Page 5 - May_June - Gr.4

ISB Lower School Specialists’ Newsletter

Serbian as a Foreign Language

Grade 4 students were impressed by the PYP unit Forests and had a great desire to
connect to this unit through a line of inquiry Inhabitants of our planet. We used ani-
mal encyclopedias to learn about unusual animals – their habitat, diet and special
characteristics. The students created and labeled a world map that included various

Ivana Jovanovic habitats and their occupants. Then, each student created a Google or Power Point
Serbian language Teacher presentation of a few animals of his/her choice. In advance, the students collabora-
tively developed a checklist that defined what is expected from this project keeping
in mind language and content learning. They truly enjoyed working on this project
which included research and gathering information, oral presentation, but also
learning new words and using simple language. One of the biggest challenges for
young language learners is to simplify a sentence in order to effectively use the vo-
cabulary they are familiar with. This project was a great practice for them and has
opened some new ways of thinking.

Currently, we are reading stories about two friends, Bojan and Dejan. The stories
describe situations and conversations from everyday life. Our focus is the dialogue.
After reading each story, the students use www.pixton.com to create a comic that
matches the plot.

EAL

Grade 4 students were involved in their Forest Unit in this period. They decided
that a good way of dealing with the topic would be to write their opinions on defor-
estation in the form of a persuasive piece of writing, arguing against the cutting
down of forests. As we had previously worked on the genre of persuasive writing,
they were aware of the structure of the text and knew how to organize their
writing. Our previous writing activity was teacher-led and involved modeled and
shared writing. This time the students worked in pairs and small groups with only

Visnja Plecas some assistance from the teacher. They gathered information on the topic and
EAL Teacher then discussed which arguments they would like to use to persuade people to stop
cutting down the trees. They argued persuasively that trees are vital for giving us
oxygen; that they provide habitats for animals and that the destruction of plants
and trees will deprive humans of an important resource for finding and manufac-
turing medicines. The resulting texts are exhibited in the EAL classroom. Please
come and visit us to read their stories. The students are proud of their first steps in
Page 5 developing this complex form of writing.