Catch you later Ireland!

It is a bittersweet emotion sitting here with less than 10 days left on my exchange. Of course I have missed my friends and home, but I have also had a great time being in Ireland and have got new friends here as well.

I have learnt a lot while being here. It is a whole different culture which I have enjoyed immensely to explore; seeing the beautiful nature, visiting historical places and meeting the people.

The Montessori School has taught me a great deal as well. It has opened my eyes to a totally different way of teaching; one that I hadn’t imagined could work, but however it worked very well and children that I would have thought were too young to be in school knew both how to read and write and some of them were even better at Geography than I am.

This has been a great experience for me and I’m sure that it will be very useful for me in the future.

Although there are some conflicts between what I have learned back home at Blaagaard/KDAS and what I have learnt at St. Nicholas Montessori College, I am sure that I can use parts of the Montessori method in whatever classroom I end up in which will have great gain for the pupils.

I have hopes to come back to Ireland at one point to live, if only for a couple of years and I’m strongly considering spending a year, studying a high diploma in Montessori Primary teaching when I finish Teaching College.

Now we will see what time brings.

Exam Focus 4: Current Themes in TEFL

In this exam I will to my best abilities try to answer the research question below. I will do this by using theorists’ (Pauline Gibbons and Lynne Cameron) point of view on what an “up to date” course book is. Afterwards I will give some alternative suggestions on what you can use if your school doesn’t have the resources to get new course books.

Research Question:

Why is it so important to have good course books that are up to date and what can an English teacher do, when having to work with outdated course books?

According to Gibbons a lot of pupils start learning reading with books that contain repetitive, small, simple words with no greater meaning and no story to tell.

Gibbons thinks that this can help us slow down children’s reading and make them loose interest in the activity. She calls these books mind-numbingly boring and says that we should ask ourselves what impression these kinds of texts give the readers. She also presents us with a list of criteria for choosing a quality story which will most likely raise the pupils’ interest in reading. The list contained amongst others: repetitive language, universal themes, content and words that is not immediately accessible to the reader.

Cameron defines a good book as one that the reader enjoys reading and the listener enjoys hearing. She says that children tend to like imaginative books that the reader can relate to, as in “monsters that live in families and tigers that drink tea in the kitchen”.

She also says that in order for the children to gain new language from the stories there has to be rehearsed vocabulary as well as vocabulary that is new to the pupils.

But the materials you choose to use depend a lot on what you as a teacher like to use.

If your school doesn’t have the resources to get new course books, the internet is a great resource for getting more updated materials. Libraries are also a great resource to borrow movies or texts for using in the classroom.

While being on exchange in a Montessori College in Ireland, I also experienced that the students got assignments that involved creating their own teaching materials. This would be a great idea to execute in regular teaching college as it is good training. It might be too much to create new materials for each lesson but it is good in addition to the other materials used in the classroom.

Resources:

Cameron, Lynne (2001): Teaching Languages to Young Learners  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Gibbons, Pauline (2002): Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning (Portsmouth: Heinemann)

Exam Focus 3: Film and Text

In this exam I’m going to focus on film and intercultural competence.

To my best abilities I will answer the research question below, starting to present different theorists’ take on the subject, like Mortensen and Mortensen, Gillespie and Toynbee, Iben Jensen. Then I will set these points of view up against some arguments I found online that films should not be used in the classroom.

Afterwards I will share with you how teaching culture through film has worked in my experience in different teaching practice placements and a teaching lab.

Research question:

How can film support the development of intercultural competence?

There are many different points of view on using films in the classroom. Mortensen and Mortensen state that we hook the pupils’ attention by using films in the education and that we can prepare them for real cultural pictures and language that they might meet in the future. They also think that movies often have many themes and reach a broad audience. They also argue that the pupils learn oral vocabulary of the language of the film being shown and as this can be supported by subtitles in the same language, they also learn written vocabulary.

Gillespie and Toynbee however, state that media does not simply reflect the real world as they have the narratives’ point of view built in them.

However it has been discussed in the media that watching films can be a bad way of teaching. Some of the main arguments are that it’s too time consuming for the learning outcome and that movies are not always historically correct.

Mortensen and Mortensen talk about using films in a “right” way; that if you use films in a right way in a lesson it is differentiating and a common experience. So you don’t just watch the movie for entertainment but also work with it.

In my experience it is very important to choose the right movies for learning intercultural competence. The movies have to get the pupils’ attention as well as being educational. It is important to set relevant tasks for the movies so the pupils gain more from it than just watching a movie.

Film used properly in a classroom can be very useful and effective tool as it “shows” us instead of “telling” us but when it is only used to get peace from the class for a moment I find it horrible.

References:

• -        Gillespie, Marie and Toynbee, Jason: Analysing Media Texts
• -        Mortensen and Mortensen: Om brug af spillefilm i fremmedsprogsundervisningen
• -        Jensen, Iben: Introduction to Cultural Understanding, ch 9
• -        Undervisnings Ministeriet: Fællesmål 2009, Engelsk
• -        http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/using_film_in_schools.pdf

Exam Focus 2: Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

In this exam I am going to start out by discussing why vocabulary is so important when learning English.

I’ll discuss different theorist’s points of view on the matter and comparing it to what I saw in teaching practice in a 4^th grade at Herstededøster Skole as well as explaining some of the materials that worked really well for me in order to achieve vocabulary.

Research Question:

Why is vocabulary essential in the English classroom and how can I teach it?

E.D. Hirsch describes vocabulary as the Matthew Effect: ”The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” So the more you know, the more you will learn.

Knowing a word is often defined as recognizing the word when seeing or hearing it, however Lynne Cameron states that learning vocabulary is not only about learning words, but also about learning more about those words. Learning how to understand them and use them in different contexts.

According to Birgit Henriksen ait is necessary to know at least 95% of the words in a text being read for ones reading being satisfactory. She also has a list of things that can help us when remembering words which I will get further into in the exam:

Frequency

Depth of cognitive processing

The possibility of working with webs of associations

Variation in the form of presentation

Salient features in the word. 

About the subject Karen Lund says: “To achieve oral and written proficiency it is, however, far from sufficient to be able to compose single sentences that are correct as regards grammar and meaning.” So although vocabulary and grammar are important to know, it is not enough to achieve oral and written proficiency. So as a teacher it is important to keep in mind that vocabulary isn’t all.

Doug Lemov states that vocabulary in itself is not much worth knowing; he says that the important part is to teach the pupils to use the words in sentences as there is a long way from knowing the definition of a word to knowing how to use it in a sentence.

What I saw working best when teaching the pupils vocabulary at Herstedøster Skole were games and competitions. The children who were shy and not as inclined to speak in groups, would often forget that when they were playing games and doing competitions. And the children who weren’t shy found it easier to keep concentration in these activities. It was also said in interviews I did that these were their favourite activities.

References:

Cameron, Lynne (2001): Teaching Languages to Young Learners  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Henriksen, Birgit (1995): 'How does one remember words?' IN Sprogforum no. 3

Henriksen, Birgit (1995): 'What does knowing a word mean?' IN Sprogforum no. 3

Lemov, Doug (2010): ‘Teach like a Champion’ (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass)

Lund, Karen: ‘Communicative competence - where do we stand? ‘ - http://inet.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/sprogforum/Espr4/lund1.html

Exam Focus 1: Language and Language Use

Exam Focus 1: Language and Language Use

In this exam I will be answering the research question asked below by using theory that I have learned at Blaagaard/KDAS as well as using theory that I have learned on my exchange at a Montessori College in Ireland.

I will also be getting into what has worked for me when teaching grammar in practice placement and how it related to the theory I have learned. I will show this by presenting an authentic pupil text, by an 8^th grader, that I analysed.

At last I will discuss the point of view that it is unnecessary to teach grammar to your pupils and give a conclusion from this.

Research Question:

How and why should we teach grammar when teaching English as a foreign language?

About teaching grammar Penny Ur says that it is of vital importance that you are clear in your language about grammar and make it as simple as possible. David Crystal also talks about the difference in knowing grammar, which is the ability to use grammar, and knowing about grammar, which is the ability to talk about what you know about grammar.

Maria Montessori finds it very important to use tactile materials when teaching grammar which I have found to work very well with young children. There are some extremely good Montessori materials for learning grammar which I will demonstrate shortly.

When considering how to teach grammar it is very important to bear in mind the zone of proximal development, and not give a pupil back a text full of red marks, marking all kinds of grammatical errors. This can be very unmanageable for a pupil as there is nothing to focus on.

According to some teachers it is unnecessary to teach your pupils grammar when teaching English as a foreign language. However theorists, ex. Karen Lund and Penny Ur think that it is necessary in order to fully comprehend the language structure.

Crystal defines grammar as the skeleton of the language – as a foundation that keeps it all together. Ur says that the important thing is not to teach grammar as an end, but to apply it to the language for better mastery of the language.

The National Curriculum, Fællesmål 2009, states that it isn’t that important for the pupils to have grammatical exercises, but rather that grammar should be included in meaningful language function. It is also stated in Fællesmål 2009 that the pupils should be able to speak and write English so that the central rules of grammar are followed.

References

Crystal, David: Discover Grammar

Lund, Karen: Communicative Competence – Where do We Stand?

Ur, Penny: A Course in Language Teaching, Module 6: Teaching Grammar

With Shaving Creme, Glitter and Rainbows, Science Doesn't Have to be Boring At All!

Today we had this amazing science day which I wanted to write a little about.

First of all, let me start out by saying that I have always hated the subjects related to science. But in my school most of our science was the calculations behind all of the experiments that were usually done on paper and not in reality. This is why I was so amazed by how fun the science day was and how much the pupils loved it.

What happened was that 2^nd stage (the ones studying working with 6-9 year olds) and 3^rd stage (the ones studying working with 9-12 year olds) from St. Nicholas Montessori College went to St. Nicholas Montessori School and set up tables for science experiments for the children of our stage.

First we in 2^nd stage did our experiments. We were divided into groups and each group did a different experiment: one group illustrated how an egg is actually stronger than you think by making the pupils stand on an egg tray full of eggs and then explained why this worked; one group taught the pupils about clouds using shaving foam: they sprayed a cloud on a table in front of each pupil, then they had the pupils form different clouds out of it, like cumulous clouds, cirrus clouds and so on. There were loads of good experiments, but unfortunately I can’t mention all of them here.

These were the Cirrus clouds the pupils made with shaving creme

My group demonstrated how the prime colours can make any colour with fruit colours and milk, and finished off teaching the pupils how to make their own rainbow using water, a mirror and a flashlight.

The pupils loved this; they were very interested in finding out how a rainbow is actually created and they went crazy for making these simple experiments.

I found this to be a very good way to teach science as the pupils who were only 6 years old were able to understand it and actually found it fun.

Afterwards the 3^rd stage students spent an hour teaching some slightly more complicated experiments to the 9-12 year old pupils.

It was very nice for us to see what the older students did and I suspect that they liked seeing our experiments as well as these bring inspiration to our own teaching.

These experiments were very much in accordance with the Montessori methodology as one of the main focuses of Montessori is to take the learning from a practical plan to a more abstract plan.

I was also impressed with the creativity that was put into making these experiments. This is very normal in the Montessori school. The students in my class are regularly given tasks to create their own materials for teaching a specific subject, so they don’t only use the books that are previously made for the pupils.

I like how the Montessori way promotes the practical methods as the tactile methods often are those that keep the pupils interested and dedicated.

This can turn out to be a problem later on when the pupils become older and have to go to secondary school. There are no secondary Montessori schools in Ireland, so the pupils often have transition problems, coming from the playful Montessori classroom to the “bookly” regular classroom. Usually this works out, but I have heard parents saying that this is a struggle.

“Boys are Always Stronger than Girls... But Girls are Always Smarter than Boys”

Pupils attending Montessori schools start their first stage at three years of age. The first stage contains pupils between the ages three and six. This is the age group I am teaching in my teaching practice. I was very nervous about working with pupils at this age as it is a lot younger than I have ever taught before and the pupils wouldn’t start school until they’re 6 or 7 in Denmark. Some of the thoughts going through my head as I was on my way to the school on my first day were:” Will these pupils be able to speak?”, “Will they be able to go to the bathroom by themselves?” and “Will they even be able to understand what I’m saying as I have a foreign accent?”

I was pleasantly surprised by the pupils the young pupils as I saw them working. As I mentioned in a previous blog the greatest achievement of a Montessori teacher is to develop a sense of independence in their pupils, so it is very rare that all the pupils work with the same things. The pupils work with whatever materials they want to and decide themselves if they want to work individually or in groups. The teachers usually walk around the classroom helping the pupils who need them or get the pupils that don’t have any serious work to do something. Then there is also the daily lesson. Most days the main teacher has something different prepared for the children to do: one day it was making clowns out of cardboard paper another day it was making cards for their parents.

The pupils don’t need that much help with their work as most of the Montessori Materials have what we call control of error so the pupils can see if they have done the task right. However some of the materials like spelling and the harder maths materials don’t have this control of error, so the pupils need help when working with these materials and if I don’t know how to use the materials, the pupils know and are happy to teach me.

The youngest ones are mostly drawing and colouring as well as using the sensorial and daily life materials, while the older ones were using more of the language and maths materials.

It is very informal when helping the pupils, sometimes they know how to do the work but just want to sit and talk while doing it which I enjoy very much. They have very different takes on life and the different stories they tell. The headline for this blog “Boys are Always Stronger than Girls... But Girls are Always Smarter than Boys” is a quotation from a 4 year old who didn’t want me to help him lift something because he was obviously stronger than me.

However amazing I find the Montessori Materials for this age and much I enjoy working with these small children I find it very young to start school at 3. The pupils are not allowed to run inside and they don’t get to bur much of all the energy they have as they do not have recess in this school. When the weather is good they get to go outside in a garden for 15 minutes right before they go home. I think that they should be able to enjoy playing with dolls and cars or what every they would like to do a little bit longer as they don’t always understand the reasoning for the work they are supposed to do.

But it might be worth it in the long run though as the pupils within the ages of 9-12 already know how to use the Pythagoras formula and how to calculate square roots without a calculator.

Language - Montessori Materials

There are a lot of differences between the materials being used in the regular Danish folkeskole and the materials developed especially for Montessori schools. During the month that I’ve been studying in Ireland I’ve been following a material class, concerning the language materials used for pupils of the age from 6-9, which I found very interesting.

Most of the materials for this age are for teaching the different parts of speech are colour-coded, so nouns have the colour black, verbs have red, adjectives have blue etc. Later on they also get shapes, as they also do in Denmark when we learn to put commas in the sentences, but not the same ones as in Denmark.

When the pupils start in the class 6-9 they have already gone through the most basic parts nouns, verbs and adjectives, so they know what parts of speech is all about.

They start out by learning about the noun. There are some noun boxes full of small laminated notes. In the first box there are laminated notes (black, of course), each with one noun on it.  This is for the children to learn what nouns are.

The second box has the headings of masculine and feminine on white notes and then nouns on black notes. Here the pupils have to divide the nouns into sexes.

The third box contains the headings singular and plural so the children can learn that.

When the nouns are all done the pupils go over to the verb box, which works in the same way but contains the tenses past, present and future.

The boxes go on like this and whenever you finish one group of words you put one of those words in a sentence. It’s really interesting that you can see the sentences building up. Ex. When the pupils learn the preposition there are also 2 small figures, a cat and a horse, in the box. The pupils are asked to put down the two figures on the table. Then they have to put 2 nouns (the same two as the figures), 2 articles and 1 verb (in form  of the laminated notes). The sentence could become “A horse is the cat”, which would make no sense to the pupil, so they could see that the preposition is needed. So if the figure of the horse is behind the figure of the cat the preposition would be “behind”. Of course the pupils could build on the sentence with adjectives if they want to.
I think this is a really good method as the pupil is allowed to see the sentence being built up, and he is also allowed to build it up himself, which is really good for the learning process!

The greatest goal for a Montessori teacher is to teach her pupils to be independent, so when introducing a new material, she always starts out showing the pupils where to find the material is to be found. The goal is to make the pupils interested in the materials, so that they will work with them independently.

I really like these materials as they are very tactile and it beats writing and erasing several times in a booklet.

Nice classmates and long lunch breaks, but where are all the hot Irish men???

I was nervous but excited standing outside of the classroom at St. Nicholas Montessori College on my first day! I was nervous about seeing what my peers were like and how they would welcome me. I was also excited starting at a new college in a different country and especially the Montessori Method, which is new to me, was appealing. I hadn’t got a timetable; I just knew what date to be there so I showed up at 10am and was told that the class had already started.

Opening the doors to the classroom I got a shock. I was standing in the doorway looking at a room full of girls; there was not a single guy in the classroom! I had heard that there were only few guys in the college but I hadn’t expected that there would be none. I have never tried being in an all-girls class so this is an experience for me too.

The girls were nice and made a great deal out of making me feel welcome. They all talked to me and I was even invited home with some of them to eat during lunch. That’s how long the lunch breaks are here, we have time to go home and eat! And I have Fridays off!

Getting into the class the last week before exams, there was not much time to filling me in on things, but I found out a little more about the Montessori Method than I already knew. In Montessori colleges they don’t teach differentiation as one thing because a Montessori teacher always plans his teaching around the pupils so that every pupil has an opportunity to learn.

They also have their own Montessori materials that they use for teaching and the students get courses in using the materials. In order to pass the “material-subjects” the students have to pass an exam at the end of the year.

My first week here was unfortunately afflicted with illness and the two following weeks were exam-weeks at the college so I didn’t get there much, although I had to do a presentation during exam-week called peer teaching. All the students had to teach something to the class in 10 minutes, and it didn’t matter what it was we taught. This was done in order to get some experience in teaching. I taught my peers how to dance the Faroese national dance. I tried to use different strategies, doing a presentation on the history of the Faroe Islands and the dance and then getting them up to do the actual dance (that’s how much I could manage in 10 min).

My peers did it very differently. All their lessons were done in presentation form; weren’t very active lessons and we didn’t get to try to do what they tried teaching us.

Being in classes during the last week I noticed that the teachers also do their lectures differently than they do at home. At home, we usually get to try out the strategies that we are supposed to use when teaching; here everything is done in presentation form and the only time we get to do activities is in the material classes. There we get to try out the materials.

We have learnt how to use their language materials, and they are all very tactile. You don’t write a lot, but rather cut out and put together words. When learning the word groups they put cut out black triangles over the nouns, big red circles over the verbs and so on. Everything has its own colour and shape. When we learn how to use the material, we don’t learn the theory of why it is good to do it this way and how it helps the pupils learn better, which I find strange. That’s very different from how it’s usually being done in my regular classroom at Blaagaard/KDAS back in Denmark.

It is also different at what stage you learn what things. As we started the second semester of the second year her, Gardner’s 8 intelligences and cooperative learning were introduced to us. This is one of the things we started learning at the beginning of our first year at Blaagaard/KDAS.

Unfortunately I haven’t been in college enough to figure out how everything is being taught here. All in all I think it seems very interesting and I’m looking forward to learning more about their methods!