Bulgaria - FACT Journals Issue 36

It's not an easy activity to work online with young learners. I take my hat off to any colleagues who routinely do this kind of work!
CLIL, on the other hand, does offer a dimension which can be very motivating even in an online context.
When you use the technology and the opportunities the online environment provides for exploring and communicating, the results can be more than expected.
I first met Alex when her mother got in touch with my school Anglia School to ask about online classes. We had prepared some online lessons in the past, the pandemic made this compulsory. But, Anglia School has always been about learning by doing, practical hands-on activities with immediate communication both with teacher and in the group. So, I admit to being a little anxious at first about working online with Alex. 
Alex's mother had mentioned that she would like Alex to maintain the English she had grown up with being born in the UK. Alex is a fluent speaker of English for this obvious reason.
But at the age of 7, she was also a young learner at a transition period in her education moving from Preschool to Primary. This brings with it the challenge of reading and writing in the language of the classroom. In Alex's case, she did have English lessons here in Bulgaria but they were aimed, understandably, at the level of her Bulgarian classmates. 
The interest for me came with the clear need Alex would have in maintaining not simply her conversational English, but maintaining and developing the language of learning that she had begun to develop in a UK Preschool programme. It was this language of learning, along with the request for writing that led to the creation of this publication.
The initial idea was stories about friends exploring and travelling together, but as Alex's ideas and interests took shape and I provided content and opportunity for her to read about and explore the Geography, History and Environmental Issues that became a natural part of the texts that Alex was to write, we soon understood that we have a collection of Environmental Adventures on our hands.
The texts are almost entirely Alex's creations. I guided and prompted, provided background material on the areas we visited with the five friends and also turned Alex's sketches into images we could use in the story texts themselves. Alex also enjoys wordsearches, so we did some of those too. There was much more than the writing during our meetings, but these writings became a constant 'input' and fed into the ongoing 'output' of our classes.
Alex has said that she would like the book to be interesting and useful to other learners of English. 
My take on this whole process is this - I wish all children the chance to write and publish their ideas and for them to see these creations in print.
It is highly motivating and totally worth all the work!
Please share! 
Keith (and Alex), June, 2024 

PS - I collated, edited and proofread all of the text and as such any errors and issues are my mistakes!

Download FACT Journal 36