Teaching Wild Classes

"Oh look, I've been impaled" *insane laugh*



This is how I feel during classes where the little kids just get... well... rowdy. And little. Like today, they were spanking me and running around like little gremlins. They grab everything from out in front of you that you did not have the forsight to lock and stow before takeoff, and if you do not lock and stow before take off, they take off with it faster than you can say... put that thing back where it came from or so help me!

Classroom Activities 6: Teaching Phonics to ESL Preschoolers

Teaching Phonics to ESL Pre-schoolers

And Beginning Phonics

When are children ready to begin phonics? They are ready to begin phonics when they have a decent attention span, awareness of written language, and a good working recognition of many capital (and some lowercase) letters. Perhaps best is to work on letter recognition of lowercase letters before beginning. My students from age 5-6 are able to do this (in the ESL classroom) but children may be able to start this as early as age 3 or 4 depending on attention span, exposure, and memory.

Start with a solid structure, this also helps keep track of what letters and blends you have introduced. I use the Sounds Fun series. Level 1 teaches recognition of letters and individual sounds. Students at my school already have this basic recognition before we start phonics, so I start them right from level 2. Before we begin phonics we sing alphabet songs and a phonics sound song, and students have experienced tracing most to all letters of the alphabet on activity sheets. 

A unit looks like this. This is Unit 5, and some target words students should be able to put together. But preschoolers may find this activity dull in the group setting, so I created this game for each unit. One unit takes us about 4 lessons, which is about a month to a month and a half at the school I work at.

I keep the letters in a little marked envelope like this. then I know clearly the target sound, and in this unit we especially want to work on recognition of small I. 

                          I create copies of the target letters of the unit, enough for each student to have 1 of each target letter and sound for the unit. Better than writing by hand is arranging fun arrangements of letters they already know, and finding out the sound! Most students take to this version of spelling very easily and feel great achievement when they arrive at words they have already learned: this unit contains the word p i g. Previous units with the short a sound, students were very happy to create the word c a t. Even if they are not perfect spellers or readers, this exercise is great to reinforce awareness of written words and phonemes.

This is what the letters look like, prepared for a class of maximum 4 students. Perfect small group activity. Great in eikaiwa, or home schooling young children.

Classroom Activities 5: No Face His and Her All Ages

Classroom Activities 5

No Face Multi-Language Practice Exercise

And what's great about this activity is that it can be applied to a wide range of language! 


You Will Need: 
-paper, a drawn face

 This could be printed off the internet. Boy/Girl Human/Nonhuman Princess/Pauper... your imagination is the limit! 
-facial features for the face for target words eyes, ears, nose, mouth, 
-tape
-a wall or surface to mount the faces on
-a blindfold if one student or yourself will use it, or multiple blindfolds if you plan on allowing other students to participate for hygiene purposes

  Anyway, this face will also need features. So if you have any way to make a blank canvas... my classroom set has the facial features removable down to the hair! That's right, everything can be put on if you design your activity just so. And the principles of this activity can be applied to any vocabulary set, but the activity I'm featuring here focuses on face parts and his/her he/she and boy/girl. This would even work like the pirates I have previously featured. 

How to do the activity:
 -Think pin the tail on the donkey, with tape and face parts and students must use English
 -Use this activity as review, students must have a good working knowledge of the words, give them a brief refresher before beginning.
 -Students should know boy and girl, and for older students you can also introduce his/her with this activity
 -For the first round through you can blindfold yourself if you trust your class, and if you're good blindfolded and know your classroom spatially you can further clarify the meaning of his and her if your class has never been exposed to the words before
   Students are to say "his/her nose" as they hand the face parts to you one by one
   If they know right and left, you can allow them to say that as well
-For really advanced students, maybe they can learn "turn it" or "it's upside down" etc... a lot of practical spatial words come out when students are doing this activity
 -When all the pieces have been attached, announce "finished", have students tell you "finished" or "that's all" and unblindfold yourself or the student, and admire your work! 

Most students of mine have gotten a big kick out of this exercise! 

The blank face canvases. The hair is also removable. Not the prettiest but at least it gets the kids giggling.

This was my later evening class. I lost my touch.

My first time, the students gave me pretty good guidance. 

Underneath the star this little boy is smiling! 

This one too, the thumbs down is actually a good thing little boys love to be disgusted! 

Changes to my Classroom Spring 2013 (March)

Changes to my Classroom: Spring 2013

Now: Days of the Week at center, birthday poster to the side of the white board. 

The space where the blank faces are is reserved for decorations pertaining to current material we're covering and enrichment activities. I will explain the blank faces later.

Decorations from our new preschool curriculum "PLAYTIME" by Oxford University Press.

They came on flimsy, uninspiring and hard to fit to my classroom posters so I cut them up to suit my room and laminated the pieces. 

More Playtime items visible to the right of the Days of the Week poster. we have a weather wheel from something else, but the numbers look really nice and I have shapes and weather too. Counting has become part of our routine. 

BEFORE 

Gross old dry erase poster, days of the week poster was too close to the bookshelf and this became a problem in my larger classes, old posters which hadn't been changed out for a while which I rarely used in the lessons, and didn't seem to engage the kids well to begin with. Overall the decorations have become much more functional to the lessons and are making a marked difference for me in engaging my students of all ages.

Classroom Activities 3: Practicing Can

Classroom Activity 3

Nonsense Animals and Actions

Type of activity: small group activity for practicing animals and verbs, and the grammar "Can it (action)?", "Yes it can" or "No, it can't", ideal for elementary students, for intermediate students

Text correspondence: English Land 3 Unit 5 

"Can a koala drive a car?", "Can a baby quail push a car?" 

What you will need: a stack of animal cards, the more interesting the appearance the better, and a stack of frequently used verb cards. I use animal cards from a set of Go Fish cards we had in the school, and the verb cards from the Great Verb Game, although the pictures on the Great Verb Game were a little ridiculous. Some students love it and some will refuse to look at the cards, saying they are simply too ugly. So strike a balance between interesting and repulsive.

What to do: have enough sets of cards for small groups. My classes are small so I only need one set of action cards and one set of animal cards, but this game is appropriate for groups of 3-4

    -give each group their stacks, after modeling the target phrase "Can it (a bear) drive?" Students usually take to this right away and start having fun. 

The Back Seat (Story for Discussion)

The Back Seat

One night a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. She noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on-- the car was going to pass-- when suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and brights flashed.

Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her. Finally, her exit approached but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically.

Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from the car, so did the driver of the car behind her-- and he screamed, "Lock the door and call the police! Call 911!"

When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her car, he saw the sihouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.

What's the moral of the story?

Image source doobybrain.com

Story source: unknown, but I think maybe it came from Dave's ESL or similar website.

The Hook (Story for Discussion)

The Hook

(Source unknown, but probably an ESL resource website)

A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.

A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcers voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum,--which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane--and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.

The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.

When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook.

What is the moral of the story?

___________________

I'm not sure what to think of this story, I found this going through the ESL resources at the school I'm teaching at. Hm. Probably from Dave's ESL cafe or something... I'd love to give the original author credit though.

Pernicious Prepositions

I worked with some students on phrasal verbs (which more often than not, are combinations of verbs with prepositions) for an entire summer once, and I am seeing the importance more and more as I see how students struggle with the topic. I am offering this list of prepositional verbs and verbs that use prepositions along with other verbs I have noticed in helping a student prepare for the SAT. Even American students are tested on knowing these verb conjugations. Knowing them really increases how natural a speaker sounds.

The beginning of the list was taken from: Evergreen, a Guide to Writing With Readings, International Edition 9th e by Susan Fawcett

The list may be helpful when covering prepositional verbs in high school classes and above.

According to

Acquainted with

Addicted to

Afraid of

Agree on (a plan)

Agree to (something or a proposal)

Afraid of

Angry about or at (a thing)

Angry with (a person)

Apply for (a position)

Apply to (doing something) (One should apply oneself to their studies)

Approve of

Argue about (an issue)

Argue with ( a person)

Capable of

Complain about (a situation)

Complain to (a person)

Comply with

Consist of

Contrast with

Correspond with (write) I corresponded with a young lady in Kushiro, Hokkaido

Deal with

Depend on

Different from

Differ from (something)

Discovered by

Differ with

Displeased with

Donate to

Fond of

Grateful for

Grateful to

Identical to

Inferior to

In search of

Interested in

Interfere with

Number of (nouns) I saw a number of new vendors at the Saturday market.

Object to

Protect against

Reason with

Rely on

Reply to

Responsible for

Sensitive to

Shocked at, shocked by

Similar to

Speak with (someone)

Specialize-in

Succeed in (a noun) I succeed in (I am successful in) my language classes.

Succeed in (Verb-ing) He succeeded in petitioning his case before the committee.

Superior to

Take advantage of

Worry about

____________

From SAT (continue to build this list)

Appointed with

Boon for

Conscript to My uncle was conscripted to the army during the Vietnam War

Conferred on

Demonstration of

Deprived of

Obstruction to vs. Obstruction of

Impediment to

Redeemed for

Relegated to

Teacher Pitfalls: Making the Most of Teacher Talking Time

The most important part of EFL, to me, in any country is fulfilling my duties as a teacher.

Thus, in every capability, I am working on improving myself as a teacher. So currently I am doing an EFL course online and tutoring as temporary work. I will publish my essays here. The word limit is 700 words and it feels constrictive at times, maybe I will edit them in my free time.

(c) Malia Autio 2011, please cite if the information is used anywhere


New Teacher Pitfalls: Making the Most of Teacher Talking Time

On Teacher Talk Time: Why and How to Avoid It

Teacher Talk Time is so important in the training of educators, especially in the field of EFL, that it has received its own abbreviation of TTT. It is important for teachers and teachers-in-training to consider TTT because of the inverse relationship between TTT and STT, STT standing for Student Talking Time. Student talking time in the EFL or foreign language classroom is the time in which students are able to express their ideas and to receive quality feedback from the instructor. They pay for their time in class, thus when it is cut short by teacher-talking-time it becomes a failure of the teacher. Teacher Talk Time is covered early on not only due the importance of increasing student talking time, but also because that excess TTT is the most common error made by inexperienced teachers while experienced teachers continue to consider it. Efforts to reduce TTT should always be made in conjunction with efforts to improve the quality of the teacher’s classroom communication.

The first step to conquering excess TTT is an awareness of the problem and studied patterns of ineffective teacher-talk. The first, and most cited, is echoing. Echoing is the teacher’s repetition of a student’s response, which is detrimental to the students in two ways. One, they are less likely to listen to one another answer questions and remain overly dependent on the teacher in all class exercises in general. Second, even when answering an open ended question a student may be discouraged from continuing to respond. A far more effective use of teacher talking time would be to provide positive response (yes, good), or provide further questioning. (Springer, 2009) Ilene Springer’s article provided the example of asking “What did you do this weekend?” If a student were to answer “I went to a movie,” the teacher would not ask, “You went to a movie?” But rather, “Where? With who? What movie?” to continue the line of questioning and provide more effective modeling to students. A student may continue to talk, and others will be more likely to be motivated to participate as well.

Other notably noxious forms of teacher talking include self-talk and filling up silence. (Springer 2009) Excess self talk (the teacher talking about him or herself) can easily be eliminated in favor of solid lesson planning and class time to cover new material. Filling up the silence occurs when the teacher completes student sentences at the slightest pause before allowing the student to complete his or her idea. The inexperienced teacher must learn to increase their patience with and faith in the students to reach a satisfactory response when given the appropriate amount of time. When students are given time to express their thoughts completely, the teacher can better assess strengths and weaknesses for future lesson and assignment planning. The video included in the TEFL online lesson included the suggestion of keeping a class journal of common student errors. Such errors will not be observed and learned from if students are not given the opportunity to make those errors in the first place.

With the most notorious of the forms of non-constructive teacher-talk eliminated, the teacher may shift the focus to developing quality communication with students. Directions and explanations should always be as clear and concise as possible. Some specific examples of constructive teacher talk include: explaining and modeling usage of new vocabulary and grammar forms, modeling the days tasks and exercises, retelling student stories (after they are completed, of course), and eliciting responses—which is essentially providing casual chatting to the student that allows them to exercise new forms while reinforcing past learning as they are given enough class time and are given time to use their recall skills. (Ammaranas2005 2010) Excessive teacher talking should always be avoided, but at the same time it does not dismiss the roles the teacher must fulfill when he or she does speak.

Sources:

Ammaranas2005, (2010, June 19). Avoid teacher talking time for a better classroom [Web log

message]. Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/ammaranas2005/avoid-

teacher-talking-time-a-better-classroom

Springer, Ilene. (2009, December 30). How to reduce teacher talk time in efl classes [Web log

message]. Retrieved from

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2521739/how_to_reduce_teacher_talk_time_in_pg

2.html?cat=4

On the Role of Teachers

My inspirational teacher (bottom right corner)

The most important part of EFL, to me, in any country is fulfilling my duties as a teacher.

Thus, in every capability, I am working on improving myself as a teacher. So currently I am doing an EFL course online and tutoring as temporary work. I will publish my essays here. The word limit is 700 words and it feels constrictive at times, maybe I will edit them in my free time.

(c) Malia Autio 2011, please cite if the information is used anywhere

Role of the Teacher

Section 1.2 highlights many of the roles teachers fulfill as well as their positive qualities. In their main functions, teachers are lecturers, counselors, and great organizers who should always be prepared. The avoidance of excess teacher talking, interrupting students, and over-planning for them should is important to maximize the positive traits. To introduce these qualities and potential trouble areas for instructors in a practical manner, I would like to introduce two experiences with teachers I had during my life as a student.

A great teacher of mine was my high school Japanese teacher. She fulfilled her role as lecturer, counselor, and organizer—as well as exceeding these expectations in many areas. I always felt she was wholly invested in educating her students and helping them achieve their dreams. Class was well organized and we learned through many different formats. She integrated lecturing, listening, and reading and she consistently monitored our progress through providing warm-up activities that stressed continuity as they subtly forced us to think about material we had long since finished. She was always personable and organized, and was never overly serious about the subject. Her teacher talking was brief, informative, and made colorful by cultural references that were, from time to time, familiar—such as integrating pop-icons from Japan that had also had some impact in the US, while sometimes she asked us to push our comfort zones by encouraging us to do research on more challenging and unfamiliar topics.

One role of the teacher that section 1.2 does not mention is Integrator, or the trait of being integrative. Japanese did not feel like an untouchable experience to the students in class. Frequently she invited us to take part in community events such as the local Japanese speech contest. She encouraged us to find pen-pals, or go to community restaurants and venues reflecting the culture, and helped guide us to those connections where it may be daunting for students to find those connections alone. She made herself available during lunch-time and played recorded videos, television shows, and music from her home country. These activities I felt made the subject seem real and the subject became engaging to most students who took the class. When students felt like the subject had a connection to their life, they became motivated to continue to study past the two year language requirement for graduation.

College organic chemistry lecture was a completely different experience. I took two courses of it and experienced two poor educators. The situation was much exacerbated by the tremendous class size of upward of 330 students. Our professors tended to go by the book in both lecture and exercises. We prepared for multiple choice tests and had very little contact with our professors. At office hours or test review sessions there could be upwards of 100 students sitting before the teacher. They were not horrible instructors, always seemed as rushed and hurried and their attitudes definitely transferred into my experience in their classes. When the teacher’s attitude is not confident, students lose confidence in the teacher. It also gives them a sense that the teacher is inapproachable, and based on my experience I agree with Section 1.2 that approachability is a key trait for a teacher as it encourages the student to fulfill their duty to engage and ask questions honestly.

The classes also did not offer any sense of community, as students were not actively encouraged to seek one another’s help. This would help them act independently of the professor. I realize how much the sense of community in the classroom and feeling tied to my peers helped me to succeed in many different fields of study in high school. Even in the university, my performance was much better in classes where peer discussion was encouraged.

Overall, my experiences give me a sense of the role I seek to fulfill as a teacher. I may find myself to be 15% lecturer, and definitely incorporate integration of subjects and knowledge into my classes through the role of counselor and guide, approximately 20% of my efforts. The rest of the energy I will invest in uniting students with effective materials and lesson plans.

Real Live Classroom Videos

People can't take shots like these in class anymore, it's illegal because of the issues of people not wanting to be broadcasted, but these must have been taken before it was banned. These classroom shots are a great resource.

Thank you Daniel-sensei!

http://www.youtube.com/user/danierusensei

The Big EFL Resource Link Repository

Here are my selections. They are defined as FREE or FEE as indicated.

This is a work in progress as long as this blog is continued.

FREE

Daves ESL Cafe (this site has been recommended by the current company I work for, and many other places)

http://www.eslcafe.com/

http://www.onestopenglish.com/

http://www.englishclub.com/

Total ESL.com: Kind of disorganized, but there are some job listings and resources there.

http://totalesl.com

How to teach English in Japan

http://www.how-to-teach-english-in-japan.com/seiha-english-academy.html

ESL Resources for Children and Young Learners:

Other Helpful Sites About ESL for Young Learners:

Everything ESL.net

http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/pre_school_information_99051.php

ESL Songs and Ideas for Young Learners

Good for ideas but the sitemaster is promoting her book and CD

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/eslsongs.htm#CD1

Rong-Chang.com, ESL, EFL For Children

http://www.rong-chang.com/kids.htm

ESL: Why Games, Stories, and Movement Activities Work

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/Teaching_ESL_Preschool_Ideas_and_Tips_for_Successful_Classes.htm

Advice for Newbies

Source Link: http://www.121sensei.com/teaching-job-japan.html There are some good links for job listing sites there, but most things having to do with class materials are just suckering you into sites that want you to pay to access their resources. There are too many free resources available to bother with this. In the lessons

Punctuality is always good. Teachers rushing in late and having to compose themselves is a hassle. Having your lesson plans and teaching materials ready before your students arrive makes you look prepared and eager. Ease into the lesson with some small talk to get your students to relax. Speak slowly and clearly. Choose user friendly topics. Basically if it's not something you would talk about with your granny then it may not be appropriate to teach in a lesson. Grade your speech to your students level and try to be sensitive to signs that may indicate that they don't understand, e.g: avoiding eye contact, going quiet, pained quizzical expressions. Doing a brief review of the last lesson can help identify problems they may have. It also shows that you're keen. Teachers may want to keep lesson records. When possible, teachers should try to incorporate the theme of the chosen lesson into the warm up. Throw in a few comprehension checks along the way as students often say they understand when they actually don't. Allow a bit of time at the end of the lesson for a warm down, and ask students if there are any questions about the lesson. Homework can be fun (?), even in the form of quizzes and word games. Make sure you know the answers though. Final points... Schedule the next lesson... Get paid... Don't forget your student's name!