Job Discussion Forums

[Tom_Colby]

Hi everyone,

I start a summer job next week, teaching italian students for 3 hrs a day on a one-to-one basis, and was wondering if anyone had any advice on where I could look for lesson ideas etc.?

I have a coursebook to follow, it's more about getting into the mindset of teaching one person as opposed to a class, and any ideas on adapting material.

I did try to do a search on here but it wouldn't work, so if there's a post already on the board I apologise, and perhaps someone could point me towards it?

Cheers!

[naturegirl321]

depends on the level. BUt I found that vanda51.blogspot.com has GREAT free worksheets. so do the following

www.eslbase.com
www.onestopenglish.com
http://www.businessenglishonline.net/InCompany/worksheets.htm
www.englishclub.com
www.esl-lounge.com
www.bogglesworld.com

Another thing, ask the student what they want to learn,
take breaks!
incorporate different things, like grammar, listening, reading, writing, role plays, vocab into the lesson.

With the course book, it's good to have a base, but some things might be hard because they are supposed to be done in small groups.

[nickpellatt]

I dont know the nature of your summer job, or the nature of the lessons either ... but if its quite casual, and the students like the idea, I would be tempted to include some Scrabble in that 3 hours.

I have played it a lot with students in China, on a casual basis away from class. Its a great game from them to think about the language they know, and also for them to start thinking about the relationships letters may have within words in English. (They are allowed to use a dictionary to search for words to play ... if they had C and H on their tile, I steer them towards thinking about how those letters may work together in the formation of words).

You can help them by eliciting words you can see on their rack .... and without fail they learn one of two new words that they like to make notes on for using later.

And the final thing...its actually fun! If it fits into your job role and the students needs ... its a great game to play.

[Betti]

Hello. If you're following a course book, you're probably just looking for supplementary material. The links in the previous posts are all good especially eslbase which has a selection of board games which go down well with all ages and levels of students. Take a look at the English File extras in www.oup.com. Onestop is also good for Reward materials which are great for communciation skills.

Having taught in Italy for the past 4 years, the one thing they really miss out on is conversation so any exercises that improve this skill would be welcome. For this reason board games work well. Although you will need to plan ahead, it takes a couple of lessons to get to know your student, from then on it becomes easier to tailor the lessons to the individual. Breaking news (website) also has listening and comprehension lessons and I often use the internet to pick out an interesting or unusual news story. I pull relevant photos off the net and get the student to describe what they see and then try and guess what the story is. I don't know where you're from (I'm English), but this is a great way to introduce the positive and negative aspects of a different country.

Another thing: you will get through material much quicker with an individual student than you would with a group, so make sure you are well prepared. I agree with the previous poster - take breaks! Good luck.

[Tom_Colby]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the advice, it's incredibly useful!

Originally I was supposed to be teaching him for 3hrs each morning Monday to Friday, but the school have asked if I'll do 6hrs on a Monday and one day off.

I'm totally new to one-to-one (other than some training courses and very short periods helping children) but isn't 6hrs in a row a VERY long time for someone to be taking in new info, especially a 14 year old?

I had some tutoring for maths when I was around that age, and 2hrs seemed like a long time, if I'd done 6 I think my brain would've melted!!

[Glenski]

naturegirl's advice holds for one on one lessons or groups.

I think the most important thing one has to consider for one on one lessons is that you may end up speaking far more than with a group, even with a pair of students. Try NOT to!

That will be hard, and you must find ways to structure your lessons to accommodate the student (hence the good advice of needs analysis, but you still need to be careful here because so many students will just answer, "I want to learn everything possible").

One caveat I can offer is this: if the student is likable, the lesson will go well, and you may even become good friends. If the student is NOT, then each minute will drag on, and you will wish that either of you could quit. Get to know as much as possible about the student beforehand to avoid the latter.

One on one lessons afford the student a chance to learn far more, even with time fillers, but the student still needs training, which means they must provide output with corrective feedback. Lessons need to be varied a lot to avoid boredom and frustration, and to give you and them a physical break without breaking (much) from the actual teaching.

SIX HOURS!? Forget it! How much is your time worth?

[santi84]

Six hours of one on one lessons Too much. I find that even two hours is a struggle.

[naturegirl321]

[Tom_Colby]

Well the school's been running for years, and a lot of these students are coming back again after apparently learning a lot the last time, so hopefully they know what they're doing!

The minimum lesson will be 3hrs, so I'll have to plan a variety of activities to keep him awake!

[mister tom]

i have been teaching for a few years now and when you mentioned a six hour teaching session i nearly had a fit at the thought of it

but if as you say the school is well established and successful and they do know what they are doing then it makes me think about what your role might be

i can picture someone being hired to basically 'hang out' with the child, making sure he's ok, much like a baby sitter would do - then all the communication with the child would be in english, and the child would learn as they would from a parent

just a guess

[Glenski]

[naturegirl321]

I don't think it's for kids. At least I hope not. The kids thing was for me. Anyways, I still think you need breaks. the longest class I had was 2.5 hours, and in the middle of the day, no AC and 100 degrees, it was hard for the teachers not to fall asleep

One more thing, about asking students what they want to learn. It sometimes backfires, they can say that all they want to learn is how to swear. And if you aks them what they want to do, I've had students say sleep

[Glenski]

[nickpellatt]

I agree with mister tom who has posted above, and I wonder if this job is similar to ones my student organisation offer within a summer school. They have school age kids who stay with host families, who have an option to have teaching in what they call 'mini-groups'. These are taken in a teachers home, and are classes of up to 5 students, for 3 hours daily.

I guess that you have been asked to do 6 hours on monday because he (the student) has booked a tennis course or similar on a tuesday, but has also booked a 'course' of X lessons per week. To make these hours up, (and keep the parents who pay for the trip sweet) you need to see him longer on mondays.

The teachers who take these courses are not IELTS qualified exam teachers, and some of them are not even TEFL qualified. Many are students themselves and take this work as a summer job. On that basis, these lessons are not like the private one to ones that some people may take, and are unlike the one to ones organised within professional schools.

People I have worked with who have done this type of teaching have used board games extensively. They have watched TV shows or movies, and have even had the students in the kitchen cooking and preparing food, or gone shopping with them. I could be wrong, but Im guessing your role will be the same, or similar.

I do think you need to prepare some lesson material, and use the book if you have one ... but you also need to use other activities to keep the student happy and to fill the massive time slot you have.

I have mentioned Scrabble already earlier in the thread. This can be fun and has a learning English element to it. Preparing food or cooking sounds like its taking the p**s but you can also use this from a learning curve to practise sequence adverbs (first, next, and then, finally etc) as well as vocabulary in the kitchen.

TV shows or movies can also be used with a learning curve. I thought using the TV show LOST might be OK. Watch for 10 mins, pause and ask questions. Ask about the characters (using adjectives), ask what has happened so far (using past tenses) ask for student to predict what will happen in the future etc.

Using this format you could do something formal from the book for an hour, then play a game for an hour...and watch LOST for the last hour. Thats the 3 hour slot used with some effective language learning, and some fun activities too.

People might say to run a mile from this type of job, but if it is similar to mine, then it isnt all bad. I get offered lots of work, I always get paid on time, and I never get let down at the last minute or messed about by my company. If you are new to EFL, it may also give you chance to practise and experiment without the pressure of handing in formal lesson plans and being observed etcetc.

interested to hear how you get on with this.

[Glenski]