Job Discussion Forums

[gZo]

Does anyone have an idea what to do in a lesson of 55 min. with more then 80 elementary students? I will teach them some colors, animals and fruits.
So far I always had a fun activity on the end of each lesson, but I really don�t know what to do with a class size like that. The hugest size so far was 30 kids. At this school they combined three classes for that lesson. I don�t know if that�s a really good idea and if the students are able to learn something like that.
Does anyone have experience with a situation similar to mine? Do you know any games?
I would appreciate any suggestion.

cheers

[canuck]

How big is the room?

[JimDunlop2]

No problem... You can PM me if you need any additional info, but here's a quick n'dirty guide from someone who does it every day.

First of all, teaching 89 kids is no different than teaching 30 kids. All it means is they are putting two or classes together. You will do nothing different than in a class of 30, but it DOES tend to take a little longer to calm the kids down and get their attention. As for how much the kids can learn -- that depends on the kid.

When you get a group like this, there's a good chance you will be in the gym. If that's the case, ask for a microphone. That way you can be louder than all the kids who are talking at once... It REALLY saves your voice. If you are not in the gym but a playroom or empty classroom, just be sure you have almost everyone's attention before you go on.

Second, is this a regular class you will be teaching? Or is it a one-shot deal? This will make a difference in what you teach and how you teach it.

Third, go to www.genkienglish.net This is where I get most of my materials from.

Fourth, keep things SIMPLE. Don't teach colors, animals and fruits. They will never remember them. Choose one of those three ONLY. That's more than enough. If you introduce an English sentence (question) plus about eight new vocab words, they will have lots to deal with.

Here is a basic lesson plan that I use for grades 1 to 4. I will use animals as the target vocabulary for my example.

1. Greeting. (Eg. Good morning / How are you? )
2. TPR Warmup. (Like Simon says.... using simple actions. See TPR Warmup game on GenkiEnglish).
3. Introduce the new material. In this case: animals. Let's use "Do you have <pets>?" as a vehicle for the vocabulary.
Ask the kids: "What's this?" (showing a picture of a hamster)
"It's a hamster. Do you have a hamster?" (Kids reply "Yes, I do or No, I don't.") If the kids don't know the meaning of these English sentences, now would be the time to explain them. I usually do it quickly in Japanese. You can use a Japanese teacher to help you here as well.
4. Practice asking and answering the questions. If the kids are gr. 3 or 4 you can ask them individually. Eg. "Hiroki, do you have a hamster?" Hiroki: No, I don't.
5. Sing an animal-related song with them. (This is where GenkiEnglish really shines if you have bought their music CDs)...
6. Introduce the game. In this case, I'd use the "Search and Find" game. This too is on the GenkiEnglish website.
7. Since this is such a large class, ensure that all three Japanese homeroom teachers are present and I would run three seperate instances of the game concurrently, with each Japanese classroom teacher being in charge of their respective class.
8. The game takes about 15 to 20 minutes.
9. At the end of the game, declare a winner. I usually give a big round of applause to the GROUP and also to the CLASS that collected the most cards.
10. Ask the kids what they learned. (Eg. Nani wo naratta?) Go over the vocab words and the English sentences one last time.
11. Goodbyes.

All this should fit into a time slot of anywhere between 45-55 minutes. Even if you have 55 minutes, it will amount to no more than 45 because of all the suffling around, and time needed to get things going with such a large group. Be sure you gauge yourself accordingly.

Again, this is just a VERY rough outline, but hopefully something that may be useful to you.

[furiousmilksheikali]

One idea would be to speak to their home-room teachers (or whoever is in charge) before class and have them split the class into groups. One way to do this is to have them sat in their han (these are groups that they will already know). That way if you have any group activities it will be easier for them to split into groups quickly and easily.

One idea is to teach the colours from the front and have the students repeat back chorally. Then you can have the different han compete for who can say the colours best. Then hand out a set of the colours to each han and have them play karuta in their han.

This type of activity can be done with colours, numbers, animals or any other vocabulary group.

[gZo]

Thanks to all of you!
Jim your post helped me out a lot. We had a great time.
Compared to my J.H. Kids, elementary kids are really genki.
It was not hard to motivate them to speak and to participate during the lesson at all! They went of the hook! I started out with some warm up activity and went on from there with my teaching plan.
Later I had to eat lunch with them and they couldn't wait to continue.
Those 2 lessons have been really fun.

cheers

[J.]

I would also second the plan that breaks up the classes into three. With that many kids I doubt everyone can get the full benefit of the lesson. You could make each of the lessons about 20 minutes; that would be enough for one warm up, vocabulary and a game or activity, all based on the same theme.

One idea I like for learning/ reviewing words that you have pictures of is the relay race. Get two cardboard boxes, or plastic buckets from the hyakkuen store and set them up in front of two rows of kids. Then spread the cards in front of each bucket on the floor. You stand at the front and call out one of the words/pictures. The kids run up, try to find it and put it in the bucket, run back, tag the next person in line and then go to the back and sit down. This helps them remember the vocabulary, because it's hands on. I don't let them think too long, but point out the right card if they don't know.( This keeps it from being too stressful.) They learn through repetition, so limit the cards and /or use multiples/ do another round. You have to get the teachers to help them stay in rows and understand how to relay/ they may not have done it, but once they know you can use it for many different things. I do a slo-mo demo of the technique at the beginning of each class until they get it. One of my favourites is colours, using strips of coloured paper for the basic 8 or so colours. They love it AND they learn.