On Thursday 21 February I was asked to design an English activity which would allow the school’s most advanced English learners – the First Certificate students in the 3rd Oberstufe – to learn together with the Basisstufe, the school’s youngest members.
Students carefully drew round another student to create the outline for the poster.
For young children especially, learning is most successful when they have to physically do something themselves, rather than being a passive and disengaged audience. So having a student lie on a large piece of paper and have other draw round them before they all label the body together was perfect! The idea itself had been suggested to me by an experienced teaching colleague in the UK. I knew instantly that it would work. It did.
The youngest students wanted to label the body parts and choose the colours for the drawing. The girls from the Oberstufe were also keen to teach the English words (and their spellings) to the younger ones. Everyone was actively involved in the activity, regardless of their own level or language ability. The students also worked very well as a team.
Once I had set up the activity, my own role became that of an observer, proof-reader and timekeeper – ensuring that we had a good poster at the end of our time together. The students produced two posters: one of a Basisstufe pupil and the other (below) of a member of the 3rd Oberstufe. I think you’ll agree – the end result is impressive!
The finished, life-size poster, fully labelled in English