Some stuff on First Lessons, like rules, setup, structure, introduction, activities, and much more.

There are several things you can do to help make the first day less daunting and ensure that the class goes smoothly. Firstly, be clear of your objectives.

• Usually these will include:
  • Getting to know the studentsx92 names
  • Letting the students get to know you and you them
  • Assessing the level of English of the class

• If you come out of the first class and you can remember a few of the studentsx92 names, a bit of information about some of them and you have some sort of idea about their level of English, you have done well! Donx92t be too ambitious with your first lesson plan. Keep it simple and achievable.

• If you have the chance, find out as much about the students as you can beforehand. Ask other teachers about them and they may be able to guide you as to their level and which individual students may need special attention.

• Try to make a good first impression on day one. Wear your smartest clothes and look professional! Donx92t overdo it, and make sure you are comfortable, but first impressions do count.  A confident smile as you go into your first class will help to create a good atmosphere in the room.

• Keep your plan for day one very simple and make sure you are comfortable with the activities you have planned. Write them out in your own words on a sheet of paper so that you can refer to it if your mind goes blank. Here are some ideas for first class activities that can be used with all levels and age groups. They should help you to achieve the three objectives listed above.

Teaching large classes effectively with instructional technology.

"One of the challenges of large classes is overcoming the anonymity and distance that can exist between teacher and students. If students are to be actively involved in and feel personal accountability for the learning process, they must be more than anonymous spectators and passive recipients of information. In order to facilitate discussion, feedback, and active learning, the instructors of large classes can work to create the kind of group identity and individual rapport that make smaller classes so effective and enjoyable." –

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Large Classes are tough to teach, so here’s a few pointers I’ve collected in order for myself to cope with class sizes of 50+.

Here I’ve tried to collect some texts I found useful in my lessons.
Obviously one has to check if the level is appropriate for the class, and sometimes needs to adjust the text accordingly.

I try to use originals where possible, to make it more authentic for the students.
Plus then you’ve automatically mentioned your sources.

Anyway, enjoy.

Roel

Pronunciation is hard for most students to learn. And also for most teachers to teach.
Here an attempt to give you some ideas to practise them.

Good luck

Once every now and then there’s something interesting, weird, or just plain funny that you come across.

Here is where I wanna put it all.

Yes, we need short activities for Warm-ups, Fill-ups, to break the monotony, to spice up and enliven our classes a bit.

When doing games consider the following:
- How long will it take?
- Layout of the classroom.
- Grouping of students.
- The aim of the game.
- The language needed to do it: vocab, grammar.
- How to set it up, introduction.
- The rules of the game.
- What props do we need?
- Variation!
- Use favourite games.
- Enjoying the game.

We all know hangman. Well, there’s more than ESL than hangman.
Or any of its versions (with shark, firing squad, electric chair, etc)

So, Here I’ve got the most popular ones in a nutshell.
These you can do for ages, enjoy.

Some people love them, others don’t.
The most important thing here is setup.
Also, we all have our own styles of teaching, and therefore also our own styles of conducting discussions in a class.

There are sooo many topics about, I can’t even think how to start.
Yet I have started here, below, with good, interesting, useable topics.
Hope you find something interesting.

I love grammar, and I always try to bring some of my enthousiasm over on my students.
This however isn’t always met with as much fervour.

I’ve tried to collect some grammar stuff for us to use.
Chinglish and other cool and funny examples are obviously under this section.

This is a log I posted at a ESL forum:

“Well, personally I like grammar a lot, because it makes me understand a language better. Especially as a teacher I’m constantly finding out lots of things I never knew before; the rules for why I’m saying certain things in a certain way.
But I’ve been speaking English correctly all along, also before I learned ‘the rule’. So somehow I’d already made rules for myself and now I’m rediscovering the rules, which can sometimes be very interesting.

When I’m learning another language, and I’ve learned a couple already, I like to plunge into a society using the bit of language I know, and listen carefully, slowly extending my skills.
Sometimes I bump into a problem, and ask myself, “Why should I say this?”, or “Is this similar to that other thing I said before?” There’s an information gap there, and then I like to get to know the grammar rule for that, before I go on. It’s a way to learn naturally, but I’m still consciously working on my learning.

I think we should try to learn grammar rules as naturally as possible, and I think it’s a good way for students to learn this way too. Students make these rules for themselves first, and later the teacher will check if these rules are right or need to be adjusted.
Grammar is always deduced from language, and not the other way around, I suppose that’s my point.

Teacher’s should definitely know their grammar though, and use it in teaching. No doubt about that, but I think that we shouldn’t put down the rules and go from there. First go, then deduce. Here’s a thing I found which corresponds a bit with my views here:
www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/
gramm1_jeanette.htm

Creativity is something that we should always encourage as teachers.
For ourselves as well as our students.

Oftentimes our ‘English class’ is the only differently styled class that our students have. So here most of all, they expect and are open for ‘something else’.

Use this fact, and do some of the stuff I’ve put down here.
Always open for more ideas of course, and suggestions.

Spoken English is what most of us are here to teach.

I’ve put most activities for speaking here, in the following reactions.
Most of these ideas aren’t mine, and I’ve just stumbled upon them on the web and through colleagues. Some worked, some didn’t, and here I’ve only put the ones that actually worked.

I’ve tried to include the sources where possible.
I do think this knowledge belongs to all of us, so I hope as many people as possible will read this.

For the beginning teachers always remember a few things:

Teacher-student speaking ratio should be around 20% – 80%
so, we speak far less than them. Always bear that in mind, and you’re doing a good job.

Don’t go too fast, and adapt your speed to the slowest ss in your class.

Make sure the materials you use are suitable for the students.
They can identify with the materials, or it is real-life material (leaflets etc)

Be funny where possible.
Keep variety the only fixed part of your lesson. (Yes, you can have certain habits and rituals to present your exercises with, but I mean with choosing topics and activities.)

Most importantly: Have fun.