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Mr Andrew Esl

A new way of looking at teaching. Une nouvelle façon d’enseigner et d’apprendre l’anglais.

I want to tell you a bit about my ESL philosophy. Feel free to read this post, or just search for material or themes in the search bar above. I bring a musical element to my teaching, and the fact that music is integrated into Cycle 1 (grade 1-2), has really brought out the best in me, and my students. I don’t have to work to fit music in. It is already the base of the program.

But my philosophy differs though, in the way that I believe that “authentic” music is beneficial to Cycle 1 ESL teaching. The problem with typical programs, is that the music is not authentic. They are nursery rhymes, meant for toddlers. Sure, some of the kids will still enjoy them, but others find it perhaps a bit demeaning. When I say, “authentic” music, I am saying that we should be using songs that stand on their own, and that one would listen to for pleasure, not just out of obligation.

In my 8 years since I started using different programs, I had gradually changed all of the songs that were brought to me. I had created new versions of the standard, public-domain nursery rhymes, that the DVD used, by playing them on my guitar, which I brought to each class. I changed the melody on some, changed the musical style or tempo on others, changed the beat on some.

My hope was that if the kids love English in grade 1-2, that they will give it a chance in grade 3-6, when it becomes much harder, with the elements of compositions and spontaneous conversation, replacing songs and placing stickers in the right place.

Then I change things up. I realized that updating nursery rhymes was just as much work as writing original children’s songs. I have gradually been adding songs. I have about 50 now. I write about the topics that are important in early ESL grades. The possibilities are endless. Anything can be a song. I create lyric sheets with images that explain the key vocabulary.

I really feel like there is a real need for good children’s music. We use music in ESL all the time, but no one has taken the time to think about whether or not the kids will like the songs. By writing good songs, that the kids enjoy, they will learn so much more than by forcing nursery rhymes on kids that are, in some cases, 8 years old. These students often have older kids already encouraging them to listen to less than appropriate material, and my music can give them something in between nursery rhymes, and the songs they listen to on Youtube or the radio.

In addition to music, I also do a bit of kid-friendly comedy to start the class, telling a story that they can identify with (about babies, or toddlers, or dogs, etc), and eliciting their experiences on the subjects. I turned these stories into an animated series I call The Adventures of Life. They are themes that complement the songs.

At the end of class, we often do a smartboard game that I host in a “gameshow host” voice, giving away fake fabulous prizes (“You win an airplane!”), and/or we do an appropriate karaoke song on the smartboard together. We do a page or two of the book during the period, to leave traces of the work we did, and in general, the kids are more willing to work, because they are in a positive state of mind. They feel like they owe it to me, as I have given them a lot during the class. I liken one of my Cycle 1 classes to a late night variety show, but for 6-8 year olds.

Hope you can check out my material and use it in class or at home!

Thanks,

Mr Andrew

Listen Song Book 2A and 2B

After doing the same songs in both grade 1 and 2 for the first half of the year, I change it up for the second half of the year.

I take it in two different directions for grade 1 and 2.

Grade 1 has “Season 2: Feelings”, where we talk about how to deal with our emotions. We talk about wanting a dog or a cat, friends telling you who you can or can’t be friends with, having a bad day (what to do to cheer you up), being bored and making the most of the day, etc.

Grade 2 has “Season 2: Places”, where we explore many cool places, from the jungle, to space, to the farm, to the place I lose things (spoiler alert, it’s usually under the couch, or between the couch cushions, or on my head…depending on what I lost…usually the remote control, my sunglasses, or my phone).

These two song books are just the songs and images we use to revise the vocabulary. There are links to the playlists on the first page. I also have activity sheets for the songs, but we never get to them, as the first book is quite long, so I stopped printing them up.

listen book 2B 2024-25 Download

Listen Book2A 2024-25 Download

How can we gamify our lesson plans?

Gamification is so important in teaching. If we gamify our lessons, we mask work as play. If we are playing, we don’t feel like we’re working….but we’re learning none the less.

How can we do that?

This is not a scientific review of implemented gamification strategies in the cycle 1 ESL primary context…we’re just talking.

Let’s talk

1-Use your environment: Kids love pretend play. When we sing, I’ll grab a marker and pretend it’s a microphone. When you wave that marker microphone in someone’s face, a funny thing happens. Many of them will sing. It’s instinctive. That microphone gives them the gamified confidence they would not normally have. They are performing in a role-play where they have the freedom to fail. So take out those marker microphones and sing away, play your piano desk, use the air to make a guitar…..an “air guitar” if you will.

2-Get dressed: When I go to a class, I put on an orange vest. There’s a story there. If you ever taught at three different schools, you may have had three principals that each scheduled you for many, many recess supervisions, as scheduling a teacher for three different schools is a tough job. I had one day where I supervised the parking lot at 7:50, the morning recess at 10:00, the afternoon recess at 2pm and the after school buses at 3:00…all of which required wearing an orange vest. One day, I absent-mindedly forgot to remove my orange vest. I was going to put it back on in an hour anyway. A student told me “Wow, Mr Andrew…you really love that orange vest”. So I went with it…”Yes, I love my orange vest…I never take it off, not even to sleep. They even call me Mr Orange Vest”. So that’s how Mr Orange Vest was born. He’s like a super hero that goes from class to class providing dynamic gamified lessons. He’s a fun guy. It doesn’t have to be an orange vest, but make a show of it. Bring a silly hat, a cape, a green glove…I don’t know….it’s up to you. Gamify your wardrobe a bit. Invent a persona. Make it something bigger than it is. Kids want to get on board. They’ll believe you.

3-Fabulous prizes: Kids love stuff. They can’t just go to a store and procure stuff. They don’t have money. They can’t drive. They don’t have autonomy. They’re kids. That’s why they can get hyped up when give them a sticker…much more so then I would be should you give me a sticker. The same goes for a hockey card (ok, I would be super hyped if you gave me a Maurice “Rocket” Richard rookie card…but for most cards, I maintain I’d be moderately hyped). The same goes for a colouring page. Whereas if you gave me a colouring page of a unicorn, I’d say thank you, but would remain un-hyped, should you give one to one of my students, they’d be super hyped. But don’t merely GIVE these little rewards….gamify them. They are FABULOUS PRIZES! They have earned them through accumulation of Mr Andrew Dollars (see point #4) after singing and dancing enough songs. They’re proud to win FABULOUS PRIZES. They cherish them. You have gamified the smallest little gesture and made it something big, something fabulous. They will believe you if you make it BIG. They want to believe.

4-Mr Andrew Dollars: You don’t have to use the word Mr Andrew Dollars, you could call them Mme Gertrude Dollars, assuming your name is Mme Gertrude….but call them whatever you want. Kids love money. It’s so hard for them to earn it. I use a classroom management site called “My Class Game”. It works for what I need it to. My goal is to give a “class point” after each song. It’s always best to give a point to everyone. It’s easier to do, easier to manage, easier to give prizes afterwards. They earn “one Mr Andrew Dollar” each. I joke that we need 76% participation…it’s a funny number because they’re 6. We then count to 15 or whatever and I say we need 15 students participating. When they don’t achieve a class point, I frame it as “I’ll do a one for two deal”…and give them a point for the next one assuming enough participated. If that doesn’t work, it’s a “one for three” deal, etc. But every class is different. I won’t punish (not reward) the best students if we are unable to win class points. I will let the students who do a good job come dance with me, and assemble a “points club”. These students will get points. The more they get, the more other students will want to join the points club; and they will model the correct behaviour to join the “points club”. Add 2-3 students every song. Before you know it, you have 76% of the class on board, whereas you started with 2-3 students. It works…I swear. Different classes need different strategies. But kids all love winning fake money.

5-Gamifying through…games….:When I explore a thematic theme, I like to hit it from many different angles. When we learn “Yes, No, Maybe, I don’t know”, I will not only sing it, but will often have a funny story dealing with the theme (see Adventures of Life: The Birthday Animator). I will also, if possible, have some games. I made some Roblox games (lots of work….so much work….), but also made some simple games on Genially and/or Wonderword (I call it Wonderwall, like the Oasis song). They are simple smart board games where they match or choose the right answer for the image. By “playing”, we are practicing in a fun and dynamic way. Games, especially interactive smartboard games, that almost mimic playing on a smartphone or tablet, are a great way to gamify lessons, and learn and/or consolidate new thematic vocabulary.

When I start mentioning gamification through games, I think we can call it a day….oh wait….I forgot to mention one more thing. On many classroom management sites, you can change their “avatar”. They are more motivated to learn when they harness the power of Disney animated animal/monster “Stitch”, or soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. So we’ll call that 3.5: Fabulous prizes, choose a cool avatar to gamify your English class persona.

What are the ways you gamify learning?

The Mr Andrew ESL Method Routine: A Turnkey Approach to Lesson Planning

Kids love routine…well, maybe they don’t love it, but they like the stability of knowing where they’re going. That is why I believe that a “routine” is a big part of lesson planning and by extension classroom management. As we’ve seen before, language anxiety can create a filter that blocks input. But if the students are familiar and comfortable with the routine, then they will be more at ease, more ready to learn. Providing them with a stable (but still exciting) routine helps build relatedness. They look forward to seeing you every week. We can then use that to strengthen our bond, for that, as we know, is the only true motivator (it’s not like we can give them all a PS5….that’d be motivational too)…ok, so anyway, relatedness is a great motivation (And part of self-determination theory….I’m a big advocate of that…have I talked about it before? It’s in my research…if I haven’t, I’ll get to that).

Back to the routine….

I have designed a routine, through years of testing; using cutting edge research and technology, that can help alleviate stress and anxiety; and build competence, autonomy and relatedness, and I’m going to share it with you here today, right after the break.

(What? This isn’t American Idol or Big Brother?…Is American Idol still on? Also, notice that the Voice never produced a single big star? What are the odds of that?)

*The Break

Ok we’re back.

When designing a good routine, it helps your students as well as yourself. Everyone knows where they’re going. It helps with lesson planning as well. I don’t scramble to prepare a lesson. I cut and paste this routine, changing only a few things (the next new song, next new page, next new funny story, etc.), using my activity book as a template and roadmap. But it is the same routine week after week. By making a routine out of lesson planning, I save myself hours of planning per week.

So enough chitchat, here it is, with some explanations and scientific justification.

1-Spa Music, mindfulness and motivation (1 minute ish).

By breathing in and out while listening to my patented spa music, we can recenter ourselves and start fresh for a great lesson. Think of it as the ginger between types of sushi. We can lower the affective filter by breathing in and out for a minute. Just don’t breathe in while eating wasabi.

2-Good morning/Good afternoon. (2 minutes ish).

I say Good morning or good afternoon to the class as a whole, but also to each student individually. By addressing each and every student individually, we can build relatedness, a strong self-motivator. Shy students often won’t volunteer to put up their hand, so this may be your only chance to talk with them.

3-Songs (15-20 minutes ish)

This is the heart of the lesson. By singing and dancing, using our comprehension dance moves (It’s almost singing and signing) to demonstrate the input-output synthesis, we can make learning fun and easy. This builds competence, a strong self-motivator. But it also builds relatedness, as we are sharing positive experiences together, and you, the teacher, by making it happen, is only further strengthening the bond. I allow the students to choose the songs. It’s a bit of a trick, as we will get to all of them eventually, but they decide the order. This builds autonomy, another self-motivator. In addition to this, I allow the students to choose a partner to help them. This gives them autonomy. And by choosing a song, and helping with a song they are demonstrating both autonomy and also competence. I always like to have “Good Morning, Good Afternoon” in there, as it lets me say one of those greetings to individual students in the class while we sing, or towards different clusters of students. It allows me to greet them again during the class. Make quick eye contact. It builds relatedness. I also finish the singing portion with “Thank You”. I really do appreciate the time we get to share together every week, and their engagement. And I can’t do it without them. The more they get into it, the better the class is, the more everyone gets out of it. Success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We do a good job because that’s what we always do. It becomes routine.

4-Revision (5 minutes ish)

After we sing all of the songs, or at least for 15-20 minutes ish, we do revision. This allows us to consolidate the learning, in a more overt manner. I do revision, by singing/saying, while miming/signing all the vocabulary for all of the songs that we do, using my online activity book lyric sheet/pages to show the images. When we have a lot of songs, we only concentrate on the core vocabulary in each song. After each song’s vocabulary, I ask “Do you know X?” (yes/no…good morning/good afternoon, etc.). They answer “yes/no/maybe/I don’t know”. They are free to answer any of them. By saying no or I don’t know, they know which ones they need to work on. By realizing just how much we’ve learned, we can activate competence motivation.

5-New Song (5 minutes)

After doing the revision with the help of the online activity book, we come to our next song. I go over the vocabulary and talk a bit about it, miming the movement dance. We do the new song.

6-Funny Story (5 minutes)

The songs and themes are often accompanied by a funny story in my Adventures of Life series. We can all laugh together and share positive experiences. The stories are silly but relatable. In one, my son tells me “good morning” at 3 in the morning. Why do we call 3 in the morning the morning and not the night? If I don’t have a new one, I’ll sometimes replay one we already watched.

7-Smartboard game (5 minutes)

Varying your activities builds competence and autonomy. Different students demonstrate comprehension in different ways. Allowing them to show how they demonstrate their competence builds motivation in two ways at once. Make it fun, and that’s three. I have smart board games for most of my songs, to practice the different themes. We can help each other out. Should a student not know the answer, they say “Help me please” to a friend, and they say 1, 2 or 3, whatever the number of the multiple choice answer is. I often have students who are hesitant to sing and dance in front of the class, but are the first to go click on an answer in front of the class. This builds autonomy and competence, by varying how they can participate and show comprehension.

8-Activity Book page (10-15 minutes ish)

We do one page a week. Sometimes we miss one, but we try to do one. The pages are not long, and once they get the hang of it, it becomes routine. We match the word and the image. I have all the vocabulary underlined in the song lyrics, with the accompanying image (they like to refer to them as emojis…it’s more fun). They look in the song lyrics to match the vocabulary with the “emoji”. When they’re done they can color the emojis or do some of the extra activities at the end of the book.

9-Story (cooldown) (10 minutes)

I like to show a 5 minute Youtube story (such as Storyline Online) at the end. It gives me a chance to see who finished the work and who did not. It gives me a chance to go pass out hockey cards, Mr Andrew cards, drawings, etc. to students who accumulate enough Mr Andrew Dollars.

10-Cooldown transition (1 minute)

I put on the spa music and we wait for the teacher to come back to class, or get ready to go outside.

Ok,. that makes 60 minutes…ish…adjust it as you wish…I will talk more about Mr Andrew Dollars and My Dance Routine another time…but this is already a lot of information.

TLDR

Mr Andrew ESL

A Deep Dive on “In the Jungle”

Title: In the Jungle

Subject: Jungle animals

Funny Story: https://youtu.be/7o-j-s3DkCI The Adventures of Life vol.6: Juliette Beliveau’s Monkey. The story talks about how monkeys used to be common pets. My whole family had pet monkeys.

Interactive Game: none

Thematic vocabulary: Jungle animals

This song is called “In the Jungle”. It names various jungle animals, and it also asks why the lion is considered the “king of the jungle”, when there are no lions in the jungle. That’s always bothered me.

The song contains functional language related to the jungle. We see “tiger”, “parrots”, “monkeys”, “piranhas”, “pythons”, and “lion”, even though there are no lions in the jungle….

The miming/hand gestures are intuitive. Tiger has big claws (with your fingers), parrots have flapping wings, monkeys scratch their armpits, pythons slither (with your arms), piranhas take big bites (with your arms). We also mention things about the animals. Tigers like to watch their prey, the tiger is “watching” us through the trees. “Watch” and “tree” are two vocabulary words we have seen numerous times at this point. Parrots on TV seem to be red and green. I point to something red and then green in the class when sing that part. Monkeys have a unique defense strategy, which is to throw their poop. They it’s disugusting, so that’s why they know it is effective. Trust me, I looked for other things monkeys throw, to fit a different word into the song, it was the only thing they throw. I thought, maybe they throw bananas…they do no. They eat bananas. We make a stinky face, pinching our noses when sing “poo”. We point to ourselves for “me”, as word we use in almost every song. Piranhas bite our feet, we use the same arms gestures for “biting” and “piranhas”, as we then bend down to touch our feet (we learned feet in a previous song as well). “Snake” didn’t fit well in the song, so I chose “python”, and it “looks” for things to “eat”. We have already learned those two words.

The common theme is that there is “not 1 lion, in this entire thing”. “Not”, “1” are words we have seen before. We make a big circular arms motion for “entire thing”. We also mention how tigers are dangerous, we should get out of here. We make an X with our arms for danger, we “walk with fingers” for leave. We point to our head for “thought”, we point to “ourselves for “I”. These are words we have learned in previous songs.

As usual, this song combines new thematic vocabulary (jungle animals), relevant to the unit theme (places), with familiar words we have already learned (I, went to, watch, thought, feet, etc) to add context to them in order to aid comprehension. We combine everything in a catchy song that the kids seem to enjoy. They want to sing it every class, which will get us all to our goal, which is to learn the target vocabulary, while building a love of learning, and a love of English class, helps build teacher relatedness that will aid in developing the perseverance needed when things become more difficult in grade 3. Do the work now, and it becomes easier in the future. This applies to both students and teachers alike.

A Deep Dive on “Deep in the Forest”

A Deep Dive on Deep in the Forest

Title: Deep in the Forest

Subject: Forest animals, teamwork and solidarity

Interactive Game: none

Accompanying story: None

Thematic vocabulary: Forest animals, words related to teamwork and solidarity

This song is called “Deep in the Forest”. Like all of my songs, the title is purposefully descriptive. It talks about the forest.

The song contains functional language related to the forest, such as animals (wolves, bears, squirrels, birds) and plants (plants and trees). The miming gestures are intuitive. The song teaches the strategy “teamwork” (with “you”), as together we can do things that we are scared to do on our own. The song also talks about feelings (scared).

Many of the vocabulary words in this song are not new to us, as we have seen them countless times in other songs. Words like “you” (pointing to others), “think” (pointing to your head), “go” (fingers walking), “heard” (point to ear), “like” (thumbs up), “see” (point to eyes). There are also words like “noises” and “get to”, that share their gestures with heard and go, so we can synthesize that they share similar meanings. Using all of these strategies, English is a bit less scary for some of them.

The theme of teamwork is important in our lessons. I cannot do the lessons if the students are not participating. Together we are stronger. We can learn from the students who are singing and dancing, to help us learn the vocabulary. Learning English can be scary, studies show that it can be a source of anxiety for students, especially in grade 1 and 2, when it is sometimes their first exposure to English. We can’t forget that, as fear and anxiety will raise the affective filter, blocking input. But together we are stronger. When I was young, I was scared to sleep in the dark, but when my brother or a friend was with me, I wasn’t as scared. We are stronger together, and the things that were scary are not as scary anymore.

Listen: C1 Evaluation 5

This is the final evaluation I do for my cycle 1 groups in term 2, the first term that I evaluate comprehension (Competency 1).

I think it is important that I have 3 “tests” per term that comprehension is evaluated. The first two tests have covered most of half of the songs in my program, and evaluated the vocabulary associated with them. I have 4 other tests listed on my page, but this one is the longest, so I like to use it last.

This test is a bit longer than the other ones. It will evaluate directions (as learned in Stop, Go, and Left, Right), the parts of the body, specifically the face (What Hurts?), Colors and Shapes. Each section is worth 5 points (shapes and colors are 10 points together). This gives us a total score on 20, a number I find easy to evaluate. I give us about 30 minutes for everything (explanation, revision, doing it, picking it up, giving it out, etc.)

There is a Cl@sster activity at the end that is simply a bonus activity. It is differentiation for stronger students. For more information on Cl@sster, check out my other posts…basically, they practice writing the date, review some common verbs, and draw what they did that week or weekend. Stronger students can write “I played….I watched….I went to….I ate…” next to their drawings.

The first section on directions is a simple match activity.

The second section has us draw our face, then point (I show them to draw an arrow or line) to the parts of the face listed on the left and right of the box.

The third section is a double section. The first is to match the shape and the word. The second is for colors. They will color the shapes the correct color.

With grade 1, I will read them the vocabulary and do each section with them, one section at a time. They cannot read yet for the most part in L1, so reading in L2 is difficult. We are not evaluating reading, but comprehension.

With grade 2, I will explain the sections at the beginning, but they should be able to read on their own. I will later do a “recup” later on with the students who didn’t do as well as they should have, and in my experience, it is usually a matter of reading in that case too. When I read the vocabulary with them, they can usually do the evaluation.

After this, I feel like I have enough to draw an accurate portrait of my students’ abilities in comprehension, and am confident that I can give a mark for the report card that I can defend and justify to my colleagues, students, and students’ parents.

After that, enjoy your March break!

listen-evaluation-5 Download

Motivation Part 2, part 2…Motivation part 2.2: Autonomy

In my previous post, I mentioned that Deci & Ryan talked about how the need for autonomy is one of our three basic psychological needs, and that fulfilling that need, creates a powerful form of motivation. Side-note, the other two needs making up Self-Determination Theory are the need for competence and relatedness. But we’ll those for another time.

Autonomy…long story short, it is a basic psychological need. Also of note, school is not always a place that a 6 year old can find it. But if they can, it can power them to great heights. But how can we find autonomy in a world where so much emphasis is put on listening and fulfilling what is asked of you?

I find the opportunities where I can. I like to start out the “song portion” of the lesson with “Good Morning, Good Afternoon”, and I like to end it with “Thank You”. Makes sense. But everything in between is up to them. I ask what song they want to do. A student raises their hand and names a song. They get to choose where the lesson is headed. I will also choose a second student to come dance with us. These two students get to each choose one student who will help us dance the comprehension gesture/dances. I hope this makes sense. Both these original students have a sense of autonomy because they got to choose who was dancing in front of the class. They controlled something about the lesson. Those two chosen students feel a sense of autonomy because they get to help “lead” the song. They also feel a sense of autonomy and control, as I “guarantee” that these four students will receive a point after the song (If enough students participate, then the whole class gets a point). They can then use those point to purchase a “fabulous prize” of their choosing. They control their own destiny, they choose the prize with their earnings. The class also has a sense of autonomy, as they can gain a class point, if they move as a unit, with a participation rate great enough to merit a class point. They control their fate. They can unlock a “movie class”, and win hockey cards and stickers at the end of class.

When we build autonomous motivation, we put the power into their hands, and they will use it to steer themselves in right direction. That is when we see long-term results. They want to come to class, they want to participate, they begin to use the keys to unlock language acquisition….autonomously.

Motivation, part 2

Motivation….what is it, why is it, how is it, who is it? Ok maybe not who…

But what is it? Psychology today describes it as “the desire to act in service of a goal”. It is one’s “will” to do something.

“How” is it? It can be divided, binarily as intrinsic or extrinsic, coming from internal factors within you, or from external factors. It can be driven by your own sense of internal pride in a job well done, or for a desire for prize, or a grade. It might be done under the threat of negative and controlled external consequences.

On one side, in an ideal world, we can see how motivation will come from within you. You want to learn, because the growth you observe, towards a goal you want to achieve, sustains you.

On the other side, we have external motivators. These can be both good or bad. For every prize or sticker, there can be the threat of detention or bad marks. There can be parental or societal pressures to succeed or at least avoid failure. These forms of motivation take the control away from the student and put it in the hands of others, which we will see later, is not optimal.

But motivation can be subdivided and combined in many different ways. As Ng & Ng (2015) will tell you, a student is generally motivated by countless different forms of motivation, all at once. They might be motivated to come to a class they enjoy, and feel a sense of self-satisfaction when they understand the material, learn new words, use them to ace a test, making their teacher proud; which makes their parents proud, unlocking fabulous prizes in the process, like a sticker from their teacher, and an extra hour of iPad time from their parents. There are countless factors at play here, but all serve to motivate the student, in a different way, and to a different extent.

Sometimes the form of motivation is both internal and external at once, such as the case for “integrative motivation” and “identified motivation”. A student is motivated to learn a language, because they want to integrate within a community that they identify with. If they want to be part of “the club”, that talks about English-language videos, movies or music, because they think it’s cool, is that internal or external, or externally focused intrinsic motivation…maybe internally motivated extrinsic motivation? We have to frame the subject matter as something that merits “belonging” to. We have to make the music catchy enough to motivate them to sing autonomously on their own. We have to make the stories funny enough to make them want to understand them. We have to add interactive games that mask work as play. We have to learn mediation and mindfulness technique to help their affective side, as they might be stressed about learning a second language, or just stressed about something else unrelated to English. We have to make it interesting enough to merit their attention and the attention of their peers, building a micro-community that they want to integrate within. They begin to identify with that language group as a whole on a macro scale, defusing some of the political baggage associated with learning a second language.

They may then become “autonomous” learners, and display “autonomous motivation”, learning a language by their own volition, guiding themselves, without the threat of external negative reinforcement.

“Why” is it? We are all motivated by something. At the rudimentary level, a weaker student may not be strong enough to see the self-guided path forward by autonomous motivation, but they may enjoy a sticker or a hockey card. This may be enough to get them to give the subject matter a chance. And then, when they are more open to it, they may discover the intrinsic rewards of learning new vocabulary, and gaining knowledge. They may become less stressed about coming to class, and open themselves up to learning, lowering the walls built by anxiety. While all motivation is motivational in nature, this is the motivation awe are striving for, as it its more powerful in nature, even in the smallest doses.

As Deci and Ryan (2008) explain, in their work on Self-Determination Theory, humans have basic needs, which include the need for autonomy, competence (the need to build knowledge and acquire skills), and relatedness. As teachers, if we can create an environment where our students can fulfill these needs, we can help them develop autonomous, intrinsic motivation. If we set up a micro-society where they feel they can grow, in a positive environment fostering a community of learning, we will allowing to achieve their potential. When they want to learn, want to belong, and feel they are capable of doing so, controlling their own outcomes, they will be motivated, and give the task their all. This force will power them to great heights, with less effort exerted. You never feel like you’re working when you’re doing something you love. frame work as play, and you’ll never work a day in your life.

A learner who falls in love with learning a language will never stop learning that language, and even after the grades are done, and class is dismissed, the praise is gone; they will still want to develop a higher level of proficiency and will be doing so autonomously.

A Deep Dive on “Where Did You Go on Vacation?”

A Deep Dive on “Where did you go on vacation?”

Title: Where did you go on vacation?

Subject: Going on vacation, prompting the use of “Question words”

Interactive Game: None

Funny story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRxXeZiMNsU The Adventures of Life Ep.14: Whale Watching. This is the true story of how I went whale-watching in the maritimes, where my relatives lived. But I make it silly, and teach some animals too.

Thematic vocabulary: Question words (the 5 Ws)

And just like that, we have deep-dived (deep-dove?) into the last of the songs from the “Listen” activity book 1. This song is called “Where did you go on vacation”. Like all of my songs, the title is purposefully descriptive. The song contains a variety of vocabulary related to question words “who, what when, where, why, how?”. There is differentiation in that the basic aim is simply to recognize the nature of question words by making a “questioning” gesture; but there is also a plethora of vocabulary to learn. All of the question words are gestured with the “questioning” dance move (shrug of the shoulders and raising the forearms). The exception is “when?”, we point to our watch, or fake watch….where a watch would be…

There is also the familiar vocabulary demonstrated through dance moves that we see in many of our other songs.

“You”, “me”, “we” (point to others or yourself), “Go” (fingers walking), “Tell” (talking hand), “Snow” (shiver), “Know” (point to head), “Night” (sleep), “Afternoon” (big sun arms).

There is lots of secondary vocabulary. It ranges from “beach/sand” (swimming), “a show” (microphone), “rides” (arms up like you’re on a rollercoaster), “zoo” (binoculars), “far” (arms far apart), “plane” (arms like wings), “car” (steering wheel), “mom” and “dad” (hands talking), “cat” (cat ears), “July, June” (seven fingers, and six).

Kids love to talk about their vacation. We can simply ask them “Where did you go on vacation?” and they can answer “Quebec”, “Camping”, “Wildwood”, etc. It’s a simple question and answer activity. You can ask them the other questions too. The possibilities are endless! Hope you enjoy it!

A Deep Dive on “Big, Small, Medium-Sized”

Title: Big, Small, Medium-Sized

Subject: Size adjectives

Interactive Game: None

This song is called “Big, Small, Medium-Sized”. Like all of my songs, the title is purposefully descriptive.

Thematic vocabulary: Adjectives of size

The song contains a variety of vocabulary related to size. There is differentiation in that the basic vocabulary contained in the song’s title is the main focus; but there is also the adverb “very” to modify small and big. There are also other ways to describe things that are extremely big or small. Also, it is by design that I use “medium-sized” and not just “medium”, as it is a common error by second language speakers. Saying “medium” is sometimes appropriate, but often “medium-sized” is more appropriate.

There is some secondary vocabulary that we see in other songs, that we re-use for synthesis purposes, with the same comprehension/dance moves. “I” or “me” is pointing to myself, “see” is pointing to your eyes, as is “looked”, “found”. “Went to” is your fingers walking. “Ground” is you pointing to the ground. “Sea” is a swimming motion. “Around” or “Turn around” is a finger turn. “Sound” is pointing to your ear. “Not” is a head shake.

The song, like many of my stories, is based on a true story. I was in Cape Cod, and we found all kinds of shells, the biggest being a horseshoe crab. I’d describe it as “very big”, if not quite “giant”; those things are related to dinosaurs.