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I think it should be a necessity. I have decided to devote a whole session every two weeks for story reading – this is not common and my students are expected to have a special copybook for this purpose.
Do you believe that reading is the most important skill to develop good writing? Definitely yes. Reading is basic and essential to develop other skills such as listening, speaking, cognitive, analytical and no doubt writing. I encourage my students to read and discover, to learn and imagine. When you come across the word in its different shapes and depths and use it, you acquire the tools to write. Then we need a bit of inspiration. Can you share with us how this skill can be handled in the classroom? What methods do you use to encourage your students’ creativity?
• It can be a short story in pictures, a gapped story.
• I may give my students a longer story to prepare at home. They are told to write: the summary, description of the characters, setting and prepare their questions to ask and parts of the text to enact. They write, talk and listen. Besides they may be imagine a completion or an alternative ending, or a different start.
• The READING CIRCLE- I mean when you divide the group into: character describers, summarizers, word detectives, illustrators, alternative ending creators, actors, etc. It is
something that may enable the whole class to understand the story and give a little bit of theirs. By the way, you cannot encourage your students to be creative if you are not creative yourself Games are often used in the Language classroom. Do you have a favourite one that you usually play with your students? Am I a funny teacher? Do I use games? Yes I do. Puzzles, tongue twisters, crosswords... Any game that looks practical, meaningful and relevant( linguistically and notionally). Games as well as story reading motivate the young learners and create the classroom dynamics. The new school year is about to start. What is your“ welcome back to school” activity? Some of the“ welcome back to school” activities are to ask students to write their Bios and About Me, to write a school Promise and Oath.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your teaching career? The biggest challenge any teacher faces is how to reconcile between what we, teachers, are told to do and what we expect ourselves to achieve.
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