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Week 12

In week 12 we were to read “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time” written by Mark Haddon. The novel is about Christopher Boone and starts the day he finds the neighbor’s dog dead. He knows a lot about space and prime numbers. All the chapters in the book are a prime number. He has a lot of problems that relate to the autism disorder, like he is unable to imagine the thoughts and feelings of the people around him. If he gets to many questions thrown at him his head fuzzes up and he could get violent. The novel is written from his perspective with some reality and imagination. The story unfolds when Christopher investigates the murder of the dog and discovers some dark secrets about his own family.

The book is easy and fun to read. It is something different because of the point of view and the fact that the protagonist is on the autism-spectra. It is still to difficult to be used in a whole class. Maybe some of the pupils in seventh grade could read this. Maybe I could use a few chapters and make the pupils compare them. One chapter from reality and one from his other book world.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Ann’s Cinderella, week 7

It was a slow monday. We had about children’s literature and all of these old men who has had a perspective on the child sometime in the past.
Suddenly this wierd woman with an umbrella on her head steps into the classroom.

Ann’s lesson had begun.

The lesson was a part of a bigger lessonplan about Cinderella and the different literature based on the original one. She had made an rebus or a scanvanger hunt of some sort out of cards. We are sorted into two groups and each group gets four envelopes. The envelopes are numbered one to four. In the envelope are there a question and different answer alternatives. The goal is to find the code to a lock on a chest with a price in it.

This lesson was really fun and can easly be adapted to different age levels by making the questions easier or harder. It is a great activity because in the group the pupils can have different strenghts and here they have to cooperate to solve the task. She also sneaked in some maths which is really great.

I can see this in seventh grade with a rebus that took the pupils around the school looking for clues. Then you’ll get some physically activity also. It is a fun way to end a bigger topic.

I also like that she used menti.com. By using this the pupils can set a word (or three) on what they have learned during the period they have had this topic.

– Lisa