THIRD DAY

Before starting with the lessons, we have talked about the film we saw last night. Then in the Language Development   lesson, we have done an activity to review the vocabulary seen in the previous lessons. In groups of  four, we have written in different cards some words and expressions related to the wordpower discussed in the classroom.
We have screwed up the paper and have thrown it at different groups. We have ended up with some pieces of paper and we have had to explain them in our groups. In my opinion, it has been  not only  fun,  but also  original. I' ll definitely use it with my students.

The next activity has dealt with trends and buzzwords in education. We have seen some terms used in education and we have talked about the education system in our countries.  I have learned about the Italian educational system. In relation to education  and to keep deepening on this topic,  we have chosen from a list three controversial topics and we have talked  about them with colleagues from different countries.  We haven't had enough time to talk to everybody, so tomorrow we will continue with it. It has been a very useful task  for me and it has allowed me to know different educational systems. 

After the break, we have continued working on activities  to improve our fluency and listening skills as a teacher. First of all as a warm-up activity, we have discussed in groups about the possibility of spending some time in a desert island. Then the teacher has talked about BBC Radio  and the Desert Island Discs show. In this programme created in 1942, a guest has to choose eight records, a book and a luxury item he or she would take to the island. We have heard  the show with  Bill Gates and firstly, we have done some activities to fill in the gaps or answer the questions. It has been the traditional way of approaching a listening activity but the following activity has been dealing with a listening in a more personalised way. In fact, we have been divided into groups of three and we have been given a tablet per group. This way, we have decided how many times we have played the listening and what parts we  have needed to repeat.
Here is the link to the show!

Desert Island Discs

The afternoon lesson has been devoted to making English Literature Accessible but before dealing with it we have seen some activities to foster creative  writing among our students.  It' s been quite inspiring. To start with, we have been asked eight questions and we have written answers for them. Then we have chosen one of our answers and using the technique of speed writing we have developed it further.

The next activity has been one dealing with silent dictation. For this task, the teacher has mimed some actions and we have had to write down what she has tried to express.
For  the second part of the lesson dealing with making literature  accessible  for  students, we have focused on The Lord of the Flies, Billy Eliot  and Animal Farm. Firstly, we  have talked about the main themes  of these three stories. Then we have analysed some worksheets the teacher has given us to find  interesting and motivating activities to be used in our  lessons. After that, we have reviewed Bloom' s Taxonomy. Next, we  have discussed about the benefits of using  running  or picture dictations. To finish the lesson, we  have done an activity called  auntie Mabel.  The aim has been to write a thank you letter for  a present our aunt has given us. We couldn' t mention the present and the rest of the classmates have had to guess it. I think it is a fantastic activity to foster writing among teenagers.