We've Got Pandas in Our Classroom (Part 1: The Mysterious Scream)

I attended Jamie Keddie's talk for the first time at the British Council's ELTDP Symposium in March this year, and watched his webinar on the Pro-ELT conference sometime a few weeks later. I enjoyed both of his sessions tremendously.

Then I stumbled upon his book 'Images' (published by Oxford University Press) at the MELTA Conference 2015 in June. After reading the book, I got more inspirations for image-based lessons that I know my students would definitely enjoy.

In this post, I will share one of the two lessons that I've done with my Year 5 and Year 6 students. Special thanks to Mr Keddie for the inspiration.


Lesson 1: 'The Mysterious Scream'

Warm-up

I told the students that they were going to listen to a sound clip. I needed them to use their imaginations to predict what was happening. To guide them, I listed the following questions on the board:

1. The place - where did it happen?
2. The characters - who were they?
3. The activities - what were they doing?
4. The conflict - what was that noise in the end?
5. The conclusion - how did the story end?


Listening and Speaking

Then, I let the students listen to this clip:


Download Music - Listen Audio Files - Scream!

The students discussed with their partners and tried to predict what happened, using the questions that I had given them as guidance. I allowed them to listen to the sound clip over and over again, as many times as they liked. Then I invited some volunteers to share their predictions with the rest of the class.


Writing

Still working in pairs, the students wrote a very short paragraph to describe their predictions. I let the students turn their predictions into a story. They could name the characters and add some details if they like. Here are some of the students' work:

Giving and Receiving Feedback

I asked the students to go around the class and showed their stories to other pairs. They read each other's stories and provided their feedback for one another. I asked the students to look not only for errors (spelling, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure) but also for interesting points in their peers' stories. Is it a funny story? Is it scary? Do you have the same ideas? How are your stories different?

A few volunteers would then share their stories in front of the class. I let the class voted for their favourite stories. 

The students handed in their work to me at the end of the lesson for a more thorough correction. The students rewrote the corrected work in their exercise books.

The Video

"Now, would you like to know what actually happened?" I asked. 

The response: A resounding, high-pitched "Yesssss!!!" 

"You know, the sound clip actually comes from a video..." 

"We know, we know! Show us the video! Now!!!"

"Ah...I wish I could. I really, really want to. But we don't have a projector..."

"Teacher, please don't do this to us!!! Please...please...please...please...please...please..."

Haha. A teacher's most favourite moment. Making the students suffer in anticipation.

But I wasn't lying. We really didn't have a projector. So the students had to take turns watching the video on my laptop. 

Below is a recording of the students' precious reactions while watching the video (yes, I'm that cruel):

Okay, children, okay. Calm down now. Here's the video. 

Enjoy! :)

We've Got Pandas in Our Classroom Part 2

I'll be sharing the second lesson in my next post, so stay tuned!

-ccj