Using the Internet with Younger Learners

More and more teachers are using technology in the classroom and it's something more and more used nowadays. These devices are often most effective when connected to the internet, which offers a vast amount of resources that cannot be found in traditional resource books (or maybe is cheaper, or less harming with the enviroment).

 Up-to-the-minute videos, songs, and educational games provide authentic language models and make classes more varied, relevant and attractive to younger learners. The internet also offers learners the opportunity to practise their language skills on their own devices, encouraging learner autonomy.

But while the internet is a wonderful teaching and learning tool, it can pose great risks if not used safely. These can be related to: content (young people viewing age-inappropriate websites); conduct (children posing as older than their real age; 'sexting' – an exchange of sexual messages or images, or placing images of other children online); and contact (including targeting children through chat rooms or social networking sites). If not educated about these risks, young people may put themselves in difficult, even dangerous, situations.

It's important that teachers know what to do in this situation. It’s definitely worth checking with the school authorities what the e-safety policy is, what procedures are in place, and who to contact in case of an emergency. If there’s no such policy, it’s worth looking up local child protection organisations that can help in such situations. It’s also worth talking to parents about internet safety, since quite often they are not aware of the risks at all. 

The most important thing is making sure that learners, when using computers, tablets or mobile phones in class, know what websites they should be looking at and keep to them. Careful monitoring of students as they do their work is essential. This might mean re-organising the room in a way that allows you to stand behind students as they work. In other words, you need to be able to see what they can see.

Finally, talk to the children about internet safety regularly, and if assigning homework that requires using the internet, we can make a list of websites that are safe to use and make these available to parents.

The Pygmalion Effect and the Power of Positive Expectations

It's a proven psychological fact: through something that has come to be known as "The Pygmalion Effect," people will perform according to the expectations others have for them. Limited expectations bring limited results, high expectations lead to exceptional results.  

In my opinion, we can teach our staff how to tap into the positive effects of the Pygmalion Effect with our students, improving outcomes and morale in the process. 


Teachers and Administrators will

• Understand how positive and negative expectations can create self-fulfilling prophecies.
• Develop the skills to positively influence students and coworkers.
• Raise the expectations they have for others.
• Believe more in their ability to positively influence and lead others.

• Never forecast failure in the classroom. If you know a test is particularly difficult, tell your students that the test is difficult but that you are sure that they will do well if they work hard to prepare.
• Do not participate in gripe sessions about students. Faculty members who gripe about students are establishing a culture of failure for their students, their department and their own teaching.
• Establish high expectations. Students achieve more when faculty have higher expectations. When you give students a difficult assignment, tell them, “I know you can do this.” If you genuinely believe that your students cannot perform the assignment, postpone the assignment and re-teach the material.

CAROL READ: IDEAS FOR USING FLASHCARDS

1 Mime the flashcard

Hold up flashcards in turn and say the names. Children do a mime in response, eg they can pretend to eat a particular food (if you are using food flashcards), imitate a particular animal (animal flashcards) or put on clothes (clothes flashcards). Then do mimes of different flashcards yourself or invite individual or pairs of children to take turns to do this. Children watch and call out the names.

2 Flashcard instructions

Stick a set of flashcards on the walls around the classroom. Divide the class into groups. Give each group instructions in turn, eg Group 1. Walk to the elephant. Group two. Jump to the lion and children respond.

3 Repeat if it’s true

Stick a set of flashcards on the board. Point to one of the flashcards and say the name. If you have said the correct name, children repeat it. If not, they stay silent. This activity can be made more challenging if you say sentences, eg It’s a red tomato.

4 Guess the flashcard

Stick a set of flashcards on the board. Secretly choose one and encourage children to guess which it is by asking you questions, eg Is it red? No, it isn’t. / Is it blue? Yes, it is. Invite individual children to the front of the class in turn and get them to secretly choose a flashcard while the others guess in the same way.

5 Flashcard charade

Divide the class into groups of three or four. Give each group a flashcard, making sure that other groups don’t see. Explain that children must think of a way to mime their flashcard. Give them a minute or two to prepare this. Each group then takes turns to do their mimes to the rest of the class and guess each other’s flashcards.

6 Ball game

Have a soft ball ready for this activity. Stick 8-10 flashcards on the board. Children stand in a circle. Hold up the ball, say One, two, three … and name one of the flashcards on the board, eggrasshopper! as you throw the ball to a child in the circle. The child who catches the ball repeats the procedure and names another flashcard. The game continues in the same way until all the flashcards on the board have been named.

7 Threes

Sit in a circle with the children and divide them into two teams. Lay three of the flashcards out in front of you and elicit or remind children of the names. Then turn the flashcards over so that the pictures are hidden. Change the postions of the flashcards on the floor so that the children can no longer easily identify them. Invite a child from one of the teams to name one of the three flashcards. This child then tries to find this flashcard by choosing one of them and turning it over to reveal the picture. If it is not the flashcard they named, the three flashcards are turned over and moved around again and a child from the other team has a turn in the same way. If it is the flashcard they named, they keep it for their team. You then need to introduce another flashcard to make up the three in the game. The game continues in the same way with the children on each team taking turns to name and turn over the flashcards. The team with most flashcards at the end of the game are the winners.

8 Team game

Have ready two sets of word cards for the same flashcards for this game. Divide the class into two teams. Stick flashcards (as many as there are children in each team) on the board or on the walls around the classroom. Give one word card to each child in both teams. When you call out the name of one of the flashcards, the child in each team who has the corresponding word card gets up and goes to touch the flashcard and hold up their word card as fast as they can. The child who gets there first each time wins a point for their team.

9 Board pelmanism

Use 8-10 flashcards and word cards for this activity. Stick the flashcards in jumbled order on one side of the board, facing inwards so that children cannot see the pictures, and number them. Do the same with the word cards on the other side of the board. Invite one child to choose a flashcard, eg Number two, please! and, as you turn it round to show the picture, to say what it is, eg (It is a) hat. Then invite the same child to choose a word card in the same way. If the flashcard and word card chosen by the child match, remove them from the board. If not, turn them both round so that they are in exactly the same position but facing inwards again. The game proceeds with different children taking turns to choose a flashcard and word card in the same way, trying to match them from memory until they are all removed from the board.

10 Classify the words

Draw two or three large circles on the board and write the topic words at the top of each one, eg animals, food, clothes. Children take turns to come to the front of the class, either individually or in pairs, read a word card that you give them and stick it in the correct circle.

PERSONAL OPINION

I totally agree with Carol Read when she says that flashcards are the teacaher's best friends. I love uisng flashcards in the most different situations in order to teach / revise vocabulary. We can use them to play the memoy game, when singing (to highlight the words) and even to tell stories. And children always love them.

CAROL READ: THE SECRET OF WORKING WITH CHILDREN

I watcher careful this video and I would like to highlight the six key ingredients for teaching which she mentions and comprises in one word: SECRET.

S - Sensory Acuity. Any teacher needs to develop his/herability to read children’s signals. Being able to notice and decode children’s reactions may be very helpful.
E – Emotions. Emotional intelligence can also be a precious tool. Adopting the position of an observer and trying to see a situation as a whole can anticipate and prevent problems. She emphasizes that it is vital to step in children’s shoes.
C- Communication. The importance of body language and eye-contact should also be taken into account. She advises us to avoid pointing and pleading, for instance. She also refers to the “deadly stare” technique. I usually use it with my older students and it usually works.
R- Rapport/Relationship. The importance of valuing, praising our students, establishing mutual trust and understanding.
E – Evaluation. We should be constantly evaluating our own performance. I totally agree. Reflective practice needs to be a constant. We should plan, do, analyse, review and plan again.
T – Tactical talk. Giving children the possibility to choose between activities. If they feel they are choosing, they will feel more enthusiastic about it.

HANDA'S SURPRISE

This story is about a little girl, Handa, who lives in an African village carrying a basket of fruit on her head to her friend Akeyo who lives in a neighbouring village.  She does not notice the succession of animals who, one by one, take a piece of fruit from her basket until there is nothing left!  Fortunately there is a last minute twist in the plot which means that Akeyo is not disappointed.

The story would make a great starting point for learning about the needs of living things linked to diet and the specific needs of humans.  This could be compared to the diets of the other animals in the book and would be a relevant context for secondary research.  Children could also find out which African animals are carnivores to compare with the ones in the story.  A lot of the resources suggested here are specifically linked to human dietary needs, specifically the need to eat plenty of plant based foods.

Children could also be supported to write a different version of the story set in another continent.  What animals could feature in a UK based story?  What fruit and vegetables might be found in the basket?  

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Before reading the story, look at the title and cover. Predict what the surprise might be. Then, read the blurb on the back cover? does this give any more clues about the surprise?
• The story is full of questions. Look at the use of question marks in the story. Can you write your own questions and put a question mark in the correct place?
• Retell the story in the form of a storyboard with captions and speech bubbles for each character / animal.
• Rewrite the story from Handa's point of view. What does she think happened to the original fruit in her basket?
• Make a list of vocabulary to describe the animals and / or fruit that appear in the story.
• Write a review of the story, giving your opinions about what you liked / didn't like.
• Try to make a similar story where a child organises a surprise for somebody else, but there is a surprise for them at the end of the story.

Maths

• Weigh a selection of different fruit and vegetables. Can you put them in order from lightest to heaviest?
• Gather some fruit and use this for data handling activities… What is the favourite type of fruit in the class? Make a graph to show how far each type of fruit has travelled from its country of origin. What is the average number of grapes in a bunch?

Science

• Find out about the fruits Handa gathered for her friend. What vitamins do they have in them?
• Find out about the animals that appear in the story. Where do they live? What do they like to eat?

Computing

• Could you act out the story and take digital photos to retell it?

Art

• Collect some fruit and vegetable into a basket and draw it. What colours / textures will you need to show?

Geography

• Draw a map showing Handa's route to see Akeyo and add pictures which shows the events which took place along the way.
• Research where the fruit in Handa's basket comes from. You could also look at the packaging / labels of fruit in your local shops. Where is the country of origin for each type? Can you plot these on a map?
• The story is based in south-west Kenya. Can you find this on a map? Can you find out more about the country? How is it similar / different to where you live? Watch this travel guide about Kenya for some ideas:

Languages

• Can you find out the names for each fruit or animal in a different language?

THE RAINBOW FISH

The Rainbow Fish

By Marcus Pfister

Summary

The most beautiful fish in the ocean is asked to share one of his shining scales with a little blue fish, and to which he refuses. All the other fish in the sea leave him alone, and he wondered why. He goes to the wise octopus for advice, and she tells him to give away his scales. Rainbow Fish reluctantly does so, except for one. In the end, he is less beautiful then he was before, but he has new friends and is now the happiest fish in the sea.

Before reading

• How many of you kids have ever owned an item that you didn’t want to share?
• If you were made to, did it make you happier or sadder?
• Would you rather do the right thing or do the thing you want to do?
• Would you rather have something really special all to yourself or have friends?
• Is being unique more important than being liked?

During reading

• When Rainbow Fish refuses give the blue fish one of his scales
• Was Rainbow Fish wrong?
• Was the blue fish acting out of line for asking for something so dear to Rainbow Fish's heart? Was he asking too much of Rainbow Fish?
• What’s the point of being beautiful if you have no friends to admire them?
• The Octopus tells Rainbow Fish to give away his scales
• Is the octopus right in saying having friends is more important than being beautiful?
• When the octopus says, “… You will discover how to be happy,” is she saying that what Rainbow Fish thought of as happy before wasn’t actually true happiness?
• The blue fish receives a scale
• Is it selfish of the other fish to demand Rainbow Fish of all his scales?
• The book says that Rainbow Fish grew more and more delighted as he gave away his scales. Is this true in all cases? If not, give examples.

Questions after reading

• Was Rainbow Fish's decision to share worth it?
• Rainbow Fish was happy with his scales, and he was happy with his new friends. Are there different kinds of happiness?
• Are they true friends if one of the main reasons they like Rainbow Fish is because he gave them something pretty?
• If Rainbow Fish refused to give the blue fish the scale politely, would this have changed the other fish’s perception of him?
• Do you share with your friends? Do you share everything with them?

MONKEY PUZZLE

Monkey Puzzle or Where’s My Mom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is full of delights for young children. You will find Julia Donaldson’s brilliant rhymes and Axel Scheffler’s wonderful illustrations along with repetition, clues, jungle animals and a great big hug. We have read it over and over again and never tire of it. If you don’t own a copy it is a great addition to your bookshelves at this time of year as Mother’s Day approaches and it is also a fantastic story to read in the Spring as an introduction to the lifecycle of a butterfly.

The story begins with a little monkey, alone and lost in the jungle. This little monkey has lost his mum.

Fortunately the little monkey isn’t alone for long. A well-meaning and friendly Butterfly appears and comforts him, then they set out to find the little monkey’s mum, together. Poor Butterfly keeps finding animals that fit the little monkey’s description but they aren’t quite right.

Elephant might be bigger than the little monkey and the snake might coil around trees but they are not the little monkey’s mum. The spider has more legs than a snake and the parrot lives in the treetops but neither of them fit the bill either. Before you turn the page there is always a clue as to which animal is next, so as you read you can guess what’s coming up next. Each time Butterfly gets it wrong the little monkey chimes “No, no, no!” and this repetition is quickly picked up by little ones.

Eventually the little monkey becomes exasperated with Butterfly. Why does she keep getting the wrong animals? Then, the penny drops. The little monkey never gives Butterfly the key information – the little monkey’s mum looks like he does!  This seems obvious to the little monkey but it isn’t to Butterfly because none of her babies looks like she does: her babies are caterpillars!

Once the misunderstanding is ironed out Butterfly is more successful and they find Dad and finally Mum!

TALK ABOUT

The story is wonderful to read and enjoy simply as it is, or if you want to use the book to inspire some conversation I have always found Burt is quite happy to talk about the friendly characters that Axel Scheffler brings to life in the illustrations.  You could use the story to talk about different animals, introduce some mathematics by counting each animals’ legs or do some biology and talk about metamorphosis and the lifecycle of a butterfly. You could also explore language together by describing each other or thinking of a better description for little monkey’s mum.

You could also read the story before a trip or a holiday to discuss with a young child what they should do if they ever do become lost (not a comfortable idea to entertain but it is certainly an important subject to discuss if you feel your little one is old enough).

1. How would you describe little monkey’s mum so that Butterfly could find her easily?
2. How would you describe your Mum?
3. Why doesn’t Butterfly understand that the little monkey’s Mum looks like her?
4. What do Butterfly’s babies look like?
5. How does a caterpillar change into a butterfly?

CRAFTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

Monkey Puzzle is a cleverly crafted sequence of meetings and you will be surprised how quickly children can pick up the order of the encounters with each animal. Learning to put together and remember a sequence is an important skill and helps children to develop their own abilities to tell stories and recount events. We made a felt board so that Burt could act out the story as we read it and then play with the characters and retell the story in his own words.