reading writing and drama

Reading, writing and dramaat Primary School and Kindergarten

Želiarska 4, Košice

Course for teachers about reading comprehension

• The trainer for the course was doc. RNDr.KATARÍNA KIMÁKOVÁ, CSc. from Pavol JozefŠafárik University in Košice. She teachesdidactics of biology, deals also with readingcomprehension and uses writing forunderstanding natural sciences in a creativeway.


Three main points of the course:

1. The framework for critical thinking – EUR

– EUR is an abbreviation derived from Evocation, Understanding and Reflection

– Evocation - what do the students already know about the topic?

– Understanding – students are looking for information related to their assumptions and predictions

– Reflection – what have the students found out?



2. INSERT (Interactive Notating System for Effective Reading and Thinking)– Evocation e.g. by brainstorming– Understanding by INSERT: students read a text

and they mark the text using 4 marks:√ I know it + It is new for me- I know it differently? I would like to know more about it

– Reflection: Students draw a chart with four columns and they fill it with marked information



3. Free writing

– can be used for evocation before reading or learning about a topic

1. students get a few keywords

2. their task is to write a story

3. they write whatever comes to their mind

4. they are not allowed to put down a pen

5. they don‘t stop and don‘t erase anything

6. a few students present their stories



3. Conceptual maps for reflection (sorting information)


Other methods

• Reading

– Reading from author‘s chair

• Writing

– Writer workshop

– Argumentative essay

– Cinaquin

Course for teachers about reading in English

• The trainer for the course was Mgr. SlávkaIlavská. She was previously an English teacher,today she works for Oxford University Pressin Slovakia. She organises workshopsfor English teachers and shows them thenewest and the best practices for teachingEnglish.


• Intensive reading means reading short texts at school with deeper understanding. We focus on grammar or new vocabulary.

• Extensive reading means reading longer texts usually at clubs or at home. It is crucial to understand the main points, not necessary to translate each unknown word.


Intensive reading

• Activities before reading

– Skimming – very quick reading of main ideas

– Scanning – very quick reading concentrating on one or few specific information

– Teaching the new vocabulary in advance (not more than 7 – 10 words)

– Brainstorming – the quantity of words is important

– Why are we reading?

– Prediction according the pictures and titles


Intensive reading

• Activities during reading

– Working with dictionaries

– Time axis – put the texts in the correct order

– Charts – who, what, when, where, why, how


Intensive reading

• Activities after reading

– Writing a short message about it to the teacher

– Pantomime or drama

– Selfie

– Interview


Intensive reading

• Testing → understanding, spelling and grammar

– Closed exercises

True/false

a, b, c – choose the right answer

Matching

– Open exercises

Gap filling

Short answer

Open ended


Extensive reading

• required reading or “forbidden reading“?

• reading and fluency come together

• how to choose a book: according to age, language level, student‘s choice, enthusiasm of the teacher

• how to read a book: look the book through, what do we think will happen in the book, general understanding, note down vocabulary


Extensive reading

•Recycled story: noun – verb – adjective – adverb→ new story

• Continuing stories

• Discussion

• Brainstorming

• Venn diagram

• Carroll diagram

• Projects

• padlet.com

• prezi.com

• Acrostic

• Reading circle


Children with special needs – dyslexia

• We should suggest the student to use a piece of white paper in a shape of the letter L to hide the rest of the text.

European day of languages

First grade

• Presentation in English about four seasons and song

• Task with cards about autumn in five participating languages and about flags

• English vocabulary about autumn

• Spelling

• Group work – creating three-lingual dictionaries

European day of languages

Second grade

• Each class prepared a short presentation about oneparticipating country of the project Flip & Movie.

• Power Point presentation

• Songs

• Food

• Drama

• Quiz ...

European Day of Languages

SurveyQuestions

1. What is your favourite book, that you have read in Slovak?

2. What is your favourite book, that you have read in English?

3. Who is your favourite character from a book and can be a good example for you?

Survey

Results:

• First grade (1. – 4. class)

– Bendová, Krista: Opice z našej police (Monkeys from our shelf)

– Brezina, Thomas: Klub záhad (Crusel Club) and Tigrí tím (Tiger-Team)

• Second grade (5. – 9. class)

– Harry Potter is the most read book among them and also his character is very inspiring

Night at school – first grade

Night at school – first grade

Program:

1. Quiz about fairy tales

2. Puppet tales

3. Making puppets from paper

4. Drama with puppets

5. Making fairy lanterns

6. Pumpkin carving

7. Looking for ghosts at the school yard

8. Fairy tale disco with masks from fairy tales

Night at school – second grade

• Reading The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) by C. S. Lewis in English – shortened version


• Students were divided into 7 groups, each group was reading two or three shortened chapters of the book

• They talked about it with a native American speaker Jeff, who is a friend of the school

• Each group presented his reading by a short drama (shadow, puppet, pantomime, classic)

• Characters were presented on a carnival

• Workshop, Acrostic, watching the film ... a lot of fun


• Pictures

Creative writing

Practising creative writing according to these steps

1. choose a character that you would like to be

2. describe it shortly

3. write a new story about him/her

4. put some ideas in the story from your future plans

5. tip: face a problem in your story and solve it in a creative and interesting way

Thank you for your attention

reading writing and drama

Education