ESL/EFL TEACHING IDEAS

[TARSIER]

Hello everybody!

To all Filipino teachers out there, please post here some interesting ESL games and teaching strategies which you think, a great help for other Filipino teachers out there. Let us help each other to show to them that Filipinos are exceptional teachers. Kahit ano lang...

Let's see how far this topic will go and see how creative the Filipino teachers are. At sisimulan ko na po...

English Conversation
TYPE OF LEARNERS: Intermediate
TOPIC: Superlative degree of comparison
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES: After mastering vocabulary and converstion (STRUCTURE/S: What is the biggest island in Thailand? Phuket is the biggest island in Thailand.), let the students work in a group. Give them guide questions such as "What is the most famous tourist spot in Thailand?" It depends to you how many guide questions you will give but consider the availability of time.
       The students will answer the guide questions in their group while mastering the structure and look! with an output! You can let them make a brochure on "FACTS ABOUT THAILAND" and explain it afterwards. I have used it in my class and the response is so good. I even see how the naughty students gave joke when they hear their groupmates ask, "What is the biggest mall in Thailand?" and they answer, "The biggest mall in Thailand is seven-eleven." It makes everybody laugh. SANUK-SANUK!
       How about you? Do you have something to share? I will wait for it and I hope it would help each one of us. If you have suggestions to improve the activity that I had, you can post it here para naman magamit natin sa susunod.
       Maraming salamat po at mabuhay ang mga Gurong Pinoy!
   

[tEe-rEx]

i have a cd of smooth songs for listening skills activity. It's like listening to a particular song and identifying the words that have been heard (it depends what your grammar focus will be)

[TARSIER]

maganda yan tee-Rex.... baka pwede kaming magpa burn...hehehhe ;D;D;D;D

[Master J]

maganda yan tee-Rex.... baka pwede kaming magpa burn...hehehhe ;D;D;D;D

kakatapos lang ni Tee ng workshop niya Josephil. I'm sure he's willing to share some of his teaching techniques here. Congratulations Sir.

[Master J]

To Noods,

To wala pa kami internet sa balay. The True line was stolen so it will take a week pa before I can surf at home. Just happen to pass by Fashion Island so nagcheck na lang ko diri.

Friends if you have more resources that you think can help our fellow teachers enhance their skills. Please share it with us.

[TARSIER]

CHUAY DUAY!

Up!

[Madam H]

Josephil,
   
     'Just want to say 'Keng Mak!" to you for starting this thread.

      And by the way, I like the activity you did with your class. I'll have to rummage through my stuff so I can contribute more here.

      But for now, here are a few of the teaching principles I have learned and am practicing with good results with my kids:

      1. Draw from students' real-life experiences when teaching them language. This not only arouses interest, but would make the learning stick in their head, because they will see how whatever it is they are learning, will come in handy in real life. (That's what you've done when you let them talk and do something related to Thailand!)

      2. Always establish a purpose why you are teaching something, or why students should learn something. Students will not pay attention to that at first, but it will be part of their psyche as you go on with it, and that starts a sense of independence and proactivity in their own learning.

      ... Let's not make that too lenghty on a Friday afternoon...

      'Will definitely come back for more next time. I'm a bit rusty at this.

       Josephil, can you give us a bit of background on demographics of your classes - i.e., class size, how often do you meet them in a week, for how long, resources you have (books, etc). 'That way, maybe others can also see how, they could make use of your ideas in their own teaching. Or perhaps there are others out there who have the same situation as you, and are so hungry for some meaty and productive classroom ideas.

       'Have a nice weekend, everyone,a nd see you back soon!

[TARSIER]

I am teaching in a government school. I am teaching Grade 2, 5, and 6. I meet my students in Grade 2 once a weeks while I meet my Grade 5 and 6 students twice a week. I have an average of 45 students in my classroom. It's really a big size and you must have to design appropriate activities for them.

For my classes in Grade 2, I usually shift my activities every 10-15 minutes. I use to spend 5 minutes for drill lesson to enhance conversation skills and then another 5-10 minutes for vocabulary. The rest of the hour, I spend it playing games with them. When playing games with young learners, I advise everybody to participate actively with your students. The students are motivated if they see their teacher enjoying the game. Be active if you want your students to be active. And now I would like to share another idea which I used recently in my Grade 6 class. The students really enjoyed the game and the result is amazing for after the class they never forget the converstion lines I taught.

The PINOY version of this game is "Sexing Butiki" or "Baka-baka". I hope everybody is familiar with this cheering squad look-a-like game.
TOPIC: Going Shopping (Quantities)
SIZE OF CLASS: 15 above
HOW TO PLAY?
        Divide your class into three groups or more (it depends to the size of the class). After mastering the basic cnversation lines  ( What do you want? I want to buy a can of milk.) and vocabulary ( a bag of rice, a bottle of oil, a box of cheese, etc.), teach the students a cheer "What do you want, what do you want, what do you want, what do you want?"- you can create your own rythm for the cheer but I use the rythm of the cheer "SEXING BUTIKI, SEXING BUTIKI, SEXING BUTIKI SA TAMBOK NGA OPAW"
eXAMPLE:
Group 1: What do you want, what do you want, what do you want, what do you want? (they will point a group who will answer their qustion.... ex group 3)
Group 3: I want to bu a bag of sugar. What do you want, what do you want, what do you want, what do you want? (then they will point another group)

The group which cannot answer will lose a point.

NOTE: To ensure mastery of vocabulary, do not let the students repeat. Example, a bag of rice must be mentioned only once. If a group will mention it again, they lose a point. This way, you can make sure that everybody is listening to what the group is saying to avoid repeating it.

IF YOU HAVE IDEA/S TO IMPROVE THIS GAME, FEEL FREE TO POST IT HERE. I HOPE THAT THIS POST WILL HELP EACH ONE OF US. Sorry kung may mga mali, walang edit edit tong mga post ko. Deritso post lang. See you next time folks!

[TARSIER]

SOME TIPS IN HANDLING THAI CLASSROOM

I have been teaching in Thailand for almost eight months and with this short term of experience, I just found some things to be effective in handling Thai clasrooms. I just want to share some tips hoping that it would also help other Filipino teachers.

1. COOL KA LANG! When teaching, do not show to the students that you are angry- it's a big minus to your look. Always wear your most beautiful smile though you are angry already. Think that some students just like to wind their teachers up! Remember that you are in the "LAND OF SMILES" ang there are so many forms of smiles in Thailand including the one which shows embarassment. So when you tell something to your students because they are misbehaving and then they are smiling, do not think that they think it as a joke.
2. MAKISAMA We are in a foreign country so we have to adopt in their culture. Show to the students that you have interest in their lives- their culture, tradition, lifestyle, etc. Oftentimes, our life is also interesting to them. Example, I sometimes tell my students some facts about Filipinos like I say Filipinos speak so many languages. I tell them that I speak Visayan Language, Tagalog Language and then English Language. They show eagerness to what I have shared by asking for sample of those languages. They ask me using English and they like to explain their culture in English too. Actually, COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING" comes subconsciously.
3. MAGPAKATOTOO KA! Never break a promise! If you have rules, implement it all the time. Do not choose a time, mood or incident to implement it.
4. ISIPIN: HINDI MGA PRUDOKTO SA TINDAHAN ANG IYONG KAHARAP Never label a student either in a positive or negative way. Doing such will weaken the confidence of the students.
5. TINGNAN KUNG ANO ANG TAMA AT HUWAG LUMAGI SA MALI Oftentimes, we scold our students for misbehaving or we give negative feedbacks to their pronunciation or the way they speak. Why not focus on the positive behavior of the students? Why not praise them everytime they speak English in a clear manner? That way, other students will be motivated to behave positively and participate in the discussion actively. Ngunit huwag lang sanang sumobra because I have a student who do not listen before and he really has a poor performance in my class so everytime he do good, I praise him pero sumubra kaya ngayon sumakit na naman ang ulo ko kasi nag lelead sa klase napaklaks ng boses at mali pati yung sinasabi nya... hehhehehehe

Mag-iisip muna ako ng iba at maghahalungkat din ng pwede ko'ng ma i share sa inyo... See you next time!

[Madam H]

I worked in a government school in Rangsit once with classes of over 50 students. I met them twice a week, and I had full control of what I wanted to teach them. (Which of course, was both good and bad. Great if you're a seasoned teacher. That's scary if you're a rookie!)

This one I'm sharing is something I recently did with my 9th graders at the International school where I teach. The class is especially designed for those learning English, but using content areas. That means we are doing the exact opposite of what bilingual classes do in the Thai school. We use content areas such as Social Studies, Science, Math and Language Arts to teach the English language. How's that done? Ask me to do a whole-day workshop! Ha, ha!

You guys out there are free to give us ideas on how this can be done in other teaching situations. I'll think of some too.

Title: Dares, Deals and Challenges

It’s been 8 days that I have not had a taste of my dear old, old friend – the soda! I was telling my kids about it when suddenly, I was struck by inspiration. And I thought to myself, why not?

That day, I offered my class a deal. If every single one of my students were to complete a dare or a challenge within 21 days, I would give them either a pizza party or a movie.

They took it, and were even pretty excited about the whole idea.

It took us several days (15 minutes each time), before everyone thought of a challenge for himself/herself, or a dare for a classmate.

The challenges all had to do with school, of course, because we had to have a way to monitor things, and the whole idea is for them to be a means of support for the goals they want to achieve by the end of the year.

Here are a few of the challenges/dares:
∑ “I will speak only English in all my classes.”
∑ “I will do all my homework in all subjects everyday.”
∑ And of course, as for myself, I should also have another challenge aside from my soda battle.
So my challenge would be to make sure I check all homework everyday, and give appropriate feedback (grades, comments or both) to students the following school day.

The rules:
∑ The whole class has to participate.
∑ Everyone is accountable to one another.
∑ If one fails to do his/her challenge, there are two choices: he/she can treat the whole class to pizza or start another 21-days cycle.
∑ Once everyone has completed one 21-days cycle successfully, I treat the class to a pizza party or to a movie of their choosing.

Why 21?
   According to Stephen Covey, author of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, it takes 21 days for somebody to make or break a habit. Thus, the 21-days cycle.

Stay tuned as I bring you news about how this will turn out. I’m so positive about its results I’m getting ready with that big pizza order.

Update: Last June 6, I took my kids (students) to Emporium to watch a movie instead of that pizza party. We watched Pirates 2. Then we had early dinner at Fuji courtesy of two other kids who passed th test to go into the mainstream class. Good way to end the year and draw a close to great yeat of hard work for both the students and me!

Of course, if you have a class of 45, there's no way I would suggest you take them all to the movies, Josephil! Ha, ha!

I'll think of some way to integrate this into a setting such as yours to give other teachers some ideas to use.

[TARSIER]

hahahhahah... Madamme H talaga walang movie theatre dito. If I would do that, I may find myself asking for alms at the skywalk or Victory Monument. I would have to take care of the expenses in going to Bangkok and huhhuhuhu! the movie pass for 47 students.

Well, I have extra classes in small group and for sure I could apply those ideas. I have been giving promises to my young students in my extra classes and at the end, they did their best and got gifts from me.

[Madam H]

Josephil,

        Ha, ha, ha! Oh i definitely would advice against taking your 47 kids to the movies! Ha, Ha!

        But, yes, just about everyone loves to receive gifts for effort or a job well done!

[tEe-rEx]

i suggest... always start from scratch. Diagnose the student's knowledge about a particular topic before motivating them. This is the common mistake of most foreign teachers. They always expect the unexpected.

[TARSIER]

I agree with you tee-Rex... You must know who your students are. You will not be able to understand teaching as a whole if you don't understand the learners. Remember that education is nothing without the learners.

[Madam H]

Speaking of learners, I think one of the must-reads (if you haven't yet) for you Josephil, is Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This is probably the most powerful movement towards better teaching and learning in the recent years. Long, long ago, educators believed that the best way for young minds to develop was to sit and listen silently to dull lectures, answer equally dull worksheets that don't leave much to interaction, and so on.

With the advent of Gardner's theory that people, and particularly children, may not respond the same way to a particular type of teaching simply because their intelligences lie in a different area, educators, curriculum makers and parents all over the world simply had to start changing the way things are being done in schools and in homes.

These are the different intelligences accdg to Gardner:
Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

Using this philosophy, we go back to Tee-Rex's idea that it is very important to know your students first before plunging on to teaching the curriculum you are assigned to teach. For example, you simply can't bombard your class with spelling tests and vocabulary studies if most of them happen to have bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. You might want to include lessons where they have to move about to learn the particular aspect of language you are supposed to be teaching them.


But perhaps, to make things less complicated, we can just keep this in mind instead:
Learners are simply one of these 3 - visual (they learn best when they see it), auditory (they learn best when they hear it) or kinesthetic (they learn best when they do it or experience it).

To use this so you get the most out of teaching and learning time in the classroom, it is important you vary your approaches, your materials and your activities. Example, if you are teaching your kids the language of abilities ("I can swim/run/play football/etc"), you might want to use pictures while you are presenting the language to reach your visual learners. You might want your class to sound out the ability words to each other so your auditories remember them. And for your kinesthetics, you might want to include an activity where they act out these ability words.

Just always remember these three words when you plan a lesson: SEE, HEAR, DO!!!

When you cover all three in a lesson, you won't leave anybody behind. And I'm sure, your kids will find what they do in class more meaningful and less threatening (remember, for kids, nothing is worth doing if it isn't a game).

'Hope you can get something out of this.

[Darfur]

wow, madam H is really a teacher. i remember my days in a public school in las pinas. My head in the English department is so strict when it comes to this Visual, Auditory and kinesthetic objectives. I've done it for 3 years and it works. The sad truth is there are good teachers in the Philippines but the students speaking ability is so poor. some cant even construct compound sentences. got any solution for this madam H. I am a newbie but i've read all your posts and now let me call you (if you mind) a walking teacher encyclopedia. i like your posts ma'am you sound like my favourite professor La Salle.

[yllorco]

hahahhahah... Madamme H talaga walang movie theatre dito. If I would do that, I may find myself asking for alms at the skywalk or Victory Monument. I would have to take care of the expenses in going to Bangkok and huhhuhuhu! the movie pass for 47 students.

Well, I have extra classes in small group and for sure I could apply those ideas. I have been giving promises to my young students in my extra classes and at the end, they did their best and got gifts from me.

Bol-anon bai,

We bring the movie theatre to class at our school by choosing PG films.  It's an instructional film-showing.  Learn more about it from http://www.english-behind-the-scenes.com/.  The result is really good.

[erick]

wow, madam H is really a teacher. i remember my days in a public school in las pinas. My head in the English department is so strict when it comes to this Visual, Auditory and kinesthetic objectives. I've done it for 3 years and it works. The sad truth is there are good teachers in the Philippines but the students speaking ability is so poor. some cant even construct compound sentences. got any solution for this madam H. I am a newbie but i've read all your posts and now let me call you (if you mind) a walking teacher encyclopedia. i like your posts ma'am you sound like my favourite professor La Salle.

Allow me to share some of my ideas, darfur. I hope you don't mind.

1. there are good teachers in the Philippines but the students speaking ability is so poor.

- We can learn from their mistakes.  In teaching a language, it is always advised that we lessen the teacher talk. To help students learn to express themselves in the target language, it is best to follow the 70:30 ratio; where students are given more time to speak, for instance practice doing short conversation. I remember my ENGLISH 101 and 102...it's all teacher talk. These subjects focus on grammar ( structure) but still a very effective language teacher knows how to use and find his materials as springboard in teaching the structure of the language. I believe you are familiar with the "integration of major language skills."  This approach to language teaching makes our lessons more meaningful.


2. some cant even construct compound sentences.

- This means a review of grammar will not hurt the students. If you are referring to their inability to write compound sentences; then drilling the students is a  good option. Then find a simple authentic text where students can read and identify examples of compound sentences. We almost always end our language lessons by  giving them some writing activity. Try the "rewrite" technique. The students learn to monitor grammatical errors, correct misspelled words, and improve their writing styles as well.

[Darfur]

tnx erick

[buddhist punk]

I apologize if some of these activities cannot be done in your particular circumstance, but I enjoyed these as much as the students did:

1. field trip to and English speaking restaurant - this may require chaperones and advanced planning; the objective is to have students interact with the English speaking food servers to ask about, order, and commend servers on the food they want to eat. It is especially interesting to listen to them ask about prices or dishes, talk among themselves [they were grouped] about what they wanted to eat. pizza and pastery are always an easy dish order for themselves.

2. newscasting/role playing - precisely because a news segment is only 2 minutes long, all of your students can participate. they can prepare the script as well as the visuals to go with it, like cutouts or posters, or even a short video. allow them to choose the type of news they want, with editing from you of course. set up a news booth with the name of a local news station, provide a real or fake mic, spotlight and video the whole thing to review choice segments.

3. interview with a vampire - er....i meant farang. have student prepare a set of 4 questions that they can ask an english speaking person. pair them up, so if you have 40 students, you only need to contact 20 people. some of these people can stand to be interviewed twice, so you cut the number down to 10. you may even invite a non school person to talk about himself/herself. the content and questions can be prepared in advance.

4. tableau - choose an interesting book excerpt [depending on the age level, but i would choose the harry potter series]; if your class is co-ed and nearing puberty, like mine, they will get a kick out of the romantic scenes between harry and hermione or harry and cho. avoid the classics, too heavy for their age.

that's all i can remember, or have the power to post right now. more next time. i hope!