Teaching songs and rhymes

Music is one of the prefered activities of preschool students. A wide selection of songs and rhymes increases concentration, attracting students' attention and improving memory. Tracks are a fun and effective way of exposing children to new lexical sets and language structures as well as of reviewing them. To teach songs and rhymems, play the track for exposure. Then model the words with the actions without the music and have students repeat chorally. Then repeat the track and have students join in.

MI activities / preschool

The MI activities (Multiple Intelligence activities) are designed to help students develop their different intelligences as well as to cater to students with different learning styles. Choose the activities that best suit your students' interests and needs.
Tips:
- Prepare material ahead of time and make sure there is enough for everyone to complete the task successfully.
- To extend language practice, talk students through the activity while demonstrating what you are saying.
- Warn students not to swallow paint, glue, ink or any other substance.
- Make sure there is enough room for physical activities such as jumping or running.
- Demonstrate the activity in front of the class. Have all material ready in advance and use simple but clear language as you guide students through the activity.
- Exhibit and praise students' work equally, without making comparisons.

Teaching Tip / Preschool

Since children have diverse learning styles, classes are more effective when material is presented through a variety of media. For example, manual activities appeal both to visual and kinesthetic learners. By using story books with CD, you can engage both auditory and visual learners. TPR activities simultaneously benefit children's kinesthetic, auditory and visual skills. Remember to include a variety of activity types in each lesson to keep all students motivated.

Teaching Tip / Preschool

Students respond well to daily routines. If they know your expectations, they will stay more focused. Using a favorite song is a great way to get students' attention instead of raising your voice.
Children need regular review of the vocabulary they have learned. There are many activities to consolidate vocabulary. Play games, such as Bingo or Hide-and-seek with cutouts. Reintroduce previous posters either with the same cutouts or a mix of cutouts from different units. Also, you can reread favorite Big Book stories and repeat familiar songs and rhymes. In this way, children will benefit from and enjoy repetition.

Teaching Tip

Try this strategy for promoting good classroom conduct: Divide the class into three groups and give each group a transparent jar. Every time students from a particular group display positive behavior (such as following directions, working quietly, taking care of their materials), place a jellybean in their jar. When a jar is full, students from that group divide the jellybeans up and eat them. Watch as students try their best, both individually and cooperatively to fill their jars with jellybeans!

Listen and draw / Listen and write

Listen and draw

1. Read out a short text while the students follow the instructions, e.g. Draw a big table. There is a book on the table and a pencil under the table. To the left of the table there is a chair. An old man is sitting on the chair. Now color your picture.
2. Award a point for each key word. In this case there would be eleven marks in all for the exercise.

Listen and wirte

1. Write out a short text with words missing or with a  choise of two words in key points.
2. Give a copy of the text to each student.
3. Read out the completed text while the students write the missing word or underline the correct one, e.g. Bobby and Jane are in the (kitchen/sitting room). They are (watching/looking at) TV. Bobby is wearing (jeans/shorts) and Jane is wearing a (blue/red) dress...
4. Award a point for each key word.

Making an assessment plan

When preparing your assessment plan you should bear in mind the following.

• Your assessment should be made up of four basic testing areas: - continuous assessment of classwork and any homework - oral tests - written tests - general attitude and effort.
• You should always take into account individual abilities. If you only use written tests, it is difficult to take into account the different abilities in your class. One of the advantages of using a mixed assessment atrategy is that you can encourage the students who have difficulties in English by rewarding good general work done in the classroom.
• Assessment should be often and in small quantities. Don't forget the age of your students: they learn quickly but they also forget quickly! It is a good idea to test again and again throughout the year. Give small mini-tests on specific language areas as you finish teaching them.

Evaluation Techniques

Assesment of your students' progress is essential for your preparation and programming. At primary level we are not concernd with our students learning a lot in terms of quantity of vocabulary and numbers of structures. Rather, we aim to provide them with small quantities of material that they will gradually build on and learn to use in a varety of situations. It is important to remember that we are concentrating primarily on developing the students' listening and speaking skills. For this reason, traditional tests consisting of gap-filling exercises or conjugating verbs are of little use to us.

Making project work meaningful

The display stage is very important in project work. If nobody looks at projects once they are finished, they lose their value. Once projects are finished, display them on the bulletin board and schedule time for students to look at each other's work. Give them task; e.g., Which project do you like the most? Why? If possible, invite other classes, other teachers, or even the school principal to look at the projects while the students are there. With this kind of attention, students will soon strat trying to do their best.

Vocabulary notebooks

This is a good opportunity to tell students how you expect them to record vocabulary. Tell them if you want them to keep a special section in their notebooks or to buy a separate notebook for vocabulary. Go over some ways of recording vocabulary (word spiders, labelled pictures, word + translation etc.) and let students use the one that they find most useful. And whatever system you use, don't forget to collect student notebooks regularly and check that they are keeping them up to date!

Class review

One way of using class time for review is to get students to teach each other. Try this:
_ Divide the class into pairs or groups of three students per group.
_ Each group decides on an area they want to teach: make sure that each group is teaching a different thing.
_ Groups prepare a poster of the point they are teaching. The poster should contain marker sentences and grammar rules clearly laid out. If they can, groups can also include recommendations for how to remember the point (e.g., similarities with their own language, tricks for memorizing vocabulary, etc.)
_ Give groups about five minutes to present their poster.
_Display posters around the walls of the classroom.

Stimulating memory

Memory plays an extremely important role in language learning. Some students will inevitably have better memory skills than others, but you can help stimulate your students' memories. Try the following activities:

• Remembering sequences: Give students list of things to remember, like times, places, adjectives, etc. Students should try to memorize and produce the lists in order. For example: These are the stores on Main Street: toy store, shoe store, bookstore, pet store, flower store and the supermarket.Recite the list several times.Students listen and then reproduce the list orally or in written form.
• Remembering details in a picture: Choose a picture that has a reasonable amount of detail. Students look carefully at the picture for a minute. Ask cuestions about the details in the picture.
• Organizing information: Organizing and ordering information improves memory. Imagine, for example, how difficult it would be to remember a random list of 46 letters. On the other hand, it would not be difficult to memorize the first sentence in a pharagraph. Help students connect and organize the information they learn in class. By organizing and adding meaning to material prior to learning it, students will learn it better and recall it easier. For example, organizing material on paper, such as making an outline or mind map, can facilitate this process.

Spelling Activities

Story Writing
Have students use their spelling words in a story. You decide how many words they are to use; the number may vary according to individual student ability.
Illustrations
Draw a picture representing five of the spelling words. (This can be much harder than it sounds; check over your list before you give this assignment.)
Word Sentences
Use as many words from the spelling list as you can to make sentences with each letter in the word forming the first letter of a word in the sentence. For example, the word "paint" could be used as a base for writing "Paula ate ice cream nine times. " You may wish to let them work with partners at first if they have difficulty with this assignment.
Small Words
Students are to find the small words in their spelling words. Making it into a contest is the most fun, and many reluctant students will amaze you with all the words they can find. (If it is an unusul word, they must copy down the meaning.) Use the following rules:

• Use no foreing words or proper nouns.
• Words must be two or more letters.
• Each word counts as one point.
• If a student uses a nonexistent word, two points are taken off.
• The person with the most points wins.

How to use your instant puppets

Introduce the idea

Make an example before the lesson. Take the puppet character into the classroom, introduce the children to it, then encourage them to talk directly to the puppet, Elicit language by asking questions, e.g. Say Hello, What's my name?

Adaptation for a story called "Witchy and Itchy"

• Make a forgetful witch with a yoghurt pot, black card and material.
• Make up a story first, e.g. about what Witchy puts in her magic pot to make a new spell. The children should remember what she puts in her magic pot.
• Tell the chinldren Witchy needs help in collecting special ingredients for her magic spell, which she has forgotten how to make.
• Using the puppet, ask the children What must she put in the magic pot? They will ask her questions or disagree with her.
• Demonstrate how to make the puppets for Witchy and for Itchy, the cat.
• The children can make their own witches or cats.
• In pairs they can act out what Witchy is going to put in her spell and what Itchy replies.

For practice using Wh-questions or yes/no questions

• Present an exchange at the beginning of the lesson using two finger puppets.
• puppet A: Why are you writing?
• puppet B: I'm writing to my friend.
• puppet A: What are you writing?
• puppet B: I'm writing a letter.
• Negatives can be made in the exchanges as one puppet contradicts another.
• puppet A: You're writing.
• puppet B: No, I'm not writing, I'm reading.
• Children can draw a face on the first finger of their left hand.
• Divide the class into pairs. They can repeat this exercise and the dialogue can be extended if necessary.

Discipline

Discipline with Dignity
All students need to be treated with dignity. Even when a student is being disciplined, he or she needs to retain dignity. Private remainders and conferences with the child will preserve his or her dignity and yours.
One of the best things to remember concerning disciplining students is that they win whenever they get you to "lose your cool". Take your time when students "push your buttons" and decide carefully on your response. In this way, you will not behave in a way that you will regret later.
Teach Students Responsibility
Students need to be taught that they are responsible for their own behavior. If a student does not follow the rules it is best for natural or determined consequences to take their course whenever possible. When parents and others intervene, they take the responsibility for student's behavior away from the student.
Exercise Break
One of the best favors you can do for your students and yourself when students get wiggly and cannot seem to concentrate is to take an excercise break. One good time for break like this is about 45 minutes before lunch. Take your students outside for 5-7 minutes of exercise led first by yourself, and then, after they know the exercises, the students. This is not to replace physical education, but it is a quick chance to do some specific physical activity when the students need it most.

Storage (cont.)

Clotheslines
Use large eye screws and attach a line from one side of your room to the other. Use clothespins to display student work.
Gutter Rails
Attach PVC rain guttering to empty wall sections to store and display reading materials. The guttering comes in several colors and can be attached at several heights. If the walls are concrete or plaster board, you may need special screws.
Drying Racks
Clothes drying racks work well for storage Big Books. Use pants hangers or strong clothespins on dress hangers and then hang on the storage racks. This also protects the Big Books. If you are lucky enough to have a multiple copies of the little books to go with the Big Books, they can be stored in reclosable plastic bags and attached to the same hanger.

Storage (cont.)

"Slap" It On
To display and manipulate items like word cards, small picture cards, or name cards, tape long strips of masking tape (sticky side out) on the chalkboard or other surface. They can be removed, rearranged, and re-stuck to graph, alphabetize, categorize, etc.
Big Book Storage
A quick and easy way to store big books is in a laundry basket. Be sure that you purchase one that is very sturdy and rectangular in shape. This ensures that your big books will stand up straight and be kept in good condition. Label the basket and keep it in the same place.
Stotage Boxes
Purchase flat carboard or plastic boxes that are designed to fit under the bed for versatile storage boxes in your classroom. They are the perfect size for storage of your sentence strip stories and other pocket lessons. These boxes also stack nicely, making them great for storage of month-specific items or art projects.

Storage

One of the biggest challenges for a teacher is finding enough places to store everything in the classroom. When visitors enter your classroom, one of the things that speaks the loudest is the neatness of the room. We're not talking about the student desks at this time, but rather the overhead shelves, ledges, and table tops. If there are materials that look unorganized and spread everywhere, visitors to your classroom can not help but react. Take a moment and look around your room on a regular basis and see what needs to be cleaned up from a visitor's point of view. Students can help you with this task. Good organization may star with an organized room.

Another common problem, whether you have been teaching for two months or twenty years, seems to be the universal inability to throw things away. Almost everything can be used in some new and creative way in the future, but if you can't find it, you can't use it. Try to keep only the things you will really use and then organize them somewhere that you will be able to find them. Using inexpensive, labeled storage boxes is one solution to the storage problem...

continue

Classroom discipline

It is important to establish your classroom rules at the very beginning of the school year.

Keep the rules simple and clear, for example:

• Raise your hand if you want to ask a question.
• Always ask if you don't understand.
• Don't shout or talk over your classmates.
• Listen to your classmates' opinions.
• Take turns when playing games.
• Help your classmates if they find something difficult.
• Always ask if you want to borrow something.

If you want behavior to be counted in the final grade, it is better to reserve some points from the total rather than adjusting grades for objective assessments (tests, exams, homework). For example, if you are grading out of 100, you can reserve 10 points for behavior. Students who get a perfect score on an exam but whose conduct has not been very good would obtain a maximun of 90 points. Students who have been cooperative and well-behaved but who are not especially bright or good at exams have the possibility of obtaining 10 extra points for conduct.

Preparing class materials.

For each lesson, students are expected to have the following materials: scissors, colored pencils, a glue stick, a pencil, an eraser and a notebook.
Preparing and storing student cutouts
At the beginning of the school year, collect students' cutouts and keep each set in a separate folder with the student's name. When cutouts are required for an activity, distribute folders. Make sure students return all unused cutouts to the folders upon completing the activity.
Info-gap cutouts
Some student cutouts are to be used for info-gap activities. In these type of activities, students should work in pairs. One student has the information that the other needs to complete the activity. Remind students that they cannot show each other their cutouts and encourage them to use English throughout the activity. Explain that it does not matter at this stage if they make mistakes, that the objective is to communicate in English.
While students are working, walk around the classroom monitoring the activity.