la memoria (2): cómo trabajarla bien en grupos Español la memoria (2): cómo trabajarla bien en grupos

This is the starter activity This is the starter activity. Perhaps first use it as a pronunciation activity – they engage with it orally for 1 – 2 mins. Then see if the rhyme has been spotted. Elicit the meaning and point of the rhyme (i.e. as one way of fixing essentials in the brain/memory) Then give them two minutes, allowing them to use whatever strategy they like, to memorise it so that they can say it out loud OR write it down. See what they come up with in terms of how they managed it. Some of the following should emerge – writing it down, looking – closing eyes – saying it over and over, breaking it down into smaller chunks and memorising it bit by bit gradually building it up, noticing that some words are easier because they are like the English, working harder on the other parts. This is quite an involved starter which should take about 10 minutes. Try not to let it take any longer though. Cinco partes tiene el mundo según la Geografía, Europa, Asia, África, América y Oceanía.

Hoy vamos a…….. Students should now be able to come up with the Spanish for the lesson focus activities/skills. After presenting the aims of the lesson in Spanish, I would suggest the explaining the Memory Map concept and procedures is best done in English as this is their first such lesson. BUT make clear that they will use this format on other occasions when practising their group-work skills and their memory skills and that you won’t need to explain in English next time. Then get them into groups of 4. Tell them that they will be working in groups to reproduce exactly what is on the sheet at the front. Tell them that there is visual information (images) and verb information (words) contained in the material and they need to try to reproduce all accurately. They will each have a turn coming up to the map – the success depends as much on the team work as on the individual memory efforts. They should have a plan thought out about how to collect the information but they must be flexible and respond to setbacks as they don’t know what’s coming. It would be really useful if possible to have a 5th member of the group to be the group observer and to write down what the group does and record changes in strategy etc.. – we have a proforma for this. Then run the task – students should have 15-20 seconds to look at the map. Let each one have a go and then a final person can be re-nominated for a last go (5 x visits in total). In the feedback, ask students to reflect on how they found the task, what skills they were using, what memory strategies they tried, (if they kept repeating over and over to themselves, if they took a mental snapshot, if they found words or pictures were easier,) and then what their group strategy was and if it changed over the course of the activity. As the plenary, each student should record what worked best for him/her when trying to remember a lot of information quickly. Ask them to think if they think they will be able to remember the words and what they mean next lesson? i.e. will they have gone into their longer term memories? If time allows, give them a couple of minutes at the end to look at the map without the words and see what they can remember still. Point out that words can be helped to be fixed in the memory by visual support e.g. the picture of the bears on the map.

I may need to draw on a line for Portugal here as it does look quite different from the other map’s outline shape!

Reflection Sheet Skill This means: Did you use this today? Give an example: Identification of vocabulary Finding out the meanings of words Memory Working out ways to store information in your mind and retrieve it again Planning and adapting a strategy Deciding how to do a task but perhaps changing your plan if necessary half way through Noticing Looking really hard to try to see all the relevant details This is just an example in Landscape – the real version in Portrait has more room for writing responses! Q1 What did you do to get the most out of your memory in this task? Q2 How effective were these strategies? What do you think is worth trying again in different situations? Q3 Choose one skill from the 4 above and write down how it might be useful in other subjects OR at home

Plenary to see if students have remembered the words – ask them if they associate the picture with the word and also, if the whole map helps – i.e. the use of visual positioning as a trigger to memory. Work with key language orally i.e. Hay….? En el norte, en el sur, en el este, en el oeste (Es verdad, Es mentira)