Mind Mapping for Helping Natural Language: Tools

I have been fascinated with mind mapping since I first read  Tony Buzan's   book on this topic many years ago.  

This is a strategy that helps students quickly relate a central word or concept. The mind forms associations almost instantaneously and 'mapping' allows them to write their ideas quicker, using only words or phrases.


Read more about at Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Mind Mapping for Helping Natural Language

The importance of a personalised English room

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: 

The importance of a personalised English room

From time to time The Guardian Teacher Network prepares a list of the best Top Ten Resources for any purpose related to school and teaching...

My City, Project Based Learning or Content Based Learning in the ESL class

One of the most important topics in the Primary Social Science Curriculum at Cicle Mitjà and Cicle Superior is the city, the town or the village where the students live.

The city landscape of Vitebsk

Knowing the city is a way to know many aspects of the social, cultural and civic around us. But it is also a way to know about museums, interesting places, monuments, history, famous people, unique buildings and curiosities of the town.

In this project, students will conduct a research on one or more aspects of their city (or another one, if we consider it more appropriate). The main aim is to develop a graphic support with varied information to orally show in front of the class and to make a display in the school corridors.


These are just some examples of outputs produced within the project. Power Points and scaled models are probably the most used resources among primary students, but they also used Prezi, Glogster or Issuu.

My city project from Enric Calvet

And this is the complete Unit Plan.

Unit plan my city from Enric Calvet

If you want to know something else about this project, the proposal, the basic skills it covers, or to download a Rubric for the assessment of communication, a peer assessment or a self assessment grid, please visit ARC (Aplicació de Recursos al Currículum). The project is fully published in this link: My City.

This project has been developed by TLEinC. ICE UAB Teacher trainers group work, 2013. Authors: Núria Biosca Perich, Enric Calvet Tomàs, Ana M. Esteban Nieto, M. Emília Masdeu Chimeno, Manuela Moledo Nores, M. Carmen Pérez Martin, Antonio Orihuela Lechuga.

What can you do with clothes?

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: What can you do with clothes?: Today I like to share with you all some activities I use when I am introducing and practicing the topic “ Clothes ” to my elementary ESL students.

Fashion show in primary esl class from Enric Calvet

 Read more about at Cockroaches and Ladybugs: What can you do with clothes?

Get the most of videos in the ESL Class

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Get the most of videos in the ESL Class

There are many things we can do with videos in the ESL class to actively involve children into the language learning.

When I grow up, I want to be...

Talking about the future and the jobs students plan to do, it is always very rewarding. Children like to imagine how things will be like in their lives and, what’s more, you as a teacher can learn a lot about the personality of your pupils.

In my year 4 Primary ESL class we were involved during three sessions in practicing some research, reading, talking and writing to do a final display on the window corridor about future jobs

This is the way we did in our class, and it was a complete success.

When I grow up I want to be from Enric Calvet

As main objectives I planned:

• Students will practice their writing skills by writing about what they want to be when they grow up.
• Students will learn about their profession of choice by researching it.
• Students will read, choose and write positive comments for their mates and their future jobs
• Students will practice small motor skills by making a flower for a big display of what they want to be when they grow up.

Materials Needed:

• The corridor wall or a window for the display
• Coloured Papers Pencils
• Crayons/Markers
• Glue (or other ways to attach finished products to the window)
• Posters, books or Internet finding on various professions
• 100 ways to praise a child poster

You can start by leading a group discussion on different jobs…have the students discuss things like what jobs their parents have and what they think they want to be when they grow up.

Show the students the blank space where the project will be displayed. Explain that they are going to fill it up with their writings and pictures (or flowers with a positive comment in each petal).

Invite them to write a paragraph on what they want to be when they grow up. For struggling students, you can make the writing assignment shorter; for advanced ones, you can have them write more. They may go to the school library to get a book on that profession or have a research in Internet in order to know some basic characteristics on it. Then, ask students to draw a picture of themselves in their chosen profession.

You can either post on the display their drawing and writing, or the flowers with nice and praising sentences (this was the way we did!).

To do it more challenging:

• Put all of the writings together in a class book about jobs.
• Invite other classes to come take a look at our jobs display.

Please share any new ideas or resources on this topic!

Foldables and Notebooking

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Foldables and Notebooking

I’ve been using foldables almost for everything in my English language classes. I work with them vocabulary, grammar, sentences, the four skills, fine motor skills... But the most important thing is that it brings lots of interaction to the class, that it is probably the core of the language skills in Primary ESL.

Writing Prompts

Learning English as a Second Language benefit greatly from interactive writing activities . Writing provides ESL students a way to combine their speaking, listening and reading experiences into a creative expression of learning English.

Read more about at Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Writing Prompts