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Tell it Again – The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers Part 1: Methodology In the early stages of reading English you will have flashcards with both words and pictures that you make yourself. Later on the pictures can be omitted. You might want to colour-code the flashcards in some way, for example, all adjectives in pink, all nouns in green, all verbs in blue and so on. If you want the flashcards to last you will need to laminate them. You can present new words and then children can work in pairs with flashcards to practise reading and to try and collect as many words correctly read as they can or to collect as many matching pairs of words as they can (‘Pelmanism’). These activities help them to become familiar with typical letter forms and letter combinations in English. Gradually the children will become more confident in reading the written word without pictures. Other activities, such as labelling pictures with flashcards in alphabet or story friezes, or classifying words into word families help them to recognise the key words of a story and remember their meaning. Remember that the children can help you make some of these visual aids. The use of charts of different kinds provides an intermediate stage in reading development and a framework to support children’s speaking skills. When using a chart pupils might describe, compare or classify things. Reading practice may also be derived from listening work, such as when children listen for specific words and tick them off a list. The kinds of task described in the section ‘Listening’ (pages 34–36) can often be used for reading as children progress. This means we can create activities such as read and perform actions; read and draw; read and colour, match, sequence, classify, and so on. The following activities summarise the types of reading activities that can be used with stories. Reading words for pronunciation practice ●● ●● ●● Playing games such as ‘Rhyming Dominoes’, ‘Bingo’ and ‘Snap’. Here the children learn to recognise words and match words that rhyme (see notes for Mr McGee, Funnybones). Matching words in sentences. The children match two halves of a sentence so that they rhyme. (See notes for Mr McGee, The Kangaroo from Wolloomooloo and My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes.) Reading aloud. The children practise reading sentences aloud using the appropriate stress and intonation (see for example, notes for Mr McGee). Practising reading new words ●● ●● Using flashcards. For children to build up their sight recognition. Pupils repeat or sequence words or match these with pictures. Playing games such as ‘Dominoes’, ‘Bingo’ and ‘Snap’. Here the children learn to recognise the written form of words and their meaning. Reading to reconstruct texts or as a prompt for speaking ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● Using vocabulary prompt cards to make statements. The use of pictures as prompts rehearses sentence patterns such as ‘The elephant is the biggest’ (The Clever Tortoise). Reading and ticking a chart to make sentences or ask questions. This also provides a guided context for rehearsing specific structural patterns (for example, The Very Hungry Caterpillar). Reading a clock face to tell the time. This reinforces mathematical concepts of telling the time. Reading words and rearranging them to make sentences. A useful way of checking comprehension and the understanding of word order (see Princess Smartypants). Reading sentences and reconstructing a whole text (The Kangaroo from Woolloomooloo). Listening and reading ●● ●● Matching pictures to speech bubbles. As the children listen to the teacher or to a cassette they read a selection of speech bubbles and choose the correct one. Sequencing. While the children listen to a piece of narrative or to a description they arrange the sentences in the right order (see The Kangaroo from Woolloomooloo). Reading and thinking/problem-solving ●● ●● ●● Verifying written statements. The children read statements in a quiz, or sentences derived from pictures, or a graph written by other children, and check whether they are true or false (see Princess Smartypants). Reading lists or sentences to classify words or to write word or concept webs (see The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Mr McGee). Reading problems and matching them with their solutions (see Princess Smartypants). 40 Part 1: Methodology © British Council 2014
Tell it Again – The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers Part 1: Methodology Writing The writing process When supporting children’s writing skills, it is important to know which skills the pupils are practising in a writing task. Young children may be learning to write, while older children who have mastered the basic skills may move to use writing to learn. It may be useful for you to check whether the writing activities the pupils do have variety. For example, are they nearly always chosen to provide practice in spelling, handwriting, vocabulary and grammar? Writing can often be simply confined to exercises that provide mechanical practice. No wonder pupils often dislike writing! Are there ways that you can encourage your pupils to write things down to help them remember (e.g. make a vocabulary notebook), to encourage them to plan ideas, to write down their ideas, to communicate with one another or even with you? These two goals, practice of language items and practice in communication of ideas, are both important – especially with older children. Pupils also need practice in how to use specific structural patterns to form sentences, how to organise descriptions, comparisons and instructions in writing or how to plan layout, as in a letter or poster. These are all parts of the writing process that need to be practised so that they become easier and more automatic for pupils. As learners develop, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to create opportunities for children to have a specific context and audience to write for. This is an important part of writing to communicate. Developing a sense of audience in order to communicate with someone else is possible even at a relatively early stage of learning English, especially if support such as model texts and essential vocabulary is provided. Children can be encouraged to write sentences which, for instance, other children have to decide are true or false, or which act as riddles for children to guess the answers. The teacher can encourage the older or more confident child to experiment with different text types, such as descriptions, poems, crosswords, dialogues, letters, menus, invitations, birthday cards, instructions or puzzles. Older pupils might even write simple re-tellings of a story, using different characters or a different ending, which can be given to other pupils to read. An important part of this process is making sure the pupils have written models that provide a framework and other support, such as guided activities or a bank of suitable vocabulary. Another important stage is collaboration among children during which they discuss ideas, plan the writing, and revise their work after further consultation with the teacher to produce a polished product. Some of this planning may, of course, need to take place in the mother tongue. Writing activities Writing activities can be divided into those that are guided and tend to encourage some form of copying, and those that are a little freer and encourage more creativity. Copying at word- or sentence-level can be more or less guided by support frameworks such as pictures, written models, substitution charts and so on. Guided copying is often used to practise handwriting, spelling and new grammatical constructions. The support frameworks you choose give learners guidance on producing written work within clearly defined constraints. The use of a substitution chart, for example, can provide a simple sentence pattern such as Jacques likes hot dogs but Louise likes sandwiches, which the children can adapt according to the information on the chart. Other types of copying are sometimes used to help children learn new vocabulary or generally consolidate their knowledge of word meanings. Lists of words can be provided for children to classify under different headings, which may allow them to use some of their own ideas. To keep older pupils motivated, not all writing should remain at the practice level. Freer, more creative writing activities that encourage and support learners in composing sentences or texts should also be used to provide variety and encourage creativity and learner independence. With this kind of freer activity learners practise planning, organising ideas and understanding the conventions of different text types, such as layout. Designing an invitation, poster or advertisement, for example, requires a child to focus on the most important pieces of information and present them in a way that is eye-catching yet clear. Guided writing activities are a necessary foundation for more creative writing and, if carefully sequenced, can provide opportunities for pupils to practise writing with confidence at word-, sentenceor text-level. See also Chapter 5 on using multimedia for other activities to develop writing. The following table shows some of the different writing activities at word-, sentence- and text-level that learners can practise after listening to stories. You might like to add ideas of your own. Part 1: Methodology © British Council 2014 41
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