During a recent chat with one of the schools I work with, they mentioned how much value one of their teachers was getting from our ‘Idioms’ resources on LearningGrids.
The teacher in question had a very high percentage of children with EAL in the classroom and was having difficulty teaching them the meanings of idioms. Having heard different idioms throughout my life and never given them a second thought, it made me consider just how confusing they must be to a child with English as an additional language!
Our Custom Set ‘Idioms’ lends itself perfectly to this. A teacher could start the lesson by showing the resource on the interactive whiteboard. The children could initially have a go at interpreting each of the idioms themselves.
Following on from this, the class could then be split into groups for the main activity. Each group must read various idioms as well as a sentence in which each of the idioms is used. They can then decide the meaning of each and select their answer. Less able children can access the built-in speech support of Clicker, helping them to access the text independently.
To end the lesson, each child can then use the pre-made Word Bank to write sentences with idioms. This is the perfect way to assess each child’s understanding. In the word processor, children have access to support features such as speech support and the spell checker - allowing them to get on with their work independently.
It is fantastic to see how just one resource on LearningGrids can support an entire lesson in a variety of ways. With over 1400 ready-made resources currently available, Clicker not only saves teachers time, but gives children the opportunity to be more successful in lessons and achieve better learning outcomes.