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 24th of December, 25th
of December, 31st of December, 1st of January
and 6th 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
