"Halloween is coming..."

 Today is the 26th of October of 2020, the last week of the month. And what does it mean? Exactly! Halloween is just around the corner! 

So, to start getting into the mood, we began the class with activity on this topic: Spot twelve differences between these pictures.

This a great activity to introduce cultural events in our lessons, so the learning process fits with the real situation of actual life. It also can be an introductory task to expose Halloween itself, its vocabulary, and its traditions. 

To develop more the activity, we did a little role play in life with some volunteer classmates, just to see how can we do this exercise in class. There have been three examples:

- A 6 years old student, interpreted by Rebeca, and her teacher, who was Ivan. 

- A 8 years old student, interpreted by Diego, and his teacher, Lucia.

- A 10 years old student, interpreted by Alicia, whose teacher was Martyna.

The first couple, Iván and Rebeca did it quite well. Diego, with some guides, finally achieve the perfect way to make her student understand what she had to do and do it correctly. He has asked her if she could spot any difference between both images. She has pointed out that it would be easier to understand if he gesticulates more or just use some flashcards to support the understanding of the vocabulary and concepts he asked her. I really liked their performance!

The second example, played by Lucia and Diego was interesting too! She has introduced the activity by asking him which characters does he like most. And I loved this. It is great to engage the students first to connect more with the activity and raise their motivation to participate and doing, simply brilliant. Later on, she continued asking him some questions to guide and help him to find the differences. Great performance too!

And finally, the last pair, composed by Martyna and Alicia, began with a story that Martyna read to her student as an introductory activity to contextualize the pictures. After, she has asked her directly about the difference she could spot. Also, I have to highlight something I really liked about this simulation, and it is the fact that Martyna give Alicia motivating and positive reinforcement every time Alicia said something right like: "Perfect!", "You are doing right" and "Keep going". This is really important, supporting our student's work makes them feel more comfortable and secure about what they are doing and give them the strength to continue working.

As a conclusion idea, this activity could be a recycling one because we can review vocabulary already seen in the class at the same time as we can introduce a new one. New activity idea to keep in mind!

Portfolio task:

• What would be progressing difficult for this activity?

For the first example, the 1st course of the primary, we could add one more prompt to the activity. Once the students have spotted the differences, they would have to say out loud (every time the teacher gives them their turn to speak) the name of the difference they have found (for example, and owl, an umbrella, etc.) as well as other words from the vocabulary we have already seen. For example, I can see a house. A moon. I can see stars too. I see grass. A tree. and so on. This way, they would not only focus on Halloween vocabulary but on everything they have learned so far. Also, because it is a speaking exercise, they would be using some present and simple tenses they have been working on in class, so we combine grammar and vocabulary. 

In the second example, we have the 3rd course of Primary. They are supposed to control the basic vocabulary we have provided in the previous example. So, in order to add difficulty to the principal activity, it would be an idea to give them the opportunity to create their own Spot the difference exercise. How? We can give them a paper sheet with a line in the middle, and they would have to paint (interdisciplinary activity) their own pictures so the rest of the class can spot the differences. The only prompt is to add more objects than the ones that appeared in the pictures we have given them at first. This way allows us to see how big is their vocabulary bank. Once they have done their own activity, they would exchange it with a classmate and at the end of the class we would comment on some examples, so we can share more vocabulary with the whole group. 

And for the last group, 4th or 5th of Primary, following the line of the previous activities, we can finish the class by creating small plays. We can divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 students and they would have to create a story based on the pictures from the worksheet. We would give them two options so they can choose the one which makes them feel more comfortable: writing a story or playing the story by improvisation. This way assure us that they can effectively acquire the Halloween vocabulary as well as extra vocabulary related to the topic. Also, they would be practicing grammar tenses, vocabulary, intonation, pronunciation... depending on which option they have selected. 

Once we have analyzed and played this activity we have continued with our theory lesson. Today we have seen a video example of a teaching Task-Base Learning class, and there are some key ideas I want to highlight:

• Firstly, we need to know and structure how the activity is going to be done. 
• The teacher, once she has given them a task to do, will be taking notes of students' mistakes to correct them later at the end of the class, so it doesn't interrupt their creating process.
• Another prompt to enrich the activity and connect the students with it is to ask them about their countries, so it makes it more personal. 
• The task has to be realistic, connected with the lives and experiences of the students at the same time as with class contents. 
• We have to provide students with some instructions on how can they do the activity. 
• While they are presenting, the teacher asks them some questions to enrich more their speech and in order to add more vocabulary and other grammar tenses. 

Finally, we have finished our lesson by overviewing the Task-Based Approach unit, to have more details and a general idea of it. 

What a great and complete lesson has been today, right? There is a lot of work to be done yet until the exam and the final task of this first part of the subject, so I have to go quickly if I want to finish everything on time. See you tomorrow!