The idea was to do something fun and relaxed to allow me and the students to introduce ourselves to one another and for me to gauge their English level. Start class off with a Total Physical Response game developed by Richard Grahm, ask the kids if they have any questions for me, then ask them some questions about China. I wanted to finish class with Two Truths, One Lie which I found on ______'s web site.
The first three days was working with 50+ students per class. The first day I taught alone, after that I taught with Mr. Brown.
Lesson Plan Learning Outcome: Students and Teacher introduce themselves to eachother. # TPR Warmup [1] 3 Minutes ## Run, Jump, Spin, Spin Jump, Walk, Eat, Sleep, Disco, Cry # Ask Kids if they have any questions about me or about my country. 8 Minutes ### If none, move on. # Have kids teach me about themselves and China. 8 Minutes ### Write down the answers to some of these questions. ## How old are you? ## Where do you live? ## How many people live in Anqing? ## How is the weather in Anqing? ## What Chinese food is delicious? ## When is Chinese new year? ## Does Anqing have any festivals? ## What is popular music in China? ## What music do you like? ## What movies do you like? ## Do you have any pets? ## What is the weather like in China. ### If they are too shy to stand up and answer, move on. # 2 Truths, 1 Lie [2] 15 Minutes ## Ask if they know what a lie is? ## Explain that we are going to play a game where they will write down 2 truths & 1 lie. ## Prompts: ### My favorite food is ... ### My dream job is ... ### I am afraid of ... ### My favorite music is ... ### My favorite subject is ... # Hangman 5 Minutes Extra Time: # Go over: ## What's up? ## How's it going? ## How ya traveling? ## What's the craic? # Negotiate rules with the kids. ## Ask, what are the school rules? ## Can you smoke? ## Can you eat? ## Can you use cell phones? ## Write down class rules together. Footnotes: [1] http://genkienglish.net/Warmup.htm [2] http://www.ielanguages.com/lessonplan.html
TPR
TPR worked alright the first day or two. Some students were completely uninterested, but most smiled. Some classes the activity did not work at all. The most popular action was cry. Eventually I decided the activity designed for elementary schoolers was not appropriate, and I took it out of the lesson plan.
Questions
First couple classes didn't have many questions. So, instead of having the students ask me questions first, I began asking them intially and this led to some of them having far more questions for me. Some of the discussions got quite interesting, while others were completely uninterested in me. One of the better ones was What do you think about America?. Overall they handled my questions quite easily.
Two Truths, One Lie
Explaining the game was a little difficult, as some kids did not know what truth and lie meant. I explained it as My birthday is March 18th is true. My birthday is December 19th is a lie. That got most of them to understand. After I or Mr. Brown demonstrated the game made sense to them. They were quite hesitant to volunteer, and I did not want to put any of them on the spot the first class, so I just waited patiently. Once one brave child raised their hand, others followed.
Hangman
This game worked well, as it always does. I used it as an opportunity to teach the rule that a vowel is in every word. So, students should guess the vowels first. Mr. Brown had an excellent suggestion to let some of the students lead, which worked very well.
Introductions
Though it was not in my original plan, I ended up walking around to each student, shaking their hand and introducing myself to them. Some students were scared by the maneuver, but most were receptive. It took up a lot of time, and worked far better when there were two teachers in the room.
Discipline
This was my first time teaching classes entirely on my own, so I did not know what to expect. On September 2nd I wrote, Was good that instead of trying to talk over kids, I just spoke quietly. Not sure how long the strategy will work, but for today it did. By September 4th I noted, My speaking under them strategy did not work, and yeah.
