Today, 24 April 2015, the English has let me to carry
out a story writing activity in 3th and 4tg grade of Primary School. The main
objective of this activity is to review the grammatical structures and the
vocabulary of the Unit that they are studying at this moment in the textbook, to
introduce the most common structures of the stories (past simple, past
continuous, etc.), and to start using the language for a purpose (create a story)
and not just study it like an abstract concept as it is usually done.
First of all, I’ve explained the activity to the students
very clearly, combining English and Spanish, using body language, pointing
things, etc. We have reviewed the structure of the story and I have introduced
its concepts in English through flashcards.
When the main points of the story were established, we
have started to create the story in chain, that is to say, a student said a sentence
and the classmate sit next to him/her continued the story with another
sentence, etc. This way, we ensure that everybody takes part in the creation of the
story. As they don’t know most of the structures to tell a story in English,
we have let them express their ideas in Spanish. The only rule was that they
had to use the vocabulary and the structures of the textbook Unit (Wild Animals
and actions in 3rd grade and the hours and daily routines in 4th grade).
While the students were narrating, the English
teacher was writing it in English in the computer and projecting it on the interactive
whiteboard, so that they could see immediately how their ideas were written in
English.
The evaluation of this first day is quite
positive because, although it was my first time doing this activity, the
results have been good regarding to students implication and motivation.
However, there have been some errors that need to be improved during the next
lessons. For example, in the 3rd grade lesson I have let too much freedom, so
they have lost the thread of the story, and forgot to introduce the vocabulary
of the topic. Furthermore, as I was always rereading the story to reorient
them, we haven’t had time to finish the story. Otherwise, I’ve corrected these
things in the 4th grade lesson, guiding more their interventions, and the
difference has been important as they have had time to finish the story and to
decide democratically the title.
Another big problem that I have detected in this activity
is that the last students of the chain lose the attention, and don’t listen to
their classmates as they are creating the story. So when their turn arrives,
they are not able to follow the story. Possible improvements for the next
time would be don’t follow the order, but jump from one student to another, so
that they need to be concentrated all the time as they don’t know when their
turn will arrive. Moreover, it would be a good idea to introduce the activity
reading an example of a story created by the teacher or by another group of
students, so that they have a reference. Another alternative would be to divide
the class into three groups and each one would have to develop one part of the
story (beginning, middle or end) by themselves. I think that this alternative
will be more effective when students are used to this kind of activity, as they
will already know how it works and, therefore, they can be more independent creating
the story.
In the next lesson, students will read and record the
story and, after, they will do the illustrations in order to put it all
together to create a video that I will upload to YouTube. They are highly
motivated about this idea, and I think that the final result will very
interesting and will help them to see English from a different point of view,
as they have used it to communicate something to the rest of the world.
And... this is the story created by the students of 4th grade...
THE STORY OF TOBY THE CAT
Once upon a
time, there was a boy named Tom who was 8 years old. One day, he
woke up, had breakfast and brushed his teeth. When he left home, he found Toby
the cat. Toby was gray, with white spots and small. Tom decided to adopt Toby
and put it inside the schoolbag. At nine o’clock,
Tom arrived to the school and met with his friends Henry and Jerry. They asked
him where had he found the cat and why had he adopted him.At half past
ten, the cat started to meow. The teacher asked the students: what was that?.
Tom asked: A cat from the street, probably. But the teacher didn’t believe him
and decided to search inside all the students’ schoolbags. Tom was very nervous
and worried, but suddenly the bell rang. At the break, he hid the cat in a
tree. After that, another boy took Toby and put him inside his schoolbag. At half past
twelve, Tom went home and when he was going to pick up Toby, the cat wasn’t in
the tree. Tom went home very sad. At eleven o’clock,
he went to bed thinking about Toby. Suddenly, someone knocked the door. It was
the boy, who had taken Toby, with the cat in his arms. The boy said to Tom. Don’t worry
about Toby. He is mine He had escaped. He is safe with me.
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