Sometimes I find it difficult to manage time especially when teaching grammar. A good teacher always knows how to manage his time, but as far as i'm concerned, I get suspicious about the fact that they have understood the lesson that's why I tend to do a lot of drills and a lot of exercises; because of that, I lack of time. What to do?
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girishseshamani
You need to do an introspection and analyse why you always fall short of time. The delivery of grammar has to be in a very interesting and interactive way. From your query, what I feel is, there is some block which is hampering the listening process, from the students point of view. This is why you feel, they have not grasped the essence of the module. Try to talk with some experienced ELT trainers and get some ideas. You have not mentioned your batch profile in terms of age and objective.
The bottomline is to ensure that your delivery is not a monologue and is more of a dialogue, which will easily enable you to gauge where the class stands as a whole.
minawomen
Thank you for your advice. By the way I love India
amazinanian
My suggestion is that you write the topics you want to teach on the whiteboard and assign a time for each topic and allocate a specific time for each topic. Some topics needs more time and some less. Depending on your students 'levels, it is a good idea to prepare the appropriate answers to every questions which will save the time for the class.However weak students need special attention as their answers usually contain more mistakes and we better mention in advance which topics we are going to teach. Some students are so sharp and clever that they are always ready to answer the teacher's questions and we have to manage this matter by giving equal and fair time to every student.
Best wishes
A mazinanian, Shahrood, Iran
Sauer
My comment may sound facetious, but I am very serious about what follows, so perhaps you give it a try. Unfortunately I won't be able to explain much, because I'm short of time just now, and I will be back at the beginning of November only. But if you are interested I promise I will try to explain everything then.
My advice: Stop trying to "teach grammar". Nothing bores pupils more than "grammar", whether explanations or exercises. And the best thing about the problem: they don't need any grammar.
Not quite true, actually. They need a lot of what I call "grammar for learning", but that is almost the same as words they have to learn. And you will have to make them learn.
But there is a lot of "grammar for understanding" (and this is where the passive, reported speech or conditionals belong). I suggest, shun it. If your pupils are not absolute beginners, and not too young (i.e. at least 13 or so), you could try to do some Hemingway with them. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro (a collection of stories) you will find what some people call vignettes, very short pieces of text between the actual stories. Between A Very Short Story and Soldier's Home there is one that begins "While the bombardment was knocking the trench to pieces ...". Give it to them and allow them two or even three lessons to think about it. Then let them talk.
Good luck. I would love to hear from you.
T-chair
If you have a clear-cut lesson plan you can solve the problem because it is clearly stated in your plan when to begin and when to end. If somethings happen unwantedly you can control it through your plan. Just follow your plan and stick to it. I hope my suggestion will help. Ali Iran Neyshabur
Hassanshaffie
a clear cut lesson plan will solve the problem of time consuming
sunseeker
Hi,
Of course before you have class you need to plan your timings - write them down in your lesson plan using the actual time e.g. 10:00 -10:10 and stick to it, and after class, reflect on what went well and what can realistically be improved next time.
But I too would ask, why on earth are you teaching grammar in this way? Try a more inductive approach, show the students the grammar structure you want them to learn, and ask them what they notice about it? I'm sure a google search will yield lots of results.
Hope this helps!
IMAM ALAM KHAN
A careful lesson plan is always a help to cope up with the time management in the classroom. I have myself found this very helpful as I have been using it for a very long time. I think, you should try using Dr. Madeline Hunter's lesson plan which would be of much help. One more thing, you do write "the learning objective" in the class before you start your actual teaching. Learning objective will guide you for the whole of the period you will teach as it moves the teaching towards the ultimate goal and it keeps you reminding of the duration of time. Strong rapport with the students is always recommended to have a better time management in the classroom as well as to extend learning among the students.