| The brain likes to learn in little bits. Young children have | | | | them involved in learning activities rather than standing |
| short attention spans. Put these two thoughts together | | | | at the front of the classroom and teaching at them. I |
| and add the fact that learning a new language is not | | | | get the little ones drawing pictures of words that begin |
| an easy task. Therefore, an ESL (English as a Second | | | | with a specific letter. I use the great phonics material |
| Language) teacher has a daunting task keeping young | | | | from and . They like coloring so I try to make this an |
| students interested, awake and motivated to learn. | | | | educational activity such as coloring numbers, shapes, |
| My young students range from ages 5 - 14 and my | | | | letters or pictures with easy captions. |
| classes last two to three hours. Preparing interesting | | | | Simon Says is very popular with my young classes. I |
| and relevant lessons is an ongoing challenge. Working | | | | use it to teach actions: Stand up, sit down, touch your |
| from a textbook is a good place to start. Texts for | | | | nose, turn left, e.g. We often end a class with five |
| young children generally offer some good activities but | | | | minutes of Simon Says. |
| I find I have to supplement these. For one thing, the | | | | Board games such as Concentration are fun. Instead |
| texts are often designed for a multi-lingual class of | | | | of matching pictures, sometimes the students have to |
| immigrant children who are learning in a new English | | | | match a picture with a word. This is good for |
| environment such as in Canada, England, USA or | | | | vocabulary building. |
| Australia. In my case, I live and teach in Thailand so | | | | The Never-ending Story is one I use often. With about |
| nearly all my students are Thai and much of the texts | | | | fifteen minutes to go, I'll start by writing on the board "A |
| do not mean anything. For example, dialogues such as | | | | funny thing happened to me on Saturday." Then, I hand |
| "Good morning, José. "How are you, Aziz?" | | | | the whiteboard marker to a student to write the next |
| need to be changed. Foods such as 'bacon and eggs', | | | | sentence. Students delight in creating their own story |
| 'roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding' or 'ham and | | | | and write in characters and situations. I use this for |
| split-pea soup' are unknowns and meaningless to Thai | | | | teaching descriptive adjectives, pronouns and other |
| kids. Often, I end up writing my own short dialogues | | | | grammatical points. |
| with local names and familiar foods, places, etc. The | | | | Another good vocabulary builder is 'Categories'. I write |
| key is to make learning relevant, especially with young | | | | 30-36 words on one end of the board and five or six |
| learners. If you don't, you lose them quickly to boredom. | | | | categories such as Office, Water, Colors, School, |
| Every fifteen to twenty minutes, I try to change | | | | Hospital or Job. Students have to go up to the board |
| activities, getting the harder stuff out of the way first | | | | and one by one place each word under the right |
| (grammar, spelling, phonics, etc). The children know that | | | | category header. |
| if they apply themselves to the learning at the | | | | I add a twist to Snakes and Ladders, asking students |
| beginning of the lesson, they will be rewarded later | | | | to use a word or phrase before moving ahead. |
| with some fun activities. But, even the tough stuff can | | | | Because the brain learns best in small doses, changing |
| be lightened. For pre-teens, I live a series called "The | | | | activities regularly is how I keep my students as |
| Grammar Lab". It is centered around an imaginary | | | | interested as I can. Learning should be fun and it is up |
| group of oddball and definitely eccentric characters: | | | | to the teacher to make it happen. If you get a chance |
| Splodge, Ruff and Tumble, Mo and Snapper, Mabel | | | | to try some of these activities in your classroom, I'd be |
| and Mildred. I have even used parts of the texts with | | | | interested in hearing from you as to how they were |
| some of my adult classes. | | | | received. |
| Students relate to visual stimulation and I like to get | | | | |