Dear Kohaku,
Do you have a textbook? I find that a text book sets my curriculum for me. It is so difficult to come up with new topics all the time by yourself.
Do you prefer a teacher centered approach or a student centered approach? Do you prefer a topic bases curriculum or a grammar based curriculum? In Japan for a topic based teacher centered approach the I recommend English Land by Mari Nakamura, for a grammar based teacher centered approach then Let �s Go by Ritsuko Nakata. For a grammar based student centered approach then it is difficult to beat New Finding Out by David Paul. There are others of course.
Also what do you love teaching? I love teaching phonics so we do a lot in class. It really helps them learn good pronunciation and tons of vocabulary. My students also do a fair bit of written work 10-15 minutes of each 60 minute lesson. Once they are in the habit they don �t want to stop writing. We use mostly workbooks (mine) to begin with for written work but later we use notebooks and additional worksheets. Do something that YOU like doing and do it every lesson.
Often children are very enthusiastic for the first few years and then English becomes more difficult as they need to study and do homework in order to progress. Japan is a special case as society and most parents don �t speak or use English, well at least not the English we might want them to learn, so we are in an EFL situation and children only have an hour or so each week to squeeze in some English, so progress can seem imperceptable.
Where are you teaching? In a language school or an elementary school? I know that some elementary schools don �t allow the teaching of reading and writing and this makes it really difficult for everyone.
By the way I have been using Finding Out for many years now but I have also used Let �s Go and English Land. Mari Nakamura has put some really great activities into the teacher �s books so you may want to look at those.
One last point. Don �t give up on those games and activities but make sure that they are an integral part of your lesson and not something extranious as if they were a reward for their hard work. Hard work can also be fun, why esle would men want to dig ditches?
Take care,
David
