com/englishmap 100 IDEAS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH CONTINUUM ONE HUNDREDS SERIES 100 Ideas for Managing Behaviour - Johnnie Young 100 Ideas for Supply Teachers - Julia Murphy 100 Ideas for SurvivingYour FirstYear in Teaching - Laura-Jane Fisher 100 Ideas for Teaching Citizenship - Ian Davies 100 Ideas for Teaching Creativity - Stephen Bowkett 100 Ideas for Teaching English - Angella Cooze 100 Ideas for Teaching History - Julia Murphy 100 Ideas for Teaching Languages - Nina Griffith 100 Ideas for Teaching Mathematics - Mike Ollerton 100 Ideas for Teaching Science - Sharon Archer 100 Ideas for Teaching Thinking Skills - Stephen Bowkett 100 Ideas for Trainee Teachers - Angella Cooze OTHER ENGLISH TITLES Beginning Reading - Yola Center Getting the Buggers to Read - Claire Senior Getting the Buggers to Write - Sue Cowley Teaching and Learning English - Richard Andrews Teaching Literacy - Fred Sedgwick Teaching Poetry - Fred Sedgwick 100 IDEAS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH Angella Cooze continuum LONDON • NEW YORK Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 15 East 26th Street 11 York Road New York, NY 10010 London SE1 7NX www.com © Angella Cooze 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 0-8264-8480-8 (paperback) Typeset by Ben Cracknell Studios Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall CONTENTS SECTION I Let's start at the beginning | 1 | The English classroom 2 | 2 | Sentence types 3 | 3 | Getting more complex 4 | 4 | Adjectives 5 | 5 | Connotation: introducing implied meaning 7 | 6 | Nouns 8 | 7 | Pronouns 9 | 8 | Adverbs 10 | 9 | Connectives 11 | 1Q | What are you doing? Verbs 12 | 11 | Where do commas go? 13 | 12 | What's an apostrophe? 14 | 13 | More on apostrophes 15 | 14 | Where do speech marks go? 17 | 15 | Capital letters and punctuation in speech 18 | 16 | Ref i n i ng d i rect spee 19 | 17 | How do you spell .? Some troublesome words 20 | 18 | I can see clearly now - tips for improving handwritin 22 | 19 | Position and pen control 23 | 20 | Forming letters 24 SECTION 2 Writing | 21 | Narrative - structuring stories 26 | 22 | Establishing character 28 | 23 | Creating atmosphere - reaction 29 | 24 | Creating atmosphere - place 30 25 | Identifying metaphor and simile 31 | 26 | Literal versus metaphorical 32 | 27 | Formal or informal? 34 | 28 | Writing to describe 35 | 29 | Writing to persuade 36 | 30 All about me - what is autobiography? 37 | 31 | Me, me, me - writing autobiography 38 I 33 I Further ideas 39 SECTION 3 Introducing reading and understanding | 33 | Close reading of persuasive text 42 | 34 | Who? Understanding character 43 | 35 | What is atmosphere? 45 | 36 | Atmosphere and association 46 | 37 | Atmosphere - putting the pieces together 47 | 38 | From film to book 48 | 39 | Introducing the class reader 49 | 40 | Exploring character 50 | 41 | Chapters 51 | 42 | Further ideas 52 | 43 | Showing understanding of character - empathy tasks 53 | 44 Establishing your character 54 | 45 | Structuring responses to empathy tasks 55 SECTION 4 Between the lines - comprehension skills | 46 | General tips 58 | 47 | Reading for clues 59 | 48 | Analysing an extract 60 | 49 | Reading body language 61 SECTION 5 Exploring poetry | 5Q | Writing about poems - structure 64 | 51 | Rhythm and pace 65 | 52 | Introducing imagery 66 | 53 | Sound 67 | 54 | Further ideas for exploring poetry 68 I 55 I The poem as story 69 I gg I Explaining ballads 70 I 57 I Telling more stories 71 SECTION 6 A focus on plays | 58 | General overview 74 | 59 | What is a play? 75 | 60 | Introducing key features of play texts 76 | 61 | Clues to expression 77 | 62 | Demonstrating understanding 78 | 63 | The 'S' word - introducing Shakespear 79 | 64 | Before reading the play.
80 | 65 | Ways into the play 81 | 66 | Focusing in on the play 82 | 67 | Exploring the play with film and music 83 | 68 | Further into the play 84 SECTION 7 Non-fiction | 69 | Non-fiction text types 86 | 70 | In the news - introducing newspaper stories 88 | 71 | Broadsheet and tabloid 89 | 72 | Introducing audience and purpose 90 | 73 | Sell me your story - analysing an advertisement 92 SECTION 8 Speaking and listening 74 | General tips 94 | 75 | Lost in the jungle 95 | 76 | The balloon debate 96 | 77 | The instructor 97 | 78 | The individual talk 98 | 79 | The formal debate 99 | 80 | Story sharing 100 | 81 | The proposal 101 | 82 | The awards ceremony 102 SECTION 9 Drama in the English classroom | 83 | Hot seating 104 | 84 | Tableau 105 | 85 | Thought tracking 106 | 86 | Role-play 107 SECTION I 0 ICT and English | 87 | General tips 110 | 88 | Research and the Internet 111 | 89 | Drafting and editing 112 | 90 | DTP 113 I 91 I Presentation and interaction 114 SECTION II Boys and Engli s | 92 | General pointers 116 p93l ICT 117 I 94 | Short and sharp 118 | 95 | Five 119 | 96 | Text choice 120 | 97 | Seating plans 121 SECTION I 2 Differentiation | 98 | General tips 124 | 99 | Specific ideas 125 11001 Suggested reading 127 This page intentionally left blank SECTION 1 Let's start at the beginning • •HM IDEA The 'learning environmen t' ha phrase for a number of years. It is, however, more than 1 that. When students walk into your room, they should feel that they have entered: o a classroom, a place of and for learning; o an English classroom specifically; o your classroom in particular. Establish a clutter-free and organized room.
Ensure that desks, tables and shelving are used, mainly, for one purpose. Exercise books, textbooks, novels, paper, pens, dictionaries and worksheets should have a specific place, preferably labelled. Class displays should be current and well presented. After all, the prime reason for displaying work is to encourage a sense of pride in your pupils.
This is difficult to establish with tatty and torn work from pupils who have long since left the school. There is a place for keeping some work as models, but this needs to be made obvious. Display work in headed sections. If possible and appropriate, a considerable proportion should be marked rather than simply showing only pieces of work with little relevance other than as a display piece.
This seems like a lot of extra work, but ask for help - some pupils actively enjoy creating displays. Certain key terms or tips can be displayed prominently in the class. Those that you feel are most important should be displayed on the same wall as the board, as it is in this direction that pupils will be facing most often. Make sure that they are in a clear, large font and that there is some variety in the way in which they are presented.
Some may have accompanying visual images or be in the form of a mnemonic, for example. Try to display as many as is practical. Pupils spend a lot of time gazing at walls - lost in thought, or simply lost. You may wish to include key literary terms, vocabulary alternatives for critical essays, simplified level descriptors and common spelling errors.
This really is a surprisingly simple and effective way of helping information stick. It also has the added effect of clearly identifying the room as an English classroom. 2 Pupils' writing is much improved if they can move away • •HM from simple one-clause sentences and use a variety of sentence types. Recognizing this variety also sharpens their understanding of text.
The following tasks are, in the first instance, concerned with helping pupils to 2 identify different types of sentence (namely simple, compound and complex), and then move into using this recognition to write their own. Some tasks may not be suitable for all levels of ability, so select the level you feel most appropriate. SIMPLE SENTENCES Pupils may need to be reminded that a sentence usually contains a subject and a verb. Give each pair of pupils pieces of card printed with either a subject or verb phrase.
Each subject should have a matching verb phrase. Pupils then put the pieces together to form sentences. Each pair can read out one of the completed sentences. Explain that these are simple sentences, made of one clause.
COMPOUND SENTENCES It is useful here if pupils have already looked at connectives/conjunctions as these will be necessary to their understanding. Display to the class pairs of simple sentences which are jumbled up, such as: I went shopping. The dog was covered in mud. Richard was great at football.
I bought some books. The sofa was filthy. He was terrible at rugby. Ask pupils to, firstly, work out which sentences go together.
Their next task is to join them together using connectives to make one long sentence. Explain that these are called compound sentences and are made of two clauses, usually joined by a connective, and that each clause could be a sentence on its own. 3 lill^il Out of simple, compound and complex sentences this is the trickiest, but some of the most common patterns can 3 be understood fairly easily. Display for pupils a table such as the one below.
Subje ct Extra information Verb phrase My uncle John who is a soldier is coming to tea. The crowd which had been let out a roar. quiet all match Read through the table and ask pupils to copy it into their books. Give pupils cards with subordinate clauses written on them.
In pairs, ask them to arrange them with their original subject and verb phrase cards to make complex sentences. Ask pupils to read out one of their complex sentences and then add two of these further examples to their tables. Focus the class on how these sentences are formed. Next, put a series of adverbial sentence openers on the board.
Ask the class to complete sentences such as the following: Although I had always been a vegetarian, Whilst leaning against the wall minding my own business. Finally, ask pupils to write one sentence of each type in a short passage about what they did at the weekend. Pupils can then swap their work and identify the sentence types in each other's writing. The important thing to emphasize is that they should use a variety of sentence types in their written work.
4 Skillful recognition and use of adjectives in writing can liH^il enhance pupils' reading and understanding skills as well as their own writing. Give the following information and task to your students. Adjectives are words which give us more information about a noun. They describe 4 nouns in more detail.
For example: The cat sat on the mat. noun noun The fat cat sat on the dirty mat.