Hansel and Gretel and the House Made of Snacks

This month on my ESL class, we are doing a unit on Hansel and Gretel for 2 weeks. This week I introduced the story the students and talked about the characters. It is very important that you pointed to some pictures and flashcards when describing actions and events that happens in the story so the beginner ESL students can understand what you are talking about. It is also important to affirm whether they understand by asking questions and having them fill in the key words by saying it.

The more advance ESL students did some character study where they identify the qualities of the characters by using simple adjectives.

It is also a good way to introduce to them the parts of the house and identify which part of the witch's house is made of so they have a full understanding of the different parts of the house.

I also introduce the different kinds of feeling and emotions and ask them what they think the characters in the story feel and how would they feel if they are in their place. This is often challenging with beginner learners but you can tell them the equivalent word in their native language.

Then I let them draw their house and while they were drawing it, it is helpful that I move around asking each one of them what their house is made of and what are the different parts of the house made of. This will create a conversation. But before letting them draw I get to to learn how to say "my house is made of....., the walls are made of...., the windows are made of.... and so on" so when you go around asking them they can be able to describe their house.

... and then we get to make a house made of snacks. The duration of this activity may take 2 to three days depending on how fast the students can familiarize with the phrases and understand the story. However, it is very important that they learn to identify the actions, events, emotions in the story. Next week, we will continue with the  "Hansel and Gretel" unit and I will post an update what activities we did.

"Story Autopsy"

"Story Autopsy" is one of the strategies I use when reinforcing reading comprehension and critical thinking. The students are encouraged to discuss and brain-storm possible answers to the questions.

Strategy:

1. Let the students pick one story from the book.

2. Then paste the "what, where, when, and how" question on the wall.

3. Provide them 1 index card for each question.

4. Then tell them that you will first read the story to them and they will write the answers to the questions on the index card. Then tell them to flip it over. And let them read the story themselves and answer the same questions after they read the story. Then discuss and compare their first answer (from listening) and their second answer (from reading the story themselves). This will reinforce listening and reading comprehension.

5. Let them discuss the story by going over the details on their index cards.

6. List down all the "important words" words that they are not familiar with and discuss by showing and telling them examples relating to the word.

This strategy will not only encourage critical thinking and reading comprehension skills but also encourage speaking through discussion as well as introduce different kinds of stories, important people and events.