So, has anyone taught any true beginners (meaning absolutely no English, including alphabet)?
My school has a set curriculum to teach them phonetics but only after I go over the alphabet with them over a month. I don't have a planned curriculum for that first month.
My plan is to use a month's time to make sure they all know what the letters of the alphabet are, the names of each letter, and that they can write and identify each one. After that, I will teach them the phonetics.
I've been asked to introduce three letters per week and I have four 2-hour classes per week.
These will be first grade students.
Anyone has materials, games, lesson plans, links to posts of this topic?
I'm looking for help so I can plan my first month.
Any help is much appreciated.
Teaching true beginners
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
Last time I looked there were 26 letters in the English alphabet and over 44 sounds. So it doesn't quite add up that you are teaching for a month at 3 letters per week. Even if the month has 5 weeks you won't cover them all.
There is a really good singing program to learn the alphabet called "Sing, Spell, Read and Write". http://www.pearsonlearning.com/index.cfm?a=65
There are tons of games in the toy stores.
If you Google "Alphabet" there are full curriculums.
You could introduce the letter and get them to write it in capital and small letters in a special alphabet notebook with large lines.
Then you could play games with sticks or playdough or in sand to make the letter. Or the children could make the letters with their bodies, alone or in pairs. Take pictures to post.
You could have pictures of things that start with the letter and teach the names of the pictures in English. Then you could play bingo with the pictures or have cards to match or play memory with the cards turned over.
You could put sticky notes on all the things in the classroom that start with A including children whose name starts with the letter.
You could start a alphabet calendar and add a letter a day until you fill it up - I have seen them in the stores and they are made with little pockets with the letter on the outside and something representing the letter in the pocket. That will help you reivew as you build on more letters.
You can have posters with alphabet trains, animals in alphabetical order, methods of transportation, colours, names of the children in alphabetial order, food, parts of the body. You also buy material with these things on them to make wall hangings. They have Christmas, Hallowe'en alphabets too.
You can sing the alphabet song endlessly.
You can make handouts of a picture dictionary for each child to take home and practice with some kind of activity on them for homework.
You can buy a pack of alphabet cards and play numerous games with them - they usually include game rules with the pack. If you have enough money you could buy a pack for each child or at least one for a pair.
You can start an alphabet path on the floor of your classroom, adding a letter a day until the children can hop the whole 26. I used tape but there are rubber mats with the alphabet printed on them and I have even seen a carpet with the path around the edge.
We bought small rubber letters that hooked together like a puzzle so the children could do that in small groups. Then we combined the letters in boxes with four sides and a bottom of the same letter and put things in the boxes that started with that letter - a had an apple, a small plastic alligator, the puppet Alice, an ant puppet, an acorn, and so on. You can play all sorts of games with these boxes from getting to feel inside with their eyes close to identify the objects once they know their names to team games to fill up the boxes.
When they do learn all 26 letters you can have a graduation ceremony with each child being one letter of the alphabet. Invite the parents and have the children perform the alphabet song and anything else they can do by that time of year. You can have food and prizes if you really want to make a big deal of it like we did in Mongolia. We had a great party, the children dressed up in their best, the parents brought food and presents, even for the teachers, we played alphabet games, took lots of pictures and had a great time.
It might be important to tell the children that you are teaching them the names of the alphabet first, just like they have a name but soon you will be teaching them sounds and some letters have more than one sound.
It seems to me that the children have a lot of trouble learning the difference between the capital and small letters and that they both mean the same thing so I would concentrate a little harder on that aspect and try to explain why they need both. It doesn't make much sense to them.
I played a lot of Bingo by showing the capital and them having to match it to the small letter and vice versa.
For prizes I gave them stickers with the letters for their names to put on books or cell phones, backpacks, etc.
My favourite website for worksheets is enchantedlearning.com.
I also really enjoyed teaching from the first book of the Let's Go series and made puppets out of the characters - A my name is Alice with its jazz chant. That also made a nice little show for the parents at the end of learning all 26 letters.
We talked about this at :
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... t=alphabet
There is a really good singing program to learn the alphabet called "Sing, Spell, Read and Write". http://www.pearsonlearning.com/index.cfm?a=65
There are tons of games in the toy stores.
If you Google "Alphabet" there are full curriculums.
You could introduce the letter and get them to write it in capital and small letters in a special alphabet notebook with large lines.
Then you could play games with sticks or playdough or in sand to make the letter. Or the children could make the letters with their bodies, alone or in pairs. Take pictures to post.
You could have pictures of things that start with the letter and teach the names of the pictures in English. Then you could play bingo with the pictures or have cards to match or play memory with the cards turned over.
You could put sticky notes on all the things in the classroom that start with A including children whose name starts with the letter.
You could start a alphabet calendar and add a letter a day until you fill it up - I have seen them in the stores and they are made with little pockets with the letter on the outside and something representing the letter in the pocket. That will help you reivew as you build on more letters.
You can have posters with alphabet trains, animals in alphabetical order, methods of transportation, colours, names of the children in alphabetial order, food, parts of the body. You also buy material with these things on them to make wall hangings. They have Christmas, Hallowe'en alphabets too.
You can sing the alphabet song endlessly.
You can make handouts of a picture dictionary for each child to take home and practice with some kind of activity on them for homework.
You can buy a pack of alphabet cards and play numerous games with them - they usually include game rules with the pack. If you have enough money you could buy a pack for each child or at least one for a pair.
You can start an alphabet path on the floor of your classroom, adding a letter a day until the children can hop the whole 26. I used tape but there are rubber mats with the alphabet printed on them and I have even seen a carpet with the path around the edge.
We bought small rubber letters that hooked together like a puzzle so the children could do that in small groups. Then we combined the letters in boxes with four sides and a bottom of the same letter and put things in the boxes that started with that letter - a had an apple, a small plastic alligator, the puppet Alice, an ant puppet, an acorn, and so on. You can play all sorts of games with these boxes from getting to feel inside with their eyes close to identify the objects once they know their names to team games to fill up the boxes.
When they do learn all 26 letters you can have a graduation ceremony with each child being one letter of the alphabet. Invite the parents and have the children perform the alphabet song and anything else they can do by that time of year. You can have food and prizes if you really want to make a big deal of it like we did in Mongolia. We had a great party, the children dressed up in their best, the parents brought food and presents, even for the teachers, we played alphabet games, took lots of pictures and had a great time.
It might be important to tell the children that you are teaching them the names of the alphabet first, just like they have a name but soon you will be teaching them sounds and some letters have more than one sound.
It seems to me that the children have a lot of trouble learning the difference between the capital and small letters and that they both mean the same thing so I would concentrate a little harder on that aspect and try to explain why they need both. It doesn't make much sense to them.
I played a lot of Bingo by showing the capital and them having to match it to the small letter and vice versa.
For prizes I gave them stickers with the letters for their names to put on books or cell phones, backpacks, etc.
My favourite website for worksheets is enchantedlearning.com.
I also really enjoyed teaching from the first book of the Let's Go series and made puppets out of the characters - A my name is Alice with its jazz chant. That also made a nice little show for the parents at the end of learning all 26 letters.
We talked about this at :
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... t=alphabet
Last edited by Sally Olsen on Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Senorita Daniels
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm
I wouldn't do more than one letter a day. That would be too confusing. You can learn the sounds of letters as they learn the name. Then they can start reading some simple three letter words sooner. You can also use their names and food as you get to the letter. Our kindergarten lists every year include the names of the students. That may help some because it relates the letters to what they know.
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rusmeister
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:04 am
I've been teaching beginning kids overseas for 8 out of my 12 years of teaching.
Depends on the age of your kids, but I use "Get Ready" http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/isbn/1370?cc=global , an outstanding beginners course for 5-7 year-olds. (8 and 9 year-olds can tolerate it, but thematic content and speed of delivery lag behind their needs, usually).
Still, you don't teach 'letters first, phonics afterward'. The course starts by teaching the primary sounds of the letters BEFORE you teach the names. Knowing the names of the letters before the sounds actually hinders their reading progress considerably. They should know /a/ for apple before they know that the letter is named /ei/(ay). So apple, bird, cat and dog and their initial sounds all precede the alphabet song. Capisce?
Depends on the age of your kids, but I use "Get Ready" http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/isbn/1370?cc=global , an outstanding beginners course for 5-7 year-olds. (8 and 9 year-olds can tolerate it, but thematic content and speed of delivery lag behind their needs, usually).
Still, you don't teach 'letters first, phonics afterward'. The course starts by teaching the primary sounds of the letters BEFORE you teach the names. Knowing the names of the letters before the sounds actually hinders their reading progress considerably. They should know /a/ for apple before they know that the letter is named /ei/(ay). So apple, bird, cat and dog and their initial sounds all precede the alphabet song. Capisce?
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
Wow, how do you teach the primary sounds first? I have always had at least one bright student who knew the names of alphabet letter and many of the students knew the first few letters of the ABC alphabet song so if I tried to teach the sound first, they were confused and often incensed that I was teaching the wrong thing. Since they didn't know the name of an apple in English I had to teach the name of the objects first.
Even in Mongolian, they taught the name of the letter and then the sound.
Even in Mongolian, they taught the name of the letter and then the sound.
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rusmeister
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:04 am
Precisely. The first thing they learn (after 'hello' and 'Jack and Sue') is 'apple'. then they see 'a' and hear 'aaaaaa' - 'apple'. Then 'b' - bird, etc...Sally Olsen wrote:Wow, how do you teach the primary sounds first? I have always had at least one bright student who knew the names of alphabet letter and many of the students knew the first few letters of the ABC alphabet song so if I tried to teach the sound first, they were confused and often incensed that I was teaching the wrong thing. Since they didn't know the name of an apple in English I had to teach the name of the objects first.
Even in Mongolian, they taught the name of the letter and then the sound.
They don't learn that the letters have a separate name until step 24 (1-2 months later). But the difference is that they are already ready to read simple words. c-a-t, h-a-t, etc. The critical thing is to show and demonstrate orally first. If you are playing "Simon Says" and are teaching the command 'fall down', you have to fall down yourself - the more theatrical the better.
Oh, I blatantly ignore the bright students and correct them. They're only 6-8; they get over it quickly.
Teaching True Beginners
All your suggestions are great - however I am teaching adults between 25-50 with no English language skills at all - what do you think the best way is for me to proceed - all suggestions welcome - thanks
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shelleyvernon
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:28 am
- Contact:
adult beginners
Hi there Elke,
I have taught complete and utter beginners both kids and adults and I never start with the alphabet.
I always start with listening and speaking such as greetings and some vocab. I get right into using the language itself.
With a adult from Europe learningn phonemes is not such as issue as our languages all stem from Indo-European, but for an Asian student I would then teach phonemes (sounds) as a small part of the lesson.
But to focus solely on sounds and alphabet is a bit on the DRY side!
Here are some games to make drilling beginners in new vocabulary and language a pleasant task:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm
Kind regards
Shellley
I have taught complete and utter beginners both kids and adults and I never start with the alphabet.
I always start with listening and speaking such as greetings and some vocab. I get right into using the language itself.
With a adult from Europe learningn phonemes is not such as issue as our languages all stem from Indo-European, but for an Asian student I would then teach phonemes (sounds) as a small part of the lesson.
But to focus solely on sounds and alphabet is a bit on the DRY side!
Here are some games to make drilling beginners in new vocabulary and language a pleasant task:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm
Kind regards
Shellley