Have a great summer!

Vacation at last!

It has been a year full of experiences and has enriched us with a lot of knowledge, especially about the processes behind each learning.

We have talked about the fundamental role that emotions play in the teaching-learning process in this post.

We have given very practical indications on how to make the most of every subject taught in English in bilingual schools in this second post.

We have presented very valuable tools to improve our children's level of English with a view to the official Cambridge exams, but also to enjoy reading adapted classics and more contemporary stories: the 'readers'.

And finally we have concentrated on the processes of acquiring English literacy through the Jolly Phonics method: we have told you how I organized the classes, underlining the importance of the use of fine and gross motor activities, which should always accompany any learning, along with playful activities, since they have the great advantage of capturing 100% of the attention of the youngest; and finally we talked about pre-reading, first with short word blending exercises and then enriching the experience with stories and games.

I hope it was useful and that you enjoyed the process as much as I did.

See you in September!

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Natural Science, CLIL and significant learning.

Today I would like to talk about a somewhat controversial matter: the subject of Natural Sciences in English.

I know that here in Madrid, more than 10 years after the implantation of bilingualism in the Primary school, many parents have left their enthusiasm aside to replace it with the fear that their children will not learn almost anything about the subject in both English and Spanish.

In many schools the greatest weight of the evaluation to pass the subject is taken by the written tests: it turns out that in first and second grade these controls are quite simple: mainly children have to connect a word to a picture, circle parts of a drawing, paint, complete sentences with the given words and little more. The problems begin in third grade, when these controls become quite complex because in addition to labeling drawings or body parts, which implies writing without spelling errors in English, students are asked to fill in gaps in a text, for example, or to read a definition and write the word described, correct statements or even explain with their own words some facts: tasks that not only require spelling correction but also require reading comprehension and the ability to express ideas and concepts using specific scientific vocabulary and correct grammatical constructions (writing skills).
It seems to me that we should keep in mind that at the base of the bilingualism project is the concept of Content and Language Integrated Learning – CLIL– whose objective is for children to learn a language through the study of subjects such as Natural and Social Sciences, Music, Plastics, Physical Education, etc.

However, I have the impression that, despite the CLIL premises, it is still not very clear how to encourage this type of learning. Regrettably, the vocabulary lists copied a few boring times only serve, and not always, to achieve a certain orthographic correction, when the objectives of the subject are to learn the Natural Science in English: children should be able to express and present scientific concepts and facts in more or less correct English, depending on the stage in which they are in.

How can we help our students?

My experience and the cognitive and constructivist theories of learning have led me to this reflection: we should always bear in mind that the main objective of the bilingual project is to learn the language and this is learned using 'complete sentences' made up of a subject, a verb and a direct or an indirect object. In practical terms, it means that children, in class, at home, when doing written exercises, during presentations, etc., should always answer with a complete sentence using the specific vocabulary and the correct grammatical structure (the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the present simple and the present  continuous of any verb, together with 'can', 'have got' and not much else).
This may sound banal, but if we look at the dynamics of a class we can see that when we launch a question in most cases the competition to be the first to answer prevails, and that means not having time to think about an entire sentence: our students tend to answer with only one word. On the other hand, the exercises we can find in the book don't help much in that sense either, since most of them are about filling in gaps or answering questions by choosing between already formulated answers. Could you guess how much time and attention a child spends on these types of tasks after 8 hours, or more, spent at school?

To sum up, using complete sentences will cost our students more effort because it requires them to connect the subject of Natural Sciences to that of English, to leave the compartmental units of their books in order to create a more general and flexible narrative; but with time and practice important improvements will be noticed, because there is a greater and deeper understanding of the subject, which will allow them to follow their teachers with less difficulty and assimilate more concepts, unleashing in this way that virtuous circle which improves at the same time the results, self-esteem and control of the language.

Social Science: Europe, countries and capitals

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Science For Children - A Good Alternative to Textbooks

Here in Spain, Science as a subject taught in English has been recently introduced and it is compulsory for those students who attend bilingual schools.

The collection Pinch of Salt published by Anaya is a little bit different from the text books I usually see around.

Scientific phenomena such as reflection and refraction of light, landscape transformation, energy sources and the circulatory system are explained through story which are narrated by several characters through their adventures and discoveries.

The stories are illustrated and really creative. They are adapted to the English curriculum, so the grammar and the vocabulary will be specific for a school year which is also suggested on the books' cover.

They are also perfect for a shared project: the English teacher could deal with the linguistic part of the reading while the science teacher could focus on the scientific part.

Each book comes with a CD and at the end of the story there are 'work cards' with experiments, questions and all sort of activities that will awake your students' curiosity about the world that surrounds them.

At the moment you can purchase 4 titles and their respective teacher's books:

The Heart Cave: A "pirate school" ship takes the reader into a cave which seems to work like a human heart. Following the crew your students will discover what its secrets are and why it can produce so many precious stones!

The Rock Eating Monster: A Sc-Fi story whose protagonist is Lucas, a space superhero, who is captured by a very bad wizard, Noir. To get free, Lucas will have to discover what has happened to the landscape around him while he was asleep because of a curse Noir has put on him.

The Steam Castle: There's a magical kingdom, Occam, where a princess, Enid, wants to convert her castle into a mobile one. To achieve her purpose she will have to travel to the world of humans to meet the former wizard of Occam who, in the meantime has become a scientist. Will they be able to create the energy sources they need to transform Enid's castle?

The Rainbow Party: Enid from Occam is preparing a birthday party for her father, the King. She wants to use the light and all its natural special effects to amuse him but once again she will need some help from humans and their science.

Personally I think that these books are definitely at a higher level compared to the science books used in the Spanish bilingual school system. However, the narrative style is quite far away from Roald Dahl's and the fact that scientific explanations are concentrated in a few pages sometimes creates the same state of confusion as a traditional science book. In any case, this is natural when you consider the complexity of the topics treated in the books.

I've personally never been able to remember a physics definition or formula for more than a few days because of this density of concepts--when I was in school I found it difficult to remember the mathematical side of science for the same reasons.

But the work cards will certainly help. Students will be able to experiment and make their own predictions and observations of any statement presented, adding practical experience to the theoretical one. 

And that's exactly what science is for and why I definitely love it!

  

This collection will be a good choice if you aren't satisfied with the current method of teaching this subject, that most of the time requires just learning by heart, when  you'd like your students to experience how science really works, through active thinking and learning. 

Also Available in Spanish.