QUESTION:  I'm not sure what Learning-to-Learn Activities are. Who are they for and how do we use them in the classroom?

ANSWER: Learning-to-Learn (LTL) activities are activities we use to help our learners 'learn HOW to learn' independently,  as well as with the teacher.

There are many LTL activites for learners of all ages. Two of the most important, we would say, are Using the Monolingual Dictionary and Error Detection and Correction.

We feel we should "start from the start", to paraphrase a bit Alice in the Wonderland. In other words, we'll start with young learners who have been taught the Alphabet and have started Reading and Writing. One of the best LTL activities is to train your learners to create their own Picture Dictionary and, at the same time, to consolidate their knowledge of the Letters of the Alphabet, the Order and Position of  the Letters of the Alphabet, as well as to revise and consolidate vocabulary items they have already been taught.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

One Ringbinder, Flash Cards or slips of paper, crayons or markers, safety scissors, old magazines & newspapers, supermarket ads, etc.

PROCEDURE:

1.         In Class: Once you have presented and practised the Alphabet and

           you have taught a number of lexis, choose five, e.g., apple, boat,

           colour, dog, elephant and stick the corresponding Word Cards to the

           Board.

2.         Give your learners medium size Flash Cards (F/Cs) or slips of paper

           (See example below) and ask them to write  the corresponding

           alphabet letters (both capital and small case, e.g., B b) on the top of

           the F/C or paper. They can use crayons or markers.  Have a F/C ready

           yourself and stick it to the Board as an example.

3.         Then, ask them to choose one of the words you have on the Board,

           e.g., apple or dog, and to draw it or use a picture they will cut up and

stick to the F/C.  The children can use the old magazines, newspapers, supermarket ads, etc., which have pictures of various items so they can find the specific item(s) they need. N.B.: Not all children like  or feel at ease drawing pictures.

4.         Once the children have finished their two F/Cs, ask them to complete

           the rest at home as Homework. When you introduce this activity to

your learners, you should go through this routine in class so the children will know exactly what they are to do. From then on, creating their own picture vocabulary cards can become a Creative Homework assignment for your learners.

5.         Once every two weeks, ask the children to bring their Picture Dictionary

           Ringbinder to class and to put in strict alphabetical order the cards they

have created. When you will have taught Plurals,  you can ask your learners to add the plural form of the vocabulary item on each one of their cards.  By the end of the year, your learners will have created their own Picture Dictionary of concrete vocabulary items, which will be much more representative of the knowledge they will have acquired.

What makes the Picture Dictionary a LTL activity?

a.   The children consolidate the Alphabet, but most important they

      become aware of the correct order of the letters of the Alphabet

      and of the correct position of each letter within a word. 

b.   They train themselves to locate words easily. Both a and b are

      standard pre-dictionary skills activities, as one of  the major

      difficulties learners of all ages encounter when using a dictionary is

      locating an entry.

c.   Learning to self-access: This Picture Dictionary can be used by

the children as a self-accessing tool, as you can show them how to        use it when they need to be reminded of the spelling, the meaning  or the plural form of a vocabulary item. 

We will talk about other LTL activities in the future.

Suzanne and Lilika