Job Discussion Forums

[lechatbleu]

I've been asked to take an individual lesson with a 3 year old. Most of my experience has been in teaching adults, so I'm not the ideal one to do it, but it worked out that I'm the only person who is free at the time the mom requested. So in the first lesson last week, we sang a song, got the kid to name some colors, and drew pictures. Then the mom announced that I was not being strict enough and the poor kid needed to sit at the desk and work for the entire hour. Any ideas for keeping the kid engaged (and not inspiring a lifelong hatred of English) and satisfying the mom that she's learning?

[nomad soul]

[santi84]

Oh good grief I admit I drank too much coffee when pregnant, but I simply wouldn't expect mine to sit more than 5 minutes.

It sounds like mom does not understand that children this age "learn through play". Perhaps you can explain to her how research about TPR, song, art, and other preschool materials shows that children this age benefit far more from interactive play than from structured learning like adults (and even that is debatable!).

I'm sorry, I don't know the cultural implications of where you are teaching, but even my Korean mothers did not expect a 3 year old to sit and study for half that time.

The lesson you gave was great, good job for someone who is inexperienced at teaching children!

In order to "balance" mom's expectations, perhaps adding a quiet circle time would help. It would involve the child sitting and engaging in books, but obviously include the toys and songs as well. I don't know. I can't get mine to sit during circle time.

Are you familiar with the format of an 18-36 month circle time? If not, I can share some info.

[lechatbleu]

Sorry, I should have said- I'm in Russia and this is definitely not the standard culture. All the classes I've observed for kids have been mostly playing and singing, so I think this is just a particularly intense mom.

Not familiar at all with the format of an 18-36 month circle time, and would love any info I can get.

[santi84]

Preschool circle/story times are very easy to adapt to ESL learners

Most of my materials are in book/note form (Teaching Children English by Vale is a good book based mostly on practical ideas rather than theory) but here are some good online links that I use.

*On a personal note, as a mother, I find circle/story time to be very helpful for second language learning. I take my son to a local French circle time once per week. It is a shame that this mother does not seem to wish to participate in it as well. I'm even improving my French because of it

Here is a comprehensive explanation of circle time (the general concept rather than ESL-specific):
http://teachmetotalk.com/2011/02/15/making-circle-time-successful/

And here are some more links
http://voices.yahoo.com/activities-toddlers-10-fun-circle-time-songs-5004112.html (Best songs to use)

http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=444
(I Spy can help with colours & vocabulary)

http://www.bayviews.org/storytime.html
(A comprehensive list of books for themed concepts)

[Shroob]

When teaching children, parents can be the biggest pain. I'd also do what Santi84 suggested (explain your methods to the parent). Though that didn't work for me.... I used to teach a pair of children and it almost killed me. Not the children, they were good as gold, but the demanding parents. I told them I'd had enough after 4 lessons, it wasn't worth it. The parent had similar demands to what you are experiencing ("strict", serious lesson, involving lots of drilling and repetition, no songs or games as "they aren't here to have fun").

[Xie Lin]

Yikes! The mother of this poor child needs to learn something about child development, in particular how developmental stages relate to learning. Of course, you may not want to be the one to tell her that three-year-olds do not learn best in the way that she wants you to teach. Do you have administrative support, or are you pretty much on your own?

.

[naturegirl321]

I had similar problems when I taught a 4 year old and a 5 year old. The mother of the 5 year old was an English teacher to boot. Expected him to sit for an hour. He could barely sit for 5 minutes. The results speak for themselves though. Just keep doing what you're doing, kids learn. After 2 months of tutoring the 5 year old who had no English, he was able to get accepted to the best international school in the country. Only then did his mother realise I knew what I was doing.

Kids aren't like adults. They can't sit still. And they aren't goign to speak from the get go. They're like like sponges that absorb the language until they start leaking it. When they do it's often full sentences or paragraphs. Parents have to be patient. All too often they're not though and end up firing the teacher or going to a different insittute.

[HLJHLJ]

As has been said, in terms of activities, all you can do is continue as you are. The only other thing I would suggest is to have a loose theme for each lesson (colours, numbers, animals, size, shape, food, etc etc). Have each activity touch on the theme in some way. The mother may still dislike the activities, but it will make the aim of each lesson clearer to her, and make it easier for you to argue your case. It's good practice anyway, because it means the child gets lots of opportunity for repetition in different contexts.

[Chancellor]