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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:47 am Post subject: surviving the summer course - advice? |
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looking for tips on getting through summer course with minimum prep and maximum efficiency... want to get a good, workable approach, which will take the preparation-pressure off, so i can focus on teaching.
it's a four-week summer school in july, 16-20 year olds, probably working with students intermediate to advanced, class size 10-15, 90 minute classes. students from spain, russia, china, japan, sweden, germany, ukraine, ... and elsewhere.
probably need 30-40 hours of material, to get through the four weeks. standard resources available - cutting edge, headway, english file, innovations, reward & inside out resource packs, etc., and the Internet.
main aim is just to get through it. the priorities for the students are speaking (since they're in britain) and cross-cultural exchange (since they're surrounded by people from around the world). won't just be communicative stuff; also do some input.
thinking of a general template that i can apply, so won't have to plan each day's classes from scratch. e.g., nominate a student at the end of every class, and, at the start of the next class, that student has to do a five-minute show and tell abuot their hometown/home country/funny thing that happened to them, followed by questions from the rest of the class.
no-materials dogme stuff would be particularly appealing
thoughts? (in the meantime, i'll use the search function... ) |
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Dedicated
Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 972 Location: UK
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: Re :summer course |
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Hi Wulfrun,
I'd be very surprised if 16-20 year olds from China and Japan would be more than low pre-intermediate, with very weak listening and speaking skills, whereas the Swedes and Germans would be much stronger in every skill.
Are you sure the course is not providing materials? Many summer courses (such as Embassy CES) have it all prepared, and the students are streamed. Remember the students are " on holiday" so will not want to do much " heavy" grammar, but more listening to songs etc and filling in the blanks................can you play the guitar?? Always popular.
Incidentally, one of the best summer courses I did as DOS/Centre Manager was based at the Royal School in Wolverhampton.....great accommodation and food, and a decent bunch of young teachers.
Good luck! |
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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:54 am Post subject: Re: Re :summer course |
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Dedicated wrote: |
Hi Wulfrun,
I'd be very surprised if 16-20 year olds from China and Japan would be more than low pre-intermediate, with very weak listening and speaking skills, whereas the Swedes and Germans would be much stronger in every skill.
Are you sure the course is not providing materials? Many summer courses (such as Embassy CES) have it all prepared, and the students are streamed. Remember the students are " on holiday" so will not want to do much " heavy" grammar, but more listening to songs etc and filling in the blanks................can you play the guitar?? Always popular.
Incidentally, one of the best summer courses I did as DOS/Centre Manager was based at the Royal School in Wolverhampton.....great accommodation and food, and a decent bunch of young teachers.
Good luck! |
thanks for the reply. when did you do the course at the royal? who with? let me know if you've an email address or phone number.
i did the course last year, and this is mostly how it is.
like you say, the ss get streamed with a quick test. a lot of the east asians do come out elementary and pre-int, like you say; but some also come out at int and above (still with relatively weak speaking, yes), and i'll be taking those guys.
classes aren't pre-planned. we have pre-planned weekly topics (travel, food, crime, ...), and guides to which chapters in which books cover that topic, so it's mostly a rush of grabbing cutting edge and activities from a resource pack and doing a load of photocopies, hoping it all splices together. |
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Kootvela
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 513 Location: Lithuania
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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Arm yourself with loads of crosswords, wordsearches, poster making materials. |
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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:24 am Post subject: |
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Kootvela wrote: |
Arm yourself with loads of crosswords, wordsearches, poster making materials. |
yep, plenty of those will be on hand.
really, im looking to minimise the cutting-out, photocopying, wondering "how long will this activity last?"
trying to develop some versatile template, which i can reapply in a lot of the classes. have been reading up on the dogme stuff, which is appealing for a summer course - especially in classrooms with several nationalities. on any topic, get them in mixed nationality-pairs and ask them to interview each other: "what food do you eat in your country?", "what crime is there in your country?", "where do people from your country like to go on holiday?", "what do you think are some of the stereotypes abuot people in your country?"; or the old "find three differences and three similarities between food/education/tourism in your two countries". |
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Kootvela
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 513 Location: Lithuania
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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Summer camps are the most uneconomical in terms of copies. Your job is not to teach them but mainly to kill that time they have to spend in your class. If you manage to teach them something at the same time, it's even better.
4 more days to go for my summer camp. |
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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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break a leg. mine starts june 30th, 4 or 5 weeks.
i take what you're saying. |
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SueH
Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: Re: surviving the summer course - advice? |
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wulfrun wrote: |
probably need 30-40 hours of material, to get through the four weeks. standard resources available - cutting edge, headway, english file, innovations, reward & inside out resource packs, etc., and the Internet.
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In that case you are lucky. The summer school I did had fewer up to date materials than I took in the boot of my car! The oldest book I found amongst the random materials was published in 1965! |
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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:40 pm Post subject: Re: surviving the summer course - advice? |
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SueH wrote: |
wulfrun wrote: |
probably need 30-40 hours of material, to get through the four weeks. standard resources available - cutting edge, headway, english file, innovations, reward & inside out resource packs, etc., and the Internet.
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In that case you are lucky. The summer school I did had fewer up to date materials than I took in the boot of my car! The oldest book I found amongst the random materials was published in 1965! |
whew, yes, it would have been nightmarish without all those books. coming from experience in china - where there are no textbooks - it was an education to see and use the range of popular titles. |
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TheLongWayHome
Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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I think the best piece of advice I can give you for that age group is whatever you do in class, keep the pace up. Don't let anything drag. Give them a time limit for each activity and stick to it. Do it from day one. It will make the lessons go so much faster. As Kootvela says, if any actual learning takes place, it will be a bonus. Activities that don't require an explanation of more than 2 minutes are also a bonus. Don't even attempt to explain grammar.
If all else fails play games where they run around a lot with bits of paper stuck to each others backs. |
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Kootvela
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 513 Location: Lithuania
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 7:34 am Post subject: |
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I have a group of 7-9 year olds. There are 30 of them coming and 37 on the official list. Is it wrong just to copy colouring pages and keep them busy for that lesson? It's the last lesson anyway. What do you say? Plus, they LOVE colouring, ask for it every time! |
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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:38 am Post subject: |
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Kootvela wrote: |
I have a group of 7-9 year olds. There are 30 of them coming and 37 on the official list. Is it wrong just to copy colouring pages and keep them busy for that lesson? It's the last lesson anyway. What do you say? Plus, they LOVE clouring, ask for it every time! |
last lesson: anything goes |
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FatFreddieFoxx
Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 24
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wulfrun
Joined: 12 May 2008 Posts: 167
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:32 am Post subject: Re: Summer School Saturnalia |
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yes, sandy m always relevant, the jeremiah of tefl |
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