night. What will you dream about?

Use these kinds of simple activities for other favorite stories. You will be amazed how many movement ideas can be generated from books -- and children love to dance!

Have a great start to the school year, and

Keep on dancin'!

Connie

Moving is learning!

www.movingislearning.com

LOVE LANGUAGES and LEARNING

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:30:00 GMT

RECOGNIZING THE DIFFERENT WAYS

IN WHICH WE LOVE

Hello! If you're new to this blog, welcome and I encourage you to scroll through the many blogs of my colleagues. From Debbie Clement to Dr. Danny Brassell to Mimi Chenfeld and many more. My blog today is actually a vlog. A story told almost completely in video. Enjoy how teachers Melissa and Edith from the Santa Rosa Head Start program in Tucson, Arizona have used Dr. Chapman's Five Love Languages to elevate how they connect with children and their families. You'll see how they have created a child-created resource that is helping parents understand their children in a deeper, more meaningful way. Click and enjoy!

Enrique Feldman
Founder and Director of Education, F.A.M.E. Foundation
Lead Facilitator, Arts Integration Solutions
National and International Presenter
Film Composer
Author

LOVE LANGUAGES and LEARNING - PART I (1:26)

LOVE LANGUAGES and LEARNING - PART II (3:14)

LOVE LANGUAGES and LEARNING - PART III (3:13)

I encourage you to know your love languages and use that critical information in how you invite children into learning environments. Thanks again to Melissa and Edith!

839. Learning to learn

Anonymous — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:10:00 GMT

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “A teacher of math, literature, English... cannot confine his work to pass on, to teach, information, knowledge, math operations, the theoretical part of English..., but he or she has to teach their students to learn; to learn what? That information, knowledge, linguistic competence for communication...

Obviously it’s true that the teacher for example tells his students about historical deeds, their connection to our present history, etc.

The English teacher’s mission is not just to teach English but also to teach how to learn English, and this latter thing in a practical way: aimed at communication. The point is not to teach information about the language but to teach to use English for communication between, among people.

Within this context, moreover the teacher’s role is to better his students, and he himself too. The first showing or sign of this bettering of the student is the learning itself, the fact of having learned. This latter idea was partially taken from pedagogist Víctor García Hoz. Our students are in our hands: we have the great labor of helping them become free and responsible persons. For granted, like you know, the first educators are their parents and siblings.” / Photo from: abroadblogs newpaltz edu. the person on the picture is Jasmine, one of the travelers that write in this blog, about international student excursions

NEWS FLASH! FLASH MOB DANCE AT OAEYC!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Hello EC Community!

I have just returned from the Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children's annual event, the Ohio Early Care & Education Conference in Columbus. I helped to plan a flash mob dance which would "interrupt" the Keynote presentation by Holly Elissa Bruno and Luis Hernandez – both very fun people who love to dance. Their Keynote yesterday morning (Saturday, April 21) was entitled Laughter and Joy: Modeling the Best of Who We Are. On a pre-arranged cue, a group of us ran up on the stage and began dancing to Taio Cruz's "Dynamite." The volunteer participants had all put in many hours learning and practicing the dance in the months leading up to the conference.

I decided to use this blog post to display some of the photos from the dance (sent to me in record time by Beri Tiffany-Smith and taken by her husband). The message of the Keynote was to encourage us all to discover many ways to bring fun into our lives. I have a favorite quote, and it is apropos to this event: "There are short cuts to happiness, and for me dancing is one of them" (Vicki Baum). Clark Kugler, of The Adventurous Child, was one of the participants. After the dance, he said he was very glad he had done it, as dancing in a flash mob happened to be one of the items on his bucket list!

O-A-E-Y-C!

I want to thank all of the energetic and spirited participants who danced in front of a very large and enthusiastic audience, I want to thank Beri Tiffany-Smith for all of her help throughout the months of preparation, and I also want to acknowledge the talented and exciting speakers, Holly Elissa Bruno and Luis Hernandez who graciously "loaned" us some of their speaking time for our dance. Finally, I want to thank all of the organizers and participants of OAEYC -- you rock!

Keep on dancin',

Connie

Surprise Silly String Ending!

825. Learning to communicate afresh

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:59:00 GMT

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “If your students have the words, they can have the communication they want to hold. No words and no grammar: no communication.

Something you can do is providing your students with the words and grammar they need to give a message, like ‘It’s everyone’s duty to preserve our world’. For example one student has to explain this sentence, this idea to her classmates, in the front of the classroom. Beforehand, also in the class, and shortly, you and she can work together on useful words and expressions. You yourself can provide a few of your own.

Next, her classmates have got to understand her message. They don’t know the sentence itself. So as to explain it, for instance she can use concepts, like: nature, wild life, atmosphere, smog, forests, water, litter, solidarity among peoples; she also can explain healthy and environment-friendly customs; she can use the verb ‘can’ and ‘can’t’; also talk about our descendants, etc. The students will be understanding because of the vocabulary they know, also maybe because of similar words in Spanish (cognates), grammar patterns they already know... And these kids will approximate the meaning of the message, maybe by saying aloud just single words, sentences yet in broken English, longer contributions.

Thus: What are they all having in that class? Not less than communication, and in English, which is your ultimate goal of your school subject. Besides they’re thinking in English.” / Photo from: eastpuertoricodiving com. scuba diving lessons

698. How to cook an essay

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:22:00 GMT

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Non-native students should master writing in English before proceeding into college. Master at least in communicating a clear message, well structured and with no big mistakes.

If possible – it’s possible to train – uttering something relevant and with the student’s own developing style. Writing is entertaining and creative. There are varied ways of teaching models of writing, but on the other hand each student must develop his or her own natural way. Here is one example. First, the student has the idea that he or she wants to communicate. They write a brief introduction to the topic, for the reader to learn what he’s going to write about. Then he or she develops the idea in the central body of the essay, making clear the core of their message. That body presents and develops the idea, as clear as possible.

All this training is in want of doing it once and again and again, and the learner will be discovering and noticing some point each essay is set.

Last, the conclusion, to round up the main thought, to conclude with a clear summarizing statement, which rounds off the main idea of the composition. On coming posts I’ll tell you further points.” / Photo from: Asian Cook Apprentice pinchmysalt com

647. Communication in the class connects people

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:50:00 GMT

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Look, one practical tip for your classes, concerning communication in English.

When you don’t know a word in English – you’re not a native speaker of this language, but really need to say that word, what to do? I try to explain the word, in English; I try to explain the meaning, because I want to carry on communicating in English and not translate into L1. So, I say the concept, the meaning, the notion of the word; maybe examples of the word whose concept I want to describe; also, if convenient, the use for, the material, shape, color, even by means of a drawing, by means of gestures.

This is also an activity you can make your students practice: they explain the meaning of a word they don’t know. I think this is sensible, because communication is held totally in English. I learned this technique from a colleague of ours. Give it a try, and let me know.” / Photo from: centrodenegociosretiro com