#VYLteacher

A square peg in a round hole. New kids joining the group mid-year.

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Back in the classroom

January, January. Here we are, are still dragging the residue of the Xmas – New Year laziness in our blood cells but the time is now to enter the classrooms briskly (also, because the school hallways is the only place where you can do ‘briskly’, the pavements outside are either icy or covered with snow or slush), with the new energy and to start the second half of the game.

Sometimes, let’s be honest, this YAY attitude is a show you put on (see the laziness residue) but if it doesn’t start with the teacher, then there is no or very little hope that it will be student-generated. After all, they don’t only have you, their after-school English classes, they also have the regular school, with the huge piles of homework and, this year’s special – they are back to the regular, offline classrooms, after three months of the screen’n’pjs education. This is the older students.

The younger ones, well, they have been attending regular classes, without any breaks, in most cases, but these, they come after not having seen you for two weeks. Will they be a little bit displaced and confused? Yes, they will. Will they have forgotten some of the class rules and routines? Most likely, yes. Will this first lesson after the winter holidays be to some extent like the first lesson of the course? It might be.

What to do with it? Not much, really. Just being kind to yourself and to your students and acknowledging the fact that it will take some time to warm up the neurons and to have them work at the top of their capacity. And a lot of revision, as regards vocabulary, structures, rules and routines. It is not that difficult to put together a great and meaningful ‘revision’ lesson and all the students will appreciated and enjoy doing something that is familiar (but not boring) and achievable (but still challenging enough). Before we get back to climbing yet another of our EFL Everests.

But that’s not really what I wanted to write about today

Imagine, dear reader, that to all the hoops that are already in place (a long break, sleepy students, tired students, all over the place students), you get one more: you find out that a brand new student will be joining your group. Or coming to do a trial lesson. Or just joining you for a catch-up lessons since he/she missed a few classes with their regular teacher.

I am not sure how common an occurence that would be in state schools, kindergartens or classes given by private tutors, or, even, whether it does happen in other private language schools. It does in mine and it is an interesting experience. Here are few thoughts from the last two weeks.

The teacher

It is a challenge, admittedly, because in a way we work the double amount, on the one hand dealing with the group, re-instating the kingdom from before, on the other hand, taking the new student on a brand new adventure and that might mean some temporary dissonace that will have to be managed.

It might also happen that the new student’s mum will want to take part in the lesson or that the new child will refuse to enter the classroom without her. How you react here will, of course, depend on the school’s policy.

It might be a good idea to invite the parents in or to have them sit in the hallway but with the door open so that everyone (the parent and the child) feel comfortable and it is equally important for the teacher to explain what is going to happen in the lesson and how the parents can help. What usually happens is, the child stays around mum in the very beginning and then, slowly, wanders towards the teacher and the group and, eventually, takes part in all the activities. This period of time might be different for different children and it is crucial that they are not rushed here, by the teacher or by the parents, and that they make the decision when to join all by themselves.

The best advice that I might give teachers (and that I give myself when I enter the room on a day like this) is to stay calm and to smile a lot, because things will get better soon. Of course, in 2020 – 21 even smiling might not such a straightforward solution, but even with the mask on, it is good to remember that it takes a few muscles to smile and that the smile spreads all over your face. Plus, it might be a good idea, to stand at a safe distance and to take off the mask just for a second, while meeting the child for the first time to let them see your face.

The activities

This is an interesting case, especially with the very young learners. As mentioned before, some revision is absolutely necessary in any lesson and especially in the first lesson after a long break. However, that might mean that the new students will be constantly at a disadvantage, because for example, they won’t know all the songs that everyone else already loves or to take part in all the games because in order to do so, they would have to be familiar with all the vocabulary and, of course, they are not.

For that reason, it would be good to start each activity with a quick revision of the vocabulary and drilling, to inlcude the games that will have a double focus, something apart from the language itself, for example langauge and CLIL (names of the animals and whether they are big or small or numbers and counting real objects) or language and cognitive skills (names of toys and looking for differences between two pictures or odd one out) because the new students will be able to participate partially at least, relying on their ‘previous knowledge’ not on the langauge only in order to complete the tasks.

What’s more, despite the overall focus on the revised, I would still recommend introducing some new material, in order to ensure that there is something which is new to absolutely everyone, the ‘old’ students and the new and that we all learn it, together, as a group. It doesn’t have to be a brand new topic, only a couple of new items to extend their vocabulary range in the topic of toys, a new song or a new story.

Using gestures is always a good idea, but it can be especially beneficial in the begining of the course, the new topic or when there is a new student in the group. They might not be able to produce all the words straightaway but they should be able to show them, if they know how.

As for songs and videos, in general, although there are plenty of advantages of using a mixture of both audio and video or even moving to using audio only, once the kids know the song very well, the videos will help to support the new kids for whom all is new. At the very minimum, they will be able to follow and understand the plot of the song.

The new child

Well, in a way, this is the most important person in the room as this is, definitely, the most confused, the most singled-out and the most vulnerable person in the room. The adults definitely know what is going on, what we are doing and why we are here. The other non-adults, albeit a bit out-of-sync perhaps, also seem to recognise the set-up and the procedures and they also know each other.

The reactions to this amount of ‘new and unfamiliar’ might vary, from a complete disregard for it (‘There are other kids, they do something, I want to do it, too! What, they use some strange words all the time? Nevermind! ‘), through one million questions in an attempt to take the situation in (‘Why?‘ ‘Who?‘ ‘What?‘ ‘Why?‘ ‘Why?‘ ‘Why?‘) to a complete refusal to take part (‘I can’t, I won’t‘)

As I said before, it is rare that the children are completely uninterested and not ready to be involved. Usually, it wears off during the first fifteen minutes so it is only up to the teacher and the parents to wait it out, patiently, while providing all the support necessary.

Apart from tthe smiles and the praise, all the new activities should be modelled and demonstrated with the other students. This way, the newcomers will have a chance to see the game in action before it is their turn to take part.

The group

This is, by far, the most interesting component of the whole set. No matter how unfocused they are, and how much they have forgotten, these are the students who have been with you for a few months and, almost automatically, they will become your teaching assistants.

You will be able to demonstrate the activities as well as the behaviour that you want to reinforce or, sometimes, too, discourage. What is more, they will naturally want to be involved and, even without you asking, they will give the new student the best introduction to all the lesson procedures, in the L1 and in a way that is best understood by a child.

It is actually a real joy to see them do that, with all the 3 or 4-year-old kindness and empathy:

‘Don’t worry, we all take turns. First me, then Anya, then Masha, then you. Don’t be sad.’

‘She doesn’t speak Russian. We speak English here.’

‘She will show us how to do it‘

‘And then we will read the story‘.

There is another reason why having a new or a guest student might be interesting. This is a truly unique (albeit unsolicited) opportunity for the teacher to see how much progress the group have made. Assessing preschoors is not as easy and straightforward as assessing other age groups, and comparing them against a beginner who is just starting to learn is fascinating. Even if seemingly, they are all still beginners, still pre-A CEFR and still in year 1, it is possible to see how much progress the children have made over a period of a few months. And it applies to all the areas, vocabulary, behaviour, social skills.

And two stories from the classroom, instead of a coda

The first one, from my preschool group a few years back. Over the course of the year, we got bored and started to come up with more creative names for things that we were using. No more of ‘orange juice’ or ‘cherry juice’, we were drinking ‘clock juice’ and ‘balloon juice’ and we were all using chocolate marker, cucumber marker, strawberry marker and sky marker, instead of all the traditional colours. It was all great and a lot of fun, until a new student joined. We just had to explain what was going on.

The second one, from my teens group. This time, it was not a new but a catch-up student. Who brought her phone and who did not switch it to mute. Whose telephone rang in the middle of the lesson, naturally. Who just picked it up and started a conversation.

We sorter it out later, of course, but before we did, I because a part of a beautiful classroom tableaux. I, in the middle, and a few of heads of my students, first turning towards the new girl and then right at me, with the same question in their eyes, ‘WHAT is she doing?!?!?!’…

It made me giggle, inside. ‘Hm, look, it seems we have a code of conduct here.’, I thought. ‘And someone feels strongly about it.’ Good to know, eh?

As for the square pegs and round holes…Well, even if they that in the beginning, during the first lesson or the first two lessons, they never stay that way. The square pegs become a bit rounder and the round holes get a bit square-y. And that is the way to go!

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #12 In my little house: A craft activity for one hundred occasions.

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If I had to choose only one craft activity for all my classes, a proper all-rounder, for the younger and for the older, to serve a hundred purposes – that is the one!

Welcome to my little house!

First of all, I really did try hard, very hard to remember where and when I learnt how to make it and how to use it and who taught me and I can’t. I don’t know. For sure, it was Moscow, definitely my first year here but who and how? No idea. The only thing that I can do now is to say ‘Thank you!’ to this forgotten and now anonymous benefactor. I am, indeed, much obliged. Now, I am sharing.

Instructions

  • Two pieces of paper per student / house. In the samples in the photos I have used A4 but in the classroom, with my kids I tend to use both A3 and A4, depending on the main aim. If we are just glueing things, A4 works just fine. If we draw – A3 is bigger and offers more room for the kids’ drawings.
  • Fold the house. It is pretty easy and you can watch this video here, from Inner Child Fun to see how it is made. Emily is using origami paper but a regular A3 or A4 will work just fine!
  • Important: I normally do it myself, for all my students because even adults (like my trainees) might not be very good at origami-like activities and the house, although it is relatively simple, it does require some precision and if it is not applied, it is not going to look very well, unfortunately. Preschoolers will not be able to fold it and when I once tried with my primary school kids, I immediately began to regret it because some of them took the responsibility of the taks too seriously and were getting very nervous, predicting that they might not be skilled enough to manage the task. They did, in the end, with a lot of encouragement but I think it is just not worth it. We can still teach them how to do it, for them to practise and play at home but if you think of the lesson itself, the timing and the aims – just not worth it.
  • In my case, depending on the aim of the particular house (see below, there are plenty of options), I make one house myself, as a template, hand-drawn or using clip art images, and then I photocopy it to fold for each student. The advantage of it is that you can put in your house whatever you want. The basic design involves only the lines inside the house and the division into rooms, with numbers. That helps during the activities because you can ask your students ‘Go to room number 1’ and this way you make sure that everyone is on the ball and that they don’t glue pictures wherever they should not, for example, on the lines as that would get in the way of the house closing and opening.
  • Also, before the lesson, I glue the houses onto the garden page. This is especially useful in the case of the pre-primary students and in the case of those of my primary kids who have not done the activity before. Being glued on, the house is not as easy (although not impossible) to be dismantled and unfolded and it is just easier to manipulate in class.
  • I start with demonstrating my house, with all the theatre that I can muster. We look at it, we knock at the door, we open it and look inside. This can be done on the carpet or with the kids gathered around you so that everyone can see all the details.
  • I give out the houses and we start with drawing the door and writing the number (ask talking about them) and then drawing the windows (and talking about them). Make sure that all the students are more or less in the same place here. I normally only give out one colour per child (although they can ask for a different colour for the door and a different colour for the windows) or, with the older kids, with a pencil only. They will want their houses to be really pretty so erasing might be necessary and I really don’t want to waste time on colouring, this can be done at home.
  • The main task usually involves glueing things in different rooms, for example pets. For that, I prepare small pictures of all the pets, one set per child, on a tray (or whatever works as a tray) and a poster to put up, for everyone to see all the options. We start with room number 1 and I say, ‘Go to room number 1’. ‘I can see a cat (in my room number 1)’ after which I glue there the small picture of a cat. Then, the kids take turns and make similar sentences choosing their own animal from the set. They only receive a picture to glue after they make their sentences. When everyone is ready with room 1, we show our pictures, we say ‘I’m ready’ and move on to room number 2. And so on.
  • In the end, if there is time, we draw the sun, the tree and the flowers in the garden and we colour the house for homework. Also, if there are any leftover animals, these can be given out to glue at home (although, yes, that involves some more complex logistics, paperclips, small envelopes, not impossible though).
  • In the following lesson, we look at our houses and describe the rooms, the colours etc.
  • Variations: there are many of these. The house can be anything you want it to be. Here are some of my favourite ones:
  • Any set of vocabulary and almost any set of stucture, starting with ‘I can see’ and ‘I’ve got’, with some less obvious ones like the pictures of activities to practise Present Continous (‘I’m jumping in the kitchen’) or even words or word cards with the Past Tense forms which can be used later to tell stories for example ‘A strange Sunday’ (‘My brother slept in the garden’, ‘My dad danced in the kitchen’ etc)
  • Halloween or Christmas house – with the characters and symbols of each holiday
  • Rooms of the house – template is prepared with some furniture typical of each room, students can place pets in rooms (‘Where is the cat?’ ‘It is in the bedroom’) or family members (‘Where is mum?’ ‘She is in the living room’), add small objects to each room (‘Where is the lamp?’ ‘It is in the kitchen’, it is best to choose things that could be in any room such as lamps, pictures, chairs, rugs) and this version can be also further extented (‘Where is the lamp?’ ‘It is in the kitchen. It is on the cupboard’). The older kids can also draw these, making a regular or a silly house, too.
  • Secret Room – this was a follow-up activity in which I used the template which I drew with one empty box (empty, only because I could not, for the life of me, draw anything resembling a dining room). We did one of the activities mentioned above but the last room was to be drawn at home and it could be anything – a space room, a swimming pool, a library, an ocean zoom, a pirate room…
  • Where are you? – a template with the rooms, pre-prepared, each student gets a set of the leftover stickers or small cards, they put them somewhere in the house, in secret and afterwards they guess where their objects are. It can be used to practise simple prepositions and the rooms (‘Is it in the kitchen?’) or more complex ones (‘Is it in the living room?’ ‘Yes’ ‘Is it on the sofa / behind the chair?’etc)
  • Put your penguin in the living room on the sofa – a template with the rooms, pre-prepared and a set of stickers or small cards. The kids dictate to each other where to glue them, again, it can be used for simple or more complex prepositions, to get the kids ready for the Starters speaking exams. Later on, we compare our houses.

Why we love it

  • It is relatively easy to make and the kids love the fact that it is a real house.
  • It can be used with any vocabulary or structures (or almost)
  • It can be used with pre-schoolers and primary
  • It has to be prepared before the lesson for all the students but it is a good time investment
  • It is at the same time a focused task to be done in class and a homework task. The homework can involve only colouring and decorating it, talking about it in class but a writing task can easily be added for the older students (any template to be printed on the back of the garden, for example the focus can be such structures as there is, I can see, colours and furniture, my favourite room etc
  • It encourages the students to produce the langauge and it is easy to stage since you go from room to room
  • Lots of opportunities for adaptation, even if you repeat it with the same group. Every single time, it will be a different house.

Happy teaching!

Epic Fail! or We make mistakes to learn #1

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Welcome to the new series on the blog.

It started with something Michael said. He is a fellow teacher and he was telling me a story of how Teacher X went to peer observe an experienced colleague, Teacher Z and how the lesson was, well, not very good, bad, horrible, ‘a disaster’…It was not a very pleasant experience for Teacher Z, of course, but a learning opportunity for Teacher X, nonetheless (and for Teacher Z, too, actually). ‘This is what I want to hear, that even with the best intentions, it can all go ‘tits up’ but nobody is prepared to say it‘.

I got inspired. I am ready to share. I don’t mind. We repeat that to our students, constantly, that mistakes are noble and that we can learn from them. If our students can, so can we, the teachers. The same principles apply.

By the way, the Epic Fail Award is actually a real concept. It is a real award given out to employees at Hill Holliday agency, since, as Robert F. Kennedy once said ‘Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly’ (apparently, have a look at the whole article here)

With that in mine off we go, to the first of my personal disasters or ‘When things did not go to plan‘.

One: The (stupid) Christmas tree craft

Here it is, look!

Did you go ‘Awn’? I bet you did. I did when I saw it and so did my kids when I showed it to them, during the pre-Xmas lesson. It did take place three years ago, I think and back then I was already an experienced teacher etc.

I did a great job, preparing for the task. I did prepare all the materials; I did make the tree at home. I did think of the staging. I did plan to teach the kids the verbs we needed to make it (fold, press, pause). I did think of how old they were and I knew them, they had been my students for over two years at the time so I could imagine what they were or were not able to do. We had done plenty of craft activities, we had worked with the pipe cleaners in a few different arrangements. I did pre-cut the triangles and tied pipe cleaners (three of them joined would be necessary to cover one tree). I punched the holes at the top of each tree. I wrote the main steps.

You would have thought the conditions were perfect. Yes, yes, they were. And yet it was the biggest craft disaster known to mankind. In my kingdom.

It turned out that even with all of these preparations and the previous experience and knowledge, the task turned out to be too tricky for my students. They were involved, yes, they loved the idea but we soon discovered that if you do not press the pipe cleaner real hard, applying all the strength (that the 5 y.o. did not quite have), it starts sliding, coming off and not looking at all as this ‘Awn’ model that I had already shown and that everyone had already managed to fall in love with and to start dreaming about of taking home.

The point of no return, in other words. Stopping, pausing or aborting the task was completely out of the question at that point. We went on, with me helping to complete eight Christmas trees simultaneously, perhaps singing the song to keep everyone occupied (though, really, I cannot be sure) with me hating absolutely every second of it and swearing that this very craft will never be seen again in any of my lessons. This or any craft, actually.

Everyone survived. Apart from all the leftover trees. I binned them all. With a lot of vidictive satisfaction. The one you can see in the photograph was recreated for teacher training purposes.

Today, I think that the craft is actually child-friendly, provided that you don’t go too minimalistic and that you keep the real Christmas tree-shape. Or that you at least cut the edges of the simple triangle in a few places, on both sides, to ensure that the pipe cleaner has somewhere to get attached and to stay in one place and still look ‘Awn’.

But it is also true that with this particular craft, I did allow myself to fall far the ‘awn’ effect and its strictly decorative value. Linguistically, there would be very little for us to do with it, apart from a few verbs and a few functional language phrases that we use and practise with any craft activity. Maybe, just maybe, I should not have fallen for it and, as a language teacher, first and foremost, I should have prioritised the linguistic aim.

Well, lesson learnt, that’s for sure!

P.S. It was unpleasant but I have not given up on craft! Experiments will sometimes lead to great achievements and sometimes to disasters but the best thing is – we learn, one way or another!

P.S.S. There is more to come in this chapter! I will see you soon with more epic fails stories. If you have some that you would like to share, please, do in the comments below!

Happy teaching!

Child development stories #2

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Enter Sasha

She is five years old and is a big sister to a baby brother. She is in the second year of our EFL course. The group in which she is studying is not big at all, only four kids, two boys and two girls. We can meet only once a week, on Saturday morning, for two real hours.

It happens in the second half of the lesson. The kids are completing the literacy development activities, tracing letter M and gluing in a few pictures with mum, a mouse, a monkey. They are having fun because at the same time we are playing our new favourite game: what colour is it? Which is about making up new names for all the colours. No more ‘green marker’ then, no more ‘purple marker’. They have been rebranded as ‘a cucumber marker’ and ‘an aubergine marker’. All of a sudden brown is the new black because we all call it ‘a chocolate marker’ and everyone wants to use it.

Just then, both Sasha and Andrey reach out for the same marker and Sasha waves her hand so unfortunately that she hits Andrey, not very hard to make him cry but hard enough to cause discomfort. Andrey gets upset.

The teacher says ‘Oh, Andrey, are you ok? Sasha didn’t mean it. She will say sorry. Sasha, please say sorry.’

But Sasha shakes her head.

Teacher continues ‘Sasha, you are fantastic and you did not mean it. But Andrey is sad. If you say ‘I am sorry’, he will be happy’ (all that navigating carefully between the buoys of acceptable English and English graded to the pre-A level, with all the gestures, soft voice and empathy). Andrey is calmer but Sasha shakes her head. ‘Sasha, please say sorry’

And this is when she raises her head, looks at the teacher with defiance and says, in her L1 ‘You can’t tell me what to do. You are not my boss’

The teacher sighs, struggling to keep a straight face because it is hilarious. Even more so because the word she uses is very formal, strong and way above the 5-year-old range. A corporate culture vernacular, she has picked up somewhere.  The teacher gives up and once again smiles at Andrey. ‘It’s OK, Andrey. Don’t worry. It’s going to be OK’

The lesson goes on…

The kids go back to tracing the letters. Just then, Sasha suddenly stands up and starts walking. The teacher looks up and says ‘Sasha, please sit down’ but this is when the little girl looks at the teacher again, right in the eye. The last traces of defiance are gone and now she is something new about her, something in her eyes, as if she is saying ‘Please, let me do it’. The teacher nods her head.

Sasha goes around the table, behind the other kids’ backs, until she reaches Andrey. He looks at her but she bends, with her hands cupped around her mouth and his ear and says in L1 and in that child whisper that absolutely everyone in the room can hear clearly ‘Andrey, please don’t tell anyone, it is a secret. I am really sorry. I didn’t mean it’. The she just goes back to her seat and finishes her task, as if nothing has happened. Nothing at all.

The things that I have learnt from this story

  • Kids are different and even the bravest and the most outspoken ones will not feel very comfortable with all the limelight and attention on them, positive or negative, even if the audience comprises of only four other people that they know really well.
  • The teacher has to react to any unwanted behaviour to signal that this is not what we are going to tolerate, however, it is also up to the teacher to decide how long this ‘reaction’ should last. When does it stop being effective and turns into ‘torture’ and ‘punishment’
  • Is it always a good idea to encourage or to make the kids say that they are sorry there and then even if they don’t mean it and don’t want to do it? Debatable. It might be a good idea to leave some room for the learner and human autonomy and let them sort it out themselves, under a teacher’s supervision, of course.
  • What Sasha said to the teacher could have been potentially interpreted as a lack of respect but it was something that was clearly overheard at home and applied in a different context, in a similar situation. It never happened before and it never happened again afterwards and, to be honest, the only difficult thing about it was that I had to keep a straight face, although inside I was rolling with laughter.
  • Sasha did understand very well that she was the responsible one, she did not feel comfortable with it and wanted to signal her discomfort to the world. And, in a way, she did and effectively so. Perhaps a sad face or tears would be a more typical way of reacting in such a situation, a more predictable one but children are different and they react differently.
  • We did have our happy ending but if I were to give any advice to this teacher (well, myself from a few years ago), I would suggest telling Sasha a secret, instead of drawing even more attention to something that she did do.

Happy teaching!

Child development stories #1: Luna Lovegood

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Why this series? Child development is one of the key areas when it comes to the teacher education in the area of primary and pre-primary. At the same time, whereas the other two areas, the knowledge of the language and the appropriate methodology, are better taken care of, child development for the EFL teachers is still waiting to happen. Hence this series.

I hope that some of my adventures will contribute to understanding who the little people in our classrooms are and how to approach them.

All of this really did happen but we want to protect real kids and their stories so for the purpose of this little exercise here, everyone will be a Sasha as it can be a boy or a girl and the name is used worldwide, too.

Enter Sasha.

On the one hand, there is nothing unusual about it, really, there is always one child in (each) group that is going to be your space cadet, daydreamer, lost, your head in the clouds, moony, your Luna Lovegood, your Tigger, Little Miss Scatterbrain. There is always one and it is perfectly fine.

My Luna was a boy, aged 5, Alexander, although this name was too big for him, so we just called him Sasha or Sanya.

Sanya could not stay focused…

…throughout the lesson for as long as all the other kids, and despite the fact that it was year 2, with plenty of time for him to get used to the routine and the length of the lesson. He did not pay attention, he would switch off, he had to be called back. He would come late every now and again and very very rarely did he bring the homework.

He did not interact with the kids well, either.

He did not make friends with the girls, who stayed in their own circle but he did not seem to be getting on very well with the other three boys in the group. Grisha, the youngest always chose to sit with his older brother and Artem refused to sit with him. Of course, they did play together and interact during the lesson, I did take care of it, but they only did the absolute minimum.

And yet, Sanya, did look for this interaction only his methods were not approved of by the boys. For example, one day, in the middle of the lesson, he went to Artem and hugged him to which Artem pushed him off with ‘Don’t kiss me, you are not my mum’…All of it was rather unusual and a definite change of behaviour.

But even before I managed to get in touch and talk to Sanya’s mum…

the truth revealed itself. One of these days in November, the lesson finished and Sanya was still there in the classroom. When I asked ‘Where is your mummy?’, he explained that today his mummy is not coming to pick him upstairs (3rd floor) but that he should walk downstairs those six flight of stairs and meet her on the ground floor, by the cloakroom, a strange request and a real challenge, in that building. I let the assistant know and I said ‘Let’s go’ reaching out my hand. And because it was a long trip, step by step by step, hand in hand and because he was a little gloomy, I decided to talk to him. Now, mind you, he was still a pre-A level and so I did speak English and he replied in Russian. We counted stairs, I praised him for the lesson and then, I decided to ask, just making small talk, ‘Sanya, who is coming today, mummy or daddy?’ and this is when the heartbreak began. And the understanding.

Sanya just answered the question and because it must have been something that has been bothering him, he just went on talking.

‘My uncle is coming today. I don’t have a daddy. He doesn’t live with us anymore. He’s got a new home and a new baby son. We live with the uncle, my mummy and me’

At the age of 5, Sanya had already been through his parents’ separation, at an unknown cost and stress, his half-brother’s birth and who knows what else. No wonder he was a little bit off. No wonder mum had other issues to deal with rather than the homework. No wonder he needed some more attention from the other kids and from the teacher.

Back then I was still a very young and shy teacher.

I did not talk to Sanya’s mum. What I focused on was making Sanya’s time in class a little bit more bearable: no stickers for homework, homework replacement that he could do in class when I was checking other kids’ tasks and deal with his in the end, praising him and putting more effort in creating opportunities for him to bond with other children, making sure he is fine.

And walking him downstairs to the cloakroom after the lesson.

Today, it would have been different. I would have more energy and more confidence to talk to mum and voice my concerns and try to work with her more closely.

We want more. We ALWAYS want more! Maximising language production

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Here is my favourite character who would be a perfect amabassador for ‘We want more‘, my professional obsession (you might have noticed:-) and some of my favourite solutions for the classroom.

Trick number 1: The language

Regardless of what coursebook is used or what curriculum is followed, there are certain language items that can be included even in the pre-primary programme that will enable children to communicate and produce more language.

Some of these language items include:

  • descriptive adjectives, such as big – small, long – short, happy – sad, beautiful – ugly, serious – funny, old – new, etc. Introducing them in opposites will make it easier for the students to understand and to remember
  • simple linkers, introduced gradually, starting with ‘and’ (‘blue and green’, ‘cats and dogs’, ‘I like bananas and apples’), then moving on to ‘because’ ( starting with ‘I am happy because it is sunny’) and perhaps even ‘but’ (‘I like dancing but I don’t like dancing with a bear’, like in the song from Super Simple Songs).
  • introduce Present Continuous, because it will be easy to play with it in all the miming games and it will come in very handy while describing pictures and telling stories.
  • talking about other people. Personalisation is very important while learning language, not only with the little ones, but it is also a good idea to start introducing other people and the language we need to talk about them such as ‘she/he is / has got / can / likes’

Trick number 2: The freedom of speech

This freedom of speech has got very little with the civil rights. It is all about the degree of freedom that the students are given or, in other words, about the scaffolding and the support that are slowly removed in order not to limit the students and to enable them to choose what they want to talk about.

One way of doing it is shifting from closed yes/no questions towards more open-ended questions. ‘What do you like to eat?’ is more likely to generate more language that only ‘Do you like bananas?’ which will lead to one-word answers or maybe even only gestures. ‘Tell me about‘ will be a lot more generative.

Using this approach while working with illustrations, pictures or any kind of visuals will give students the opportunity to choose for themselves what to talk about. And it is quite likely that they will pick the topics (elements or aspects of the picture) that they are either more interested in, have more knowledge of or are better prepared to discuss. In any case, more language is likely to be generated.

Examples or real activities? Here you are:

Pairs is a speaking activity that uses a simple material of a set of pictures. The students put them in pairs, in any way they want. They also have to justify their choice. In case of the younger learners, this principle can be the colour (‘Panda and zebra. They are black and white’) but kids can also choose any other reason for that, like ‘Zebra and horse, they have 4 legs’ or ‘Bear and deer. They live in the forest’.

This activity can be also used with the older students who are given a list of words and have to put them in pairs, according the knowledge and the language they have.

Below you can see the end of the game with my pre-primary student. It started off slowly, with simple sentences about the colours that the animals have in common but as the activity progressed, the categories changed, too and we have here an example of animals that have a long tail (a lizard and a monkey), animals that live in the forest (a bear, a fox and a deer) or animals that like meat (a tiger and a lion).

This is the final product of our Pairs activity, using the visuals on Miro

Tell me about is another activity that uses a visual, for example a set of pictures with animals or a picture scene. Students choose an element for their peers to describe, for example Tell me about this boy’ and it is easy to imagine the variety of responses that these can generate. Students can choose to talk they boy’s clothes, feelings or actions.

Trick number 3: The appropriate activities and materials

Our students do what we want them to do. It is assumed so, precisely because we are teachers and they are students. The roles have been assigned once and for all. The question to ask yourself, though, is Would they really want to do it, if they had a choice? Is there anything in the task itself that would encourage them to? Or not.

Certainly, it does not meant that all those less-exciting-but-crucial activities will be renounced forever, because even though they are not always fun from the point of view of our students, they might still be necessary and useful, but it is an interesting aspect to start taking into consideration while lesson planning.

Here a few activities that use that principle

Yes or no? This is an activity that also uses visuals as the basis. In the first stages of the activity, the teacher describes the picture using very simple structure ‘I can see’ when some of the sentences are true and some are false. Students listen to the sentences and correct the sentences. In case of the pre-primary students, this is likely to be one-word production but with time, they are learning to respond in full sentences. Later on, when the students are familiar with the format of the activity, they are invited to take a leading role in the activity, also producing true or false sentences about the picture for the teacher and their peers to correct.

Kids love the game because they can correct the teacher’s mistake and they are allowed to create their own un-true sentences about the pictures and to try to trick the teacher. I have used it both with primary and pre-primary students. The younger kids, naturally, needed more time to adjust and to start producing full sentences, in the beginning they would only provide the key information, for example the colour or the number of objects but, eventually, they were comfortable enough with producing full sentences. At approximately the same time, they were ready to lead the game, too. The older, primary students could make this transition within a lesson.

This is how we were telling our own version of ‘Pete the Cat. I’m rocking in my school shoes’ using the visuals on Miro

Storytelling for pre-primary is based on picture description. Here, the easily available materials might involve the stories from the coursebooks for pre-primary, retelling together any other story used in class or even any of the materials in the YLE Starters materials. In this case storytelling is scaled down to simple picture description, in the appropriate sequence.

Storytelling for primary can also use the visuals but it can be more challenging with the use of storydice or a storytelling treasure hunt (see here)

The lion and the kitten is a simple boardgame that has been very helpful in encouraging the students to produce the language. It was created and used with the online 1-1 pre-primary students. The game does not use a dice. Instead the students can choose the box where they want to go next and in each round, they have to talk about one of the pictures hidden under the yellow, orange and blue diamonds. In the beginning the sentences are very simple and focus on simple vocabulary (‘It’s mommy‘), later on these can be exchanged for a more detailed description (‘Mommy is happy‘ or ‘Mommy is dancing‘) and even further extended with the use of ‘because’ (‘Mommy is dancing because she is happy’) or in any other way that is within the children’s linguistic ability.

This game gives children a lot of freedom and almost a guaranteed victory. The cards can be changed easily, especially in the online format, and even if not, new sentences can be made every time the game is played. With a group of children, a dice would probably have to be used.

This is the board for our boardgame, also created using the visuals available on Miro.

Are you in the park? is a simple guessing game turned into a role-play. Each student has a city plan (since this was the language that we were working at the time) and three stickers which they glue somewhere ‘in the city’. They keep their picture secret and they try to guess where their partner is at the time.

Student A: Are you at the bank / park / market?

Student B: Yes, I am / No, I am not.

After a while, they can ask for help.

Student A: Please help me.

Student B: I can see…I can hear…I can smell….

Student A: You are…

Initially, the stickers were introduce only to prevent the kids from ‘cheating’ but they absolutely loved having random leftover stickers all over the place. In the first lesson we play, it was pirates, in the second one, it was farm. They laughed a lot about having little pigs and chicks all over their cities. The other incentive was the opportunity to imagine and to describe the places from the angle of what they saw, heard and smelled in different places in the city. The kids had the full control over the game and they were making the decision themselves when to move to the second stage.

For some more tricks, please see my other posts: the discourse clock, pairwork for preschoolers or using ambiguity to get the students to talk.

Happy teaching!

ALL the reasons to use a song

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This post started with a line, one of those things that one says, casually, in a conversation with a teacher or at a conference. ‘There are many reasons to use a song…’ , I said and my brain, always ready for this kind of a challenge, took over. ‘How many? Can you count?’

I accepted the challenge. I have found sixty. For now:-). Not all of them are mine, of course but since this post is meant for teachers, not researchers and since I am on some kind of an academic holiday, no proper referencing. This time.

Now, fasten your seatbelts and let’s go! 3…2…1…

We are using songs with the primary and pre-primary EFL learners because:

  • Kids like them
  • They are a part of the kids’ world, regardless of the language.
  • They help to reduce stress.
  • Songs create a positive atmosphere.
  • They can help set the context of the lesson.
  • The kids don’t care if the teacher does not have a really beautiful voice but they care about a teacher who does not really sing.
  • Singing and music are present in many areas of our everyday life.
  • They can be used differently, depending on the day and how the children feel – to calm them down, to cheer them up, to wake them up.
  • They can be used to develop motor skills, gross motor skills (jumping, dancing, skipping) and fine motor skills (finger play).
  • They lead to personalisation for example by choosing favourite songs and expressing opinion on songs.

  • Using different types of music develops children’s musical taste.
  • They provide the exposure to the target language.
  • They help to remember the vocabulary and structures
  • They help with pronunciation, rhythm and intonation.
  • And with the early literacy development, by developing the ear, rhymes recognition.
  • They use a natural language
  • The traditional rhymes, chants and songs carry the culture of the country.
  • Songs are an opportunity for expression.
  • They help memory development.
  • Singing games usually involve a group or a team and so they help to develop social skills.

  • They can be used to develop turn-taking and other social skills.
  • They can help the kids to settle in the lesson and in the L2 environment.
  • It is something that we do together, it helps to unite the kids after they have taken part in pair-work, team work or individual activities.
  • They are a nice change of pace in the lesson, a punctuation mark.
  • They are an easy-to-use stirrer.
  • They are an easy-to-use settler.
  • They give the lesson a frame (Hello song, How are you chant, Did you do your homework chant, storytime song, table time).
  • They help the kids to move from one stage of the lesson to the other.
  • They help to create a community.
  • They help to take the language out of the classroom. The kids can sing the songs at home, in the car, on holiday.

  • They are one of the few tools that help to involve a variety of learning channels: auditory (because we listen and we say), visual (because we can use flashcards to help kids remember the lyrics) and kinesthetic (because every song can be and should be accompanied by gestures)
  • Thanks to music they remember the language better
  • They are the first step language production; a song is basically a lot of discourse with some music.
  • They are great for beginners, children can participate in a song, even if only through the gestures.
  • They are great for shy students; singing is not scary if you do it in a crowd.
  • They help to create routine and balance the ration of the new (material, songs, activities) and the familiar (all the favourite songs).
  • Kids learn how to make decisions – choosing which song to sing next.
  • They can be used as an activity timer (you have one song to finish colouring)
  • Songs often tell a story this way creating the context for the language.
  • They can be used to introduce new vocabulary and structures.

  • They are great for recycling vocabulary.
  • They can be used as background music during craft activities, to encourage the kids to sing rather than just chat in L1.
  • Songs and chants can be used to give instructions.
  • They can be used during any stage of the lesson.
  • They can be used to get the students’ attention.
  • They are easy to use and do not require a lot of preparation.
  • There are plenty of songs to choose from.
  • It is easy to make up your song or chant that can be used for one specific reason.
  • They contribute to the variety of resources used in the lesson.
  • They can contribute to the development of the cognitive skills, such as attention and focus.

  • Children learn to take responsibility for the lesson and to lead by choosing the songs to sing.
  • Songs can lead to creativity in the language. Once the song become familiar, they can be the stepping stone to creating own versions of them.
  • They can ‘just be sung’ or they can become the theme of the lesson, if accompanied by the vocabulary introduction, craft, story.
  • Singing a song can be a reward for good behaviour or special achievement.
  • Some songs can contribute to learning other subjects such as art, maths, science etc.
  • Parents like when their children sing so songs might be used during parents’ days, end-of-year performances.
  • They help to motivate the kids to learn the language.
  • They give the kids the sense of achievement, as even after a few lessons, they can feel like the speak the language, because they can sing the songs or recite a rhyme.
  • Learning through songs is fun and memorable.
  • Because, finally, adults, also get an excuse to sing!

It looks like, for now at least, all the reasons to use a song = 60 reasons to use a song. If you have any more ideas to add to this list, please let me know in the comments!

And may the VYL and YL classrooms be alive with the sound of music, like this or like this!

If you want to learn how to move from singing a song to a discourse, have a look at the earlier article on How to un-sing a song.

If you are new to teaching and you are not sure where to start

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #7: Line up, everybody!

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Today about a little and very un-revolutionary change in the routine that has, nonetheless, made a huge difference to my VYL and YL classes.

Instructions

  • Make sure the door to your classroom is closed and that the children wait for the lesson outside.
  • When it is the time to start, come out and line them up, perhaps with the parents’ help in the beginning, until they get used to the new routine
  • Wait for them to be ready, say hello to everyone and count together how many students are present
  • Say hello to the first student, ask how they are, let them into the classroom, wait until they book the books and bags away, choose their seat and sit down.
  • Let the second student in.
  • If setting homework is a part of your routine and programme, this is when you can check the homework, asking each student a few questions about it.
  • If there is no homework, this time can be devoted to a short individual conversation with each student. It can be a short revision of the vocabulary, talking about a picture or, if the students are already in one of the primary levels – some reading practice with flashcards or a few questions about any material covered in class. We often use it for practice with ‘Tell me about…’ with the use of a picture.
  • When the students get used to the first part (entering the room), you can add the second element and make sure that the students already sitting in the classroom are occupied, too. They can either play a simple guessing game if this game has been practised in class and if they have been given a set of flashcards. They can also play some games on the phone or the tablet, for example to practise reading with phonics. Again, they have to first to try it under your close supervision, to get used to taking turns etc.

Why we love it

  • It helps to introduce the order from the very start of the lesson since the kids are not waiting in the classroom and the teacher’s arrival is not an interruption of something that they are doing.
  • It is obvious who is responsible for the students during that time, the teacher’s take-over is clearly marked. It might not be as obvious if the kids enter the room during the break or before the teacher, especially if the teacher wants or has to spend the break time outside of the classroom, for whatever the reason.
  • The parents are of a great help in the beginning of the course, they can help explain what the kids are supposed to do, they can help with the name etc.
  • This part of the lesson is a fantastic opportunity for the 1-1 conversation with each child. Regardless of whether the teacher uses this time to check the homework or to ask and answer questions or to read, they are giving each child all their attention (almost all, the eyes at the back of the teacher’s head are watching the kids already in the room, of course:-) and they can check the progress and language use.
  • For the parents, this is a wonderful opportunity to find out how their children are interacting in English, without the parents’ supervision and this is how they can, indirectly find out about their child’s progress, before every single lesson if they wish to do so.
  • For the parents, this is also a chance to find out how the homework handouts or materials are used, what questions the teacher asks and how much language can be generated out of a page that, to the untrained eye, looks like a simple colouring page. If they want to and they have have the time, they can later use this knowledge to practise English at home.
  • In the beginning, when the children are just getting used to the new routine or if they are really young, this part of the lesson can be kept short, later it can be made longer. Similarly, in the begining, the T leads the activity but, later on, the kids can ask each other at least some of the questions, too.
  • I have been using this technique for about six years now. My first ever group for which this has been created (because there were ten of them and we hardly ever got to talk 1-1 in class), now in the third year of primary, still line up to chat with me on entering the room. I have been using it with my pre-primary students, too, groups and individuals, too. The parents always wait in the hallway, at the back of the line and they always wait to hear how their children talk to me. If they leave the school, it is only after their kids have walked into the classroom. They always wait and not because they don’t trust us/me but because they are curious and want to know how it goes.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #6 The easiest craft in the world aka Don’t you just love a circle?

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Level 1 – 3 Pre-primary: In the garden

Instructions

Get the coloured paper ready. The basic photocopying paper will do but for a more sensory experience paper with different thickness, texture or surface.

Cut out a pile of colourful circles, about 3 cm in diameter but if the kids are really small it is better to make them a bit bigger, they will be easier to handle.

Prepare A4 sheets of paper on which you are going to stick things, glue sticks and markers that you can use to draw on your paper.

Choose a circle, glue it onto the paper, decorate it so that it resembles what you want it to resemble. Use simple instructions while demonstrating (‘Glue’ ‘Turn over’ ‘Stick’ ‘Draw). Give out the paper, the glue sticks and the first circle. Monitor.

Proceed with the following circles.

With the older students, it is fun to let the children decide what their circles are. And then learn the new words – whatever they draw.

Don’t forget to talk about your pictures, count all the blue circles and all the butterflies))

Level 1 Pre-Primary : Pets

Why we love it

  • It is super easy to prepare and to complete.
  • There is no set duration of the task. It can be kept very simple and short, limited to only three items or extended to six or seven, depending on the age of the students, level, motor skills development.
  • It can be easily made more or less challenging by grading the level of complexity of the drawings.
  • It can be adapted to many different topics. I have used it with the topic of shapes (focus: circle), spring (accompanied by the KidsTV123 song ‘In the garden’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCClYcU97PA) and in the beginning of the course with level 1 to practise the first colours.
  • It helps to develop cognitive skills (perception: noticing the shapes in the world around us, transforming the shapes into things we know etc)
  • If there is no time to cut out all the circles (or if the teacher has not done many craft activities and wants to start with something not as complicated), a template with circles can be used instead. In this case, the kids will only draw and colour.
Level 1: Pets, no-glue template
Assorted circle-related randomness
Assorted circle-related randomness part 2
Level 1 Pre-primary: Colours (lesson 3 of the course)
Christmas edition (the puppy is here because this is my student’s favourite thing:-)

Happy teaching!

The Unthinkable or About choosing to stay online with VYLs.

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To online or not to online, that is the question?

No, not really. That, for sure was never a question!

Not for me, that is. I am a dinosaur teacher and I had always been against teaching pre-schoolers online. Or, actually, teaching online in general. If, before the 15th of March 2020, you had asked me what I thought about it, my answer would have been as short as it would have been decisive. No.

No. No. No.

I love my beautiful classroom, all the puppets, the flashcards…My rucksack that makes me look and feel like a proper Mary Poppins, the box with all the precious junk. How we sit in a circle to read a story and how we make stuff or play with a Magic Bag…

But, then, hey-ho, the pandemic happened and I and we just moved online. Just like that. Just to prove that the EFL teachers are the most amazing species. Just to see whether one can, in fact, develop professionally, at a head-spinning pace, learning about new approaches, techqniues, platforms, games, tools, tricks, websites, solutions…and about their effective use in the online EFL lesson.

Yes, indeed, one can. In March many of us (including myself) had very little or no idea about the online classes but look at us now. Superheroes!

But guess what? The Universe had other surprises in store for us (I mean, of course, it is 2020, the year of surprises), like this idea, here…

‘Can we just stay online?’

I don’t know about you but I have spent the last 100+ days dreaming and daydreaming of going back offline. But while I was doing this, the other stakeholders had their own ideas and this is how we (the parents, the admin and the Mary Poppins here) found ourselves discussing the options and, actually, willingly, considering choosing to stay online with the youngest children, regardless of the situation in the city.

Well, that was a bit unexpected, to put it mildly. However, once I got past the stage of the initial shock, I was able to look at it all in a more objective way (as in: not blinded by my own old age and stubbornness:-) and actually see some of the benefits, for all of us.

So here goes, in no particular order

Pre-primary online is better because…

  • We can do it! A good quality online classes for pre-schoolers are not a marketing spin. Impossible is nothing! We learn, we are engaged, we have fun, we produce, we develop, we bond. We are loving it and we are looking forward to the next one. You only need to want to make it work and just like with the regular classes, everyone needs time to get used to each other, the routine and the rules of the game.

  • It’s virus-free. Covid 19 aside, little children get ill more frequently. That’s just the way it is. It does happen that they might not be entirely healthy when they come to their afternoon English lesson or that, being ill, they miss a lesson here and a lesson there and they do not make as much progress as they could have. The online classroom is a perfect solution here: we can all participate, even if we sneeze and cough and the school and the teacher do not lose money over the classes that would have to be cancelled.

  • It lowers the affective filter. There were a few students in my groups this year who definitely benefitted from moving online. In the classroom, they were amazing and a pleasure to teach. They participated but at the same time struggled, now and again, with being separated from mum. They simply flourished in the online classroom. I can see how much more confident and at ease they are, sitting in their own chairs, in their bedrooms, with cats, toys and, most importantly, with Mum at an arm’s reach. What’s not to like here?

  • It is less stressful for the teacher. It is a little know fact that VYL teachers, in the course of their career, develop a set of eyes around their heads and can produce a pair of additional arms, on request. They are ready for everything that is happening, for everything that is to happen and for everything that might potentially happen, too. Why? Because acting in loco parentis is a huge responsibility. And a lot of stress, even for those experienced teachers. The online classroom comes with an army of the best teaching assistants there are: mums, dads, grandmas, sisters, brothers and nannies. The kids are safe, every single one of them.

  • Parents like being in the classroom. So far, the classroom has been this galaxy far-away which the parents had no or very little access to. Of course, teachers talk to parents, they explain the homework, they give feedback. They share songs and send out the invitations to the open lesson, twice a year. Now, however, the whole course is one big open lesson and the parents are a part of it. More even, they are having fun. Not because they want to interrupt or tell the teacher off, not to take over and not because they do not trust the teacher and would rather keep an eye on things. It’s because they can finally see how their children operate in the world of the foreign language, how they become more independent and how they are learning new things and making progress.

  • Parents can get properly involved now. The parents are there, they learn our songs, they play our games and they see exactly what we practise and how. If there is time and willingness, they can easily extend the English lesson time, take it ‘out of the classroom’, this way contributing to their children’s progress. During the lesson time, they can be involved in too, helping the teacher model the activity but also helping their child understand that, yes, you can sometimes speak to your mum in English, too.

  • Flexibility and frequency. 45 minutes in the real classroom is just enough for the little people. 45 minutes in front of the computer screen might be a challenge, especially if they audience is only 3 or 4 years old. For that reason, we decided to experiment and chop the lesson time into smaller bites. Now we meet for thirty or even fifteen minutes at a time but more often. The students are involved throughout and stay focused, the financial expenses or profits are the same, and such lessons are very easy to plan. The most important thing, however, for me as a teacher, are the benefits for the learning process. When you are 5, you learn quickly but you also forget quickly, so by increasing the frequency of the lessons, we create better conditions for learning and can expect better results. It is already happening!

  • The lesson time = the speaking time. The ‘time constraints’ mentioned above as well as the online format had an impact on the lesson structure and routines. The students have the coursebooks but it is used only at home, for revision and for homework. When we meet in our online classroom, it is to learn new things, to listen, to sing and to speak and speak and speak. And I really like that way.

Much to my amazement, I am a happy online teacher but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped dreaming about the offline world or that any decisions have been made. It’s too early, anyway, so I am still on the fence, just ‘sitting, waiting, wishing’, like in a song.

What about you? Has this been your experience, too? Have you noticed any other benefits of the pre-primary EFL online classes? I would love to hear from you.

Happy teaching (online or off:-)