Music In the Classroom. Bob Dylan Printable Lesson Plan

Motivation is a key concept in learning foreign languages. My motivation as a language learner was, and still is, music and literature, which I desperately wanted to be able to understand in the language in which they were written. When the time came to choose my dissertation topic for my MSc it was clear to me that music in ESL classrooms should be my focus. The bibliography was almost as sparse as my mood was rotten while I wrote it. No one wants their student years to be over and relocating back to my home country was not a prospect I was looking forward to. Poring over hundreds of song lyrics in order to find appropriate songs, my conviction that music promotes language acquisition became stronger and remains with me today.

Noam Chomsky on Standardized Testing and the Creation of the Economic Man.

When Chomsky speaks, we, teachers and parents, must listen carefully.

… the recent years there is a strong tendency to require assessment of children and teachers. So they have to teach the test and the test determines what happens to the child and what happens to the teacher. That’s guaranteed to destroy any meaningful educational process. It means that the teacher cannot be creative, imaginative, pay attention to individual student needs, the student can’t pursue things the student might be interested in, because you got to memorise something for this test tomorrow and the teacher’s future depends on it as well as the student’s. These are all ways… well there are people that sit at their offices, the bureaucrats and design this, like you say they are not evil people, but they are working within a system of ideology and doctrines which turns what they are doing in to something extremely harmful.

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! Printable vocabulary memory set.

Here are the additional materials that you can use after or while reading the book Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus!

 These are some of the ways in which you can use the cards:

1. Hand the cards to your child ask them to spot the word in the book. 
2. Give them the Greek word and ask them to find the English one in the book. 
3. Play memory
4. Play Bang
5. Ask them to sort the words into three categories: verb, nouns or adjectives.
6. Rainbow write the words.
7. Write silly sentences.
8. Make word ladders.
9. Make a Word Wall

Book Club: Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! is one of my favourite books for children, since it addresses many behaviour issues from demanding attitude to anger tantrums. It is the first of many in the series of pigeon adventures. It is funny and witty and perfect for beginner readers. So consider getting one of the Pigeon books for Christmas these holidays, they ensure a good laugh. 

photo via wikipedia 

While you are at it,  click on the book photo to visit the official site and play the games you can find there online. 

Book Club: Books to read over the holidays: 2nd and 3rd Grade Reading List!

Learning to read is a difficult task. When parents ask me what they can do to help their child start reading with fluency, I can only reply with one answer. Read to them, read with them, let them read on their own. In other words, do what you did when your child was learning to read in their mother tongue. Pick a book they would be interested in. Pick a book appropriate to their reading level, that won’t be that difficult that will turn the reading process into a hateful experience.

There are thousands of books out there that can help your child read faster and better.  In this post I list some of the books that I would buy for my child if they were beginner readers.  

·       2^nd grade

During our first semester in 2^nd grade, we learnt the alphabet and ventured into the difficult task of blending sounds to read our first words. Here are a few books that will help them practice reading over the Christmas break.

Alphabet and word books:

1. Lift the Flap Word Book by Felicity Brooks

A great book to help your child make that precious word to picture connection. The drawings are very beautiful and it is made out of sturdy material for reading over and over again. Click on the photo for video link.

Sight Words Games : Memory Game and Loop Cards Printables

Dolch words are very important to a child learning to read. They are also very hard to teach, because they have to be identified by sight, hence their other names: sight words or high frequency words. Since they make up for the 70-80% of all english printed materials, they are a determining factor for success in reading, especially for beginner learners. 

The following printables are part of the Dolch Word set I have been posting for the past month. 

So go ahead, print, colour and laminate the cards and play with your child or use in class. It is simple, fast and effective. 

Dolch Words Memory Game