The educational choices available to children are evolving rapidly with apps, online courses, digital games, recordings and videos becoming easily accessible. However, amidst this technological advancement, human evolution has not suddenly accelerated, and the primary aim for teachers remains unchanged - helping children make sense of the world and leaving their mark on it.
Here are five essential ways we can achieve that for every child, regardless of their circumstances, whether it's teaching English or fostering everyday learning and education.
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Paying attention to what we're doing is something that we have to re-learn. Very young children?pay great attention to the smallest of things. Washing their hands takes forever as they want to?focus on the soap, doing up shoelaces can become a half-hour activity, or an interesting pebble on the?road can make a quick trip to the shops a very long one.
So, what happens is that we then start?teaching children to hurry up. ‘Hurry up, come on, quickly, now - put on your coat NOW!’ are part of?every parent’s repertoire. And we have to do it because we know what the children don’t - that the bus won’t wait for us, that school starts at a certain time and that people will be kept waiting if we don’t?hurry up.
Therefore paying attention has to be re-learnt and we need to lead the way. We have to pay attention to?the children, what they are saying and doing, and then we have to resist the temptation to do too?many things at once. And, most importantly, we have to give our children enough time to let?things sink in.
We have so many ways of describing skills now; soft, hard, thinking, critical, communication - the list?goes on. In some ways, these descriptors are useful as they make us more aware of the particular?skills of a child, but there is still often a gap between knowing how a child is skilled and how that can?be useful to the child.
Let’s take a classic example; one of the main qualities people often think of as?connected to nursing is a skill for caring, showing compassion and being a good communicator.?Yes, that is important, but the main skill needed to be a nurse is dealing competently, practically?and non-judgmentally with bodily fluids. So, yes, we absolutely need to make sure that we are?educating our children to become skillful in various ways but we also need to think about how those?skills are transferable.
One of the most significant changes of the past 40 years is how we can access information. Gone are the?days of one version of an encyclopedia or whatever your teacher knew; now we have online data,?crowdsourced reports, scores of different formats - everything is a click and a swipe away.
So how can?we help with this? First, we have to get children interested enough in a topic to want to find things?out for themselves. Then we must guide them through what is true and what might not be. And?then our main job is showing them that they can add to the tree of knowledge. It’s constantly growing,?and they can lengthen the branches, help fruit grow, and even dig up the roots and plant the tree?elsewhere.
Thinking creatively, thinking ‘out of the box’ and seeing new possibilities can and must be?nurtured in our children. We can use our imagination in traditionally creative ways such as writing, artwork, music and drama, but perhaps even more importantly we can use it in ‘unseen’ ways. We?can unlearn banal responses and consider what we really think; in other words we can ‘think for?ourselves’. Again this skill is needed more than ever when surrounded by seemingly?wise thoughts in social media memes. The nature of memes is that they look definite, as if they are?true. They might be and they might not. We can decide when we use our critical and creative?thinking skills.
We can use imagination to find solutions to problems and we can use it to make our own everyday realities?more exciting and life-enhancing. Whatever we do, if we have a positive image of ourselves doing?it, the task becomes more meaningful and rewarding. And in a practical sense in the classroom, we?can bring language learning to life. Imagining and play acting the situations where the language we are?learning might be called for; in a restaurant, at an airport or meeting new friends. It can be a great method to teach English to kids, keeping them engaged and actively involved.?
Support comes in many forms. First concrete support, such as providing a desk and materials for children to?do their homework. This is something that teachers need to be aware of; do the children have that?at home? It’s not a question of finance - not everyone can afford a separate room and the space for a?desk - but it is a question of realizing that a dedicated, quiet space is needed. For example a cleared?kitchen table at certain times of the day. It’s worth bearing this in mind if parents say their?children never focus on homework. Look at the practicalities before any attitude issues.
The most important form of support we can give is ‘being there’ for our children. Knowing that?someone wants you to do well, is there for you through your mistakes and successes, and?empathizes with both. Someone who ‘has your back’ when you need help and is glad for you when?you do well; that gives our children a powerful sense of security. And we can flourish when we feel?secure.
By implementing these above points, we can equip children with the tools they need to understand the world, pursue their passions and make a positive impact on their lives and others.?
When you’re teaching English to young learners, you might find that there are a few students in your class who are struggling. But sometimes it can be hard to tell why. Is it because their language level is low? Or are they finding classroom work difficult because of a general cognitive difference, like dyslexia??
Do you ever find it hard to keep students focused and on task? Young learners get easily distracted and it can be hard to find ways to keep them engaged.
So what can we do to get, and more importantly, keep our students’ attention? Here are our five top tips.
Young learners have relatively short attention spans. In the classroom, it is rare to have the whole class fully engaged in something for a long time, since the children will have different interests and levels, so it is essential to plan a number of activities for each lesson.
The more variety you can include in the activities and tasks you plan, the easier it is to provide something enjoyable and relevant for each child. Choose short tasks and try to have a couple of extra activities up your sleeve if something you planned doesn’t work well. However, don’t worry if you don’t have time to do them all – you can always save them for a future lesson.
Another way of keeping students engaged is to mix up the classroom dynamics, having a combination of individual heads-down work, pair work, group work, and whole class discussions or games. When planning your lesson, consider how your students might feel at each stage. After doing some reading or quiet work, students may start to become restless, and this is the ideal time to get them up and moving about.
While you are in class, pay close attention to the mood of the class. When you sense that students are becoming distracted or bored, change the dynamics of the activity.
Ever notice that students become lethargic and show a lack of interest? Why not try introducing brain breaks at strategic points in your lessons? Brain breaks are short physical activities or games designed to get the blood flowing and to re-energize students to help them get ready for learning. They range from short activities that last a couple of minutes, to longer breaks that may be suitable if your lessons last more than an hour.
We can vary different aspects of the lesson using the previous strategies, but one thing that rarely changes is the role of the teacher! One way of keeping students involved is by giving them more responsibility and allowing them to take a more active role in their learning.
Peer teaching completely changes the classroom dynamic and has students teach their peers while you take a step back. For primary classes, ask one or two students to take charge of a ready-made activity, e.g. one from your course book. They should give instructions, demonstrate, monitor as necessary, and check answers.
When students are used to doing this, you can start to have them work in pairs or small groups to plan their own activities to use in class.
Of course, nobody is perfect and there will be times when you lose students’ attention and they are not on task. For these occasions, you can use a wealth of classroom management strategies to regain the class's attention. Here are a few techniques:
Finally, if we want our students to be motivated and engaged in our lessons, we must show enthusiasm for what we are teaching. The more lively and animated you are about the lesson, the more the students will want to join you and learn.
The first class with a new group of young learners can be a nerve-wracking experience for teachers old and new. Many of us spend the night before thinking about how to make a positive start to the year, with a mixture of nerves, excitement, and a desire to get started. However, sometimes things don’t always go as expected, and it is important to set a few ground rules in those early lessons to ensure a positive classroom experience for all, throughout the academic year.
Let’s look at a few common problems that can come up, and how best to deal with them at the start of the school year.
How the first few minutes of the class are spent can greatly influence how the lesson goes. Students can be slow to get out their equipment and this can cause a lot of time wasting. To discourage this, start lessons with a timed challenge.
One of primary teachers' most common classroom management issues is getting them to speak English. However, young learners may need to speak their mother tongue occasionally, and a complete ban on L1 is often not the best solution. But how can we encourage students to use English wherever possible?
Tell students they have to ask permission to speak in L1, if they really need to.
It is only natural that students will want to sit with their friends, but it is important that students learn to work with different people. Most students will react reasonably if asked to work with someone new, but occasionally conflicts can arise. To help avoid uncomfortable situations, do team building activities, such as those below, at the beginning of the school year, and do them again whenever you feel that they would be beneficial:
When the instructions are given in English, there will inevitably be a few students who don’t understand what they have to do. It is essential to give clear, concise instructions and to model the activity before you ask students to start. To check students know what to do and clarify any problems:
This is a frequent problem that can have many different causes. In the first few lessons, this may simply be shyness, but it is important to identify the cause early to devise an effective strategy. A few other causes might include:
It is important not to force students to do something they don’t want to do, as this will cause a negative atmosphere and can affect the whole class. Ultimately, if a student skips one or two tasks, it won’t affect their achievement in the long run.
It only takes one student to ask to go to the restroom before the whole class suddenly needs to go! This can cause disruption and stops the flow of the lesson. To avoid this, make sure you have rules in place concerning restroom breaks:
Getting their attention can be challenging if you have a boisterous class. Set up a signal you will use when you want them to pay attention to you. When they hear or see the signal, students should stop what they are doing and look at you. Some common signals are:
