Spontaneous Speaking
Drama Activities in the Primary Classroom: for Confidence and Fluency
Two workshops for the Arbeitsgruppe Englisch an der Grundschule (Deutsches Schulamt, Südtirol)
Brixen 28. - 29.11.16
Meran 30.11. - 01.12.16
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The amateur tells the word
the professional tells the story
but the artist tells the listener! (anon.)
Handout of skeletons
In the workshop you will need this four-page print-out of story skeletons.Please print a copy and bring it with you.
Schedule
- First day (afternoon): Spontaneous speaking skills - learning by doing (includes work on body language, voice)
- Second day (morning): Drama activities - learning together
- Second day (afternoon): Creating a teaching module - small group work, presentation of results
Rules of storytelling?
There are TWO rules of storytelling:What to remember when telling a story
This collection of reminders contains all the things you mentioned when analysing what I was doing to keep you listening:- the listener, and your responsibility to the listener
- believe in your story – people will listen to you if you do
- learn to live your story – a storyteller is more than a mere narrator
- voice/body language: performance mode, not conversational mode
- slower tempo, intonation, pauses
- eye contact
- quiet feet
- limit descriptive detail, use repetition
- don’t worry about language – anxiety will make the telling flat
- don’t read! Even if the story changes, the listener doesn’t know what you should have said
Resources
Articles I have published relating to young learnersThis article English teacher as storyteller: storytelling as an everyday classroom activity is based on my experience as a secondary school teacher, but also relates to teaching young learners
Some further useful links
Flashcards
72 printable flashcards, free to downloadSongs
There are many available on the internet, here are just a few links, the first four are free to download:- Fun Educational Songs for Kids (e.g. What's your name, Counting Song)
- English songs
- Various languages, including English, German and Italian
- FunSongs: Monster March (vocabulary: body parts)
- Music and Mime, Rhythm and Rhyme The FunSongs approach to language teaching by Charles Goodger
This 24-page handbook has lots of ideas about using song with young learners. It costs €0.99 to download
More classroom activities and methodology
- Karlsruhe PH Fachdidaktik: a large collection of useful links
- Grundschulmagazin Englisch: Drama and drama activities
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David Heathfield, the original leader of this workshop, generously sent me these links:
- Books by Jason Anderson
- Spontaneous Speaking by David Heathfield Here a few of the book's activities suitable for young learners:
- Creativity in the English Language Classroom (see David's article, Ch. 5: Personal and creative storytelling)
Getting to Know Me (p. 12)
Mirrors - variant 2 for vocabulary (p. 13)
Listen and Remember - use after a story or activity (p. 14)
Multi-Task Master (p. 18)
Making Friends, Breaking Friends (p. 23)
Cirle Introduction - fantasy pet, body parts, colours, what food (p. 66)
My Pet (p. 68)
Quick Personal Talks - my house, family, favourite garden, hobby (p. 85)
What we did: activities
To help you remember, here are most of the activities we did during the workshop:- 60 seconds non-stop speaking (partner work)
- Ghost with One Black-Eye
- Storytelling skills: Death and the Gardener / Free Melons
- Telling stories: Magic Mitten / Giant Carrot / Noisy House / Strongest of Them All
- Writing a skeleton for Free Melons
- Guided partner storytelling: The Princess / adding some dialogue
- Participation storytelling: Strongest of Them All
- Old Woman and her Pig: last line race
- Leopard-Eating Dog: actions in a story
- Creating a teaching module: Tanzanian Sunlight
- Picture storybook: Beth Gellert
- And of course I also told you some extra tales. So please tell them to others!
Feedback
And now that you have finished the workshop, I'd be grateful for any comments/suggestions you have to make.Just send me a .
Go here to receive an e-mail notification when new tales are added to the video gallery
Go here for tales to watch
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
You are a teacher? Read this: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling
Want to record your own performances? Here are some suggestions
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