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Message board > Need help for my training college practices!
Need help for my training college practices!
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cynab
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Need help for my training college practices!
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Dear teachers!
I �m attending the last year of the english training college and I have to prepare a unit of work for 6 classes of 2 hours each based on the task-based approach. The contents are past form of the verb to be and past simple of regular verbs.
I don �t know which genre should I use and more important, which final task should the students do.
I �m a bit worried since the group of students is very big (41 students), they speak all the time in Spanish (their teacher too), they hate English and they belong to a very poor community (so they are more concerned with problems they have at home than with studying)
I thought that maybe some of you could help me! I �d be very greatful to you!
Thanks in advance!!
Cyn
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24 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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You have not given the age of your students but you could have them present a biography of a person through a diary. |
24 Jun 2009
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cynab
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Ohh!! You are right, they are 15.
Thanks for your idea. I �ll try to find an example of that genre.
Thanks a lot! |
24 Jun 2009
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Princess.Fiona
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"they speak all the time in Spanish (their teacher too)"
Maybe when you finish your studies and finally start teaching at public schools you will see that it �s impossible to speak in english ALL the time, like they tell you to do at the training college. This only works in private english institutes with no more than 15 sts!
Perhaps you can work with landmarks around the country or historical buildings.
Good luck
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24 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Wonder.land, I beg to differ because I speak English ALL the time to my 11 groups aged from 6 to 12 years old. It is possible and I tell my university students (I teach there too) that they must use only English because for most of our students, we �re the only model they �ll hear in a day. |
24 Jun 2009
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roneydirt
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True wonder.land it is impossible to speak English the whole time and the L1 language definitly is a must in many situations if you want the students to understand the directions.
Teaching at poor communities is always an adventure. cynab your right most are more concerned at what is going on at home than studying. It isn �t just English too. Having exams today and I keep pointing out students that have given up and told no that is not true. So how does a student finish a math exam that would take at least 20 minutes just to read the questions in 5 minutes? That is the length of time to get the instruction, write the name and class information then christmas tree the test. Was just in a discussion on how to improve a couple classes that had failed the midterm, I pointed they had failed every subject except lunch and were those teachers going to do extra work as well.
On those have you looked at the different worksheets that are on here? There are also some games, crosswords, wordsearch ws on this site. With them not interested a mixture of regular form of work and the fun stuff like I just mention of games, crosswords and wordsearches. |
24 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Roneydirt, you speak of your students giving up and for me, resorting to L1 is giving up on them.
My school is not from a private background. On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being richer and 10 being the worse you can be, my school is an 8. It took me a while to understand it was doable. Had you spoken to me 15-17 years ago I would have said you must speak L1 sometimes. Then I saw the video of a teacher who was teaching English in English and I "saw the light".
Today was the last day of school for my students and I �ve had parents coming up to me telling me they were happy that I spoke that much English to my students. They told me that they used to speak English to their spouse but now they can �t do it anymore because their children catch and understand bits of the conversation. Today, students thanked me for being stubborn about that.
My students now expect to hear English when they set foor in my classroom and for me that �s the best compliment they can give me. |
24 Jun 2009
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Princess.Fiona
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Manonski!.... 11 groups... .. it �s not about the quantity, or how many groups you have.
In Argentina, public schools are terrible, most of them have classes of 30-35-40 + students who DO not want to learn and are very concerned with personal issues, problems of different sorts and they are ALLOWED to do many things like DO nothing the whole year, listen to music, write letters, etc.... and then at the end of the year you have to put a 6 to them. Or if they sit for the subject many times, knowing nothing, just put a magic 6 (pass mark) so as not to have ´problems.´ because they come over and over again thinking they might find you drunk on the examination board and magically put a 10 (ten) on their reports. It is impossible to speak the whole time in English when they shout from the back? what? we don´t understand! speak spanish!... And then critize you with the next teacher....
Maybe it �s possible where you are. It is true that in many cases, the teacher is the only input, and model to follow but this is only theory from books REALITY is different.
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24 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Wonder.land, I can �t compare your reality with mine, that �s true. When I give you the number of groups I have, it �s only to tell you that I can do it with all of my groups. My students are not from perfect background but they hear English from me from day 1 and they better get used to it because that �s all they �ll get from me for the 6 years they �ll be in my school.
Sometimes I tell a parent or another teacher: would you pay for swimming lessons if your child did not go in the pool? The answer is no. Why would you pay me to teach English if I did not speak English? When your child learns how to swim, he/she gets support, tips and tricks. I �ll do the same with second language learning. |
24 Jun 2009
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Princess.Fiona
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Perfect! that sounds lovely and from a book! In Argentina we only have 1 1/2 hrs per week with each group of 30-35 . I guess if you live in CAnada sts listen to english more frequently, in real situations, and life. Here is not the same that �s why when you leave the teacher trainning college you realize things are different to methodology books.
Also, depending on the area, some students take it badly if you speak to them in English because they feel you are trying to show off, make them feel smaller. And laugh at you saying you are pretending to be a "yankie."
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24 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Wonder.land, my students are from an almost 100% French community. They get the same hours of English as yours. I just want you to understand that it is doable outside a textbook. It gets to me when a teacher tells another teacher that it �s not doable. That why I reacted. |
24 Jun 2009
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