Welcome parents and children I'm glad you're here!

I look forward to create a fun and inspiring space for the adventure of learning English. Dear students, I'm sure we're all going to share and enjoy this new experience. My biggest priority, dear parents, is to create for your children an inviting, fun and effective learning space beyond our classroom. Your ideas, comments and insights are always welcome.

About our 7th. grade "A" 2009 class

The course is formed by 20 Middle School students, attending 7th grade in Colegio “Ambrosio Plaza” in Los Teques, Venezuela, whose ages range from 10 to 12 years old. Many of them have received English classes since Pre–school. In this particular school, English classes are mandatory to all three levels of education: Pre- School, Elementary and High School, and students from Eight Grade to High School receive an extra hour per week, over the three hours a week stipulated in the official Curriculum.

Every class is divided into a “basic” and an “advanced” group, according to the grades obtained during the previous year, or to the results in a mandatory placement test for the newcomers. In this particular school, we English Teachers work with the half of each group in every session, having 25 or less students per class.

With regard to the academic aspects of English Classes in this educational level, the major guidelines we teachers have to follow are those from the Official Curriculum. However, accordingly to their ages, students show great interest in topics related to extreme sports, music, movies and TV shows, and favored the use of audiovisual activities and materials. Therefore, in order to increase motivation the teacher might select texts referring to these subject areas.

The main goal to attain at this level is communicative competence, the capability to communicate proficiently, applying both formal and sociolinguistics aspects of the language and all the components of this syllabus are designed to meet it, as well as to fulfill the needs and interests expressed by the students, this way increasing and maintaining the motivation towards the subject.

The project

Description:
This project aims to introduce new English words to a seventh grade class using a website (http://www.abababc.com) especially designed to expand the vocabulary to learners of several languages, English among them. This strategy is designed as a result of the need to teach English vocabulary through a dynamic, fun activity in order to increase and maintain the motivation towards the subject.
Audience:
Twenty 7th. grade students, with ages ranging from 10 to 12 years old, with a basic knowledge of English.
Steps:
1.Classroom activity: Teacher and students will read a short authentic text including some of the new words that appear in the Web page. They will look for the gist of the reading and discuss the pertinent contents. Students will highlight the unknown words as they read.
2.Online activity: Students will access the website and work on the assignments designed by the teacher. They will write down the meaning of the previously highlighted unknown words.
3. Follow-up activities
-During the next class, the teacher will write on the board a list with all the new words of the class, ask some reading comprehension questions about the text and discuss the contents of the reading to see if the recently acquired words have added any new meaning to it.
-Teacher will encourage students to practice using the new vocabulary words each day in general conversations.

Schedule: Content and activities are going to be posted per week.

Structure:
At the first stage, students must work individually at home. However, parents’ guidance and supervision are advised.

Evaluation:
Students’ performance will be assessed through three different instruments:
1. The running report provided by the website that lets teachers see the grades the students have achieved in each category or the customized assignments created for them.
2.The reading comprehension worksheets handed out in the classroom.
3.This strategy might also be evaluated through regular term tests.

Resources:
http://www.abababc.com

Free printables for teachers: http://www.handsoutonline.com/

ESL teacher resources: http://www.handsoutonline.com/

The EFL playhouse: resources for ESL/EFL teachers of young learners: http://www.esl4kids.net/

Slideshows

This slideshow displays some screens students are going to find at the website:

And here we have the teacher's screens showing the Ss names and the grades report:
Embed code (teacher’s)

Evaluation

An example of the worksheets to be handed out in class can be seen at
http://www.mes-english.com/worksheets/flashcards/files/places1_spaghetti.pdf

Resources

ABABABC LISTENING...SPEAKING...READING...TYPING http://abababc.com/

Slideshow 1 link : http://slideshow-1.lourdesgamboa.imageloop.com/es/exportlooop.htm

Slideshow 2 link: http://slideshow-2.lourdesgamboa.imageloop.com/

Free printables for teachers: http://www.handsoutonline.com/

ESL teacher resources: http://bogglesworldesl.com/

The EFL playhouse: resources for ESL/EFL teachers of young learners: http://www.esl4kids.net/