I just saw your post there about being time-pressured. My classes, too, are of the same length and the same number of students and i know how you feel.
I �ve heard my colleagues often complain of having too little time to cover the material planned in the syllabus and that they were, in a way, forced to go through things quickly in order to manage just in time. In order to �make it �, their classes are usually teacher-centred, i.e. the teacher does all the explaining, all the �chewing � so that the students can just �swallow �. What i do is let the students �chew �, i.e. explore, find out, learn themselves. I plan my classes in a way that will allow each student maximum time of involvement during the 45 min class.
I follow Ben Frenklin �s quote:

Tell me, i forget.
Show me, i remember.
Involve me, and i learn.

What i notice with many teachers is that they insist on the ss knowing the rules and they dwell too much on them (i �m talking about my colleagues). I �ve been a teacher for 8 years now and i did the rule-drilling only in the first year but then gave up on it because i saw that it did not work, only with a small number of students. They knew the rules, yet could not speak the language.
The reason why exercises do not provide good enough practise is because they �re taken out of the context. Ask any of your students to tell you what the sentences are about, and more than half of them won �t even know their meaning.

Here �s a link to a vid that i made when i was presenting the past simple to my 5th graders for the FIRST time. It was also my first time to use a PP presentation. What you will see is part 2 of the 45min class when i showed them the changes that occured in the sentences. Not ONCE did i mention to them we were doing a new tense, or any of the rules. It was all �magic � to them.
http://www.mediafire.com/?njwkz1lq2cg

I try to do games, games that I find here and on the web, games that reinforce the theory that they already know but don �t apply.  I also use songs.  And I use peer correction.

 

It �s an ongoing challenge for us ...

This file seems locked with a password. Please post the password becaus i would love to see ure class

in my case, and i think that in the majority of argentinian schools, at least state and private ones, our main goal is that the sts comunicate... then once they learn how to do this, we start working on the grammar..

Sawwwyyyy ... it �s available now without the password.

 

Have a nice day!

 

Frenchfrog