The chairs disappeared!!??

Last week I had to present new vocabulary to two of my students - one of them is 7 and the other one is 9. The vocabulary consisted in simple words, such as: chairs, doors, beds, lamps, tables and windows. I had printed some images from Google previously so that I could work with some "handmade flashcards". I placed all the pictures on the desk and taught the words one by one. After doing it I asked them to close their eyes because I'd take one of those pictures out so they'd have to guess which picture was not on the desk anymore by saying the corresponding word. So, for example, I'd take the picture of the tables out and they would have to say "tables!" and so on. As kids love participating actively in games and most of the times they love being the "game leader", after showing how the activity was it was my turn to close my eyes and they were the ones who were going to take pictures out. Getting students really involved in a class activity and even in its preparation, like simply helping the teacher organize some flashcards, makes them feel part of the whole environment where they simply learn without even noticing it. Simple and great activity! See you, colleague!

Teaching "What's this/that?" in a very different way!

These days I found a great idea in one of the books I use for teaching kids at my mini school. I'd never thought of that before but I got to the conclusion it could be a wonderful way to get my students involved with the content I had to teach. The subject was "What's this/that?" and its corresponding questions and answers such as "Is it a book?", "Yes, it is" or "No, it isn't". Guess what! All we need to use is play dough! Yes! Play dough in the classroom! So I bought it and this afternoon I had the chance to try the activity shown by the book. It was great! Kids love playing with different kinds of material in class so I asked them to create something using play dough about the vocabulary we've just learned. For example: school material, just like: pen, pencil, pencil case, etc. So students had to keep asking each other in order to guess what they were creating. Student A asked Student B: "Is it a crayon?" and the other one would say: "Yes, it is" or "No, it isn't" and so on. Notice that we can work on not only on the structure of questions and answers but also vocabulary. Reeeeally nice! See you, colleague!

Where's my chinelo?

That's what my friend's son, who lives in the US, said during his vacation here in Brazil.This fact reminded me of a polemic subject we all have heard at least once: Should we, English teachers, use Portuguese in class? If so, what are the occasions we can do it? I found on the Net a nice article about it: "Using Portuguese in the teaching of English" from Ana Frankenberg (http://anafrankenberg.synthasite.com/resources/FG2000UsingPortugueseInTheTeachingOfEnglish.pdf).The writer says that some time ago English should never be used in class and after a while the usage of a first language became acceptable in classrooms. Nowadays, the idea is that we should not use our first language in class but in proper situations it's okay to do so. According to Ana "it is acceptable to use the first language to translate abstract words which are difficult to mime or draw, to check whether students have understood something which has been previously explained in English, and to give instructions and explain things to beginners who otherwise wouldn't understand." I agree with her. I really think that using English in class is much more effective and advisable. Students get even more motivated when they feel they can understand the language they're studying, and it's obvious that their listening improve a lot because they start getting used to English in first place. But we cannot deny that there are certain situations in which we just can't use English at all, and the article above mentions them brightly. So, in my opinion, using English in class is always the best idea, but we got to keep in mind that using our native language is sometimes necessary in order to transmit the content we're supposed to and help our students reach their main goal - learning English. I wish you a great class, colleague!

Set a time limit!

This afternoon I got to the conclusion that a simple way to turn an easy activity more challenging is setting a time limit! Students tend to like the challenge of having to accomplish a certain "mission" in very little time. Today one of my beginner students was reviewing numbers from 0-10 and of course he already knew the content, but once we had time and he's a teenager I decided to use an extra activity I've prepared which is a simple match up on numbers. My student would have to match them with their corresponding writing. It seemed obvious to me that the exercise could be really boring if I used it with no adaptations at all. Instead, I decided to get my "hourglass", placed it on the desk and asked him if he could match all those numbers in a certain little time. Ready! A boring activity at first became an exciting game!

A spelling dictation?

Yes! Why not, colleague? This afternoon I was thinking about it as a great (and different) way to have our students practicing the alphabet. So, students would have to write words in a piece of paper, but teacher should not dictate the words but only their letters, for example: Instead of simply saying: "notebook", the teacher should say: "N", "O", "T", and so on. As most activities this one can also become a challenging competition! A reward for the one who makes fewer mistakes! Have great classes tomorrow, colleague!

Let's label!

I've just had an idea for one of my classes tomorrow! My new student is just starting the book. In the first lesson I'm supposed to teach him "What's this?" "What's that?" and so on. As he is only 10, I thought about using as many real objects I could, just like many teachers already do (including me!), but I also thought about improving the presentantion of the content with some "labels". So I've just typed the words I need to teach him, such as: pen, door, window, desk, etc. Then, after introducing the structures "What's this/that?", I'm going to ask him to label the objects using a tape. I guess it may work! Have a nice class, colleague!

Questions, questions, questions!

This week I'm gonna make use of another activity from a book which I mentioned here long ago "Inglês é Teen!". Basically the teacher has to show the students a picture and, in pairs, they're supposed to make as many interrogative sentences they can about that image. Soon afterwards, they may ask and asnwer those questions among the group. In my case, as a private teacher, I'm gonna work as my student's partner and we might answer each other's questions. Sounds like a wonderful way to practice Wh- questions and also the structure of interrogative sentences using different verb tenses. A brand new idea from a great book! Have a wonderful SUNday, colleague!