Oral Language

I have been horrible at posting lately as school has got the best of me. But, I promise to make an effort to post more regularly, since we have been doing some wonderful activities and lessons in the past few weeks since school has started. 

 

Here is a quick but handy post on oral language. Teachers are often at a loss for ideas on how to run an oral language activity (I will post some more ideas in another post). This book is wonderful, and although it is targeted for EAL students, it really can be used with an grade and academic level. 

Inside this book, there are numerous flash cards relating to different topics (school, home, activities, food, etc.). I have simply photocopied the flash cards that I wanted onto coloured paper and laminated them. 

Now, in my reading class, we use they flash cards for tons of different oral language activities. 

Some activities we do with the flash cards are:

- alphabetical order

- categorising

- synonyms/antonyms

- letter patterns

- 20 questions

Hopefully this helps spawn some other wonderful oral language ideas!

Sculpting

This is an EAL (English as an Additional Language) strategy that I learnt about at a PD by Margery Hertzberg. The name of this activity is "Sculpting" and is a great way to assess whether your students have understood a concept, storyline, definition or idea. Hence, there are a number of ways that you can use this activity. 

I used this in my reading class as a way of students showing their understanding of a new word we learnt that week. The focus in the class that week was making meaning of unfamiliar words.

Teammates sharing a high five after a win with an excited commentator and spectator on the side.

For this activity, students had two minutes in their groups to create (sculpt) a still frame image  to represent to word "commentator" as that was a new word we learnt. I was sooooo impressed with the creativity of the students and all the different ideas they came up with for their image.I've covered their faces for privacy, but the facial expressions added to their images also.

This was a great way for EAL students to show their understanding of a new word. Sometimes they are not always able to verbalise their understandings, thus this activity allows these students to show their understandings in a creative way still proves their learning. This can also be an oral language activity as students need to communicate with their group members to create their sculpture.

A running race with a spectator and commentator on the sidelines.

A basketball game with a commentator on the side of the court.

A ballet performance with a host commentator.

Ask the Right Question

An excellent oral language game that I've used in my reading group is called "Ask the Right Question".

Students play in a group and each person is given a card with a word and picture related to the word on the card. To get the point, students need to ask a question to their group to have students say the word on their card. Almost similar to a Jeopardy, the word on the card is the answer to their question.

For example, if the word on the card is "Olympics", the student may create the following question: "What international sporting event was held in London in 2012?"

This is an excellent game to play with all students but primarily works well with EAL students in your classroom. Many students try to simply give clues, instead of asking a question, so this game forces students to improve their questioning skills.

My students have loved playing this game although it seems like such a simple concept. It can be change for any topic or book that you are studying at the time. Vocabulary cards can then be re-used for other oral language games, such as 20 questions and charades.