Head and Shoulders, Knees ... and More!
Alan Paradiž, Slovenia
Alan Paradiž is a teacher or English and Russian at Srednja vzgojiteljska šola in gimnazija Ljubljana. Prior to that, he taught English at primary level for 8 years. He has participated at international language conferences from the field of foreign language teaching with talks, workshops and original papers focusing mainly on the importance of vocabulary teaching and learning in developing language skills as a whole. E-mail: alan.paradiz@svsgl.si
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Introduction
Task 1- Head and Shoulders Song with a Twist(er)
Task 2- Political parties
Conclusion
Aged between 6 and 12, learners are a grateful audience and they want to learn (indirectly via playing) something and when they master something new, they are pleased with it and proud to present. They take great delight in talking and sharing their experience, they love to interact be it by chanting, singing, chatting or dancing, meaning they respond strongly to music and rhythm and are more easily able to learn a chant or a song than a spoken (or read) text. They think and use their imagination, use several senses when learning and use language skills without being aware of them. They are already good at interpreting and eliciting the meaning without necessarily understanding individual words. However, they can concentrate and stay focused on a particular task only for a certain period of time which needs to be taken into account when planning an effective lesson.
The benefits of using games, songs and body movement (i.e. extralinguistic support) when learning language as a means of teaching English have long been recognized Also, it is a well-known fact that without grammar very little can be conveyed, but without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.
In my contribution I stress the great importance of teaching vocabulary in Primary school due to the fact that I have recognized its tremendous communicative advantages in developing extensive vocabulary during my 8-year-long teaching practice. Here, two fun, creative, team-building activities that boost language development are put forward to. They exercise the invabuable benefit of teaching vocabulary and also demonstrate how a topic of “body parts” could also be futher exploited and extended, while at the same time “personalized” and “humanised”.
A teacher pre-teaches body parts (head, shoulder, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose) with body movement, gestures and singing the Head and Shoulder song. Students will very quickly pick up the words and the corresponding body movements.
Then a teacher presents students with the word cards and distributes them among them. When singing and miming, 8 students come to the blackboard and lift their word cards. They put them in the correct order. After that, the word cards are placed to the »right« body part. You’ve previously drawn a person/body on a whiteboard (blackboard).
Then there is a twist. A teacher pretends there is a strong wind, a twister, coming about and jumbles the pictures with the known vocabulary items (students might help creating the wind and pick up the word “blow”). Sing and mime the song with the new word order. It is fun and you might carry out this extension of the ordinary song several times, engaging students into jumbling the words on the board as well.
After that, there's a task which includes group work, writing, presenting and singing. A teacher makes groups of 3–4 students (with mixed abilities if possible), and instruct them to think of their own Head and shoulders” song. If they know other (new) body parts vocabulary items, they might include them as well. Each group presents their poster (words and/or pictures), singing and miming the body parts song. In their second go, others join them and sing along while revising the known lexis and picking up new vocabulary items from their peers. A teacher collects the new words and adds them to the body drawn on the blackboard.
A teacher then asks students to follow the instructions, working in pars. A teacher calls out two body parts (for example, arm to arm, knee to knee, head to head, nose to elbow, eye to shoulder etc.) and students should carry out the movement. They will get engaged in it as it is highly entertaining too as the combinations get more difficult to carry out. The more confident students might call out further word pairs and take on the role of a teacher.
The sequence of these tasks will surely help students remember and internalize the vocabulary items and recall them next time with ease. By participating in the task actively (i.e. a total physical response) writing, drawing, speaking (singing, chanting) and presenting their work in front of the whole class, they build their self-esteem and confidence likewise.
With older students (upper primary, age 12–14) a teacher can do more and again exploit body parts, linking them to grammar, in this case modal verbs and open possibility conditionals. The activity is called “Political Parties”.
A class is divided into groups (of 3–4 students) and each group selects/draws a body part (legs, heart, brain etc.). They come up with a poster with drawings, a slogan (motto) and their political program saying who they are, what they fight for, why other groups (other body parts) should vote for them, what their promises are, what they will do if they get your vote etc. A teacher encourages students to use catch phrases, be inventive and exploit language so as to convince the rest they are the best political party. Dictionaries might be used here too. There are no right or wrong answers so the sky is the limit.
After each group has finished, it's time for presentations (i.e. confrontations/political debates). Each party presents their program (no reading is allowed, roles and parts previously divided among the group members) and tries to persuade why the voters should pick them. A (silent) voting procedure is carried out and one group wins. Students love to vote, compete and win! As teacher might suggest a coalition of all body parts: arms, legs, heart and brain work best when their work together.
This task includes group work, peer teaching, but also developing social skills. Students use their imagination, write, cooperate, draw and present their ideas and thus produce (oral and written) language.
To wrap up, the two tasks presented in the present article demonstrate how a familiar content could be further exploited at a lower and upper primary levels with the goal to expand vocabulary, revise grammar, and improve speaking and presenting skills, while giving additional boost to one’s confidence and humanising language likewise.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology & Language for Primary course at Pilgrims website.
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