Leo Lionni's Fish is Fish story

2024-08-14T10:39:41+03:00

In Leo Lionni's wonderful story 'Fish is Fish' a tadpole and fish enjoy being friends until one day, the tadpole notices he has started to change - small legs are forming, his tail is shortening. The fish is perplexed - how can this be? The tadpole had been a 'fish' like him, now he was a frog! The frog decides to explore the wider world and crawls out of the pond leaving the fish behind. The fish often wonders what has happened to his friend - and then one wonderful day the frog returns to tell the fish about the wonderful things he has seen - follow the link to see how what images of birds, cows and people capture the fish's imagination! The fish is inspired to explore the wider world as well. Lionni writes, 'with a might whack of the tail' the fish 'jumped clear our of the water onto the bank'. But of course, what happens to a fish out of water? Thankfully the frog is nearby and able to push the fish back into the water. The fish decides the pond is the best world of all and this is where he will stay.

OHJAAJALLE:

2021-03-31T13:28:17+03:00

Opiskelijat saattavat tarvita tukea erilaisten strategioiden ja konkreettisten, kielitietoisten käytänteiden huomaamiseen.

What language aware practices are used in schools? How can student participation be supported through language? How can teachers use language well?

2024-08-14T10:50:50+03:00

This third step on the pathway focuses on how teachers direct students' attention and activities through language. Teaching Practice 1 focuses on everyday language aware practices that teachers can use. The aim is to provide concrete examples of what language awareness means when teaching, guiding activities, building relationships and strengthening the classroom community. The Video Clubs provide examples from mathematics and handicraft lessons in the primary school.

This step has three parts:

1. a short story

2. video extracts from Finnish primary school classrooms

3. guidelines from the eNorssi Language Aware Teacher guide to help with observations in school

Suggestions for the demo:

1. Orientation

Start the session by reading the short story Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni. When I read the story aloud in class, I usually say 'The End' when the fish jumps out of the pool. There's often a gasp from the listeners - could this be the end? Thankfully for the fish, it isn't the end of the story. The frog comes to help, but does the story have a happy ending? Consider the following questions together. The first questions focus on the story, the final questions consider what teachers can take from the story:

- what fascinates the fish when he listens to the stories of the frog?

- why does the fish see the images as he does?

- why was it dangerous for the fish to set off alone?

- was it a happy ending for the fish?

- what role do teachers play as students begin to hear and learn new things about the world?

- how can teachers better prepare students to study and to expand their understanding of the world?

2. A view into classroom action - the video extracts

a. Watch the handicraft video extract and pay careful attention to how the teacher uses language to give instructions to the students? How does the teacher use language? Why does the teacher use language this way?

b. Watch the maths video extract which comes from a bilingual classroom where Finnish-speaking children are learning maths through English. The teacher is reviewing numbers with the students. After this revision task the teacher plays a shopping game with the students. The children are given 20€ and their task is to work out how many soft animals they can buy with 20€. This extract comes from the beginning of the lesson - how is the teacher encouraging the students to review the numbers? What different ways can you identify? How is the teacher involving all students?

3. Practical guidelines and theoretical insights

a. Read pages 16-18 in the eNorssi guide for language aware teachers. These pages include an overview of language aware mathematics. These pages include practical examples of how to be language aware when teaching maths and theoretical insights as to why it is important to be language aware. What examples and insights can you find in the text? Take a few moments to read and highlight important points and then discuss your findings together. These points could be added to the concept map you made in Step 1 of the LA pathway (POMM johdanto demo - remember?).

b. The language aware observation guide is available in the righthand column. This guide is based on section 2.2.1 (p.9) from the eNorssi publication. Carefully look through the list - what is familiar? what is surprising? what is useful to realise? why are these points important? Discuss together in anticipation of your observations in school - and ideally discuss again afterwards to share what you observed and realised. There are many ways teachers can include LA practices in their work - be on the look out for good examples, keep hold of them and see how you can integrate them into your own practice as a teacher.

Resources:

enorssi Kielitietoisen opettajan opas https://enorssi.fi/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Kielitietoisen-opettajan-opas-12-2019.pdf

Repo, E (2017) Ways of adding language awareness to all content areas https://hundred.org/en/innovations/language-conscious-teaching

Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014, esp. Section 3.3

Fish is Fish - Leo Lionni, trans. & illustration L. Moate

STEP 3: Language aware practices - How do teachers utilize languages in class? (OA1 Language aware video club)

Leo Lionni's Fish is Fish story

OHJAAJALLE:

What language aware practices are used in schools? How can student participation be supported through language? How can teachers use language well?

Suggestions for the demo: 1. Orientation

Suggestions for the demo:

1. Orientation