TALE

A report from Maria Regina College (Mosta)

Ms C. Abela and Ms L. Cesare wished to share a lesson from teach-this.com. It involves a matching activity to be done during a listening lesson. The link takes you to the PDF of the lesson plan.

A report from Maria Regina College (Mosta)

Ms C. Abela and Ms L. Cesare got their students to do a comprehension about different celebrities, but they had to walk around different stations; at each station, there was a different task.

A report from Maria Regina College (Mosta)

Ms Leanne Cesare, a teacher at Maria Regina (Mosta) college, did a class quiz with a twist. In a lesson about money idioms, students were put in 4 groups and took it in turns to answer multiple choice questions about the money idioms. Students who got the question right had the chance to play the 'Money, Luck and Leprechaun Battle'. Ms Cesare drew an empty grid on the board and marked her own grid with different icons. All students started out with 1 point each. Depending on the code they gave their teacher (e.g. B3), they would either gain a point, take points from other groups, or lose points themselves. Students also marked the codes already called out on their own grid.

A report from St Ignatius College Middle School

On Wednesday 30th October our school, St Ignatius College Middle School, celebrated the European Day of Languages. As part of the exhibition, we presented work that was done using inquiry-based learning.

A report from St Ignatius College

Learners in a Year 7 CCP class at St Ignatius College celebrated Code Week during the English lesson by collaborating with the Digital Literacy department in a fun classroom activity.

A report by the English department at Ħandaq Middle School

On Friday 10th May St Ignatius Middle School organised a Shakespearean Morning which gave the opportunity to all students and parents to enjoy an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar by a group of Year 7 students.

A report by the English and Maltese departments at St Margaret College Middle School, Cospicua

Click the button below to read the exhaustive report on the various activities carried out at the Cospicua Middle School. Well done to all involved!

A report by Ms Lara Grech from the Malta Visual and Performing Arts School

This was an engaging and creative activity centered around the playscript of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl. The year 7 MVPA students recreated a personalised version of the renowned ‘golden ticket’ which is the invitation to the marvelous and mysterious chocolate factory.

A report by Ms Cressida Abela from Maria Regina College, Zokrija

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A report by Ms Anna Agius, St Thomas More College, Sta Lucia Secondary School

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A report by Ms Leanne Cesare and Ms Cressida Abela from Maria Regina College

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Saint Margaret College, Cospicua Middle School

On the 12th of December 2018 a Language Market was held at the school hall which was transformed into a colourful spectacle of different cultures representing the eight languages taught at the school.

Saint Margaret College, Cospicua Middle School

For Halloween, the teachers together with their HoD at Cospicua Middle School organised a scary story competition which not only gave students an audience and purpose to write but a brilliant incentive to get creative. Well done to all!

Ms Cressida Abela, MRC Secondary (Zokrija)

Ms Cressida wanted to share some ideas on how to organise debates, particularly with year 10 track 2 classes.

It is advisable to choose a topic that students can relate to and that the debate is done at the end of a unit after they received input from listening/ reading comprehensions.

Ms Abela chose "Advantages and disadvantages of being a celebrity" since the class had been doing the unit of fame. She put students in two groups and gave each group some flashcards with points that were used as a springboard from which they developed their arguments.

The following lesson Ms Abela rearranged the class so students faced each other and made it look like a debate whilst eliciting the ground rules (no personal comments, foul language etc). Students came up with their own rules so it made it easier for them to follow the rules. Ms Abela also informed them she was going to show it to the Head and filmed parts of it. This helped minimise the use of foul language.

Afterwards, for homework, Ms Abela gave them a handout with an argumentative model essay with gaps. Prompt boxes were also added so as to guide the students better.
 

Ms Cressida Abela, Mosta Zokrija, Maria Regina College

Students of Year 9 in the induction class prepared a pizza on Maltese Bread.

This activity does not require a lot of preparation beforehand. Students were given the recipe but alternatively, students can write up the recipe themselves. Everyone brought their own ingredients and during the lesson they followed to recipe step by step. 

The activity was ready in 50 minutes and can easily be done with beginners. 

Ms Leanne Cesare and Ms Cressida Abela, Maria Regina College, Mosta Zokrija

This activity was organised by Ms Abela and Ms Cesare for a Year 9 class to introduce Shakespeare in preparation for Romeo and Juliet as a drama text. 

4 learning stations were set up in class relating to different aspects of Shakespeare's life and work. Each station had a sheet containing relevant information in point form.

Students were put in groups and a handout was prepared with tasks for each station (filling in a table, gap-fill, error correction). Each group went to a station, read the information and filled in the handout. The students could choose which station they started to avoid having 25 students trying to read the same paper.

The activity took around 20 minutes. Afterwards (by means of a powerpoint), Ms Cesare and Ms Abela did error correction and discussed other aspects of Shakespeare. 

Cospicua Middle School, St Margaret College

Reading Boxes is the latest literacy initiative taking place at Cospicua Middle School. 

These boxes are filled with Maltese and English reading material to be used during the first 10 minutes of study lessons. Very soon they will be distributed in most of the classrooms so that students who don't have their own reading material can make use of the books, old magazines and short stories and articles inside. Teachers of different subjects contributed by finding suitably levelled articles and in fact, each box has something for each reading level of students. 

Ms Mifsud, HoD for English, hopes that this initiative will encourage further the love for reading among students and this is the first step towards proper and more attractive Reading Corners that they wish to set up in their classrooms in the near future.

Ms Ramona Montebello, MVPA

Before the Christmas holidays, Ms Ramona Montebello at MVPA Secondary School organised a poetry competition for her year 7 students. The students were encouraged to choose any topic and write a poem or poems about it. 

The best poems were chosen during the weekly Subject Meeting and the best ones won several awards.

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A special assembly is being planned to acknowledge students' effort and so all those who participated will be given a certificate. In addition, these creative poems will soon be on display for all to see.

Ms Cressida Abela, Mosta Zokrija

Whilst doing the topic of food, Ms Abela's Year 9 students were given the opportunity to learn about ordering food and restaurant etiquette. 

Before doing the actual role play, students did a listening task about ordering food at a cafe. Listening is accessible from: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/ordering-food-cafe

Afterwards, students were shown a video about people visiting a restaurant. Students labelled basic items of cutlery and learned basic phrases and words associated with ordering food.

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In the following lesson, students pretended they were at a restaurant. With the help of the English Teaching Assistant student, students watched a simple video about restaurant etiquette accessible form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bROOWTpyTlg and afterwards, they participated in a role-play activity.

Various role play cards are accessible online from websites such as www.busyteacher.org and www.teach-this.com

An evening event organised by the teachers of English at Dingli Secondary School

Spooky sounds, mysterious faces, a bubbling cauldron amidst a group of excited children and three strange and sniggering witches, hastily knocking on the school’s door as they are heard giggling away!

This is just a subtle glimpse of what went on throughout the introduction of the much-awaited Spooky Reading evening, which was purposely organised on the 31st of October. The main objective of this event was to promote reading through different ways in order to encourage students to participate and understand that reading should not be seen as something passive or boring as unfortunately is often the case amongst many. A good book can work wonders and it always gives us somewhere where to go when we have to stay where we are.

The event started off with a re-enactment of the witches’ scene from Macbeth, where three teachers of English dressed up as witches in order to act out what was meant to be a scary start to the evening, but it was an act full of laughs and giggles since they were way more excited than the students themselves. The acting was well received by all who were present and we were pleased about the idea since the students also had a brief opportunity to experience drama in connection to the Shakespearean play they are currently studying during literature.

At the start of the evening, the students were also handed a small booklet, which was specifically prepared for this event. It contained a few fun facts, quotations about reading, space where students had to note down some personal things during some of the activities and an idea of what was in store for them at every station they had to stop. 

The students were guided to attend four 30-minute stations throughout the evening. We made it a point to come up with very interesting activities in order to make their evening a memorable one. The stations included a ‘Bat detection’ station which started off with informative video clips on bats and their habitats. Students later had a group activity and were later invited to walk out into the school’s yard in order to use a bat detector device, which allowed them to listen to various bat sounds which may be present in the areas surrounding our school. 

Another station included a Reading circle time activity, where the students were asked to prepare a set text beforehand which had to be ‘spooky’ in order to complement the event’s theme. They were each asked to read out a short passage and to comment on characterisation, the author, certain favourite vocabulary encountered in the text. Some groups also managed to carry out an interesting discussion on whether books are far better than the films based on them or vice versa. It was truly rewarding to observe how the students became engaged and interested in what each of them had to share within the group. 

Another activity took place in the Art room and after it was so suitably decorated for the evening, the students were also asked to join in some very interesting poetry tasks which were set out for them. Another final station was set up in the school library and it also included a poetry exercise but this time students were asked to group themselves into teams and scan the library’s shelves in order to look out for suitable book titles for the evening’s theme. They later copied these titles down on a paper and rearranged the words in such a way as to shape out another poem from the original spooky headings. The activity was indeed a successful one! All teachers of English, students and some parents who offered to give a helping hand throughout the evening truly had a memorable time!

Leanne Cesare (MRC Zokrija)

Last week, Ms Cesare hand in hand with Ms Amanda Eke (Fulbright ETA) to do a fun pre-listening game for the students. On the Matrix Intermediate, there is a listening task on Unit 6 about the differences in American and English words. Ms Eke prepared a PowerPoint presentation (which you can download by clicking on the image) beforehand with words that were either American or British.  Students had to go to the back of the class, and when the word showed up on the board, they had to use their prior knowledge to decipher if the word was American or British. They then had to move to the right hand if it was American or left side if it was British, depending on their choice as a team. The aim was to make students aware of American Words and learn the British version of the word instead. The students loved it. 

Thank you once again, Ms Cesare, for sharing these resources and ideas with us.

Ms Leanne Cesare (MRC Zokrija)

Last week, the year 9 students took part in an activity which helped understand the difference in the layout between an informal letter and an email. They were put in groups, and given flashcards with pieces of glue-tack. The flashcards contained cut-up pieces of an informal letter and an email. Both the email and the letter were in different colour. The email was white and the letter was in colour. This could be eliminated with a higher track but since they are track 2 the visual differentiation helped . They had to race to the A3 board and separate the email from the letter , as well as put them in the correct layout format. In the last 5 minutes, they were given time to go over it and make sure that it was in the right order.  Thank you, Leanne, for sharing this with us. 

Ramona Montebello (Saint Thomas More, VPA)

Please click on the image to download the lesson plan and please click on the title to download the worksheet which can be used in a Year 7 classroom. 

You may also wish to use the following YouTube videos, which Ms Montebello found useful: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSw1BXbJilU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGJu6LzUfYM

This lesson is planned for this Friday (1st December) with the Year 7 students. 

Ms Cressida Abela and Leanne Cesare (Maria Regina College, Secondary School)

This is an activity Ms Abela and Ms Cesare did with 45 students to tackle idioms related to time and space. 

Students were in groups. Each member had a jigsaw flashcard with part of an idiom. Students had to run up to the blank papers and stick their jigsaw piece. Students were asked not to stick them randomly but to form idioms. A time limit was given and students were able to match all the idioms.

Afterwards (for homework) students had to use the idioms to complete a paragraph and had another exercise to match idioms with their meaning.

This activity was successfully done with two Year 10 Track 3 classes.
 

Lisa Vella (Maria Regina College, Secondary School)

This is a lesson Ms Vella has done with her Year 9s Track 2 which addresses link words and joining sentences together. 

First, learners viewed a video presentation about simple, compound and complex sentences. They had to identify the sentences used and then write their own sentences accordingly. 

This was followed by a session on link words (conjunctions) where they were given a handout to go through, and also to keep as a reference for whenever they work on a writing task. Afterwards and in pairs, they had to create a compound or complex sentence, containing two clauses which had to be joined together with a conjunction. 

Finally, and to make it fun, Ms Vella got them to cut their sentences in half and find a funny ending to it. 

Feedback was then given/elicited from their work on the board. 

Ms Isabelle Vella, Gozo College Secondary School

A follow-up activity related to a lesson about places of interest in Gozo led to an exciting educational trip to ‘Mixta’ Cave and Ramla Bay.  Together with her students in Year 11 CCP and the English Teacher Assistant Mr. Andrew Berry, Ms Isabelle visited these two spots with the purpose of having them speaking in English and then creating an advert where they would need to sell this trip themselves.  The outing was a success and they are looking forward to other similar activities. 

For this event, Ms Berry (Fulbright ETA) was glad at how the alternative learning environment engaged the students more than the usual classroom setting. Ms. Isabelle Vella and Mr Berry agreed that some practical application of English for the students is a great way to make them think about how it can affect their future job prospects. On this trip, they succeeded in having them explain (directions, activities, etc.) the cave and Ramla to Mr Berry - a tourist. The activity reinforces this by putting their advice and suggestions into written form, as well as gaining experience of making advertisements. I think outings like this are beneficial because it takes many students' 'academic' interest in the subject and actually allows them to use it in the real world.

Ms Carol Abela Cole (Cospicua Middle School, Saint Margaret College) has taken up Ms Mifsud's idea and had a book tasting session of her own with her Year 7 students. It was yet another successful event and thankfully, lots of books are being borrowed by their students.

Well done to Ms Carol Abela Cole and Ms Lilian Mifsud for sharing her good practice.

Ms Lilian Mifsud (HoD), Cospicua Middle School (Saint Margaret College)

Ms Lilian Mifsud (HoD) teaching at Copiscua Middle School (Saint Margaret College) started this scholastic year (2017 - 2018) by introducing the concept of Book Tasting to her Year 7 students with a 'waiter' with the instructions for the session and a menu which they filled in. The students looked at three books in all and finally chose a book from the class library to take home and read.

During the activity, students were free to ask questions whilst Ms Mifsud roamed around the class to address any queries on a one-to-one basis. Students praised the session and look forward to having more Book tasting sessions in the near future.

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Please click on the image to download the Book Menu which Ms Mifsud used for the session and kindly shared with us. 

Ms Cressida Abela (Maria Regina College, Mosta Zokrija)

Year 9 AEP and Induction were involved in creating, asking and analysing a short survey. In their English class, AEP students compiled questions to ask tourists about their hobbies, favourite food etc. Both classes were taken to Valletta and together in groups supervised by their teachers, they stopped tourists to ask them questions. Students had been taught and trained by their PSCD teacher how to approach people and ask them to participate in a survey. After finishing their survey students did a Textile Studies activity where students had to go window shopping and look at different materials on mannikins. Students also had a fantastic opportunity to design their own outfits inspired by what they saw in shop windows. After gathering data from the survey, the students, with their respective Mathematics teachers analysed the results by tallying up totals, finding percentages and organising data into graphs.

Thanks to Ms. Abela, Ms. Zammit, Ms. Cilia, Ms. Farrugia together with LSAs- Ms. Cacciatolo and Ms. Galea for their contribution and continuous support. 

Maria Regina College, Mosta (Zokrija)

Before the Easter holidays, Cressida Abela and Leanne Cesare had done another activity for the Form 3 Track 1 and Induction classes. The aim was to teach students how to follow directions and understand prepositions through a treasure hunt.

First, students had to match the prepositions to the picture on the flashcards to refresh their memory and prepare them for the activity. Then, they were given a colour and they had to follow the instructions on their handout in order to hunt for Easter Eggs of the same colour. 

Please click on the picture to download the worksheet the teachers used for this activity. We would like to thank Ms Abela and Ms Cesare for sharing this with us. ​

Maria Regina College, Mosta Secondary School (Zokrija)

Ms Cressida Abela and Ms Leanne Cesare planned a lesson together in which the aim was to provide students with adjectives to describe a place. 

They prepared a lot of flashcards on craft sticks with adjectives; red for negative adjectives, yellow for neutral adjectives and green for positive adjectives. Each group was given a set of these cards. Then students had to either listen to a clip or look at a picture on the Interactive Whiteboard and put up a word which they thought described the picture. A fun activity which the teachers felt was worth sharing.

This lesson could then lead to a writing task where students have to describe a place for a travel brochure. 

Should you wish the PowerPoint presentation used during this lesson, kindly send us an email and we would be more than happy to send it to you. We would like to thank Ms Abela and Ms Cesare for sharing it with us.

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St Thomas More, Zejtun Secondary School

Teachers of English at Zejtun Secondary School organised several activities for European Language Day.  The picture shows charts which Ms Lorraine Caligari's Form 3 CCP class designed after discussing British Culture.

St Thomas More, Zejtun Secondary School

An interesting arts and crafts activity that Ms Ruth Felice teaching at St Thomas More College, Zejtun did with her Form 3 track 3 class. 

Gozo College Secondary School

Another interesting initiative taken by Ms Isabelle Vella. Students watch a film once a week and they create their own DVD cover for it.  After watching the film, students are given the opportunity to discuss the plot, characters, favourite scenes and other aspects of their interest.  They are given coloured paper and guidelines to follow when creating the DVD cover in the classroom.  Students are encouraged to google images related to the film and each student chooses the one they prefer to draw on their cover.  Students are asked to include an image, a short description of the film and the age rating.  These DVD covers are then displayed in the classroom.

Maria Regina College, Mosta Zokrija

On Thursday 19th, January 2016 the students attending Mosta Secondary School (Zokrija) were overwhelmed and truly surprised when they got to meet Ben and Taryn in person. 

During the same week the students had had a lesson on 'Interviewing a Celebrity' and had to come up with questions for a role play. During Ben and Taryn's surprise visit, the students were encouraged to  use the same questions to interview these local stars. The students enjoyed every minute of it and it was a great opportunity to get the students speaking in English and listening to their idols answering their questions. 

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You may click on the image for more pictures of the event.

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Maria Regina College, Mosta Zokrija

In the past two weeks, Year 9 AEP students learnt how to do a shopping list and write party invitations during their English and Maltese lessons. During Maths lessons, students learned how to do rounding and how to do bills using a calculator. These skills were put into practice when Ms J. Cilia (Maths teacher) together with Ms C. Abela (English teacher) and Mr K.Debono (Maltese teacher) organised an outing to a local supermarket where students, using their own shopping list, bought items for their own class party.

The students were divided into two teams where they had to compete to get a better deal on the items on their shopping list from the store. During IT lessons, they designed invitations (following an English lesson on what information to include in an invitation) for the party that was to be held the day after the shopping trip. They invited the Head of School and also the Assistant Heads in charge of their form.

Many thanks to Ms J. Muscat (Home Economics teacher), Ms. G Cassar (IT Teacher) and the LSAs: Ms S. Sultana, Ms G. Galea, Ms J. Gusman and Ms J. Cacciattolo for their help in making this activity a successful one.

Every year, students from all over Gozo are encouraged to participate in a writing event organised by Gozo Live in collaboration with Gozo College. Students are encouraged to write stories, poems or plays in English or Maltese on any topic or theme. This year, the event in which all those who participated were given a certificate and a booklet with their entries published was held on Friday 9th December, 2016 hosted at the Senior School in Victoria. 

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The Writing Competition for this year was also announced and the rules have now been circulated. The theme chosen for this year is Travel. We encourage all students to submit their entries by the end of March. This competition is open to all students attending State or Church schools in Gozo. 

Spooked is a collection of stories that Year 7 students at St Benedict wrote when taking part in a Scary Story Competition that was held in April 2016. The booklet contains a sample of work from students at different levels according to their different writing skills and abilities.​ You may download the booklet by clicking on the picture.

Maria Regina College, Secondary School, Mosta (Zokrija)

Ms Cesare and Ms Abela tried teaching English (idioms) through sports.

The activity was conducted with their year 9 classes. The procedure was to get students to pass the ball through a race and the first team that gets to do it first, runs towards the teacher and gets the chance to answer the question. If they get it wrong, the next team would get to answer it. 

Since Ms Abela and Ms Cesare had done different idioms, having students work in mixed teams allowed them to discuss and actually learn new idioms too. The students loved it and both teachers plan on doing similar activities in the near future.

St Ignatius College, Handaq Middle School

Ms Vella wished to share this virtual library site, called Storyline Online which she is using effectively and successfully in her CCP classrooms, particularly in Year 7. Ms Vella said she asks individual students to walk up to the IWB and choose a book they are interested in.  The story is then read out in brief (average 5 mins) by a professional actor, accompanied by beautiful illustrations/animations. 

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Please click on the image to access the website.

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