Dear Teachers,
I am an extremely new ESL teacher (3 weeks) who is currently working with children 1 day a week. I completed the CELTA course but have had no training teaching children and am finding it a challenge.
The children are complete beginners and I came into the class with no idea about what the children have learnt and haven't learnt.
As requested by the head teacher, I did a lesson on what animals eat. I had flashcards and tried to elicit from the children what types of foods certain animals eat. Overall, the children did quite well, but they did not seem to grasp the meaning of 'to eat' when it came to concept checking and unfortunately I ran out of time.
I was wondering if its appropriate to 'try again' with the children this week but to perhaps use a different technique? What are the rules for not achieving your lesson aims? Can you 'redo' the lesson? I understand there are syllabus and curriculums involved, etc, but I just don't know what to do.
Any help, ideas and suggestions would be extremely appreciated.
Thank you for your time
Kind regards
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TE Team
I would suggest that it's more than appropriate to 'try again' and in fact very good practice. Depending on the size of the lexical set you are working with you will always need to 'recycle' any new vocabulary over a number of lessons. It would be very unexpected if the children were to walk away after 1 lesson with everything you'd tried to teach them neatly saved in their heads. As you say, try using some different techniques to reinforce the vocabulary and then introduce some new language structures around the same lexis - 'I am eating a banana' etc.
As far as understanding goes try to get as many visual aids as you can, take some fruit into class and start eating, get some flashcards (try: http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php) of food and animals or try drawing them on the board. In relation to the syllabi and the curriculum I would follow the old adage: 'teach the children not the curriculum', although this can sometimes be difficult depending on the school you work in.
Thanks a lot Duncan, I really appreciate your speedy response.
Is it normal for this to happen to teachers or is it just because I am new? After trawling ESL sites, etc, I feel like i'm a fish out of very deep water and still have so much to learn!
Thanks again
; D
TE Team
This link will take you to an article listing lots of ways of using flash cards to recycle vocabulary in class: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/using-flash-cards
Hello Scampy!
It is quite natural that a novice teacher faces many difficulties on his / her first day. Any person faces such difficulties and may be more. Do not worry! Here are some tips that may help you:
First, TALK to your learners about English as a very easy and lovely language that we all need to learn. You have to endear the language to them with all means. You can talk to your learners on the first day in their mother tongue. TELL them that you were not born an English teacher. You yourself did not know English when you were a pupil. TELL them that they may be better than you in English if they follow your instructions and do their homework...
Second, DO NOT bomb your learners with a large list of vocabulary in one session. If you have (10) words to teach in a lesson, DO NOT teach them in one session. Just divide them into two sessions. It will be easy for beginners to memorize (05) words than (10).
Third, USE visuals. Just type the word in your browser and you will get thousands of illustrations. You said that your learners did not grasp the verb "to eat". Just type the verb then press "search for image". Whenever you need illustrations just type the word.
Fourth, If you don not have internet, you have to be a good ACTOR. You do not need to eat in your classroom as that may have other repercussions on the flow of your lesson. Just imitate the act of eating with your hand going up and down, to and from your mouth and they will understand it easily.
Fifth, surely you are not the only English teacher in your school. You may ASK YOUR colleagues within your school. If you are the only English teacher then you may ask colleagues from the nearest school to yours. We all ask help whenever we face obstacles. DO NOT HESITATE to ask for help from experienced teachers.
Sixth, Frequently VISIT:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
and you will benefit from the different topics, forums, discussions, comments, methodologies, articles...
Sorry, I have to stop now because it is time for me to go to school.
God be with you!
Thank you so much for your reply, it has really helped and I feel a lot better about things now. I was thinking how terrible I was but its so nice to have the support and advice of experienced teachers.
Thanks again!
; D