Job Discussion Forums

[Conor_Ire]

I know it's not a major ask from someone who wants to teach english, but it will be my first time doing this. It's for a junior high school and will be infront of ''The education board'' and a couple of students! I don't really have any experience so i'm kinda nervous about this. Any tips????

[wintersweet]

However much you're planning on doing is probably too much. Focus on something really specific.

[William.]

Totally, try to keep it verrrry simple. "Today we're going to learn how to order food!"

[Mr_Monkey]

Too much!

The names of different foods might work - a vocabulary activity or something, but frankly it's very difficult for anyone to 'learn' anything in 5 minutes.

A one point piece like the difference between 'lend' and 'borrow' could work.

[GIR]

I agree with the others. Keep it really simple. Five minutes is almost no time at all. Plan something about as basic as you can think of, and make sure it can be made simpler should you run out of time. One of the most basic formats for teaching is 1)teach - 2)practice - 3)test (use). A breakdown of that would probably be 1 min./2 min./2 min. Not much time, as you can see.

[purple_piano]

Don't talk much yourself. Try and get your pupils to speak as much as possible. Get them speaking within the 5 minutes.

Smile, stay calm. Speak clearly and don't rush.

Be prepared, bring some visual aids to show that you have planned your lesson and thought about making it interesting.

Good Luck!

[BobbyBan]

You can't actually teach a "lesson" in five minutes. The best you could do is teach a phrase or two, or some vocab.

A five-minute activity in class could be a slam-game. Show the students some flashcards of, say, colours, or animals and have them repeat the names. Put the cards on their desk and gesture for them to put their hands on their heads, then say the name of one of them. The one who slams the card first gets the card. When you have no more cards left the winner calls out the card and the other students (or you, as well) play the game.


Alternatively you could lay the cards out on the floor in a line and have the students stand at either end of the line and play the "river-crossing" game with them hopping on each card and saying the word the card represents until they meet in the middle where they play rock, paper scissors. The loser goes to the end of the line. The winner is whoever makes it all the way across the "river".


Or you could simply teach, "How's it going?" as an alternative to "How are you?" and draw a few faces on the board representing "I'm pretty good", "Not so good", "I'm hungry" and "I'm tired" (instead of "I'm sleepy" which is only ever spoken by five-year-old native English speakers and English teachers who have lived in Japan too long.). Practice the pronunciation by first listen and repeat then simply pointing to the pictures on the board. Then play a kind of ball toss game in which you ask "How are you?" and the S responds and throws to another S. It works better if you have more Ss than just two because then you can introduce another ball or two as the game progresses and it ends up in high-spirited zany madcap fun.

[gwynnie86]

If it's the same thing that I have to do, it's a videoed 5-minute "drill" on either numbers, colours or days of the week. So I guess getting pupil interaction would be difficult in this situations.

For mine, if I... say... bring some coloured pieces of card with me and teach them the names, then "test" them, would it be enough?

[slodziak]

I'd take in some coloured card (green, yellow, blue, red). Try and gauge the level of your students ie. hold up the red card and see if you can elicit "red". If they can't say "red" without a lot of prompting then teach them the colours in a fun way e.g. demonstrate, get them to repeat, when they get good hold up red but say "green" - the students should challenge what your statement by saying the correct colour; if they do so you will have taught them four colours.
If they recognise and can say the colours without much difficulty you could aim to teach them "yes, it is" and "no, it isn't". e.g. hold up "red" and say "is it green?", teach them through repetition "yes, it is" or "no, it isnt'". It may not sound ambitious but for a 5 minute presentation it is.
Teaching them words prepared on a flash card will be risky as they may not be able to read.
Speak slowly, smile and you will be three quarters of the way there.

[Suwon23]

The easiest formula I think is to have the "students" pair up and do drills back and forth. You'd be amazed how quickly five minutes pass by.

Here is an example:

"OK, students, what are some good foods?"
"Why do you like them?"
"What are some bad foods?"
"Why do you not like them?"
Now ask one student "what food do you like?" and "Why," and do the same for "bad food."
Now tell the students to "find a partner," and ask each other what foods they like and don't like, and why, then switch roles.
After a few repetitions, introduce harder vocabulary with leading questions like this:
"You don't like candy because it makes you...?" "Fat!"
"Who makes you eat vegetables?" "Mom!"
More repetitions.
Introduce some more complex sentences if you have time, like "What do you like to eat on vacation?" Always try these out on one student before asking the whole class to perform the question in pairs.
Congratulations, your five minutes are over!

[seklarwia]

[Suwon23]

[Glenski]

Never have students ask/answer "why" in a mere 5-minute lesson. Way too hard.

Demo lessons are done to see if you have a margin of creativity, some idea of how a lesson should be set up, and how well you can manage with students (especially those who know absolutely zero). Your personal chemistry will be the key point, so just try to relax and be yourself, but know as much beforehand how to design a lesson. As mentioned earlier, you're not going to actually get to teaching it in just 5 minutes. Your interviewers know that.

[seklarwia]

[Apsara]