We want lots of fun in our lessons, with a good balance of activities and games with strong educational value. But in my opinion, today¡¯s young learners need more than just fun and games to stay motivated. Fun and games can quickly become meaningless and boring for some students.
Most teachers agree that we have to assume the responsibility of preparing students for life as well as helping them to acquire a language ¨C and this is what I aim to demonstrate in this blog. Using , I want to demonstrate how you can learn more about your students and care for individual needs in one classroom.
The students will also learn about themselves and their classmates. They will acquire vocabulary and language (at their level) in a dynamic way and create a project to explore their interests and demonstrate their talents. They will use technology and develop their success skills. Assessment will be fun and engaging. I hope you will be able to adapt the ideas and put them into practice with children aged 6-14.
prompts us to ask: How is this child intelligent? He identified eight different types of intelligence which guide the way students learn:
Explain to the students that they are going to learn about Howard Gardner¡¯s Model of Multiple Intelligences and that you want them to achieve learning goals on completion of the project. Write the goals on a poster and discuss them with your students. Take a digital photo of the poster to use during the assessment.
Student learning goals ¨C you will be able to:
Tip: Video parts of lesson 1, especially discussion of the learning goals, to use as part-assessment and reflection on completion of the project.
Tell students they are going to do a quiz to discover how they are smart. Model each stage of the activity and do the quiz with them to find out about your own strengths. Give each student a piece of paper.
Word Smart:?Draw a dictionary and children reading, writing and speaking.
Logic/Number Smart: Draw sums on a computer, a scientist with test tube.
Music Smart: Draw children singing and playing musical instruments.
Body Smart: Draw children playing a sport, dancing or cooking.
Nature Smart:?Draw trees, animals, insects, child watering a plant.
Spatial/Picture Smart: Draw children drawing, painting or taking photos and a pilot in a plane.
People Smart:?Draw a child helping or leading a group or a group of children holding hands.
Self-Smart: Draw children keeping a journal, researching on a computer, or meditating.
Encourage students to order their smarts from 1-8. For example, if you love music, write number 1 in the Music Smart section and continue to 8 in order of preference. (You may wish to model this first and order your smarts from 1-8 and then encourage the children to order their smarts.)
After the quiz
Tip: Video lesson 2 to use as part of assessment.
Encourage the students to create a project for enjoyment. Explain that you want them to collaborate in groups that share the same smarts and interests and using their creativity you want them come up with an interesting topic to explore. (Remind students to concentrate on developing their success skills when they are working with others and mention that you will also be monitoring this as part of the assessment).
Organize the students into groups of no more than five students in each. Give students time to brainstorm in their groups and come up with the best topic for the project, using their critical thinking skills. (E.g. Picture Smart students may decide to create a project about a famous artist, such as Salvador Dali).
You may wish to give each student a ?(Know, Want-to-know, and Learned) to complete during the project process, asking questions such as: What do you know? What do you want to know? What have you learned?
Inform students about the timing of the project. Encourage each group to make a project mind map, which will encourage them to be more creative and organized.
Remind all the groups to keep the following questions in mind:
Decide on how many lessons are needed to prepare the project and how much will be done in school or at home, depending on the age groups and timing.
Encourage the students to share their work with the rest of the class (or in assembly.)
Tip: Video the different groups sharing their work.
Yes, it can; here are some tips and suggestions.
Create fun lessons to engage all your students keeping this model in mind: traditional activities such as short fun activities and games + Howard Gardner¡¯s model of Multiple Intelligences + PBL (Project Based Learning) + success skills + meaningful assessment. Enjoy the results with your students.
The?Global Scale of English (GSE) Learning Objectives for provides ready-made learning objectives that can help with planning curriculums and lesson and benchmarking learners¡¯ progress. They are great for young learners because they describe language functions in a granular way, enabling educators to give their learners credit for small achievements. They also clearly show the language functions to target next in order to take learners to the next level.
Read our blog posts 'Young learners of English deserve more' and 'Effective classroom management routines for very young learners'.
English is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world, but how much do you know about the language? Here are 11 facts about English?that you might not know.
Students all over the globe learn English for many reasons. Some of these motivations may come from the students themselves ¨C perhaps they are learning because they are travelling to an English-speaking area, or they want to be able to converse with English-speaking friends and colleagues. Other reasons for learning could include meeting school requirements, studying abroad, or progressing their careers.
As well as different reasons to learn English, there are also different goals. Many students are still focused on becoming fluent in English, and we are seeing an increase in people who want to learn the language for specific reasons. For example, immersing themselves in a particular culture or simply being able to order from a menu while travelling abroad.
Teachers are focusing on these personal needs to help students achieve their actual goals. It¡¯s likely you¡¯ve already spoken to your students about why they want to learn English. Understanding this is important as different motivations can influence a student¡¯s attitude towards learning the language ¨C and it may be necessary for you to adapt your teaching strategies for different groups of learners.
Let¡¯s meet some different groups of students, learn a little more about their motivations and explore whether different motivations alter how students learn English. You may recognise some of these learners in your classes.
These students are learning English for pleasure or personal reasons. It might be because of travel, social or family reasons or perhaps because a better grasp of English might assist them with their careers. There are also adult learners who could be learning English as an immigration requirement.
For example, 23-year-old Alice decided to learn English so she could meet people and have more meaningful interactions with her English-speaking neighbours. She says: ¡°I was very shy and not very confident in speaking to people, but learning English helped me connect with others and meet new people. I have changed a lot.¡±
A motivation like Alice¡¯s requires strong teacher support and peer motivation woven into structured learning. Alice can set her goals and with the GSE Learning Objectives map out what she needs to do to achieve them. Teacher encouragement and personal support ¨C and easy access to digital coursework, a social community of others all learning English, and small classes that emphasise conversation ¨C keep people like Alice engaged and motivated to achieve her language goals. ¡°I cannot do it without them¡±, she says.
These learners are typically in a more formal type of English programme and are learning the language to achieve specific career milestones, such as a promotion. Their employer might even be paying for their learning or they might be reimbursed for the cost of their lessons.
Vincenzo is 33 and works as a Product Manager in Milan for an international organization with offices around the world. He says: ¡°I asked to take English classes as part of my professional development. My company chose an English provider and gave me a choice of group or one-to-one classes. I chose one-to-one classes as I¡¯m easily distracted.¡±
Professional learners like Vincenzo succeed using a blended learning model of learning in class and at home that they can tailor around their lives. They have a strong motivation to succeed ¨C that¡¯s why learning at home works for them ¨C but step-by-step progress provided by the GSE Learning Objectives is also important to keep this motivation alive. ¡°I met with my teacher once a week where we would work on mistakes I would make while speaking English. He would also give me extra practice materials, like interesting games and videos to listen to in my own time, to help me really get a better understanding of the language,¡± Vincenzo says.
Learning English is a requirement for many school programmes and students will continue this at college or university. Many of these students will be learning English with a formal course that offers practice tests for high-stakes exams.
Seventeen-year-old Subra is from Malaysia and learns English at school. Some of her family live in Australia and she is considering studying abroad to attend a University that specializes in health care. When she was young, she learned in a traditional classroom backed with tests that helped her see how she was progressing. Now she uses technology, such as her Android Huawei phone to practise her English but still needs the validation of regular testing to know she is on track.
Subra?says: ¡°I am used to studying for tests as I prepared hard for exams to get into middle school and senior school, which was totally determined by test results.¡±
Academic learners like Subra need to see demonstrable results to help them stay motivated and guide them to the level of English they need to achieve to get the required score on high-stakes tests. With the clear GSE Learning Objectives and a placement test, academic learners can map out where they are right now and where they need to be in order to reach their academic goals. These learners need encouragement and validation of their progress from their teachers to help keep them on track.
Understanding student motivations will help you teach to their specific needs, thus helping them to stay focused and motivated in achieving their goals.
Kirsty Murray taught English for a year at a coll¨¨ge (the French equivalent of a secondary school) in Villers-Cotter¨ºts: a town in the north of France known for being the birthplace of Alexandre Dumas. She taught mixed-ability groups of 11- to 16-year-olds, with classes ranging in size from 10 to 35 students. Here, she shares the five lessons she learned from the experience.
