Functional learning

In functional learning, students move around, do various exercises, play learning games or games, use different parts of the body in learning, and are creative in their work. Teachers have a guiding role during operational teaching and teacher leadership is part of the other teaching situation. The teacher gives students more space and acts as a tutor and observer. Preparing a functional lesson takes more time than a traditional lesson. The teacher usually has to prepare materials for the lesson and plan the arrangements for functional breaks. Opportunities for functional teaching include student enthusiasm, increased motivation, and the opportunity for deep learning and working together. Functional teaching is perceived by teachers as a useful method, although preparation takes time.

Music (Mervi and Sari):

 

- Body parts vocabulary in English (reading and repeating) through head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose song.

- Music concepts: forte, piano, allegro and lento. Then, students choose to sing it forte, piano, allegro or lento.

- Animals songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKeFBQexbY (Farm animals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_92DALhFZ4 (jungle animals) Students sing together and guess what animal is next.

- Old Macdonald song: they sing it together (animal by animal) and then every animal is represented by a music instrument. Every student has its own instrument.

- Animal's rhythm. There are some animals and each of them have its own rhythm (quavers and semiquavers). They distributed an instrument to every animal and play it together. They swapped instruments after every go.

- Our analysis: We were surprised that not all children were joining in and only a few seemed confident enough to do so even with the animal sounds. The teacher did not insist that they have a go and the lesson was low pressure. The children seemed to be having a good time. The first part was focussed around the English words and the second part had more of a music focus. The objective of the lesson was not shared with the pupils. We liked the fact that they introduced a 3rd language through italian so that the children could use the correct vocabulary from the beginning.

We both loved this activity. Very clever and enjoyable way to learn about music an English, while using our whole bodies. A great example of Functional and interdisciplinary learning. 

Regarding equipment, we liked one very common resource in your school: the document projector. We need to digitalize anything we project, and even then, it isn’t so versatile.

 

Arts (Anja, Titta, Marina):

 

- Colours vocabulary in English (reading and repeating). 

- The teacher presents different shapes and colours objects. Children close their eyes and the teacher takes one away. They have to guess what colour is left.

- The teacher gives a colour piece of paper to all the students (they can not show it to anyone). By asking in english, they have to find a partner who has the same colour.

- Students classify different objects by colours. 

- With colour papers, the teacher builds a house while students say the name of the colours. Then they make their own houses. 

- If they finished early, they could colours pictures with words for colours in different sections.

Our analysis: We were uncertain as to why the pupils needed to sort the colours as English wasn’t the focus at this point. We liked how calm and peaceful the group activity was - ‘whispering’. There was a lot of freedom in the house activity to choose colours and shapes and it was expected that they would work independently with scissors and glue. I think they did become more confident with colour names in English but I’m not sure what the art objective was.

That was also a very creative activity, using functional learning. You could see that all children were involved in all the activities, and that they were really meaningful for them. 

Again, the use of the document projector allows this “game” of remembering-guessing what object is left. More real, much better than using flash cards on the board.

Very clever activities with great material (shapes and colours), to practice the skill of classifying according to different criteria.

 

Maths (Arja, Anni, Laura)

 

- Numbers vocabulary in English (reading and repeating) and songs.

- There are boxes numbers 1-4 around the classroom. The teacher closes her eyes and count to 10. Students have to go and stay next to one number box. When the teacher finishes counting, she says a number. Students who are next to that number box have to count with her. 

- There are 1 to 10 numbers written on the wall. The teacher shows several additions and subtractions. With a fly swatter, students have to point out the the solution.

- "Fishing game": there are colour fishes in the center of a circle. One student goes away of the classroom and the group choose a fish. When the student comes back he has to guess which one is "her/his friend fish" while the others count to 10.

- A student throws two dices and add the numbers. Then, they turn around a paper with an action (squats, jumps...) and the group repeat the action as many times as the dices say.

- In a different maths lesson, we watched the pupils use money (real and pretend) to go ‘shopping’ to buy objects costing different amounts.

- Our analysis: We liked how active and practical the lesson was as it allowed the children to stay engaged. Those children who did go off task were not shouted at and were given freedom to join in when they wished to. The shopping game gave the pupils an example of how the skill could be used in real life, making it seem more relevant. There was not a big focus on the children calculating the correct change and sometimes they gave large notes and did not explicitly say how much they were spending. We liked how much repetition of basic calculating there was - number bonds to 20 are clearly a key focus.

The whole lesson was a great example of interdisciplinary and CLIL (Maths&English) proposal, with the added value of Functional Learning. We got many practical ideas and games to use in our English lessons, when it is a good idea to include content from other subjects, like maths, too. Good to mention that all activities are so versatile, that can be applied to many (perhaps all) topics. These activities can, also, be used in the mother tongue when teaching maths or other subjects.

The “box game” was new for both of us, and we loved it! Everyone participates, all children got actively involved… and there isn’t competition. They all have a role during the whole activity.

The fly swatter game was also very interesting to observe. So active. Making quick decisions. Great!

And the Fishing Game, and dice game, where perfect excuses to count to 10, in English, are offered to the students, who enjoy so much.

 

Work and picture (Paivi)

 

- Furniture and home vocabulary in English (reading and repeating).

- Team works game: design and build a house with recycled materials. 

Our analysis: The groups were very well together. Their collaboration and sharing is exceptional. After the English words were introduced, they were not repeated and therefore probably not embedded. The children’s skills with the materials were excellent - but I’m not sure what new skill they were being taught or what the objective was. The oldest children could explain in English what they had made and why.

Amazing to see how students enjoyed this activity, and made lovely models for houses. It was surprising that without any model, suggestion, instruction, they were able to work autonomously in small groups, and enjoying so much. We can see that students at your school are used to work autonomously, using different materials, … A very nice match of Crafts&English. It was also surprising to us the high level of creativity and the details they added to the houses. All creations were different and well build and esthetics.

 

 

Science (Marina)

 

- Healthy lifestyle vocabulary: pairs game (different healthy lifestyles in Finnish and in English) and students calculate their own lifestyle (how many actions do students really take). 

- Ciphers about health: there is a secret message hidden on a white paper with a candle. Students decode the message with water paintings: "Sleep well". They have to come out with ideas of how they can improve their sleep and write it on paper with pictures and colors.

- Exercises for eyes.

- Brain and balance exercises with calm music. 

 

Our analysis: It was really interesting for the children to have a carousel of different activities. It was interesting to see how science was blended with English and art and PSHE. During the relaxation exercises, some children did not join in and this was not punished or even mentioned in the lesson. The teacher continued with the lesson calmly for the those who were joining in. The activities were practical and involved group works and kept the children engaged.

Lovely and very interesting topic for this lesson, and so much related to life skills and competences. The four stations were really interesting and students got fully involved in them. They were presented and designed in a well planned and attractive way. The 4 stations is a great way of organizing the classroom. English was used in all the activities, sometimes written, and sometimes oral.  The used of both languages (English and Finish), it way help them to be more involved and understand better the content and the language. This is something that surprise us because we are not used to it.

Very interesting idea of the “secret message”, and the proposal of guessing how to write it… and how it had been written.  All activities were really interesting both for students and teachers!

 

 

Sports (Petri and Hanne)

 

All these games take place on the playground (skate on the ice).

 

- Travel agency game: the name of the countries that take place on the project (and more) are share out on the skating rink. By pairs, students take a paper from a bag that says where do they have to travel to and by what transport (train, motorbike...). Then, they have to skate to that place simulating they are a transport. On every country there are some questions they have to answer in English.

- There are four cones on the skating rink and they represent different vocabulary in English: "in", "on", "under" and "behind". The teacher goes to the middle and closes his/her eyes. Students have to skate to one cone until the teacher finishes counting. After it, he/she says one word and the students who are next to that cone have to count with the teacher.

- The class is divided into two teams. Teams start in their own half. The goal is for teams to try and capture all of the flags to their own side. When traveling on the opposing teams side, players can get tagged. If that happens, they must go into a jail. Players can save someone in jail by safely making it to them, and then both get a free walk back to their side. If players make it into the opposite flag area (inside the cones) they can’t be tagged in there. They will try to escape with 1 flag back to their side.

Our analysis: It was impressive to see how they had managed to make the lesson cross curricular with English and geography as well as practising their skating skills. All children seemed very competent on the ice. Common sports can be adapted to be used on ice. Children again worked well in groups.

All these games take place on the playground (skate on the ice).

Another great example of interdisciplinary (& CLIL) lesson: PE, English, Geography… where children work in groups, make decisions… on ice! The travel agency contained all the elements: getting a mission, Geography (the countries were placed in “geographical” order), English practice, and sport practice.

Nice to see another example of the “box game” we observed in Maths, which can actually be applied to any content. 

Finally “Catch the flag” on ice! Just incredible! 

 

 

 

English (Merja)

 

Materials: Ipads and QR codes. 

- Body actions: students throw a dice and find the QR code which has that number and do different body actions.

- Body parts: the game is the same but with body parts. Students paste a tape on the body parts that are shown in the QR.

- Animals: several QR codes are share out on the school library and first floor. Students need to find them all and write their names on a list.

- Animal's faces app: they imitate the faces and emotions of different animal characters. 

Our analysis: The children seemed a bit hesitant to join in with some of the more ‘silly’ actions but the idea of the session was good. They really enjoyed using ICT to enhance their learning and the idea of using tape was very simple but effective. It was great to see the children given the freedom to do a treasure hunt around the school. They could be trusted to do this independently. We were uncertain what the objective for the facial expressions was as English was not used - although it was rather funny!

Materials: Ipads and QR codes. 

Students enjoyed and had many opportunities to learn/review English in this lesson. Nice match of ICT and English. QR add an element of “intrigue” and motivation, a code to solve. Using spaces out of the classroom (corridors, library…) is another great idea. It implies trusting the children, giving them some autonomy… and we could see that it works.

We also had great fun with the Animal’s faces app!! This app is so nice and could let help students to understand better the emotions, so it’s a nice, funny and useful way to introduce or talk to emotions and feelings.

 

 

Overall reflections

 

• Finnish pupils are given more freedom and time to be creative. There is less modelling and scaffolding than is given in England. 
• Lessons seemed to be more active / practical rather than based on exercise books.
• Teachers remain very quiet and calm throughout and therefore a calm atmosphere in the classroom is maintained.
• Children are not forced to join in with activities and are given some flexibility about what they do / where they sit etc. 
• Cross curricular links were made whenever possible.
• Finnish children seemed more independent when having lunch and using equipment.
• It seemed effective to give the pupils more regular but shorter breaks and free lunches were given to all which ensures they are well-fed.
• As they start school at 7, the younger classes were working on the basic levels across all subject and embedding this.
• We saw no writing in these lessons really - the emphasis was mainly on verbal communication.