Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Building a learner-centered classroom

This is a dynamic example of a projects-based, learner-centered classroom and school. It's exciting stuff!
 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

Volunteerism: Brainstorm+Plan+Action

Paata Lataria, Tsaishi Village School SAMEGRELO

Cleanup Results


VOLUNTEERISM CLEAN UP THE ENVIRONMENT
LESSON PLAN – 1-2-3.. ACTION!
By Paata and Marika Lataria (Tsaishi village school, Samegrelo Open Lesson)

Objective–Students will develop awareness of volunteerism and develop language related to cleaning up litter and participate in a hands-on experience with cleanup of their environment.

Materials Needed– Poster paper, markers, gloves, plastic bags. (Optional – rake, hoe and axe.) Lesson conducted outdoors – tables and chairs moved outside.

Warmup – Students brainstorm the question: “What are some problems within our community that you consider important and need some action?” T elicits and creates a mind-map of the potential issues/problems on board and expands some of the vocabulary (e.g. “What are other words for rubbish?”) Students are organized into pairs/groups according to the problems listed.

Activity 1 – Pairs/Small Groups fill in “T Chart” for Problem and Solutions they select from board, and fill in their ideas related to solutions they think are possible to help with the problem. T monitors students as they work –

Activity 2 - Student Vote  – what are problems and solutions – each group presents its problem and potential solutions.  Students Vote- what problem will we address today? (Cleanup of school grounds decided as most important and most easily addressed problem by their efforts.)  Students brainstorm in their groups as many vocabulary words/phrases related to cleanup of the environment. T elicits and additional vocabulary related to the environmental cleanup solution is listed on board after Teacher elicits some – “clean up, pick up trash, throw away trash, lend a hand”, etc.

Activity 3 – Students create Posters and Rules(for protecting the environment) to illustrate what environmental problems they were concerned with and how they intended to address the problem – sentences are written by each member of the group and on the poster are included Rules  

ACTION – Teacher hands out gloves for students, plastic bags (to pick up trash) and miscellaneous tools including rake, hoe, buckets, spade available for further cleanup to get at the hard to reach areas near the school where trash exists.  Teams– Team 1 cleans up the area in front /side of school grounds, Team 2 cleans up area near the bridge, Team 3 cleans up area near the road leading up to school. Each team has a leader who supervises that his “crew” is working hard.

Assessment – (homework) Students write short paragraphs about their efforts towards the environmental problem, and how their volunteerism efforts helped. They must describe the problem clearly, their solutions and the steps they took.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Volunteer Modals by Lela Chanturia, Batumi with Fun Assessment

Here's an interesting idea...get your students to use their phones to take pictures of the volunteering they did and then tell the others what they did!

 

- Introduce the concept of who is a volunteer. What is a volunteer? My students have are familiar with these verbs, so I write them on the board. (clean, help, plant, feed, visit, pick up)

- Review the modal structure. Create a wall chart to show how to construct the sentences.

pronoun     modal             base form        prounoun plus modal plus base form

I                   can                clean    
you              should            help
he                must               plant
she               will                 feed
it                                        visit
we                                      pick up
they

- Watch the video. Stop the video so students can see the structure and verbs again.

 - Ask students what they can do in school, at home, with old people, with animals. In the video, what are they doing (this is the continuous but you can modal that as well.  You can ask, "What can they do?" to keep using the modal structure.

 Assessment (you can explain in Georgian) Go home and outside and volunteer and do one nice thing for someone. Clean your room. Pick up trash. Visit your grandparents. Take a picture with your phone. Next class, everyone will say what they did and show their pictures. It will use the verbs again, and you can use the past tense. Make sure you check the work in your next class. Have each student stand up and speak and show their picture and say what they did. The class will really love the pictures.

 

Monday, November 19, 2012

Volunteer Modals by Lela Chanturia, Batumi with Fun Assessment


Here's an interesting idea...get your students to use their phones to take pictures of the volunteering they did and then tell the others what they did!

 

- Introduce the concept of who is a volunteer. What is a volunteer? My students have are familiar with these verbs, so I write them on the board. (clean, help, plant, feed, visit, pick up)

- Review the modal structure. Create a wall chart to show how to construct the sentences.

pronoun     modal             base form        prounoun plus modal plus base form

I                   can                clean    
you              should            help
he                must               plant
she               will                 feed
it                                        visit
we                                      pick up
they

- Watch the video. Stop the video so students can see the structure and verbs again.

 - Ask students what they can do in school, at home, with old people, with animals. In the video, what are they doing (this is the continuous but you can modal that as well.  You can ask, "What can they do?" to keep using the modal structure.

 Assessment (you can explain in Georgian) Go home and outside and volunteer and do one nice thing for someone. Clean your room. Pick up trash. Visit your grandparents. Take a picture with your phone. Next class, everyone will say what they did and show their pictures. It will use the verbs again, and you can use the past tense. Make sure you check the work in your next class. Have each student stand up and speak and show their picture and say what they did. The class will really love the pictures.