Emma Herrod

So the unit in the course book is ‘Language to do with Giving Instructions’.  We have to show each other how to use our mobile phones.  I understand the thought behind it – it’s current, and technological and it’s something that everyone has.  I don’t really recall ever having to show someone how it works though – I think I just sort of muddled my way through like most people and for me, this has been half the fun of having a new gadget. The other issue with this particular unit in the book is that my student and I have the same phone, so I’m anticipating this might end comically, not to mention quickly.

I started thinking about an alternative activity for this topic, something a little more personal and engaging. What is pretty impossible to do without instructions of some kind?  As some of you know, my four-year old son Thomas and I, love doing origami together and I know for a fact that without a set of written or verbal instructions, you get one of Thomas’ boats (i.e. a screwed up piece of paper with dirty finger marks all over it).  Even with instructions it’s bloody difficult.

So here are some origami activities that Thomas and I have put together for you. They are meant to be flexible and I hope you will feel you can adjust them to your own classroom situation.  You can make as many origami models as you, your students and your collective patience can handle.  You could include these as just chilling-out activities with some music on in the background.  You can fit it into a course book module as I did recently, or use it as a stand-alone lesson.  I just wanted to share what I have found to be fun, relaxing and skills-productive activities which seems to generate a lot of emergent language.

As with such ideas these are by no means exhaustive.  Please, do comment and add your own suggestions.  My aim is to have this as a collective recourse (and I will add your thoughts to the main post) on all things ELT and origami!

Show students a picture such as this http://www.worldamazingrecords.com/2009/06/world-largest-origami-giraffe-world.html or alternatively a picture of some of the world’s smallest models.  You might like to lead on later to do some work on comparatives and superlatives.  Get student responses (origami, giraffe, crane, largest, smallest, paper, folding, Japan, models, patience, fiddly etc).  Briefly find out if anyone has done any origami – what can they make?  Do they think it’s something relaxing or frustrating?

I’ve put together a reading gapfill with a brief history of Origami.  The idea here is to generate some further interest in the cultural importance of origami and give the students a little background and expose them to some of the common terms they will encounter in the following activities.  Thank-you to Jamie Kelley from www.papertheworld.com for allowing me to use his text and place it here for you all.  Origami gapfill

Next I do a “mass model make”! There are many videos online where you and the students can make a model together.  The advantage here is you can pause the video while students catch up.   I find the students are so wrapped up in the model and instructions, they just don’t realise they are listening to English.  Everyone becomes further exposed to the origami terms and how we give instructions in English.

Some of you may have read the activities I put together for Barbara Sakamoto’s brilliant website “Teaching Village”.  There I talked about using LEGO in the classroom and one of the activities was “LEGO Running Bricktation”.  Anything with a set of instructions like LEGO or origami, lends itself very well to the running dictation game.  So pop the folding instructions on the wall and get your students running back to their partner to tell them how to build the paper model.

Depending on the size of your class, you can adapt how you best do this next activity.  The basic aim is to get the students talking, to give them a situation where they need to give each other instructions on how to build a model.  With one-to-one students I ask them to look at http://www.en.origami-club.com/ and find a model they would like to make.  The site is simply laid out with both written and animated folding instructions.  I also have a few nice origami books which I take if we are missing an internet connection and they choose from those – colourful books which display the finished model and give clear colourful instructions really are the easiest to follow for adults, as well as young learners.  Give students a little while to make the model themselves as they will need to feel confident themselves for the next step.  They then talk  the teacher through how to make the model (yup – you make the model and you go!).  The only rule I have here is that they must not show how to complete any of the steps.  They are only allowed to explain orally.  With larger classes, I pair the students up and the pairs make different models, the instructions for which can be in the form of handouts or online if you have enough computers/laptops etc.  I’ve even had students sitting on their hands to resist the temptation to mime!  They then instruct their partner (orally only – as per the original tradition) on how to build their respective models.  I have found that this stage in particular generates a lot of great language which is certainly not confined to the process of model-building.  I have discovered in recent classes that we had more issues with prepositions and models than I had previously noticed.  I noted down the language as we went and we reformulated after the activity.

You can then take this a stage further and video your students making the models. Why not submit the videos to one of the many origami sites out there, on YouTube or on your own class blog or wiki.  Language to do with instructions and a solidification of the language which emerged during these activities can then be put into a final writing activity.  Students write out the instructions for the model they built and these can be posted alongside the videos that the class recorded.  In our class we had a huge range of language points arise which we never could have covered in one lesson.  These ranged from imperatives in instruction-giving; prepositions such as into, on, under, over, inside; linking words and phrases common in instruction-giving such as then, after that, the next thing to do, what you want to do next; conditionals (if you don’t tuck the paper in, it won’t inflate); let’s not forget words and phrases to do with frustration and success such as urg I’ve done it wrong, oh s**t that’s not right, Yay! Look! Brilliant I did it! It’s all real language afterall.

I would like to end my list with the story of Sadako Sasaki.  Her story is a moving account of a girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  She lived only a few miles from the impact and over the next ten years of her short life, she developed leukaemia and other illnesses as a result of the radiation.  In the advanced stages of her illness, she was treated in hospital, where a friend from school would visit her.  On one occasion she brought Sadako a golden paper origami crane to cheer her up.  Sadako began folding cranes with any paper she could get her hands on in hospital, encouraged by the Japanese saying that if you fold 1000 paper cranes, you will be granted a wish.  Unfortunately she didn’t manage 1000, completing ‘just’ 644 before her death in 1955.  It is said that her friends folded the remaining cranes so that she could be buried with all 1000 little paper birds.  I find it a heart-wrenching story and it is one which has caused the origami crane in particular to have a special status as a symbol of peace around the world.  I think this would make a wonderful addition to any syllabus covering peace and conflict, with an activity of paper crane folding for the students included.  A wonderful project for classes of young learners would be to make peace cranes, write a message on the model and send the finished pieces to your twin school, or another teacher’s class from your PLN, or perhaps to an area of conflict.  How gorgeous would these then look displayed in the classroom for your students to see and a lovely activity to promote cultural integration.  You and your students could even contribute to the many cranes which are sent to Hiroshima in August each year as part of Peace Day.

To find out more about Sadako Sasaki take a look at http://sadakosasakifacts.com/ . There are some very sweet messages from students around the world who have read about Sadako and who are now folding paper cranes in her memory.

I’d like to extend my thanks to Jamie Kelley at www.papertheworld.com.  This is a wonderful website and I strongly recommend taking a look.  There are videos and models on the site, together with a strong ethical message via origami.  Thanks Jamie for allowing me to use the text and for your folding videos.

For a wonderful selection of origami instructions see http://en.origami-club.com//index.html The site also has a charming collection of printable paper – I’m still wiping the drool of my keyboard from looking at these.

A quick search on YouTube will bring up a lot of videos with demonstrations on how to make some of the more traditional origami models and these are ideal for when your students need to learn how to make a model quite quickly for the oral instruction giving activity.

I’m always going on about this radio station and I have one of my observation lesson teachers at IH London to thank for using it in her class.  Radio Swiss Jazz is great for the classroom.  Very little talking indeed and just nice calm jazz on – perfect for task/activity time.  Do you have any music recommendations for these activities?  Can anyone recommend any Japanese music that would work here?

If origami really doesn’t float your paper boat, take a look at www.ehow.com.  You are bound to find something that you and your students can teach each other.  The most important thing I think, is finding something to engage your students and get them giving you instructions – enjoy being the student for a change!

Monday, June 14th, 2010, 00:10   |   Blog, Lesson Plans  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback