My CLIL Science Corner

  HAPPY WEDNESDAY! 💕 This morning I was revising the posts I have written in this blog and I have realised I hadn't shared one of the most important principles of CLIL: THE 4 C's . So here I go! What are  the 4 Cs? The 4 Cs stand for:  CONTENT , COGNITION , COMMUNICATION and CULTURE . A successful CLIL unit should combine the 4 Cs . CONTENT refers to the subject or theme of the lesson or unit. When planning CONTENT of the unit, it is essential to think of the knowledge, skills and understanding we want our students to learn. COGNITION refers to thinking skills our students will develop during the learning process. When planning the activities of the unit, we should include activities that help our students go from low thinking levels to high thinking levels (Bloom's Taxonomy). You can also read about " Bloom Taxonomy and CLIL " and " Activities based on Bloom's Taxonomy " in this blog. COMMUNICATION refers to the students' use of the target ...

  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...

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...

HAPPY THURSDAY!!! Are you familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy ? Today I would like to deal with Bloom's Taxonomy and the verbs you should use in the different thinking levels to help your students go from low thinking levels to high thinking levels. Bloom's taxonomy was created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. Bloom's taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of the different thinking levels. Bloom's taxonomy should be applied when creating unit objectives.  The first Bloom's taxonomy had the following thinking levels (from low to high thinking levels): -Knowledge -Comprehension -Application -Analysis -Synthesis -Creating In 2001, Bloom's Taxonomy was revised by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwhol. It is a taxonomy for learning, teaching and evaluating. In the revised Bloom's Taxonomy, Synthesis was changed by Evaluating. Let's have a look at each thinking level: REMEMBERING . It refers to recalling facts and basic concepts. Verbs for this level are: copy, defin...

  MORNING!!! 😃 As English or CLIL teachers, we are always concerned with encouraging our students to speak English in our class. Some kids quickly catch structures and vocabulary and  they start using English without much support. However, that's not the most common. SCAFFOLDING is based on Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development. Scaffolding is the process of supporting students during their learning process. At the beginning, students need guidance and suport. As they make progress, Scaffolding can be gradually removed. In CLIL , you can scaffold the process and the language.  SCAFFOLDING  can be presented in many different ways: realia, clip, visuals, graphic organisers, picture dictionaries, mind maps, substitution tables, videos, songs... SCAFFOLDING is highly important both in English and CLIL lessons. When we are learning a language, we need different types of support until we can perfom by ourselves.  I would like to know how you use...

  Hi everyone!!! Some days ago I started revising and updating the CLIL projects I will be teaching this school year and I thought it might be a good idea to let you know how I plan my CLIL units. Firstly, I would like to mention that I work in a big school. So, we have planned which Science contents are going to be taught in Catalan and which contents are going to be taught in English. The contents taught in English are mainly those contents in which students can experiment more, especially in 5th and 6th grade. Secondly, as the Science teacher, I talk to the teachers who are going to teach the contents in Catalan. We classify the different units or projects in the three terms of the school year. Next, it's my turn. Let me tell you the steps I follow to plan my CLIL projects: 1) My two documents of reference are the " Currículum d' Educació Primària " and " Competències bàsiques de l'àmbit de coneixement del medi " of the Depatment of Education of Catal...

Happy Saturday! Today I feel like talking about Scaffolding in CLIL, but scaffolding is in fact important when learning any language or any content. I hope you enjoy the article below ↓↓↓. It was written during my stay at the University of Nottingham. EXPLORE THE ROLE OF SCAFFOLDING IN CLIL   The word “scaffolding” used for an educational purpose was first used by Wood, Bruner and Ross in Wood et al. (1976). In an educational context scaffolding refers to giving support to learners so that they can ‘move forward and continue to build new competencies’ (Bigge et al. 1999). An example of scaffolding is the process of learning to write. First, children are asked to write a word below a picture, then a short sentence, then they have to add adjectives until they are asked to write the description of an object. The teacher will probably make the pupils talk about certain characteristics: size, colour, use and so on. Then the pupils will have to think of an object and write the descri...