https://youtu.be/rQRSA0N0wnQ

A Deep Dive on Fruits and Vegetables

Title: Fruits and Vegetables

Subject: Fruits and vegetables.

Interactive Game: https://wordwall.net/resource/55631834

This song is called “Fruits and Vegetables”. Like all of my songs, the title is purposefully descriptive.

Thematic vocabulary: Fruits, vegetables, some verbs, personal pronouns, verbs, vocabulary related to going to the supermarket, etc.

The song contains a variety of fruits and vegetables. There is differentiation in that the first halves of the fruits and vegetables verses are common fruits and vegetables that one might be expected to learn in grade 1-2 ESL. The second halves are more obscure fruits and vegetables. Even stronger, native speakers often don’t know most of these.

This conveys the message that we are never too old or too skilled to learn something new. I explain that I only learned what a starfruit was when I got married and receives a gift certificate to a restaurant named “Café Carambola” (carambola is a synonym for starfruit).

I talk about how there are 50 types of melons. Some kids will say they know all the melons. I ask them if they know the Honeydew melon. They answer yes. I ask if they know the Canary melon. They say yes. I ask if they know the West Texas Melon. They say yes. I tell them that’s a trick. There is no West Texas Melon.

Fun fact: When writing this out, I asked myself whether or not I should capitalize the proper name of the fruit (Canary melon…not Gary melon…)…apparently, the science says…….it’s unclear….just pick one and go with it…

But back to the moral of the song…we’re never too old to learn something new…or that something doesn’t exist…I guess.

Cycle 1 C2 evaluation 2

Periodically, I will evaluate C2 (oral interaction) with my Cycle 1 students. This level is not yet conversational, but more production of the vocabulary in the context of the interaction. Each one of my songs is thematic in that it teaches the thematic target vocabulary. This term, I evaluated the shapes, colours, weather and some of the parts of the body (the face).

You can either choose to evaluate all 20 students, one on one, in one period by putting on a movie for them or something else to occupy them, or do it a few students at a time, over a few periods. I find that the only way to truly judge a student’s ability is one on one. Some will really surprise you with their proficiency, and they may be much more advanced than you thought.

Before evaluating the students, I make sure we have practiced the songs I will evaluate that day and go over the vocabulary and comprehension dance moves/gestures.

1-Shapes : I chose these 5 shapes to evaluate the students. I point to them and ask what shape they are.   2-Colours: I chose these colours because they are a mix of easy and difficult ones for L2 speakers. I point to them and ask what colour they are.   3-Weather: Mime rain (fingers raining), sun (big circle), snow (shiver), nice (thumbs up), bad (thumbs down).   4-Parts of the body (face). Point to the parts of the face.   I judge the students on a 1-5 scale 5: Student greatly surpassed expectations 4: Student is at ease with vocabulary production 3: Student satisfies expectations 2: Student can produce the target vocabulary with scaffolding 1: Student cannot produce vocabulary even with scaffolding

One of the difficult things about teaching grade 1-2 is evaluating comprehension/reinvestment. How are they supposed to read questions and write their answers when many of them cannot read or write yet?

I have created short tests or “check-ups” to see how the students are progressing. These tests evaluate the themes that we see in my “Listen” activity book, only in a more condensed way.

I have attached 4 of them here.

The first is the same evaluation you find at the the end of the “Listen” activity book, only in stand-alone format. It evaluates the “Good Morning” (greetings and day routine), Yes/No vocabulary, along with parts of the body (just the face). And there is a Cl@sster section at the end to practice day, month, etc.

The second one evaluates numbers, months, days, weather, and has a Cl@sster activity at the end.

The third is a more comprehensive version of the first one and features 10 parts of the whole body instead of just pointing to features of the face.

Finally, there is a short shapes test.

I designed these evaluations to be easy to do, and easy to evaluate. The students simply match the image to the vocabulary word. For grade 1, I would read the vocabulary words for them, but for grade 2, they should be able to do that on their own.

For teachers, I made the sections 5 questions each, for ease of correcting. I find the math of x/5 is easy to calculate. I try to follow this philosophy in general for all of my comprehension/reinvestment pages. Evaluationg on 5 or 10 is easier than on 6 or 11. The math is just more simple to visualize. The tests all give you a nice /5, /15, /20, or /25 grade.

There is a differentiation section at the end. I added a Cl@sster activity. For early finishers, they can add more detail to this section. This activity is explained in my previous posts. Basically, the students get a chance to practice writing the date, writing and/or circling some simple verbs, etc. You can be more lenient with the Grade 1 spelling vs the Grade 2 spelling, as they are just starting to write. I also have the Grade 2s recopy the “4 phrases” (I played…I watched…I ate…I went to) to accompany their drawings. You can choose to evaluate this on 5 like do, or not evaluate that part.

I find that by adding two short tests per term where we evaluate comprehension/reinvestment, along with the sum of their weekly pages in the activity book, we get a good idea of the students’ strengths and weaknesses; and can vigilantly evaluate them, in order to provide helpful feedback to students, parents and any other stakeholders in the process.

I am always working on consolidating more material into evaluation pages, so be sure to come back for more easy to use tests!

This is a link to my Gary Talk Playlist. You will find find fun videos about the five educational strategies that I have focused on to build my engaging and dynamic ESL program for Cycle 1. The videos explain the science behind the fun!

If you’re ever in the mood to listen to my ESL songs, without the video playing, they can be found on many streaming services for free.

https://mrandrewesl.bandcamp.com/

Come and talk about fun ways to teach Primary ESL in cycle 1.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082636306436

I had the immense pleasure of talking about my ESL program on the Mr Mike Podcast. He’s a teacher who does interviews with other educators. Check it out! https://www.mrmikemtl.com/interview-with-andrew-chevrier/ or on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/1v1opCZUogVBfzL7M62emD?si=JvBdn36mTWi6_zdqZ1asjQ

This is my “Gary Talks” series. It is a series of videos bridging the gap between ESL cycle 1 theory and practice. In my many years as a cycle 1 ESL teacher, I have gathered anecdotal evidence; but I went back to university to pursue a master’s degree, to dig up the scientific data behind it. In this series, you will find information about how authentic music, humour, gamification, meditation/mindfulness, and motivation, are used in my unique cycle 1 ESL program, to produce affective and effective lessons. I call it “Gary Talks” because I was going to call it “TED Talks”, but apparently there’s already a guy named Ted who talks.

I have the tremendous pleasure of presenting my unique ESL program at SPEAQ, on Saturday the 19th of November, from 3:15-3:45.

Here is a link to the accompanying powerpoint presentation, with links to access the material. Everything is free. There is so much good stuff in here that the file is too large for the event’s site, so I have to put it here!

Here is the PowerPoint presentation I did at the Speaq conference, to talk about my ESL program.