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Aulas Felices - 3 activities for strategic investment & to lower anxiety in classroom

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This post offers some proposals extracted from the book Aulas Felices.  I thought these would be ideal to enhance students’ motivation in class while at the same time they will be learning since they will be so interested and focused in the activities that they will be unconsciously acquiring new knowledge. 1. Creativity: originality and ingenuity I viewed this as a great proposal offered by the book Aulas Felices , since it is a workshop that is suitable for all ages though we will focus primarily on secondary students. The objectives of this workshop are to promote the creative capacities of students and to promote the interdisciplinary and collaborative work between the teachers. How would we carry out such workshop? The aim of this activity is to establish a time in which students will be able to delve into their creative development, dealing with it from the largest number of possible areas. It is important to mention that this activities will not only be rela
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A focus on materials development: How to write effective learning materials, Rachael Roberts

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In our IDIE class, we were asked by our teacher to give a lesson to our class on  How to write effective learning materials.  To do so we did reserach on this area, focusing on Rachel Roberts since she is an expert in this field, a teacher trainer and author of several works such as IELTS Foundation, the new edition of Total English Intermediate and most recently, Real Life Advanced.  We had 20 minutes to give the lesson and even though we surpassed a little the time we had estimated, the activities we had prepared for the lesson went very well and everyone seemed to have lots of fun.  Our aim in this class was to make students learn certain specific English vocabulary through fun activities by using TICs. Firstly, we made a Prezi presentation ( http:// prezi .com/s-tsve0n7qsl/ ?utm_campaign=share&utm_ medium=copy&rc=ex0share ) in order to explain to them what we had discovered in our research. Once we had finished, we asked them to join a Kahoot we had prepared for them so
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My approach as a teacher

If I had to describe the approach I use when teaching my students I believe I would describe it as an eclectic one since I like to emerge them into English in a fun and interactive way. Of course, it is clear that we must teach them grammar, however, there are many ways in which you can get them to read, speak, listen and write. In order to illustrate my point, I will describe an activity I practice with them and which they absolutely love. In my case, I play them songs whose lyrics they can read on the board and it is a way of having them reading, listening and speaking English (by singing) while at the same time they are having so much fun! Then, I ask them to tell me what is the conveyed message in the song to evaluate their listening skills. Besides, another way in which I get to test their listening skills is by handing them the lyrics on a paper but with blank spaces which they have to fill in while they are listening to the song (this time without the lyrics on the board so
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What should we take into account when asking questions to our students?

As teachers, it is important for us to pay attention to the questions we make and to the way in which we make them to our students so that this becomes a useful exchange of information rather than a mere monotonous and forced everyday activity. Due to this, it seems most important to learn the different kinds of questions there are so that teachers as well as students can benefit from the process of learning. We have to bear in mind the importance of asking the right kind of questions and of asking them in an effective way. For instance, questions can be divided into two types: referential questions, which are those where the teacher doesn’t know the answer, and display questions, those where the teachers know the answers and the students also know that the teacher knows them. Examples: Referential question: What did you do last summer? Display question: What is the name for this? – pointing to a picture of a horse Moreover, there are also other kinds of question
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Scaffolding & Differentiation techniques

What does scaffolding mean? It involves explaining what it is and then provide them with examples and support. It’s a strategy that guides students through a step-by-step process. Therefore, teachers build support based upon what students already know as new abilities are introduced.  What does differentiation mean? This kind of instruction can improve a child’s chances for success. It involves making changes to instruction to address individual student needs and learning styles. Students have their own unique abilities and background knowledge that affect their readiness to learn so it is the teacher’s responsibility to react responsively to each students' needs. Activity proposed for scaffolding: Realia Include visual and real-life objects in lessons to facilitate the learning of new vocabulary. For instance, prior to the reading of a text about animals, I could bring to class a toy for each animal that appears in the story, or, if they are teenagers perhaps
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