In Class Support in Grade 2 

This week, in all three Grade 2 classes, the classroom teachers and I collaboratively worked on introducing the features of persuasive writing. Our students had meaningful discussions about why people create persuasive pieces, what language we need to use to persuade our audience and how to structure our persuasive piece for achieving the maximum effect on the audience.

During one of the activities the Grade 2 students were offered to read several statements (eg. 'Children should wear a uniform to school') and after a brief discussion and thought sharing with a partner they had to agree or disagree with the statement. They also had to come up with reasons for their opinion. This was a learning curve for our second graders, as they worked on constructing their understanding of what a reason is and what makes a good reason.

I enjoyed working with Kim Veng and Sorriaj during this activity and supported them during the discussion. We talked about why certain reasons are better that others and what strategies we use to persuade our audience.

Kim Veng and Sorriaj sharing ideas and reasons and taking turns in writing their opinions down.

Writing Poems Is Fun!

After learning a lot about settlements and effectively completing a sorting out activity about positive and negative reasons for building settlements near the waterways, my EAL Gr 3 learners decided to have some fun.

The fun activity that I offered was creating 5 Senses Poems. 

The poem was easy to create because of the scaffold that I prepared at three various levels.

The most advanced students received a worksheet with a poem frame and had to finish each line or change the title and write about any water body they chose to.

The intermediate students were offered not only a  a worksheet with poem frame but also some images to trigger their imagination. 

My beginners received even more support and their scaffold (worksheet) consisted of a poem frame, words to use in their poems and matching images.

All that support ensured a great atmosphere during my class, as all of my students were able to complete the task successfully and enjoyed the creativity of the process.

Here are some  poems created during the last 15 minutes of my FL class.

Johan chose to face all possible challenges.

At the River

I see a little source high in the mountain.

I hear a little stream coming through stones.

I smell a big river with lots of mud.

I taste delicious fish from a big river.

I feel muddy water that I am bathing in.

By Johan

Dyna decided to work with more elements of the scaffold.

At the Seaside

I see people swimming.

I hear waves crashing.

I smell natural things.

I taste some crabs.

I feel the sand.

By Dyna

Sofia and Zereach  and Jade used every feature of the scaffold that was offered.

At the Seaside

I see people.

I hear people talking.

I smell ice-cream.

I taste ice lolly.

I feel happy!

By Zereach

________________________

At the Seaside

I see fish and chips.

I hear waves.

I smell ice-cream.

I taste ice-lolly.

I feel seashells.

By Sofia

_________________________

At the Seaside

I see deck chairs

I hear waves

I smell ice-cream

I taste ice lolly.

I feel sand.

By Jade

Thomas , Minato and Yubin benefited from having words and matching images as some words were unfamiliar for them.

At the Seaside

I see sea shells.

I hear waves.

I smell fish and chips.

I taste ice-cream.

I feel sand.

By Thomas

__________________________

At the Seaside

I see boats.

I hear waves.

I smell chips.

I taste ice-cream.

I feel shells.

By Minato

__________________________

At the Seaside

I see seagulls.

I hear waves.

I smell fish and chips.

I taste ice lolly.

I feel sea shells.

By Yubin

  

Grade 3 EAL In Class Support 

This week my Grade 3 colleagues and I practiced writing explanations with our students. Using ideas from the Writing Fun site I have prepared an explanation text jigsaw. Our students were organized into groups and had to read and reconstruct the text. We had a meaningful discussion about the parts and features of explanation texts and our students had to give reasons for their viewpoints.

At the end of the class the students were offered several texts of various genres such as a report, a narrative and an explanation. Students were familiar with the report and narrative genres, as we practiced writing those text types earlier this semester. The task was to determine the type of text that they were working with. This activity also led to an interesting discussion where the children shared their ideas and reasons. 

Grade 2 New Vocabulary in Class Support

This past week the Grade 2 classroom teachers and I collaboratively continued to introduce our students to new vocabulary of our unit about the urban environment and ways of modifying it. We also worked on unpacking the central idea with our children and on paraphrasing the challenging lexical features.

One of the successful vocabulary engagements was when our students had to mind map all the targeted vocabulary (and also just the words that they knew about the city environment). After that, they had to sort all the words from their mind maps into six categories - Infrastructure, recreational, services, cultural, religious, transportation. In some classes, the students worked with their mind maps, and in others, cards with the words were on the carpet for them to pick up and write them out under the correct category heading.

Sorriaj is busy sorting out his words.

Kim Veng is consulting with one of his friends.

Grade 2 - Urban Environment Vs. Rural Environment

Maly, Visal and Samir exchanged their ideas during the discussion
and easily created a poster. Great team work!

My Grade 2 EAL students began to work on their new unit about understanding urban environment and ways to improve it. I decided to start by supporting my students in constructing their own understanding of the new vocabulary. To introduce the concept of URBAN and RURAL in a fun way we watched a cartoon about the City Mouse and the Country Mouse and then had a "contrast and compare" group discussion. We also watched a video Urban Vs. Rural and once again discussed the differences of the city and the country lifestyles. After exposing my students to the new vocabulary and concepts I engaged them in their first practice of the new words. My grade 2 EAL students had to work with preselected images of urban and rural environments and cards with words. In small groups of three or four students they had to sort out the images and the words, create posters and collectively present their new understandings.

Most of my students completed all the tasks successfully and shared their presentations with the rest of the class. However, some of my kids were still not confident in their knowledge and failed to explain the difference between URBAN and RURAL.  My plan is to play language games and memory games during my EFL classes next week. Hopefully the games will give the students that were confused one more opportunity to listen to their peers explaining the meaning of the new words and have yet another chance to practice explaining it on their own.

Alicia, Jennifer and KimVeng are discussing and sorting out the images and cards with words for the poster.

Jennifer, Alicia and Kim Veng are sharing their understanding of the new words with the rest of the class.

Mollymoon, Sorriaj and Sak presenting their poster.

Vocabulary Activities in Grade 3

Recently my Grade 3 EAL students began to learn about waterways and were exposed to many new words. In order to help my students to construct their own understanding of the different parts of the river I decided to prepare cards with the words and their definitions and engage my students in small group discussions. Each group of three or four students discussed the words and then had to match the word cards with their definitions. Each group chose a reporter who had to share the group thinking and findings with the rest of the class. During this part of the session my students received guidance and corrected their mistakes. Finally all the students continued to work in groups and collaboratively created posters with words and drawings and successfully presented them to the rest of the class.

Thomas, Yubin and Sofia discussing the words, sharing the tasks and creating the poster.

Thomas, Sofia and Yubin are proud presenters and Minato is being a bit shy.

Jade, Dyna and Jan were creative, confident and a great team. Their presentation showed their deep understanding.

Grade 2 English as a Foreign Language Class

Today during our EFL class my Grade 2 students were discussing various art forms and how people express their perspectives through them. 

To begin with we all revised various art forms. Next we worked in 3 groups of 3 students. In each group students received cards with the art form names and their definitions. The students enthusiastically discussed the art forms sharing their own understandings of each one and matched the words and definitions. During the last unit of inquiry all second graders became more knowledgeable about how and why people create art and as a result they could confidently share their ideas and opinions. At the end of the discussion and sharing session I asked each student to draw a sketch about the art form that they worked with. Finally I chose a random student from each group of three to present their understanding of the art form to the rest of the class. For support the three presenters used their cards with words and definitions as well as their sketches while presenting.

It was challenging for some students to remain focused and listen to their peers during the sharing sessions. They enjoyed more when it was their turn to speak. With this in mind, for future activities I will have to give the students more opportunities to report what the others have said to encourage active listening. This can be done after watching videos, listening to songs or during pair share sessions.

We had a successful learning experience and an exciting class with my Grade 2 EAL learners! All of them were involved in meaningful dialogues, practiced their speaking, listening, thinking and social skills. The children asked questions, revised unit vocabulary and even had a mini presentation to finish with. All of it during one class of 45 minutes! Keep up the hard work Grade 2!

Mollymoon, Samir and Sak are in the middle of the sharing session.

Mally is matching her cards. She spoke about dancing.

Jennifer is presenting. She spoke about writing stories.