How to Teach Following Directions?

            In my English 1 (Study and Thinking Class), I employed the PHOTO Scavenger Hunt in teaching my students the skill of "following directions or instructions.  PHOTO Scavenger Hunt is just a modification of treasure hunting usually done during parties or anniversaries. Instead of hunting for treasures, my students will simply get arm with digital cameras or cellphones capable of taking pictures. Of course, I did the announcement of bringing their cameras beforehand.

      

Symbol of Unity and Solidarity of Group 4

               The class of 30 is divided into 5 groups. They are requested to choose for their leader who will facilitate the task and a spokesperson to ask and clarify if in case there would misunderstandings between them and the tasks.

                 Before the task is handed to them, they were told to enjoy the activity but avoid disturbing other classes. The group's output will be graded according to the completeness of the task, quality of the product and the speed on completing the task.

       

                Below are the mechanics of the game.

General Instructions: King Arnold is forgetting memories during his royal visit in DNSC. Can you help him remember those things? If yes, then do the following instructions. If not, then your journey ends here. Unfortunately the King failed to choose you as his soldiers of memories. Note: Always ask permission if you'll take picture from a stranger.

Sweet young couple

              1. After reading all the instructions, join your hands together to illustrate the group's unity and solidarity. Make sure that only joined hands could be seen in the picture. Ask a stranger ( not a member) to take the picture for you.

                2. Get a picture of five strangers queuing to buy something in the school canteen.

               3. Have a stolen picture from the other team while they are busy doing the activity. No faces should be seen in the camera.

               4. Get a close up picture of the three members of the group doing the face dance.

               5. Capture the sweet moment of a stranger couple anywhere in the campus.

               6. Take a picture of those getting a nap inside the library. Make sure that no one notices you even the librarian.

               7. Re-enact a scene or form a tableau from the team's favorite TV series. All members of the group must be in the picture.

               8. Have the team act like they are studying for an exam.

               9. Look around! Take picture on something that resembles to letters D, N, S, C. Note printed letters or intentionally formed letters will not be accepted.

              10. Afte

r doing all the tasks, submit the camera to King Arnold and find if your team is able to help him remember things! Good Luck!

The Group 1 re-enacting a scene from their fave TV Series.

   

Quotable Quotes for Reading

          During my reading, I encountered a lot of reading quotes that personally caught my attention to significantly pause and reflect. This post is to generously share to you the treasures I found when reading. Kudos to the brilliant minds who have created all of these wisdom. 

1. "Love is irresistible to be irresistibly desired" -Robert Frost
2. "To learn to read is to light a fire, every syllable that is spelled    
     out, is a spark". -Victor Hugo.
3. "Reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest 
      minds in the past centuries."- Rene Descartes
4. "Weak people revenge, strong people forgive, but intelligent 
       people ignore".- Albert Einstein
5. "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail".- John Wooden
6.  "Do not compare yourself with anyone in this world, or else   
       you  are insulting yourself".- Bill Gates
7. "Maturity starts when you stop pointing fingers to others".
      - Anonymous
8. "No one can change a person but a person could be a reason 
      for  a person to change".- Spongebob
9. "To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting".
     - Robert Burke
10.  "We read to know that we are not alone."- William Nicholson
11. " A man only learns in two ways: one by reading, and the other 
       is by association with smarter people."- Will Rogers
12. "Well done is better than well said".- Benjamin Franklin
13. " Nothing can brings you peace but yourself".- Ralph Waldo Emerson
14."Think before you speak, read before you think."- Frances Ann
15. "You are never alone when you are reading a book. -Susan Wiggs.

CRAZY STORY

This is an activity I employed to my students before teaching them Library Skills in our Study and Thinking Skills class. This is to acquire raw information directly from my students on their observation on our College Library. This is also to allow every student to participate in writing or in crafting a story.  After setting the mode, I provided them a blank sheets of paper for them to write their crazy stories. This is how we did the activity.

1. I wrote " CRAZY STORY" on the board. They were all excited upon reading the title because they're really expecting for a crazy story to be written by themselves. Others were hesitant because they might not deliver the expected output.
2. I wrote on the board again, "Once upon a time in a very cold morning inside the library......". They must start their story with this line. As a teacher, you may change the line depending on your lessons.
3. The first person holding the paper will complete the line that I have written on the board. They will continue writing until they'll hear STOP from me.
4. After hearing the word STOP, he will pass the paper to the next person to continue the story. To the next. And to the next and to the next..
5. The process is being repeated until when you think that the story is enough to be told.
6. Once in a while, you may call someone to read the portion of the story he is holding. This is just to add fun to the activity.
7. After you ended the process, let the last person to write the ending of the story and let them pass the paper once more to the next person. This time, tell them to write their name on the paper. Let them imagine also that the paper they are holding at the moment is their dreams written by unknown dreammakers.
8. Before ending the activity, call at least two or three of your students to read their dreams.
9. There will be a lot of fun while they are reading their crazy stories.
10. Make sure that you are always available for some profane words written as part of the story.

Here are some of  the crazy stories written:

Story # 1

Once upon a time, in a very cold morning inside the library, a group of nerds study their lessons. They were preparing for their History Quiz in the afternoon. They studied hard because they didn't want to fail for their long quiz. They had almost read all the books about history. Suddenly, all characters from the great history of the Philippines came out with different creepy faces. The characters talked to the nerds reading the book. The nerds were shocked. One of them was trying to clear up his thick eye glasses to make sure that he was just hallucinating. But no matter what he did, he was really sure that it was Mc Arthur who stared at him badly. Suddenly, he threw the book and screamed out loud. But to his surprise, his one geeky friend slapped him with a book on his face and asked him, "What's going on with you, Totoy?". It's too late for him to realize that he was just dreaming. He was so grateful with that scary dream. The old librarian saw what had happened and forced the group of nerds to go outside the library because they were disturbing other users. When they were about to leave the library, Totoy took a last look at the book. His friend once again asked him and shook his shoulders, "What's going on with you, Totoy?". But Totoy remained silent and dumbfounded. Then, Totoy lost his consciousness. His friends were so worried about what had happened to him. They were about to conclude some hypotheses that maybe Totoy is pregnant but some said that it would be impossible. Some also conclude that he was under a spell by the old librarian. From that day, Totoy never come back to the library again. He's afraid to see again those people in Death March waving and staring at him so blankly.

Story # 2

Once upon a time in a very cold morning inside the library, there is someone who is seriously reading a novel entitled, "My Prince and I". Her name is Fiona, a simple girl who is dreaming to have a love story like a fairytale. The story of the novel she is reading is all about a prince who had been cursed because of his being hedonism or playboy. He's a happy go lucky type of person bu he was afraid to face the consequences of his wrong actions. The prince was castigated to fall asleep for a long time of period. And in order to wake him up, he must have to have an authentic kiss from a crazy woman. Fiona as a reader and fan of of fairy tales tried to kiss the picture of the prince but it didn't work as expected. Once in a while, Fiona imagined that she was in a castle of the prince to rescue him. Then suddenly her imagination turned to real. Fiona felt the overflowing joy when she saw the prince closely. The prince is really a handsome man that's why Fiona felt in love with him instantly. While she was staring at the prince, she wondered why he was still asleep after she had kissed him. Fiona was very determined to awaken the prince but she had known nothing on how to wake up the prince. She became paranoid in thinking that the prince may already pushing up the daisies. She called anybody to help her. She called the doctor, the nurse and even the bomber man just to awaken the prince. But they were all failure. With Fiona's desire to awaken the prince, she gave the warmest kiss to the prince without hesitation. Luckily, it made the prince seemed to wake up. Before the prince could open his eyes, Fiona felt an irksome slap that made her awake. Her friend slapped her for being insane because she is kissing the picture of the prince in the book more than minutes ago. Fiona was ashamed but felt happy of her dream.

Story # 3 Unedited

Once upon a time in a very cold morning inside the library, there is a worm that is roaming around the history book. It is finding the origin of the worm, then there was a boy who wanted to borrow the book but he didn't know where the book was located so he decided to sit for awhile. Then, he stood up again. He saw the worm smiling at him. The boy was shocked! He kicked the worm. The worm flew away. The boy laughed and laughed. Then the worm took revenge and went inside the boy's pants. The boy screeched inside the library which was very embarrassing! And all the people inside the library were shocked of what the boy was doing. The end.