Our language assistant: Nadia’s opinion about her experience in Primary 4, 5 and 6. 

Teaching Primary 4,5 and 6

As I teach many different year groups it has been essential for me to adapt my teaching style based on each year, their level of English and most importantly their collective personality as a class. Studies have shown that the early years are the most crucial for learning information and forming attitudes towards different subjects as a result, one of my main points of focus is to make learning English fun and accessible to the students so that their attitudes towards learning a new language will be positive.

It is essential for the students to regularly speak English in order to maintain their spoken level of English and as their English classes are conducted in English I find that the students are progressively getting more comfortable and fluent with the language. Overall I feel that these years are benefitting the most from having a Language assistant as they are at a crucial learning age

Year 4

The children in this year group have demonstrated a great interest in learning English and I have been pleasantly surprised by their information retention. I have learned that they enjoy PowerPoint presentations so I have created a few to teach them vocabulary. I accompany a lot of the vocabulary with pictures so they can associate the word to the image without requiring a Spanish or Catalan translation. Also, as children (and some adults) are visionary learners, it helps them to remember the vocabulary. At the beginning of each class they collectively recite the new vocabulary they learned in the previous class and any mispronunciations are corrected.

So far this year, we have been working on physical descriptions, hobbies, emotions and prepositions; what I like most about this year group is the way they help and encourage one another.

Year 5

At the beginning of the school year the children showed a great interest in the city of London, a few students even shared their personal experiences in London while on holiday with their families. A project was created so they could use this interest to build on their knowledge of the English language and produce a presentation.

For the ‘Trip to London’ project the students were divided into groups and were given a guideline of things they had previously learned that must be included in their presentations however, the format for presenting the information was up to them.

In their groups they produced some really incredible work and to compensate their hard work the best group from each class was selected to show their presentations to a 2ESO class. They were very proud of their work and did a great job of amazing the older students with their proficiency in English.

In December, continuing with the London theme, I showed them a PowerPoint presentation of a traditional British Christmas. They learned new vocabulary and were given the task to describe a traditional Catalonian Christmas. Each group was given a different day and, in English, they explained the traditions and festivities of the 24^th of December, 25^th of December, 31^st of December, 1^st of January and 6^th of January.

Currently we are working on Health and Nutrition. What started as a simple task of learning vocabulary, evolved into a discussion of scientific and medical content that was quite advanced for their age. I was worried that being too technical or covering too much science would be too difficult for them but their inquisitive nature and questions allowed the class to flow into much more advanced explanations and vocabulary, all of which they understood with ease.

Year 6

The students in this year group benefit more from independent work and enjoy performing. The main focus with them is to ensure they know how to use the vocabulary they know and to ensure that they are using complete sentences and correct grammar when speaking English.

They were given a project called ‘News Broadcast’ which involved them recreating a news broadcast that would cover the weather and news for two different cities. The broadcast also had to include an interview with a celebrity and they had to ensure that all the emotions they had previously learned were included during their news broadcast. As the news and weather could be fictional it involved a lot of creativity, which allowed the personalities in each group to show. Although it wasn’t compulsory, most groups chose to film their projects and this showed great organisation skills. Overall, their presentations showed great creativity and performance skills. The presentations also showed that they understand the vocabulary and are able to use it correctly.

Currently we are working on another project that will allow them to utilise their creative sides. They are inventing a story that has all the essential components of a fairy tale and that is age appropriate for 7 to 8 year old children. This project will allow them to use all the new vocabulary they have learned and to practice their grammar. Once they are finished they will be performing their fairy tales for year 2 students.

Nadia Adesoji  

“LET’S SPEAK ENGLISH” PROJECTS

This year we have a new language assistant, Nadia, who is a great support for teachers of English to develop all the oral activities we do with groups of primary. Year 4, 5 and 6 students have been doing different activities based on verbal communication, as the main aim is that the children can listen to someone who speaks native English and can use this language to communicate with teachers and their peers. As dealing with the children’s emotions is one of the purposes the school has, we thought that it would be a good idea to ask pupils to express an emotion and write a sentence related to it, such as “I feel happy when I am with my family”. The children really enjoyed the activity and helped them to express their emotions in English. Below you will see what they did.  

With Year 5, Nadia proposed that the children could do something related to her country, England, and specifically London, the capital. The pupils were looking for information on the Internet, books or even asking their parents or relatives, as some of them had been there before. The result was that they created some posters based on some information about the city of London, such as landmarks, the weather, etc.

They really worked hard and tried to learn the information, something that made the project really interesting.

With Year 6, students did a project about a TV programme. We were really surprised when we realized they had worked really hard and had used their imagination to create the Powerpoint or Prezi presentations, the posters, the videos and performances.

We must say that that the parents’ involvement in the different projects carried out by year 4,5 and 6 students has been really helpful. They have spent a long time helping their children to do their presentations and the successful results wouldn’t have been possible without their constant support.  

EDUCACIÓ VIÀRIA

Després de fer les classes teòriques a les aules sobre el risc i la seguretat quan circulem en bicicleta, hem anat a la Plaça de la Sardana a fer les classes pràctiques. Hem après molt i ha estat molt divertit!