| Dear Challenged:
Don’t worry! Teaching children is great fun once you know the
ropes. We asked one of our grads, Hannah Treworgy (August 2003), who’s
been teaching children in Korea, to offer some advice as a guest advisor.
Her suggestions follow. Perhaps other alums will send your T.A. some
additional ideas to share.
Good luck!
The Teacher Advisor
Hannah’s hints:
1. Remember that you might be a child's first contact with a foreigner,
so try to keep a good attitude and be patient. With some classes, your
job may be to get them excited about the concept of speaking English,
not necessarily to stuff them full of grammar or vocabulary. (This was
very hard for me to get into my head. I was getting very frustrated
at first because some of my classes seemed to have no interest in "learning".)
2. For young learners who are real beginners, developing a routine is
key. They won't understand what you are saying in the beginning, but
if you are consistent and do the same activities in the same order every
day, they pick it up quickly. (Every morning we do shapes, colors, days
of the week, months and numbers. We say the names and sing a little
song about each subject.)
3. Make sure you speak in full, correct sentences with the kids. It's
really easy to start talking like they do, but they won't progress if
you don't stick to proper English. One of the classes in my school has
developed their own "language" because last year's teacher thought he
could communicate more effectively by dropping articles and direct objects.
So now they say things like "Me is block no" meaning "I don't want to
play with the blocks". The parents were not happy.
4. Kids are great mimics; the more you repeat stuff the better.
5. Kids learn best when they're having fun. Make sure you get to the
free practice stage of your lessons, because they will remember those
things the most.
6. Kids love music. They will remember anything if it has a tune or
a beat. I have had success with kid's songs, Beatles songs, language
songs that come with ESL books, etc... I downloaded a bunch of music
and burned a CD to bring into school. (Note from the Teacher Advisor:
Don't forget nursery rhymes, which have a great beat, or make up texts/dialogues
that can be accompanied by clapping, finger-snapping, etc. Older kids
can make up their own texts. For inspiration, check out a book called
"Jazz Chants" by Carolyn Graham, published by the Oxford University
Press).
7. When you are at a loss, try rewards and bribery. Stickers, games
and candy are great motivators. A promise of a future "snack party"
if everyone does all their homework works wonders. (TA note: actually,
these work well with adults also!)
8. puzzlemaker.com is a great resource. You can create word-finds and
crossword puzzles from your current vocabulary words. There are many
other kid-oriented websites that have flashcards, worksheets, visuals,
game ideas and other goodies you can download for free (TA note:
Try Dave's ESL Café cookbook (www.eslcafe.com), abcteach.com and pbskids.org
for starters).
9. Here are a few examples of games:
Go fish: I made a set of cards with a word and a picture that
match. (picture of a pizza matches with the word pizza) They have to
say, "Do you have a pizza?" "Yes, I do." "No,
I don't. Go Fish."
Describing game: one kid writes a word on the board. ("dog")
The second kid sits with his back to the board. The third kid has to
describe the word without saying it until the second kid guesses it.
("It small,
has a tail, lives in your house...") You can play in teams or have
one writer, one describer, and a bunch of guessers. Whatever works.
It's the only game I have that works well with 3 kids. It's really hard
to
have 3 kids in a class!
TA note: Kids love dress-up and make-believe. Create little plays
for/with them, costumes and all. They will happily present them over
and over again, and you can switch the roles around, so that everyone
gets to participate.
You may also want to try presenting the plays as puppet shows. Simple
paper bag or sock puppets are easy and fun for the children to make.
Do you have more ideas? Do you have a question for the Teacher Advisor?
Do write and send
them to us for publication in our next newsletter.
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