Job Discussion Forums

[jesse27]

Hello all,

I'm a recent arrival here in Guangdong province, Shunde city. I'm teaching first and second grade students, and while I love the kids, I'm having some difficulties. All my prior ESL experience (which is only limited to the last six months) has been with adults. As I'm learning the hard way, working with small children in large classes (around fifty) is much different than working with adults.

A few things I'd appreciate some suggestions on from those who have some experience:

How do you keep kids this age focused?
How do you work with such a large class while still giving individual attention?
How do you maintain discipline while still allowing kids to be kids?

Another thing I might add: I am the ORAL english teacher. The school has a few Chinese english teachers who spend time with them in evening tutoring sessions, as well as assign homework. I don't do these things; the administration has, in fact, asked me not to assign homework, or have them do any in-class writing at all. No homework is fine by me, it makes my job easier, and I understand why they wish to have me constantly speaking in class, and not having the students do any quiet-time writing (they are very concerned about student pronunciation and therefore asked that every class be a speaking class).

I'd appreciate any help. My Chinese colleagues have given as much help and support as they can, and the kids are great, I want to do the best job I can with them, but I'm sort of struggling at the moment, and thought that other foreign teachers input would do me some good.

Thanks,
Jesse

[mmm... pancakes]

Yikes! 50 kids! That's an awful lot of young ones.

I'll try my best to answer those questions you've posted, one-by-one. I'm by no means an expert, just bear that in mind.

Keeping kids focussed. Kids need to be kids, and do kiddie things. Play games, have fun, smile, move and absorb. So how does that relate to teaching English?:
1. Use speaking activities that involve a team. Things like: Vocabulary tennis. Assuming you've done colours: Divide the class into two teams, and assign each a number. Write the numbers on the board. Choose Team 1, who has to give you the name of any colour. Anyone in Team 1 can put up their hand. Once someone in Team 1 has given you a colour, choose someone in Team 2. Continue like this until one team can't think of any more colours. Give them a countdown from five, then give the OTHER team a point. Now change the category to something like animals. The 'winning' team from the last round goes first, giving you the name of an animal, then the other team, etc. This is a good way to a) keep almost every member of the team interested, b) test individual students (since you, the teacher, can control who gets to try each time), c) review and expand vocab (it's always nice when someone says a word you haven't taught them!), and d) have fun.
The team with the most points at the end is the winner, and gets a round of applause from the other team.

2. Use activities where the children must move around. For example, chop up parts of a sentence and hide them around the room. Divide the class into small groups, and assign each group a sentence that they must find. THe kids stand up and go searching for the words they need. This is good to a) keep the kids moving, b) keep English in the kids' head, and c) keep the impetus of competition strong, so the kids are motivated.

Giving individual attention. This is almost impossible with the large group you have, but you can try. If you give the kids worksheets or something, as they fill them in you can go around the class and speak with the students individually. Or you can play a game where you get to speak one-on-one with a student, while others are doing something constructive. One such activity is 3-piece. To play 3-piece:
Give each kid three pieces of paper/cards/whatever. They, on your command, will stand up and find a partner. In pairs they say the target language (something like:"What colour do you like?" "I like blue. What colour do you like?" "I like yellow."), then do paper-scissors-rock. The winner takes a piece of paper/card/whatever from the loser, then they go off to find another partner. At the end of the assigned time, the kids sit back down and count their paper. Those with the most paper win. This activity a) allows you to play and thereby test the kids yourself, b) allows kids to move around, c) lets the kids talk with their peers, d) is fun, and e) can be as long or as short as you need it to be!

How do you maintain discipline while still allowing kids to be kids? Again, there's no magic trick here. It's just something you need to consider when planning your lesson: Are the kids being allowed to be kids? By doing those things that I mentioned above (play games, have fun, smile, move and absorb) in each lesson, you're doing all you can. Remember also that kids learn in different ways, and while moving is good for some kids, others learn better by sitting and writing (for example). Try to include a little of every learning type in your lesson.
My main method for maintaining discipline is to follow this order:
1. The naughty child stands up. If they behave better, they can sit. If not:
2. The naughty child cannot participate in the next fun thing. If they get better, go back to 0. If not:
3. The naughty child comes to stand/sit at the front of the class. If they get better, go back to 0. If not:
4. The naughty child stands outside for a length of time dependent upon their behaviour. This isn't great, because it means they are missing out on learning, but sometimes there's no other choice.
If they are still misbehaving after that, I talk to their parents. If it STILL doesn't improve, I talk to the principal. I've only had to do that once.
Sometimes in a bad class, half a dozen kids will be standing up at one point, but only the really naughty kids remain standing for any length of time. It's mainly the fact that other students think/say "Ah-ha, the teacher told you off!".

My general philosophy is that the kids
1. Have fun
2. Have fun learning English
3. Want to learn English in the future
4. Learn some English.

The parents have different priorities, but they're mine.

Like I said, I'm no expert, and I'm only offering you this advice based on my own experiences.

And sorry for breaking the forum word-count allowance.

Good luck,

pancakes

[jesse27]

Hi Pancakes,

Thanks for all your help, your suggestions were great, and very useful. I'll try to incorporate them as best I can.

[Roger]

I know how you feel as I have been in the same vise position as you a couple of times, including a stint in a Shunde school. Nice little town, but schools are so hopeless...

This demonstrates how wrong-footed the concept of hiring native speakers is! You should be allowed to make your students take notes.

There isn't much else but to go for games indeed. The question remains: can you keep up until the end of your contract term? Games are not always welcomed by your colleagues and headmasters. I second pancake's suggestions; try to get hold on a manual with educational games; I could make photocopies of some contained in a book I have in my possession.

Another hint: try to find out what their English teacher is currently covering, and try to use that in your clases!

My sympathies...

[vikdk]

Pancakes in what century did you take your teaching degree? Make children stand up � send them out of the class � make a fool out of the individual � do by any chance make them write a 100 lines of � I love Victorian style discipline�???
A class is to be viewed as a whole � one child misbehaves then the class is responsible � after all doesn�t this reflect a major principle of life in the caring harmonious society - we don�t segregate the deviant but all take a common share in integration and inclusion of that person. That�s why, back home, we�re all punished by the taxation that pays for the prisons, which theoretically should be rehabilitating criminals.

A principle that is so important in the west � the school teacher is also a social educator � also holds fast here, even if culture and language do get in the way. So if your classroom micro society starts to act up � forget the English � start teaching your classroom rules - but as in society make the whole class resposible for them.

I know this philosophy is tad na�ve when considering a class of 50 young hoodlums � but the principle still holds fine if you have a big enough carrot to dangle before them � the carrot being good classes. Think in terms of edutainment � making sure you get a good balance between the two elements. Games are a great idea � going over what the Chinese teachers are doing� but just make it more entertaining, a great idea. If the discipline goes to pot, make them all pay - take the entertainment out of the class for all of its pupils � explaining why you�re doing it. If you�re a good teacher they�ll soon want their carrot back.

I�ve had the privilege of teaching certain children here for over 2 years, and know from hard experience that creating an orderly but caring Chinese classroom is quite a task � and above all takes time. So be patient � just by writing in here shows you care � maybe in the near future you�ll get a pleasant surprise.