I really wanted to find something a bit different; maybe even a little inspiring?
Y’see, I’ve got
this bright, shy & retiring young student who I’m only slowly
getting to know – and I know it’s me who's the slow one. We’ll
call her Kirsty for now to protect her soon-to-be public identity! As things
have been developing I came to realise that she’s more open than I
had understood her to be; it was me that wasn’t quite getting
it right. It’s great practice for a Dad of a 7 year-old girl
who’ll be a teenager before I know it, don’t you think?
Anyway, back to the
plot, Kirsty’s pretty creative with her writing when she has the right motivation –
but I really felt I needed to work on her grammar as her L1 influence (i) is quite prevalent. So, I put these very uninspiring lessons
together on tenses, thinking it was the right thing to do. And of course we
got somewhere with her grammar. But, along the way, her zeal for
anything English somehow waned (don’t ask me how :-). That's when
I realised we needed to take a new direction – fast! So I set to
work on an alternative approach. Apples!
Apples & cheese in
fact. I was sitting there thinking one day when a crazy idea popped
into my head (thanks God!). So off I went to the shops to buy
various kinds of apples and oranges, along with 3 different flavours of
scrummy cheese! At least, I like them. I somehow got the idea that
Kirsty probably had not tried them before (well, maybe the cheddar),
so I was really looking forward to her reaction!
Just to get her taste
buds jumping we started by reading this wacky parody of Cinderella meets Snow White & the Crazy Queen, followed by a quick review of
millions of food tasting words. She had no idea where this was all
leading and probably thought I had totally lost it!
But then I
cracked open a packet of Jacobs 21st Century Crackers,
instructed her to close her eyes, and concentrate fully on what was
happening inside her mouth. At several points along the way I wished
I’d taken a camera into the classroom, and this was the first of
them.
But then I
cracked open a packet of Jacobs 21st Century Crackers,
instructed her to close her eyes, and concentrate fully on what was
happening inside her mouth. At several points along the way I wished
I’d taken a camera into the classroom, and this was the first of
them.
Well – the rest is
history, as recorded by the student herself if she wishes to be
associated with this post. I’ll let you know later!
Ciao for now!
(i) L1 influence is the effect a 1st language has on the learning of a 2nd one.
(i) L1 influence is the effect a 1st language has on the learning of a 2nd one.
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