Ideas for private teaching?

[SaratheSlytherin]

The websites I've seen so far are excellent, but I've noticed that most are geared toward classes with multiple students.

I would like to know if anyone knows of a website with a good selection of ideas for private teaching? That's what I'm doing now and I've done research on my own but I'm running out of ideas! I'm new to TEFL, so please be gentle.

Thanks, if you can help.

[mesmark]

Search for one-on-one games, there are loads of ideas out there.

Here's an idea for a Rummy type game.

You can also try the ESL games section on MES-English.com. There are a lot of games on there that are good for one-on-one.

If you have a specific target language you're teaching next, let us know. It's a lot easier to offer ideas for specific points, than general advice without a focal point. (Some activities work better for different target language.)

[TeresaLopez]

One thing I do with my private students is find an interesting newspaper article - this really only works well with Intermediate and up - beforehand I read it and write down any vocabulary words or phrases I think might cause a problem, then a set of information only questions, then a set of opinion questions. First, have the student read the article, paragraph by paragraph, and ask them for any vocabulary words they don't know and explain them. After finishing the article, ask some of your general questions, then read the article again (also, don't forget to correct pronunciation) and after reading it the second time, ask the opinion questions. Depending on the subject you can sometimes get some really good discussions going. Also, find out what your students are interested in, and find articles about that subject. I found out completely by accident that one of my students is a Jethro Tull fan (as am I). Someone wrote a very thoughtful 15 or 16 page research paper on the meaning of "Thick As A Brick" and we spend 2 weeks reading and discussing it! We went off on all kinds of interesting tangents as well. Another activity that some of my students like is to act like they are interviewing someone for a newspaper article, but you are a celebrity of their choosing, and you answer as if you were that person. They have to take notes, and then write a newspaper article based on the interview. Another thing that students find challenging is giving instructions, telling how to make or do something, and giving directions, so I like to practice those. They can either just tell you orally, or you can actually have them do a demonstration. Let the students choose what to do, if they pick something they are interesting in they are more likely to be engaged. Also, if you don't know a lot about the student, here are two websites that have loads of questions, organized by subject

http://iteslj.org/questions/
http://www.esljunction.com/conversation_questions/

This site has news articles with loads of activities that go with the article, really a ready made lesson plan. They aren't so much breaking news stories as human interest stories, very well done.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

Also, you can play guessing games, for example, write the name of a person, place, thing on a card and have your student ask you questions to try to decide who/what it is. Great for practicing questions/adjectives. Think your student won't like games? You might be surprised! I have a couple of older, high ranking executive men who I never thought would like them, but YES, they love them!

[shelleyvernon]

Hi there,

Here's a one to one games book with video demo.

It's for children though some of the ideas are fine for adult beginners.

http://www.homeenglishteacher.com

Shelley