My CLIL Science Corner

  HIYA! It's been a long time since I wanted to share with you this article: "Can CLIL make you a better teacher?" Some weeks ago I asked you on Instagram if CLIL could make you a better teacher and most of the teachers answered it could. I strongly think CLIL has allowed me to grow as a teacher and to develop new skills, which I don't know if I would have acquired if I had not enganged in the CLIL adventure in 2009. When I first attended my first CLIL training, the curriculum of Catalonia was changing and it meant that our teaching style had to change too. Yes, it was the beginning of the new curriculum  with the core competences, the key competences,  the domains and a new assessment approach. How has CLIL made me a better teacher? I had the opportunity to be granted with a paid leave by the Department of Education of Catalonia in 2009. Back then, the Department of Education would concede paid leaves to Catalan teachers willing to be trained in CLIL  at the Univers...

  Good morning! Do your students like doing experiments? I'm sure they do! Kids are so curious that experiments captivate their attention from the beginning to the end. At least, that's what I have observed in my Science classes and do you know which is one of the reasons why I love experiments too? ALL students get involved no matter what their level of English is or if they struggle with contents. I love seeing their faces when they discover what happens or when they realise their hypothesis has nothing to do with the result. I love their excited faces. The two experiments below where carried out with my 5th graders. They were learning about BUOYANCY and DENSITY.   The experiment about BUOYANCY is like magic. It is called "Dancing Raisins". Can raisins dance? Do raisins float? Find it out with this experiment. I must confess that as an adult, when I tried it at home before doing it at school, I enjoyed like a little girl. You can download the experiment direction...

  Morning! Today's post is about Cooperative Learning . Cooperative Learning seems to be in style nowadays, but Cooperative Learning has had a lot of supporters for decades. In the school where I have been working for 11 years, cooperative learning has been present in our classes for at least two decades. Since I started working in this school, I have been applying some cooperative learning techniques, but discovering KAGAN STRUCTURES in a training course for teachers was a turning point. Have you ever heard about KAGAN STRUCTURES? Kagan Structures was developed by Dr Spencer Kagan in the 80s. Some months ago I couldn't help buying his book " Kagan Cooperative Learning ". This book is a must if you want to implement cooperative learning in your class. The book is divided into 17 chapters and it deals with both more theoretical concepts and structures that you can do in your class. The theoretical concepts are easy to read and they clarify questions about cooperative ...

Hi! I'm back!  Yes, I know. It has been a long time since my last post, but this school year is being a bit tricky for me. Today I would like to share to go on with ACTIVITIES BASED ON BLOOM'S TAXONOMY .  I am going to give examples for each level of the Bloom's taxonomy from low to high demanding.  Here I go: REMEMBERING :   It refers to recalling facts and basic concepts Filling in the gaps Multiple choice Spelling list Matching worksheet Labelling the pictures Name the parts of... UNDERSTANDING : It refers to explaining ideas and concepts Retelling the story in your words Collage Book report Speech overview Math computation Do a chart of similarities and differences APPLYING : It means using information in new situations Practising playing a board game Doing an experiment Planning a model construction Interviewing someone who... Solving a problem solving ANALYSING : This is drawing connections between ideas Constructing a graph to illustrate selected information M...