Recently I have gone from teaching adults to teaching Primary students. What the school has asked me to do in the morning is an English corner type setting where I would stand in front of a group of kids (6-10 classes) and teach them English for 10 to 15 minutes. Well their English is very poor and they want me to do something new every day.The thing is its almost impossible for me to teach them in the time provided ,So now I have to figure what to do during this time.I have decided that I can do is teach them some English songs and some English Chants.They told me I'm not to play games of any kind either. It's all new to me ,The thing here is they will tell you what they don't want but they won't tell you what they do want.Anybody have any ideas for me?

Mike

What does that mean!

It sounds like they want you to do some engaging, drilling, elicitation type activities. I think you can consider review to be OK, even though they said 'something new' everyday.

I can see where you'd be frustrated but don't be. I think you can have fun and educate even in that short bit of time. Unfortunately it will be very teacher centered and doesn't provide much learner time.



Is that right? several hundred kids? or is that classes per week?

I think songs and chants would be great. It sounds very 'show' like. Try to think about some children's educational programs you have watched. They are loaded with ideas.

You might really benefit from a side-kick. Maybe try using a puppet or several for that matter. Give them characters (one is sad, one is shy, one is mean, one is always unsure, and so on.) That will really help to give you someone to interact with. Consider it team teaching.

Also, the kids love it when the puppets fight.

Morning drills ..exactly!


waaah.....

There were a zillion kids there.

There were 300 + kids there

I did two rhymes with them and one song,

Then after the class, they told me that they felt the kids weren't talking enough....what?

They said no games because that would make them hyper and not talk

I found out that the morning thing really wasn't to get them to learn but just get them interested in learning English.

I figure after a month or so I can teach them some old stuff by then they will more than likely forget

YOu could try and sneak a game in by calling it an English activity.

I am not sure if it will work (due to the number of people)

but try teaching a basic phrase and get them to practise it in pairs?

(ie question and then answer like; How old are you? I am 10 years old etc)

but it might get out of control, I must confess I have never taught this kind of numbers

try Genki English for songs and ideas
http://genkienglish.net/songs.htm

Getting them to repeat stuff could be fun - I'm thinking tongue twisters or amusing rhymes with lots of intonation. You could try getting them to say words and phrases in different ways (how many ways can you say 'Oh' or 'please' or 'I don't mind'' for example)and then discuss how intonation affects meaning. Another one that might work is to say a long sentence at natural speed and then ask the students how many words were in the sentence - they will repeat it without you asking. i've done this a few times and they love it.

This is very interesting. I would think that Genki English material especially the songs would be best suited for this. Are you the only one doing anything with soooo many kids at one time. Vocabulary building is probably the only thing you could do with such a large class for such a short time of 15 minutes. Good luck!
Cesar