IDEAS FROM THE CLIL CLASS

Summary by Margitta Becker

Pilgrims course: CLIL for Secondary Teachers (23 – 28 July 2017, Stefania Ballotto)

Below you find various methods/activities presented in the above mentioned course:

Bonding

 Practicing Names 

1.      Throw ball, person has to say their name, throw ball to other person aso.
2.      Throw ball to X, and say their name
3.      Throw ball “to X, for Y”
4.      Throw ball “to X, between Y and Z”

 Map of the world

Participants place themselves where they come from

 Mandalas

From centre to outside: write down/draw three things

• You are good at
• You like doing
• You would like 
• Important persons, places, objects 
• In groups of 3 share and ask questions

 Hand mirroring

Two people stand facing each other, both raise their hand so that their palms nearly touch (but do not), one starts moving their hand in a direction, the other follows with their hands
Can be done in a circle too

  Islands (similar to “musical chairs”)

“Islands” of different sizes are drawn/indicated with coloured sellotape on ground; when music plays, learners “swim” in the sea, when music stops, they must reach an island. If a learner does not reach an island s/he is “bitten” by the teacher/shark. After each go the teachers eliminates one island.  
->Learners have to huddle together

 

Warmers/Energizers

     Double circle:

• What I like teaching
• My best lesson
• Something I avoid teaching

·         Racehorses

• Stand in a circle, clap your thighs with both hands
• Hurdle: all hands indicate a hurdle
• Ditch: all hands indicate a ditch
• Grand stand: right hands wave royally
• Right/left: all participants sway to right/left
• One person gives commandoes, all act accordingly

·         Jumps

Stand in a circle

1. Someone says: jump in, everybody repeats “jump in” and does so
2. Someone says: jump in, everybody repeats “jump in”, but does the opposite
3. Someone says: jump in, everybody says “jump out”, but does jump in

·         Bananas

Stand in a circle, one gives commandoes and does the gesture, others imitate:

Plant a banana, grow a banana, pick a banana, peel a banana, slice a banana, everyone goes banana

·         Learning through the body

Group stands in a circle and practices e.g. irregular verbs, e.g.

“see”: all hands go to top of the head

“saw”: all hands go to the waist

“seen”: all hands go to the floor

(however: “bring, brought, brought”, hands stay on the waist for the last two forms)

·         Counting

Two persons face each other; one counts down from 100 in even numbers, the other counts up from 0 in even numbers; when both reach 50 they count back again to their starting number

Methods

·         Definition with a difference (revision)

Someone dictates a sentence; if it is true, it is translated into mother tongue; if not, it must be corrected in English

(e.g. The heart pumps blood through blood vessels. True -> translate into German; The left side of the heart pumps the blood to the lungs. False -> correction: right side)

·         Creative writing (recapping)

“whole” writes to the “part”

e.g. “heart“ writes a letter to the “blood” and vice versa

letters can be answered and posted in class

·         Vital visual (introducing topic, guessing, hypothesizing)

Picture on SB plus list of questions (What is…? Where is …? Who is …? Why …?) Write down which questions you would like to ask the artist/designer

-> Activates language for new topic

·         Pizza

Draw a pizza with the toppings of your choice; explain to partner and also how you eat it -> Shows the different ways something can be done; process language

·         Conduction/ convection

Simplifying texts by acting them out; e.g. conduction: particles/people stand very close to each other

´

·        Introducing/revising new language

Words/terms written on board; everyone stands in a circle; ball thrown to a learner who has three choices:

“I know” and answers, “I am not sure about”, “I know, but I am not going to tell” -> throws ball to next person (if answered correctly, learners get a point)

If question has not been answered after three times, teacher answers it and gets a point

·       Collocations

Teacher has a list of 18 words; group divided into As, Bs, Cs; each person gets 6 slips of paper and writes down word for their number

As   Bs   Cs

1     2     3

4     5     6

…

16  17   18

Teacher reads out numbers and words fast; learners can say “stop”, “return to …”, “play” and write down “their” words

Students then form mixed groups (A, B. C) and try and form collocations (e.g. flash floods, changeable weather, torrential rain)

Collocations checked on board in plenary session

 Revision

Groups of 4 or 6; each one has a paper and writes down “I know about X”, papers passed on and everyone writes down a question, papers passed on and new question put on paper also. until paper is back with “expert” who then answers the questions in the group until all experts have done so

Unanswered questions go back to the teacher

·         Hot seat

Person on hot seat is not allowed to answer with “yes/no”; learners think of questions in groups and afterwards ask person in hot seat

·         KWL (What do you know? What do you want to know? What have you  learnt?)

Any topic; learners make up a grid with and fill in

K	W	L

Grid remains with them: EA -> GA

-> Self-assessment, evidence of learning, ongoing assessment

General principles of language/CLIL teaching/learning

·         Language acquisition 

    listen -> speak -> read -> write

·         From text to task: into -> through -> beyond (similar to pre – while – post)

1. Into: first stage of the lesson, pre-knowledge established; typical activities: quizzes, use of visuals, vocab previews, association exercises (prepare students for new input)
2. Through: second stage, presentation of new content; typical activities: reading or listening with guides (e.g. picture labelling, idea sequencing, text completion exercise), info gap tasks (practicing language skills and comprehension of the basic concepts).
3. Beyond: final stage; typical activities: poster, role-play, producing a booklet, diary writing); opportunity to demonstrate both conceptual and linguistic understanding, to provide a forum for communicative language practice.

·         Cognitive skills which are activated in CLIL

Comparing – predicting – classifying – sequencing - evaluating

·         Why is CLIL a good thing?

Learners get cards with explanations about why CLIL is a good thing; they memorize the text and tell a partner and vice versa; then they exchange the cards, meet new partners and repeat the process aso. (listen -> read -> understand)

Followed by placemat activity in groups and exchange among the groups:

·         Talk, tac, toe

Everyone gets a grid with various statements e.g. about teaching CLIL

 

X
	X
O	O	O

Each learner crosses the statement s/he prefers and tries to find two more learners to form a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line

 ·         Giving instructions

1.      Jumbled sentences; learners try to get the right order/structure

2.      Complicated/misleading instructions must be corrected/improved

·         Jiffy Dance (giving instructuions)

Find video on YouTube “Jiffy Mixer USA”; watch and try and do the dance accordingly

In groups participants write down the instructions for the dance

·         From text to task

PA: both have the same text but different questions

They ask each other their questions and write down answers

New partners: they ask each other their questions and check