With this post, I continue discussing different ideas to consider while designing a CLIL Unit.
They are based on the example of one of the CLIL Units of my book, which you can download from the following webpage,
http://www.e-ducalia.com/libros-texto-educacion-secundaria.php, Biology & Geology 1º ESO CLIL, just by clicking on "Descargar muestra" below the image of the book.
When we teach content in English, students feel a bit worried about how to memorize all that content. Learning by heart, does not make sense, especially because they will memorize word by word without understanding. We need to use other strategies to show them how to organize the main information in a more visual way. This helps in many different ways:
- Activates cognition: they read the text and reflect on what they have learnt and organize that information in a different way
- Boosts the learning of new vocabulary: reading, reflecting and writing makes them to pay more attention to how words are written
- Promotes significant learning: students have all the main information organized in a more visual way, understand how the different elements relate to each other and may even be able to explain everything with their own words, making the knowledge of their own.
In the Unit you have downloaded, we can find to good examples of how to use GRAPHS.
- Life of a Star (pages 10,11). Students read quite a difficult text, and organize the information in a Tree Diagram. The graph helps students to realize that there are two different paths stars can follow in their life cycle and to organize the different phases they are passing through. If your students are motivated, you can ask them to look for pictures and make the same sequence, but instead of using words, using drawings and colouring them.
- Inner and outer planets (page 19). Students use all they have learnt about the Solar System planets to compare them and write down their main similarities and differences. The best type of graph to do this is a Venn Diagram. In this activity I provide students with some topics to think about differences between inner and outer planets, but no topics about things they have in common, as I consider to think of similarities will be easier for them.
Sometimes, instead of using graphs, we can use drawing to promote learning and activate cognition. On page 13, asking studens to look for information about the Solar System to later make a drawing including all the different elements mention above, makes them to focus more on the task and to pay more attention to where each element is located and must appear on the drawing. Labelling the different elements of the drawing will foster the learning of the Solar System components and their name in English, making again paying attention to their location.
Last clue: use this drawing to play a game ......where is....? Write some prepositions and adjetives on the board: NEXT TO, BETWEEN, FAR FROM, CLOSE TO, etc.
Every activity sets an opportunity to create a new activity from it. Do not miss this opportunity.
