This week, my head of English asked me for a word.
"Euston, we have a problem," she said.
As a new teacher, I have been struggling with four foul-mouthed, aggressive, weak, un-motivated non reader classes. I have one shining beacon, however. A bright and eager to learn seventh grade class. These are the new stars of the school and I must succeed with them if I hope to get more similar classes next school year.
"I subsistuted a teacher in your seventh grade class," she said. "And so I decided to test their English. They don't know the difference between present simple and progressive, Nicole. You need to start intensively teaching them grammar; present progressive, stative verbs, past simple, future and that's just the tenses. Otherwise, next year, we will have a big problem."
I promised her I would succeed, and I must. They like me at school because I am creative, motivated and hardworking, but I am still learning, as I go how to be the most efficient I can be. On top of that, they don't have grammar books (some new initiative in Israel for the kids to learn on tablets with the books installed onto them, but somehow, the English books got missed out.) The level of organisation is certainly against me and the thought of teaching grammar cold for the rest of the year interests me as much as I am sure it will interest my poor students.
My question is this; what are the best ways to make grammar interesting and still stay efficient at the same time?
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Comments
Fascinating stuff by top notch people who teach through emergent language.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dogme/
http://www.thornburyscott.com/tu/sources.htm
on the other hand, you can go back to using the whiteboard...
Good luck!
Naomi
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for sharing. I am sure in the end you will find you own way to teach them grammar. You mentioned that your students are 7th graders. First you have to search what your students most like to do. Then
1. Perhaps you can use songs to teach them grammar. If you search teaching English website you can get lots of links. Here are some from colleagues:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/evab2001/using-songs-teach-english
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/stellasargsyan/using-songs-stories-teaching-grammar-vocabulary
and Adam's blog. You can see how he teaches present perfect continuous with a song: http://www.yearinthelifeofanenglishteacher.com/2011/10/why-has-it-taken-me-so-many-years-to-use-songs-in-my-teaching/
2. You may use movies: http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/
3. You can fin out lots of games from the internet such as: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en32tens-game-logging-tenses
4. Readers can help you to take their attention to the grammar after reading the story.
5. You may use timelines after the story.
6. You can bring your pictures to help you teach grammar e.g to teach used to.
7. I sometimes use bbc' 'the flatmates' The converstions help me in class.
Good luck. You will reach your aim and perhaps you will get classes like your favourite one.
Gulnur
Wow, thank you so much for your advice. All those links look excellent. I especially like the idea of teaching it through songs.
Nicole
Hi, Nicole!
If they are 7th graders, it means they are still children, so I would recommend you to avoid boring explanations of boring rules. Instead, I can share my way of teaching tenses I use for my young students. I start with explanation of word order in sentences. I tell them that in English language each word has its own place in a sentence: subject comes first, then predicate etc. I use self-made cards with magnets. I mix them up on the white-board and ask my students to correct my mistakes and to place the words in the correct way.
After they start to understand the direct word order, I explain them Pr.Simple with the easiest words I know. First, I give them examples, then ask them to give their own examples. When they are ok with understanding, I explain the rules and give them patterns on Pr.Simple. Then we practice with cards (like "where", "does", "he", "live" or smth like that). And again they have to place them in the right way. We repeat similiar exercises several times, and students deal with them better and better. Finally, they are quite ok with understanding of Pr.Simple, and I start almost the same procedure with the next tense.
Kind regards,
Katya
Thank you for sharing your problem Nicole. First of all, do not give up and do not lose your hope. As teachers, we always face with similar problems, but we cope with each of them in the end. Do not let those "weak" students effect your motivation and try to gain them one by one or as small groups.
Another thing I can tell from experience is learning grammar and using it properly takes time. This is a long process. Even if those kids learn very well and get great marks, similar problems will emerge next year as well, because they will probably forget what they have learnt.
I'm sure you are doing your best, but to make the learning permanent provide your students activities or atmospheres to use their English in meaningful tasks. Drama activities, discussions, debates, games and songs can really work well.
Hope it will get better. Good Luck:)
Hi nicole.hs, never give up! I'm sure that you are doing your best!;) I think using music is very good way to teach even grammar for your Ss!!!!! They feel fun and learn more...Activities about drama,songs,rhymes are good! You can try them and feel fun! take it easy!;)