Subject matter Discovering CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) was a great breakthrough for me as a teacher, because I realised I am not just an English teacher who teaches her subject, but I can actually go much deeper and create a meaningful and valuable cross-curricular learning experience for my students.
In this section of my portfolio you can see how I integrate content and language in my lessons and how I rediscover teaching. I want to emphasize that I feel both a teacher and a learner in the process of exploring CLIL. |
CLIL Unit - Animal world During my MA studies I developed a CLIL unit on animals. While working on it I gained a new understanding of how the material from different subjects such as Science, Maths, Art and Music can be incorporated into the language class.
Moreover, I realised that learners benefit a lot from learning cross-curricular content as it stimulates them to think, process information actively and it guides their understanding as they realize that they can actually combine their knowledge from different disciplines and connect it to their everyday life. The aims of the unit were: – to make learners aware of and build on prior knowledge of animals and their features – to identify different domestic and wild animals – to understand that animals move in different ways – to classify animals according to the natural habitat – to classify animals according to what they eat – to make learners aware of what a food chain is The topics of the lessons were: 1. Domestic and wild animals 2. How animals move 3. Animal habitats 4. Plant and meat eaters 5. Quiz: What do we know about animals? Below you can see a detailed unit plan as well as materials I designed and used in my lessons. |
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clil_unit_plan.pdf |
CLIL Unit - The World Around Us |
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The unit builds on students' prior knowledge and language about the world – on a local scale such as their school, city, country and on the big scale – continents and the world. It focuses on promoting groupwork as a form of achieving common goals, cooperative learning and being inquiry.
Unit aims:
Topics of the lessons: Lesson 1 Title: Maps and directions – our school Lesson 2 Title: We explore our city - Warsaw Lesson 3 Title: Poland – our country Lesson 4 Title: Greetings from around the world - countries Lesson 5 Title: 7 continents Below you can see a detailed unit plan, materials I designed and used in my lessons as well as the photos from the lessons I conducted. |
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clil_unit_the_world_around_us.pdf |
Cross-curricular activities
Science experiment
'I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand' I discovered that a wonderful way to learn is by a direct hand-on experience. While incorporating some elements of Science in my teaching I believe it is a great idea to use experiments. It stimulates learners and keeps them interested as they can observe or conduct their own experiments. The experiment I conducted was: Blowing Up a Balloon With Baking Soda and Vinegar Thanks to this experiment students can learn about gas and chemical reactions by discovering how to inflate a balloon using baking soda and vinegar. The aim of the project was to demonstrate the power of gas produced when of baking soda and vinegar are mixed. The goal is for the balloon to be blown up by the gas created. I wanted to use materials that students can easily find in their homes and conduct this experiments with parents. |
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CLIL and Music
I have learned that music is an important tool in teaching English to young learners, especially those who attend kindergarten or first years of primary school. It should be used in all of the lessons, at least in a circle time as a starter song and goodbye song, but I believe it should be used more than that. It can be used during the lesson in order to revise and reinforce the vocabulary intruduced, because thanks to the use of music children remember the words better and learn them by heart without a big effort. I think we should not limit the music in the English language classroom to singing songs only, but to use it as well to teach rhythm, intonation and encourage children to move by TPR (Total Physical Response). We can also teach children to dance some simple dances and play musical instruments.
What I also believe is crucial in music education is making children sensitive and exposed to different kinds of music and we can do it also during English lessons. Using cross-disciplinary projects I can combine English, Music and Arts and encourage children to draw pictures or paint on the basis of the music they hear and let them express themselves. I can also invite Music teacher to cooperate in a joint project.
Music should not be isolated from different subjects at school, on the contrary, it should be the means to teach other subjects such as English in various ways trying to adjust to learners' interests, needs and age.
Below there is an example of the activity I prepared that combines Music, Maths and English Language.
I have learned that music is an important tool in teaching English to young learners, especially those who attend kindergarten or first years of primary school. It should be used in all of the lessons, at least in a circle time as a starter song and goodbye song, but I believe it should be used more than that. It can be used during the lesson in order to revise and reinforce the vocabulary intruduced, because thanks to the use of music children remember the words better and learn them by heart without a big effort. I think we should not limit the music in the English language classroom to singing songs only, but to use it as well to teach rhythm, intonation and encourage children to move by TPR (Total Physical Response). We can also teach children to dance some simple dances and play musical instruments.
What I also believe is crucial in music education is making children sensitive and exposed to different kinds of music and we can do it also during English lessons. Using cross-disciplinary projects I can combine English, Music and Arts and encourage children to draw pictures or paint on the basis of the music they hear and let them express themselves. I can also invite Music teacher to cooperate in a joint project.
Music should not be isolated from different subjects at school, on the contrary, it should be the means to teach other subjects such as English in various ways trying to adjust to learners' interests, needs and age.
Below there is an example of the activity I prepared that combines Music, Maths and English Language.
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CLIL and children literature
An interesting discovery was the fact how children literature can be incorporated into the language classroom.
I have learned that I can use the books (e.g. 'Winnie the Pooh') as an inspiration and basis for CLIL activities.
I designed activity that requires classification of the animals into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Instead of using the pictures of animals, I decided to use the pictures of the animal characters from the children book.
An interesting discovery was the fact how children literature can be incorporated into the language classroom.
I have learned that I can use the books (e.g. 'Winnie the Pooh') as an inspiration and basis for CLIL activities.
I designed activity that requires classification of the animals into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Instead of using the pictures of animals, I decided to use the pictures of the animal characters from the children book.
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CLIL and Science + Art
I designed a set of lesson plans that are based on a text 'A Giant Tooth Mistery' and they focus on the topic of Fossils. My aim was to get children familiar with how fossils are formed, to visit the Geological Museum of Polish Geological Institute in Warsaw in order to observe some real examples of fossils, as well as make some fossils using clay. What is crucial is to present students' fossils by organising an exibition of students' works in the school and invite parents and children from other classes to see it.
I designed a set of lesson plans that are based on a text 'A Giant Tooth Mistery' and they focus on the topic of Fossils. My aim was to get children familiar with how fossils are formed, to visit the Geological Museum of Polish Geological Institute in Warsaw in order to observe some real examples of fossils, as well as make some fossils using clay. What is crucial is to present students' fossils by organising an exibition of students' works in the school and invite parents and children from other classes to see it.
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CLIL and Maths
As an English teacher I was eager to learn how to incorporate some elements of Mathematics in my teaching, following CLIL approach by introducing cross-curricular links. I want to challenge my students with the tasks that require logical thinking and deduction. During my MA studies.
In the first years of primary school I would like to make them familiar with basic addition and substraction in English, activating their prior knowledge that they have in Polish, so that they will realise that it does not matter in what language they count, but what matters is the thinking pattern they follow. Moreover, I would like to ask questions that will develop their LOTS (lower order thinking skills) and HOTS (higher order thinking skills) following Bloom's taxonomy. The tasks and questions related to Bloom's taxonomy challenge learners to classify, compare, contrast and analyze.
Furthermore, I would like to make connections to learners' everyday life in order to show them that numeracy skills are very useful in real-life context, also outside of school and to provide them with examples from their and their parents' everyday life.
Last but not least, I would like to create classroom environment that supports developing learners' mathematical thinking and reasoning, which could be achieved by creating the atmosphere that makes students not to be afraid to make mistakes, explore alternative solution and to promote cooperation in pairs and groupwork.
Below you can see a game that I designed that focuses on the revision of numbers, shapes and counting shapes' angles.
As an English teacher I was eager to learn how to incorporate some elements of Mathematics in my teaching, following CLIL approach by introducing cross-curricular links. I want to challenge my students with the tasks that require logical thinking and deduction. During my MA studies.
In the first years of primary school I would like to make them familiar with basic addition and substraction in English, activating their prior knowledge that they have in Polish, so that they will realise that it does not matter in what language they count, but what matters is the thinking pattern they follow. Moreover, I would like to ask questions that will develop their LOTS (lower order thinking skills) and HOTS (higher order thinking skills) following Bloom's taxonomy. The tasks and questions related to Bloom's taxonomy challenge learners to classify, compare, contrast and analyze.
Furthermore, I would like to make connections to learners' everyday life in order to show them that numeracy skills are very useful in real-life context, also outside of school and to provide them with examples from their and their parents' everyday life.
Last but not least, I would like to create classroom environment that supports developing learners' mathematical thinking and reasoning, which could be achieved by creating the atmosphere that makes students not to be afraid to make mistakes, explore alternative solution and to promote cooperation in pairs and groupwork.
Below you can see a game that I designed that focuses on the revision of numbers, shapes and counting shapes' angles.