THEATRE TO TEACH?

WHY NOT?

In my opinion, it is an effective resource that we can use to teach in a classroom. They are useful to many things such as building language or reinforce comprehension skills. All of this by using High Order Thinking Skill which usually we do not know how to work them. There are many different activities where learners can develop tools to understand unfamiliar vocabulary, analyze characters or create their own dramatic texts. The thing is that through theatre pupils actually learn and are involved while having a good time.

Moreover, it is a fantastic way to work with multiple intelligences. Don’t you think so? For instances, students are working with kinesthetic intelligence and also with interpersonal and intrapersonal. Even if they are working in groups they also have to reflect themselves first. In addition, they definitely also work with musical/rhythm intelligence and visual/spatial as well. Of course, the also work with linguistic intelligence since speak, read and if the activity requires so, make questions too.

Theatre, is also very easily adapted to any topic. We can work any subject we want to but the smart thing would be to work those that are more difficult to learn by our students. For example, we can work History or Science. We can give them a text and have a group to represent it. After it, the rest of the class could formulate questions about the action watched and at the end, they will learn a Science or a History topic in a fun and active way.

The other day, we had our last practical lessons. Some of the activities were about theatre and they were fantastic. I had so much fun and they were very meaningful for learning process as future primary teachers. Don’t you agree with me? We learnt many different ways to work difficult texts or boring topics in a way that is entertaining for children, which make the teaching-learning process more effective and successful.

To end, I would like to share with you my opinion about this subject. I think it has been one of the most important that we have had along our degree. Apart from the good times I have had during the lessons, I have learnt a huge variety of resources and tools that I will be able to use in a future. I would like to thank you all, for your collaboration to let this happens and to Raquel for teaching us in such an involved way.

I CAN TELL IT

CAN YOU TELL IT? 

If you are one of my 4^th year Primary Teacher Training Students (Bilingual Group) partners, I am very sure you and I CAN TELL IT!

First of all I have to say that I am very proud of all of you but especially of all the members of my group. We worked hard for this project, and the result could not be any better!

At first sight, it might look a crazy idea, because in the same workshop we must include a fairy tale to motivate students to keep reading, some ICT activities, nine children and 20 minutes to develop everything! But…No, it isn’t crazy… I CAN TELL IT! And you will tell it too if you KEEP READING! 

My group was composed by nine girls and our fairy tale was that classic one called Three little pigs! We thought of it because the story is very simple, short and it teaches a meaningful moral value.

The children who came to participate in our workshops, were from 2^nd year Primary Children from Daoiz y Velarde State school. They were told at school, that a Boring Wizard blew all the pages of books. Therefore, the fairy tales characters forgot their identity. So the goal of these smart students was helping them (or us) to remember who they (or we) were by retelling the story again.

To contextualize the story and to give the students some clues, we decorated our classroom as if it was a forest. As you can see in the picture, we pasted colorful flowers, birds, butterflies and leaves on the walls.  We also, included some grass and a big tree with a poster which said that the Wolf was being wanted. Moreover, we played some forest environment music.

First, Lucía, Carla and I (the Three little pigs) sang a song describing us and ending with the question: Who are we?, the pupils were supposed to answer  (and they all did it): a piiiiiig! And then, we said: yes…a pig, but we are, 1, 2, 3…so we are… and they said: The three little pigs! Right after that, we pointed to the poster, and described the wolf, and asked them who he was. They, again, said: the wooolf, so we asked them if he was good or bad. When they said that he was bad, the wolf entered and they all got a little scared of him… (They were just so cute…)This idea of making a dialogue was inspired in what we learnt last year with Omar de la Cruz. 

Here you can see the song I just told you about:

Did you like it?

When the wolf left, the students, helped the three little pigs to remember the whole story. We designed three different activities with a free and useful program called Edelim. We learned how to use it in 1^st course with Inmaculada Tello. The activities were about matching pictures and putting them in order. You can see them below:

Then, in groups, they had to build the house of one pig (As it is showed in the picture) and invent another end in order to not letting the wolf destroy their houses. For this activity, we included some friends: a fairy, a mouse and a lion. Finally the students all had very good ideas, and the three little pigs were safe in their own houses, from the Big bad wolf! 

To end the activity, we played and sang the song again and dance all together with the children. We could see that pupils enjoyed it very much, which made us be happy and proud of our job. I do not have a video of this to show you, but I have another video in which you will see many of my classmates dancing our song during the break! 

TAKE CARE MY READERS!

RTR LIBRARY!

HELLO MY BLOGGERS!

To be honest, I did not have any idea about what to talk this time about. After thinking for a big while, I decided to talk about the library project that my group and I designed. I think that it is a very good one and even if we already showed it to you, as I endear it, I am going to give you further information just in case some things weren’t very clear.

First of all, our library is called RTR. This is because it is Ready to Read since it consists on a mobile library, being easily moved from class to class or even to the playground or any space at the school. This way the same library could be used by every class participating in the project.

As you might remember, our library had three shelves with for boxes in each one. These boxes would be made with shoes carton boxes and covered with different color papers. Each color represents a genre which has a poster of that color on the notes board. This way children could paste post-its with their comments there, and also the next learner who is willing to read a book can see the comments made on it.

Then, I would like to mention how we planned to get our books from. Firstly, at the beginning of the course, we would ask to the children to buy one different book each one and bring it to school taking into account that the teacher made a list before including appropriate books) Moreover, teachers would also assign one to each child, in order to not have the same book twice. Secondly, pupils would have as homework, to write what they have done during the summer, Christmas, Easter… Then, the teacher would collect all of them and build for example, The Summer book of the class and so on. The teacher will build the book making holes on the pages and joining them with wool. Then they will be on a box on the worktop. Thirdly, we would also ask older children from the school to donate their books from when they were younger, and finally, the teacher would also ask for some books to some English Texbooks Publishers.

Lastly, I would like to talk about some of the activities we thought of. One of them consist on pasting a sticker on the books when students finish reading it. They would paste a star sticker if they have read it and a heart sticker if they have read it and also liked it. This way at the end of the course, it would be noticeable to know which book has been more read and the favorite one. This way, at the end of the course, children will represent the story of their favorite book to their parents as a play. Another one, which I really endear is based on the idea where students from 2nd course write on a template which book they will like to read to a younger child and students from 1st course will write on another template which book they will like to hear from an older student. This way, once a month the teacher will open the mailbox and choose (from a raffle) from those children that picked the same book, a couple to go together the break and read the book.

To end, I would like to mention that I think you all made a great job with this project. Congratulations! You all had brilliant ideas and you know what? I think that if we all were working at the same school, children will enjoy going to school very much, don’t you think so? 

FAIRY TALES!

The other day in class, we talked about fairy tales. The lesson that Raquel planned was focused on Cinderella and it was surprising to find that we all could tell the whole story by telling our personal versions. I think that most of us told the Disney version, which by the way, was one of my favorite. We saw that there is a large variety of versions but we focused on those by Charles Perrault, and by Brothers Grimm. I personally, found very interesting those little changes that we could find between one version and the other, but I think the story is brilliant anyway! I can’t even count how many times I have seen it, not only the Disney movie but also that one called Ever After which pretends to refresh this classic fairy tales. This one tells the classic story but there are some others like Elle: A Modern Cinderella which tells the same story but in an actual times. The thing is that I am not here typing to tell you about movies but to tell you that we can adapt a fairy tale to actual times to teach children its main value or message, in order to make it easier to understand, and to make them see that these kind of thing not only happens in fairy tales. Did you enjoy this lesson as much as I did?

That day I found fascinating how such different versions can talk about the same story, which is as I have said before it is a story that I love, therefore I have done some research to learn about another classic fairy tale which I can also find pleasure in watching it. Do you want to know which one is it?

SLEEPING BEAUTY

As a curiosity, you may like to know that the first version was written again, by Charles Perrault in 1697. It was separated into two parts, that is why some folklorists were driven to believe that they were two separate tales in its origin, and then, they became in the Brothers Grimms’ version. Later on, they were joined together by Basile and then, by Perrault. Another curiosity is the unstable name of the princess, since different names like Sun, Moon or Talia have been given to her. Moreover, Perrault named her daughter “L’Aurore”. The Brothers Grimm called her “Briar Rose” and John Stejean gave her the name of “Rosebud”.

In general, I think fairy tales are a qualified way of teaching rather moral or values. Furthermore, these kind of stories, with a familiar structure, can create an ideal context for learning about the writing process. Also, it helps to build student’s background knowledge and to scaffold their creation of original stories. In addition, they are also great to teach about story structure by identifying beginnings, middles and endings in familiar stories, since it is very probable that if not all, almost all children in a class have watch, read or even heard them. Do you agree with me? What do you think?

Telling Tales!

The other day in class... we saw some videos! I know, we have seen many videos in class but I am talking about those that showed us how to tell stories. I love that story called Chocolate Cake. Well, more than the story, I love the way Michael Rosen performs the story. If you do not remember it very well, here you can watch the video again:

When I got home that day... I watched more videos from him! I found this one very funny which is called No Breathing in Class. It talks about a very strict teacher and how students felt about her. I found it funny because apart from his performance, I felt that way many times in class. I am very sure that most of us have felt this way before too! Have you?

Now that you are back in time and you remember which day I am talking about, probably you can also remember that... Raquel showed us the story called The Princess and the Dragon. It remained me of my childhood. When I was at school, my teacher used to tell us many stories but I think that if she would done it in this way, I would had enjoyed more. This is why, I got motivated to create a story using this methodology with my group:

First, we started thinking of topics to create our story. I have to say that it was very difficult to find a topic in which three characters with those characteristics could appear. The characteristics that I am talking about are: the good one (brave knight) the bad one (dragon) and the poor one (the princess). In our story, which was about recycling, our characters were replaced in this way:

Brave knight: The Three Recycling Bins

Dragon: Mr. Rubbish

Princess: The Big and Strong Tree

We thought of many topics before, such as instruments, planets or four seasons but we found some problems to fit them in the structure we had to follow. Suddenly, a light shinned and The Tree and Mr. Rubbish story came up to our minds. After writing it, we could see that it worked well so we started to perform it with the gestures that we saw in class. I know that you have already seen the result many times, since you all had to learn the story… but just in case you want to see it again or to use it in a future, here you have the video:

I think that... this story could be used to motivate children to recycle. Furthermore, it could be used as an introduction to the topic. They learn about the environment and how to take care of it since the first course of Primary. If you want to know when or how in more detail, you can find it in the first block of the curriculum, which is called the environment and its conservation.

I hope you liked our story and that you find it useful for children. I am up to your thoughts and opinions! I would like to know how you would use it in the future, or even how you think the story would work best!

Ring O'Roses

About two weeks ago we saw different nursery rhymes. Particulary, I find very interesting the political meaning that they have hidden. Even if we saw their meanings a little bit in class, I was very curious about one in concret. If you see the picture above, then you should know about which one I am talking about. The thing is that I have been doing a little research and this is what I have found:

• 1881The first version of Ring a Ring of Roses was recorded. When it appeared in Kate Greenway's edition of Mother Goose. It however, refferred to twenty six years before that in Ann S Stephen's novel The Old Homestead, which describes children playing this game in NY.

Ring-a-ring-a-roses, 

A pocket full of posies; 

Hush! hush! hush! hush!

We're all tumbled down.

• 1833William Newel reported two versions in America, and one version claimed to be current in New Bedford, Massachussetts in 1790.

Ring a ring a Rosie, 

A bottle full of posie, 

All the girls in our town 

Ring for little Josie.

• 1883All the versions were recorded in England which included the now familiar sneezing motif, for example:

A ring, a ring o' roses, 

A pocket full o'posies- 

Atch chew! atch chew!

• 1892 Twelve version were listed by Alice Gomme. In that list there was included one like the version that currently is sung in Britain:

Ring a-ring o' roses, 

A pocketful of posies. 

a-tishoo!, a-tishoo!. 

We all fall down.

WHAT does it refer to?

The rhyme is referred to the black death. 

• Ring a ring of roses:  buboes that were red as a rose and very big.
• A pocket full a poses: people used to keep a poses herb in their pocket since it was believed that it would keep the plaque away.
• A tissue a tissue: the symptoms they had.
• We all fall down: the dying part of their lives.

Here, you can see a video  in which this song is beeing sung and  danced by four more classmates (Andrea Sáez, Rocío Martínez, Isabel Prior and Cristina Moneva) and me. We had to change the rhyme and also add some choral speaking. You can see in the video, how we mix the different types of choral speaking, such as antiphon, comulative or solo lines!

I think we can learn a lot from these kind of activities. Children love singing and dancing, and the thing is that they are learning a lot of things such as phonics or vocabulary while they are having a great time! Didn't we have a great time doing it? I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed the activity!