Humanistic Teaching

An approach to learning English

Some day soon I'm going to write an entry devoted to ways to get children to think, but this isn't it. Summer heat does rather addle my brain and sends me away from writing.

Of course, being sentient, children are thinking all the time. What I specifically mean is working out something about English. Solving a kind of English puzzle can be highly motivating for both children and adults. By way of example this week I'd like to introduce the quick activity Whisper Shout Sing Say.

This is an activity I've done with kindergarten aged children and up, though I usually do it with young elems (Wise Hat shorthand) . I've done it both with and without flash cards. I'm trying to think of any particular circumstances that trigger it's use but I can't. I think a good way is to present it as a "challenge", though it can also be tagged onto to follow any speaking activity, especially vocabulary identification. It works best with children who will respond easily. I wouldn't use it with a group suffering from reticence.

The procedure it very simple. In turn ask children to whisper, shout, sing or say words.  For example, you could start by saying, "Whisper cat".You do this without explaining the meaning of the words. If a child repeats the command back to you can the group some help by acquiescing to the command or you can make things more challenging by making your "rejection" noise. If you don't have a rejection noise then get one! They are very useful. They are much more friendly and encouraging then saying, "No" or "That's wrong?". They are much more ambiguous and as such can encourage children to try again.

If no-one can whisper cat then you do it and proceed with a new word. If no-one cottons on then you can use hand gestures as well. Basically give more and more hints until the penny drops. When it does change the command and move onto shout. Then follow on with sing and say. Once the puzzle has been worked out the activity can be repeated as a "pass the mike" activity. Usually I use a toy microphone as an anchor for asking questions but it can be used for giving these commands that require a verbal response. The microphone gets passed in a circle with players giving commands to the person sitting on their immediate left. After a while reverse the order so commands go both ways.

A couple of paragraphs ago I indicated that I wouldn't use this this activity with very quiet groups. Actually I have. I remember using it with a group of softly-spoken girls and getting them to shout our some animal names. Their shouts weren't above regular spoken volume but for them at that time that was a big improvement. There is no hard and fast rule other than noticing whether the children find the basic premise of the activity stimulating. I guess that goes for everything. Being able to be flexible is very useful.

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