Ïî ìíîãèì ïðè÷èíàì ó÷àñòèëèñü ñëó÷àè ïîïûòîê ðîäèòåëåé çàíèìàòüñÿ àíãëèéñêèì ñ äåòüìè. Òîâàðèùè, ÿ íå çíàþ, êàê îðãàíèçîâàòü êîììóíèêàòèâíóþ ñðåäó íà äîìó. Ìîãó ïðåäëîæèòü íåáîëüøîé ïëàí çàíÿòèé ïî êíèãå - êàê äîïîëíåíèå ê øêîëå. Åñòü çàìå÷àòåëüíûå "ñòóïåíüêè" Penguin Readers, MacMillan, Black Cat è ïð. ñåðèé - âûáèðàéòå ÷òî ïîëåã÷å. Îíè ñ àóäèîìàòåðèàëàìè (íå ãîâîðÿ îá èíòåðàêòèâíûõ çàäàíèÿõ).
Âîò ÷òî ìîæíî ñäåëàòü ïðè æåëàíèè (òåêñò íà àíãëèéñêîì, ïóñòü áóäåò êàê áû ïðîâåðêîé äëÿ ðîäèòåëÿ, ïîòîìó ÷òî îò íåãî òðåáóþòñÿ îñíîâíûå çíàíèÿ ÿçûêà). (Íî ÿ ÷åñòíî ïðèçíàþñü, çíàêîìûå ó íàñ â îñíîâíîì ãóìàíèòàðèè âñÿêîãî ïîøèáà - íå â òîì ñìûñëå, ÷òî äîáðûå, îíè âñå î÷åíü çëîáíûå, à â òîì ñìûñëå, ÷òî øïðåõàþò èëè åçäåþò ìíîãî, òàê ÷òî ÿ ïèñàëà ñ ðàñ÷åòîì íà íèõ).
General tips for working on a graded book (for parents who want to want their children to achieve progress in English).
Certainly such practice can’t be carried out by parents who don’t speak English themselves. You must be at least Lower Intermediate level and have a very clear idea of how to use articles and make questions. On the other hand if you, grammatically educated enough, make multiple mistakes in fluent speech – this is quite acceptable, you can develop your language skills side by side with your child.
Please, remember that just reading (esp. to yourself, not aloud, doesn’t do any good. You need to process the material, play with it, give your mind a certain amount of work to absorb something and make it a part of your language skill. Stay focused at a limited amount of language facts (grammar and lexics) – depending on the language material.
Here is what you can do with each piece of a book:
1) Read the piece to the child aloud, helping to understand the content with the intonation, miming, gestures, etc.
2) Ask some easy questions to check understanding.
3) Discuss some new or difficult or just useful words and idioms: ask to translate into your native language (help with that), ask to explain in English what it is (or where it is, or when you can see it, etc) – just to play with the word or the idiom and get used to it.
4) Here is the step of self-activity for the child: look up new words in the dictionary, write their meanings in pencil in the book, write difficult sounds above the word and read the text aloud a few times. Also he can learn to read the text with the cassette or CD (or it can be a separate task).
5) Check the reading. Give a candy.
6) Ask the child about his opinion on anything there’s can be an opinion about: was or wasn’t the character afraid, where do they go on holiday, does they know each other, etc – and ask to prove the opinion reading corresponding sentences from the text.
7) With the book closed ask as many questions as you can, making them directly of the sentences in the text. (Don’t ask “How do you think Marcel can get on the train?” Ask “What did Marcel wanted to get on?”) We need this step just to play with the language material again – this time using auditory abilities.
8) Now it’s time for short stories. Ask the child to tell about a character, or his way of doing something, or remember some process described in the fragment step by step, or remember what each guest did at the party – anything that could take more than 2 sentences. With or without the book or the CD. Maybe one story – with the help of the book, another – with the CD, another – from the memory. Make each story in two steps. First help the child, give hints, ask helping questions and then ask to repeat the whole story by himself. You may want to repeat it twice if there are too many mistakes and pauses. Give a candy.
(Later you may ask the child to write down one of the stories.
9) Dictation. Ask to put down a fragment of the piece under discussion – after the cassette or CD or your reading. You may give some time (or a “home task”) to prepare for the dictation beforehand. The child could use some expressions on the board.
10) Discuss any matters in the fragment which may have personal concern to the child (including useful grammar and lexics): has he ever done this, does he want to live in this place or have this job or be this animal, has he got anything that he … (‘wants to get rid of’, ‘can’t stand’, ‘took for granted’ – etc). Why?
11) The grammar step. Ask to write all expressions or sentences that include a certain grammar rule. Take the paper from the child, read the sentences in your native language while he would translate them orally into English. Give a candy. You can have more than one grammar step: verb tenses, noun number, articles, comparatives, lexical groups, etc, etc.
12) Close the book, listen to the CD and write down the lexical units which meet a given condition (colours, questions, a character’s direct speech, expressions with the prepositions of direction, time indicator, prices, etc.)
13) Send the child to another member of the family (granny is the best) to read the passage aloud and translate.
14) A short story in writing. Ask the child to put down one of the stories he told at step 8. Also you may ask him to write out all sentences describing or proving something.
15) Written translation. Prepare a paragraph or a number of sentences from the text in your mother language and give it to be translated back into English. Give him the book to self-correct his work. Do the final correction with a red pen. You may ask the child to translate a paragraph into your native language and then – back into English.
16) Listening – comprehension. Ask the child to interpret a part or two of the text by ear, following the story on CD (pausing the recording after each sentence or whenever it is needed – speed is not the point.) Candy.
17) Retelling. I tried to suggest various oral tasks to avoid direct retelling because a lot of learners have difficulties with it. It is easier to fulfill a more specific task like “enlist the actions of the character white he…” or “tell what the character thinks of…” However if the child is OK with retelling a text – let him do it. Also the task may be made more creative by asking the child to tell the fragment from a character’s point of view or to transport the events into another verb tense (according to the book’s grammar focus).
18) Grammatical transformations. Read some sentences for the child to repeat them changing verb tense or number of the subject or making positive sentences negative, etc.
19) Learn words and expressions. Sometimes it is useful to just swot up some lexics, especially for correct use of prepositions. However pure number of lexical units is not the basis of your language skills. Swotting lexics doesn’t contribute to your communicational or structural language knowledge. While communicational practice inevitably develops knowledge of lexics. All in all you are expected to learn 10-30 lexical units from a book, not a hundred.
20) Make sentences with the expressions given – orally or in writing.
21) Conclusions. Read out a part of the text and ask the child to make a conclusion of some feature of character or guess the coincidences or whatever can be concluded.
22) You may also want to repeat some of the steps you consider to be the most useful: the grammar step, story telling, interpreting, etc.
23) Once in a while do summarizing: let the child tell in brief what happens in all the fragments you’ve read so far.
Certainly you don’t need to observe the exact order of the steps, but try to mix audition, reading, writing and speech practice. You may miss some of the steps but don’t restrict it to easy reading and a pair of questions: any language fact must be used by a person a significant number of times to get absorbed by his mind. 8-10 steps for each text piece is good. At least make sure that 4 language skills (reading, writing, auditing, speaking) are being exercised. Also remember to exercise them both communicatively and grammatically (focusing on grammar structures).
The general purpose is not to learn all the lexics in the text but to increase your language skills on the basis of the material presented in the text.
Usually it takes 2 or 3 lessons to process a fragment – with short “home tasks” in between. You can start a new piece while finishing the previous one. The size of a piece may be from 1 page to a chapter depending on the book level, the amount of given information and the student’s skills.
Âîò òóò íåáîëüøàÿ ïîìîùü äëÿ òåõ, êòî ïîæåëàåò çàíÿòüñÿ ïî êíèæêå "Marcel and the Mona Lisa" - 300 ñëîâ, âåñü ñþæåò èçëîæåí â íàñòîÿùåì âðåìåíè. Íàéòè åå íåñëîæíî - âìåñòå ñî çâóêîì. Óêàçàíû òîëüêî òåìû äëÿ äèñêóññèé, òàê ÷òî îñòàåòñÿ åùå øèðîêîå ïîëå äëÿ ðîäèòåëüñêîãî òâîð÷åñòâà.
pages 1-2
Tell about Marcel.
Tell about Celine.
Tell about the party.
(Listen to the recording and write ab. Marcel.)
pages 3-4
How does the thief steal the painting? What is his plan?
What does Marcel do?
Why can’t he catch the thief?
(Write down page 2 after the cassette.)
pages 5-6
What does Marcel hear (noise by noise)?
What does Marcel see?
(What is the thief’s name?) Tell about the thief’s friend.
(Use the book and write about Celine.)
You are at the station. You wait for your train. Tell, what you see.
pages 7-8
What does Marcel see from the train?
What does he do in the train?
What do the thieves do in the train?
(Listen to page 5. Write the story on behalf of a man at the station watching the thief.)
pages 9-10
What is the plan of the bandits? How do they steal the painting and where do they take it?
Who is Segnor Spandini? Tell everything you can about him.
What is Venice? What do you know about this city?
How do people go around Venice? Why?
(Write down page 5 after the cassette.)
pages 11-12
What does Marcel do to save himself?
What does the cat do to catch Marcel?
Who says the words ‘all those cats’? When and why?
Tell what happens that day on behalf of the cats.
(pages 9 – 13: listen to the cassette and write down all questions)
(Write down page 4.)
pages 13-15
Remember what Marcel does to get the picture back to the museum – from the very beginning.
What is a museum? Why do people have them? Is it better for a painting to be at a museum or at somebody’s house?
What if there in Spandini’s room? Write out all words meaning furniture.
What do newspapers write about the Mona Lisa those days?
What is Paris& hat can you tell about this city?
(Listen to the story again and write a report of Marcel’s brave actions.)
(Write what you know about the two cities: Paris and Venus.)