Category: Grammar

Posted on

Week 11

This week we had about the short story “Lullaby” by Leslie Marmon Silko and the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” written by Sherman Alexie. I feel like these texts are a bit to difficult to use for pupils in seventh grade. Maybe you have a few pupils who is a strong reader and has a good understanding of English that could find Alexie’s novel a great read. It is a fun book with a easy language. I think that pupils in some ways can relate to the some of the situations that the main character find himself in. Even though it is mainly about how to survive the teens and the life as “a part time Indian”.

Benedikte had her lesson this week. She had about words that are different in American English and British English but means the same. This was a well thought out and fun lesson. She had different activities where the pupils get to explore and play with the words. I got inspired to use many of her activities myself.

Posted on

Week 10

To learn about the stress in words and sentences was really stress…

No, just kidding. I have started to learn the “schwa” and now know that it is important when we talk about stress. Because in the unstressed syllables, the vowel sound comes very often out as the /ə/.

To learn about stress could be a fun lesson for the pupils. They would have to speak the language and get the feel of where to the sounds lies in the mouth. They need to think about how the words sound and it would be funny to see their reaction to how a sentence can change when you change the stress.

There is also smart to use some time on this when learning new words. When the pupils hears the right form from the first time it is easier to remember what syllables that are stressed and unstressed.

Posted on

Week 9

We had about phonology. I think it is difficult to remember what the phonology signs means. Many of them don’t give me any meaning. Like the sign does not always resemble the sound. And other signs look alike.

We made tongue-twisters. This was a great activity. I would really like to take this with me. It is a great collaboration activity where the pupils must speak English. It is also a great opportunity to play with and explore the words that they have in their repertoire. It is also a platform to learn new words and the meaning of them.

If I would use this in my classroom I would have to give them some words that they could choose from. This is to help them get started with the exercise. This is a creative activity and many pupils will find it a bit difficult to get the imagination going. That is why a few “start-up” words could be helpful. A few good examples are also important.

There are also many ways you could differentiate this activity. This by having words with many similar words for step 1, and harder words on the other steps. You can also give requirements for the higher steps. For example, that the tongue-twisters has have a certain number of lines.

A good lesson.

Bilderesultat for bear beer beard bird

Posted on

Week 5

January 28th.

Today we had lesson about adjectives and adverbs with Mari.
Adjectives are words that describes a noun. Or modifies. I learned that the adjective could be placed in front or after the noun and still have the same meaning. But sometimes it can change the meaning totally. For example:
My old friend Bob.
My friend Bob is old.

As a teacher will I make adjectives fun when introducing the lexical category.  I think that the best way to learn new words is to play with them. Have an oral exercise where we talk about what color different things have. This is to make the pupils realise that colors are adjectives.
For example:
The curtains are green.
The chalk is white.