Teaching Adults vs Children
Teaching older students tends to consist of young adults wanting to improve their language skills for university or adults who want to improve their communication skills for work. It is then vital for a teacher to teach them the language without making them feel like school children. Adults have a goal and a reason to be in this class.
Teaching children i.e. infant, primary and high school children needs to be more structured as well as interesting as they are only in class because they have to be, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't have a good time while learning.
Below are some useful tips and tools to use when teaching.
Teaching children i.e. infant, primary and high school children needs to be more structured as well as interesting as they are only in class because they have to be, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't have a good time while learning.
Below are some useful tips and tools to use when teaching.
Ice Breakers
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This ice breaker is great for promoting fun, motivation and even provides a hidden message
"you can do it even if you think you can't" |
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This is a good ice breaker that involves all the students. It enables them to get to know each other as well as personalise their experience. By knowing certain details about someone you feel close to them and as a result more relaxed in class.
If done properly, this icebreaker can lead to greater class confidence and more participation and motivation to learn and contribute. |
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This one is good to use as an ice breaker and a warm-up exercise. depending on how you use it and what questions you incorporate in the exercise it could be a good tool to use to ease the students into the day's topic.
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Class Activities
The use of activities in class are important to help the students learn, practice and revise what they learn in class. Activities are not only fun for the students (of any age) but it is a good way for the teacher to know if the students have grasped the topic and understand it and how to apply it.
Here are some examples
Here are some examples
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Learning grammar can sometimes be daunting for students, this way they can all learn together and encourage each other by group participation. They all get the chance to go up to the board as well as help each other with the answers from their seats. The idea of having a competition makes it exciting as well as educational.
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This activity can be as easy or as hard as you like depending on the level of your students.
The idea is to create new words from the letters on the board. The letter on the left hand side should be the first letter of the word and the letter on the right hand side should be the last letter of the word. The higher the level of the class the smaller the groups should be. |
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This activity can be used as a warm up activity. It enables a teacher to see what the students remember from a previous lesson as well as a good way to ease into the next topic.
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This is a great example for an activity for older students.
They must match two similar cards together. The player with the most cards matched wins. With the turning over of each card the student must make a full sentence using the word on that card. |
Other examples of classroom activities:
1. Activities for children: method and application
2. Activities for adults, teens and children.
3. Other ideas for activities, such as projects to present in class, and fun games.
1. Activities for children: method and application
2. Activities for adults, teens and children.
3. Other ideas for activities, such as projects to present in class, and fun games.
Approaches To Teaching
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This is an excellent example of a teacher who is using the Humanistic Approach to teaching his class. This method gives the students more freedom in class as they are actively involved in the syllabus as well as the presentation of the topics.
As you can see in the video the teacher is taking more of a secondary role, leaving the students to prepare the white board because they know what they are supposed to do. The students even start to teach the day's topic to each other after a brief introduction from the teacher. The use of music at the beginning of the class relaxes the students and eases them into the right mood for learning. This also allows them to feel relaxed and confident enough to learn as now this class is not only for learning, but for fun. If you want to read more about this approach and a few others click the button below. |
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The use of videos to teach the students concepts, grammar and generally how to apply what they have learned in a certain situation, such as telling us what happened today in the present tense.
Videos are also a fun way to review topics learned that lesson or previous lesson to refresh their memory before transitioning into the new lesson plan. |
Making Sure Your Students Understand
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Concept Checking Questions or CCQs is an important tool for any teacher to use in order to ensure that their students have grasped and fully understood the topic. While not all students will learn at the same pace as the rest of the class, it is important to do this in order to see who hasn't understood and to go over any difficult points.
CCQs generally involve three kinds of questions: 1. Yes/No Questions The teacher asks questions to which the answer can only be Yes or No. 2. Discrimination Questions The teacher asks a question and the answer can either be A or B. 3. Limited Answer Questions The teacher asks a question that will have at least three answers. |
Anticipating Problems & Their Solutions
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While preparing for your lesson you must consider possible problems that may arise while teaching and how to solve them if they should arise or even how to prevent them by going over certain rules etc to avoid the problem beforehand.
These problems however do not include your mistakes, such as forgetting a CD or a worksheet you need to teach today's lesson, as these problems can be fixed by you. These problems include things like pronunciation, misunderstanding or confusion between similar grammar rules and so on. being prepared to deal and solve such problems will help you to present and carry out a smooth lesson. |
Always Think Outside the Box
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Sometimes you just need to make your students laugh in order to open up their Schemata and get those creative juices flowing
Using videos of known TV shows, such as this not only gives the students a good laugh, but shows them that what they are learning can be used in the real world. Music is also another good way of showing students how they can apply what they have learned in class. Ultimately, these methods will lighten up the mood of the class, it is no longer a class where you just come to learn, it is a class were to come to have fund AND learn. |