ENGLISH LANGUAGE ASSISTANT IN MADRID
Live and teach in Madrid
FINAL PROJECT
Making English fun for Young Learners
“Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages, not when it is explicitly taught for conscious learning.” ― Stephen D. Krashen, The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom
Working with young students, mainly 1st and 2nd graders has taught me the importance of incorporating fun and engaging activities when teaching English in the classroom. In my lessons with the 1st grade teacher for example, the activities that we do in class can range from TPR (Total Physical Response) activities, worksheets, games and even storytelling; it all depends on the mood of the students, (e.g: if they are active, restless or tired) so it is important to adapt to their needs. For example, in majority of lessons, we use a number of resources, mainly, a song, a game and then the worksheet. Sometimes the game will be switched into story time etc but all is planned accordingly and relevant to the content we are teaching them. It is important to keep the children engaged in order for them to learn English effectively and the best way to do that is to keep the lesson interesting and fun.
Below is an example of one of the lessons that we did with our 1st grade class (1B). There are approximately 25 students aged 5-6.
LESSON PLAN
How to make English fun for Young Learners
TOPIC
What was the topic?
Halloween
During the final week leading up to Halloween, all of the teachers decided to base their lessons and activities according to the festivities and theme of Halloween. For one of these lessons, the 1st grade teacher (Ana) and I worked together to create a fun themed lesson to teach the kids about Halloween and some vocabulary words to go with it.
LESSON OBJECTIVES
What were the objectives?
• Practising and learning new vocabulary: Halloween themed key words.
• Introducing the general idea of Halloween in Western tradition/ as a Western event.
• Building enthusiasm for the day through activities such as games, singing and learning a new song.
MATERIALS
What materials did we use?
• Whiteboard and board pens
• Interactive board
• 1 worksheet each (mini flashcards)
• Flash cards of new vocabulary (https://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/halloween1_flash.pdf)
• Blue tack (to stick the flashcards on the board)
• Colouring pencils for kids (they bring in their own materials)
• YouTube video of song: ‘Who Took The Candy?’ | Halloween Song | Super Simple Songs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veZlIX6d63Y)
• Websites used/Sources for flashcards and worksheets:
• www.mes-english.com
• https://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/halloween1_flash.pdf
• https://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/halloween1_cards.pdf
• http://www.guruparents.com/support-files/halloween-worksheets-3.pdf
• http://www.guruparents.com/support-files/halloween-worksheets-1.pdf
LESSON TIMINGS
A Step-by-step Procedure of Activities
1. 9:45 – 9:55 | Greetings and warm up activity (5-10mins)
a. Greetings and routines – general classroom management – getting the children to settle.
b. Halloween themed song. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veZlIX6d63Y)
2. 9:55 – 10:10 |Teacher guided practice: (15mins)
a. Involves the whole class
b. Presentation of the new vocabulary using flash cards (Halloween themed) and playing charades with the kids using fun miming gestures where they can guess the words and characters (e.g witch, ghost etc).
c. Working with the children to match the flash card images with the correct words. Flash cards will be stuck onto the board and I will write the words underneath for reference as we go along. (‘What’s this?’ / ‘It’s a pumpkin!’)
3. 10:10 – 10:25 | Worksheets/Flash card games (15mins)
a. With worksheet provided, the children will practise their new understanding of the new vocab as well as spelling.
b. Kids will work on drawing their own images of the new vocabulary next to the words provided.
c. In the end when they are finished the images will convert into custom flash cards (they will cut them out ready to play the flashcard games).
4. 10:25 – 10:30 | Flash card game – BINGO! (5mins)
a. With the flashcards they have now made, we will review the childrens’ understanding by calling out the vocabulary.
b. Students will identify their understanding of the new vocabulary by paying attention to the words called out, and by flipping the corresponding card face down on the table.
c. I will call out all the new words apart from 1 and in unison the class will shout out the remaining word. This task is important as it allows me to identify the class’ understanding of the new vocab.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
Assessing how they achieve the LOs
Worksheet:
Throughout the activity: Checking to make sure the children are drawing and labelling each word correctly.
Flashcard game – BINGO!
Allows me to identify the children’s understanding of the new vocabulary by paying attention to whether they are able to match their flashcards with the words called out.
Positive reinforcement
It is important for us to offer positive reinforcement throughout these activities to not only encourage the children to participate but to reassure them that they are succeeding in the learning objectives. Through praise, they are aware they are doing well without even realising they are achieving the Learning Objectives.
THE LA AND THE TEACHER
Our roles
THE TEACHER
The role of the teacher in simple terms is to teach the given content (curriculum) to the class. The way in which they do that depends mainly on the teaching style, the characteristics and age of the group. In this case, the teacher Ana is a well experienced bilingual teacher who works very well with the young learners. She understands the characteristics of the group well and adapts the lessons according to their learning styles. She plans activities accordingly, for example when learning new vocabulary, we found that the best way to introduce new words is by playing flashcard games or games like BINGO! (which I go into further detail below). She is responsible for the discipline of the class and the overall assessing and overviewing of their progress.
THE LANGUAGE ASSISTANT
My role is to assist Ana in the classroom. Sometimes I’m appointed responsibilities such as reading to the children, doing speaking activities such as leading the flashcard games and helping the children as they do the worksheet activities. Sometimes I take the children out to do some speaking exercises and games outside the classroom whilst she does a whole class activity with the rest of them in the classroom. It is also important that I am involved in the activities as much as she is so that the children stay focused and engaged.
A PARTNERSHIP
Ana and I are always sharing ideas with each other. She will inform me of the unit and the tasks we would need to do with the children and I would try to think of other ways and ideas to bring into the classroom. Ana and I communicate well in and outside the classroom. Quite often we would plan lessons together, although she comes up with most of the ideas I am always well informed of my role and purpose in those lessons which helps when making sure the lessons run smoothly and successfully. Sometimes she will have a specific vision on what kind of activities she wants to do with the kids. For example, in this case we played a fun guessing game with the flashcards in which she preferred for me to lead the activity in order for the children to adapt to my British accent and familiarize themselves with the proper pronunciation of the vocab. In the classroom, although she is the main teacher we are treated equally by the students; to them I am their English teacher just as Ana is their Bilingual teacher.
SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES
Here are the activities we did for this lesson plan. They may include some ideas you can use for your own lesson plans.
BINGO!
A Fun and Simple Game
Using Bingo cards made using a cut-out sheet, we played a simplified version of the game bingo. The instructions are simple and can be adapted in many ways; the simplest is to say one of the vocab words and the children will flip the corresponding card. They continue until they have one card left which they will all shout out the word once revealed.
HALLOWEEN SONG
Singing and Dancing
This activity is simple. You play the song and the children will sing and dance along to it, following you and the teacher as you too sing along to the video. This encourages the children to move around a bit more in class and works especially well when the children are feeling restless of extra energetic.
CHARADES
Flashcard Games
Using the flashcards we made prior to the lesson, we begin with a vocab review of these Halloween words. We did this by playing charades in which case the teacher and I would act out the different words and have the children guess what they are. This is also a great way to introduce new words because it is easier for students to remember the words when an action is also involved.
WORKSHEET
Labelling the Vocab
The students can show what they remember of the vocab by labelling their flashcards. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to finish this activity but for the most part, the children were able to learn and review the words through the games and songs which is a much better way for them to retain the new vocab than by doing a worksheet. By keeping them engaged by doing fun activities with them, they learn much faster and sometimes without realising they are doing so.