Keeping the young ones under control...

hurricane · Post by **hurricane** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 6:03 am

Hi,
I've been teaching in Korea for seven months and all is good, but have slowly managed to lose control of one class of 7 year olds... has anyone got any good advice for keeping things interesting and fun for the kids while still managing to work through the textbook each day as the school wants? I'm finding that if I stick to the book they're bored as hell, but if I start playing english games which work with other classes, to make it fun for them they lose the plot and with little or no english soon start messing around and the room becomes a bomb site.
Any help would be great
Cheers!
Mike

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:33 am

If you have a routine they come to know they seem to be more easily managed. You can establish it now, even though you have had them for a long time. Post the routine on the wall somewhere with times even if it is with pictures and the face of a clock with English words besides. Greetings are good at the beginning, using their names. You can use songs, "Where is Michiko? Here I am?" Keep the song going quickly. The Let's Go Picture Dictionary has a tape I think with these songs. They can hide under their desk until you call them up. You can then do weather and the date and have a calendar they can fill in each day with sunny, rainy, etc and there is a song for that too. You could put it on the inside cover of their textbook to fill out each day. Then the page of the textbook they have to cover. Then a game that uses the words on that textbook page and reviews previous pages. You can make bingo with pictures of the words to be learned, you can have memory games with cards of the pictures of the words, you can play Kim's game and have pictures on a poster , let them see them for 10 seconds and cover them and they have to write down as many as they can remember, you can hide cards around the room while one person hides their eyes but the rest see where you put them and they call out "hot" or "cold" as the student gets near the card, and so on. Keep the games to the target words though so they get to experience them over and over. Every once in awhile, have a free day and put the games out so they can review them in small groups. Make pictures of them doing the action words and any classroom commands you want them to learn and practice them in a Simon Says type format - Simon Says that Ulla should open the window. Simon Says that Ivalu should close the door. Of course, the sooner that you turn over "being the teacher" so they give the commands the more fun it is and more learning that goes on. If things get out of control play a quiet game that brings them back to their seats - Change Three is our favourite. A student stands on the teacher's desk and the kids look carefully at their clothes. Then all the students hide their eyes and the student on the desk changes three things - takes off a ring, changes their hair style, undoes a zipper. They take turns saying what is changed and the third person comes up to take the change role. This is when you learn names of clothes of course. To end off the period play quiet English songs they can hum along to and draw the words of the day. Some children say they can't draw but they can trace the pictures in the book or some picture dictionary and colour them in. It is a good time to go around the room and talk to them individually. Every time they want to say something to another child in Korean write that down on the board (or get the best student to write it down for you) and translate it to English and then add it to your posters of things they can say. Have a word wall and put the most difficult words up there and add some really hard ones. Mine love "hippopotamus". You can chant them like a rap. Use lots of stickers (get someone to send you tons from home) and put stickers on their books for good work, stickers on a poster with their names on it for good behaviour, stickers on their foreheads if they are doing well. Send notes home with the good ones. Smile at the good ones. Put up a mirror in your classroom and check your expression every once in awhile and write smile on the bottom and then look around for the one kid that is doing well and smile at them. Put a form in the back of the textbook with a kind of test for each lesson that the parents can do - how fast can they say the words, how fast can they spell the words and have the parents test them each week and sign the form. Give them a diploma when they know five pages perfectly. Learn lots and lots of songs with lots of actions - rap routines or a little dance - and sing and sing in the times that you run through the lesson too quickly. You can make posters of the words of the songs If the other teachers don't want you have posters in the classroom put them on the roof, and all lie down and sing. The good kids can do the posters and make them pretty while you work a little extra with the poorer ones. They can make games to practice the words - path games, snakes and ladders type games, with the words along the way. Write simple stories once they have the words and take a picture of one of the kids to illustrate it and make a poster of it and then keep them to review. "This is Ilanguaq. He has brown hair. He has a nice nose. He has three eyes, two blue and one brown (we drew in the extra eye)." Make trick pictures - someone lying on the floor "juggling" all the pencil cases in the class, someone crawling up the brick floor so when the pictures is printed it looks like spiderwoman crawling up a wall, someone throwing a huge stone (the stone is held in front of the camera while the child holds up his arms in the distance and then make a poster story, a child with four legs, a child with no head (taken from the back with head bowed and the head of child with long hair on the desk beside them. Make a movie. Show them behaving well and learning and then show them in chaos. Get your principal in to see them behaving well. Ask the parents from time to time to sit in on the lesson and talk to the kids about their jobs or show them something in English or show them something while you describe it in English. Snag all your visiting English friends and get them in to show the kids pictures or tricks or songs. Show them movies and point out the words in the textbooks. Good luck.

EFLwithlittleones · Post by **EFLwithlittleones** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:35 am

I don't know what your resources are but I remember a similar situation in my school (Thailand). Grade 1 students find the book boring essentially because they find sitting down reading for extended periods boring. At any rate here's a science idea which will give them an abundance of target language. For brevity I have kept descriptions very brief but I hope it gives you a good picture. The central teaching dynamics of group and individual work, 4 skill use and physical activity are adaptable across most topic areas.

The topic is 'Insects', sub-topic; 'Butterflies', theme; 'My Amazing Butterfly'. Children will produce in groups a poster illustrating their 'amazing' butterfly. It can have any ammount of legs, bodies and wings, it can be any combination of colours. Basically it can be anything the group decide they want it to be. The fact that it is a butterfly will be determined by preceding lessons.

Lesson leader: TPR; Children act out different actions round the classroom eg. Fluttering wings, balancing on their chairs, 'waking up' (like a new butterfly) Lesson 1: Photos or realia for butterflies and other insects and at the board discussions. Lesson 2 Drawings by you on the whiteboard plus descriptions and identification of various body parts. Lesson 3: Worksheets; Children following listening instructions to draw butterflies. Lesson 4: Worksheets; Children read instructions to draw butterflies. Lesson 5: 'Amazing' butterflies you have drawn illustrate what is possible (10 legs, 6 wings, pink and blue stripes etc.) excite children's ideas. Lesson 6: Children draw their own ideas and compare work. Lesson 7: Children grouped and given A2 sheet to create their 'Amazing Butterfly'. Lesson 8: Display+Presentation; Children display work, describe what they have done and air opinions about each other's work. These 'lessons' are not intended to be specific to any class period, you can decide the staging yourself.

Throughout each lesson stage you will be bringing children from their desks to the board to point things out, finish pictures, match language with drawings etc. You will have time to check each child for their language use and learning. You can also think about giving individual children specific responsibilities at the group work stage by electing 'scribes' and 'talkers', depending on student strengths and weaknesses. There is a whole area to do with insect metamorphosis which holds potential I haven't included here.

Within this series of lessons are most of the dynamics which I have found stimulate children of this age. Moving them about is important and enabling them to feel that they are making a contribution to a group effort is also vital. I don't tend to use games much beyond a specific language focus. You should hopefully find that this kind of structure has a blue print quality about it as well which can enable you to provide for a wide variety of learning outcomes your school will be more than happy about.

Sallam

crow · Post by **crow** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 6:27 am

I teach the same age group in Japan, (though we have no textbook) and here's what I have found keeps them focused- changing the activity constantly. So, first a warm up activity, then a song, review yesterday's lesson, play a short game, learn the new target, play another game, and so forth like that. As long as the activity keeps changing, they will have to focus. I also like to follow a pattern of up-down-up-down, so they are never at their desks for too long. With seven year olds I try to keep each activity about 10 minutes long, which can be really tiring for the teacher. If the kids are really interested, I'll let it go longer.

hurricane · Post by **hurricane** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:06 am

Thanks very much for the tips guys, much appreciated. Will try and implement some of them for this week, they've been a big help. Cheers!

musica5 · Post by **musica5** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:50 am

Try some music.. Go to http://members.shaw.ca/pamsouthwell for CDs that have been used by ESL teachers in Taiwan, and Japan. They are perfect for the age group you are having problems with. there are also lesson plans for the songs if you need them, The Five Little Finger Rhymes cd was especially good with kids your age. Actions the kids are engaged in. The cd has all the lyrics and the actions as well.

Good Luck