Caves Books English Education Workshop Notes

The traditional classroom setting give teacher more authority but less interaction The round table setting more interactive Grammar is the structure of any language It is like the instruction menu for model piece. You have the pieces but the instruction teaches you how to put them together. However, as educators, we must remember grammar is an abstract concept and hard for children to grasp. Teaching Procedure:

Production
Practice Presentation
Presentation pictures, gestures, similar sentence platform, and auditory input Practice activities to use the target language Production using the target language in the right context Similar to SITs EIF concept (Encounter, Internalize, and Fluency) Tips for presentation stage: Use Real Objects Pictures Story Body Movements and Gestures Reasons to use story to present new/target language Meaningful context Engage learners Avoid teacher centered presentation more time to devote to grammar practice

Practice Stage: Review (Presentation) Create (Production)

Input (Presentation)

Activities (Practice) Output (Production)

Activities (Practice) need to be: Interactive Multi-skills Meaningful challenge Interactive way to check answers, involves all learners. For example: One hand = singular Two hangs plural Active visual answer which everyone will answer and will be able to know the right answer, at the same time, good assessment for teacher. Majority of young foreign language learners learn visually. Best way to explain an activity is to demonstrate and model. Stop the activity when the engagement level is at the highest peak. Otherwise if the students are finished with the task for too long, they would get bored. At the same time, students would be more excited about the same or similar activities next time they play it.

Engagement Level
Stop Here!

Engagement Level

Remember to set a task which students need to use the target language in order to accomplish. In practice stage, allow students to think about sentence structure/ grammar and notice the difference When you are teaching with high energy, students feed on that energy and will respond the same way. Similar to the energy cycle of stage performance. The role of teacher is mentor, slowly give students the right of speech.

Three Steps of Introducing New Language 1. 2. 3. Vocabulary Sentence Question

Say each word/sentence at least 3 times at the beginning Agree on standard hand signals for different tasks. put it in a sentence make the sound Practice language with action easier to remember Practice natural fluency by increasing speed slowly Clap to remember and learn the rhythm The percentage of teacher: student speaking time should be 30:70

Balance

Comprehensive

Adaptive

Interactive

Strategic

Students reading ability is getting worse on average which leads to lower ability in math and language skills. Therefore, reading first!! Five Core Instructions: 1. Phonemic Awareness The ability to deconstruct words or sentences, heard or seen, to the smallest unit.

This awareness will not develop with childrens growth. It must be trained through activities. Example: How many words in the sentence? How many syllabuses in the word? Whats the vowel in the word? Whats the beginning sound of the word? 2. Phonics Listen Spell Read Speak 3. Fluency - bridge between word recognition and comprehension Confidence leads to motivation
Larger Vocab

Greater Motivation
More Words Increase Comprehension

4.

Vocabulary

The most important part of teaching new word is putting the word in context (example sentences). Allow students to guess and understand the usage and the meaning of the word. Then give students opportunities to construct sentences based on the example sentence and a chance to make their own sentence 5. Text Comprehension

From dots to form lines, from lines to form surfaces. The context of the text is really important for text comprehension. Some activities ideas: Clap, clap, snap: List the new words and start clap, clap, snap together. Say one new word after the snap and say them in the order. After practice enough, let individual say the word in a relay style. Keep the speed the same. Lets read the word, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: 1. There 2. Down 3. Inside 4. No 5. Together Who says the word first, gets 1 point 6. 7. 8. 9. Herd Slope Meat Circle

10. Triceratops

=6

so whoever says herd gets one point

Spell the Words: Give students alphabets and have the students spell the words out A C T P A M Cat, Map; Mat, Cap Allows students to find more combinations English is not the subject but a tool, and through tools, we can learn more.

Make Grammars Simple for Kids What is grammar? The rules for forming and combining words and sentences. Why is grammar important? The grammar is important in order to communicate, or else the sentence could be ambiguous. It is important not to overload the kids with new words when they are learning grammars. 7 Tips to Make Grammar Simple: Use pictures to demonstrate grammar Jumping Game: Write the new concepts/ grammar on the board Thing | Animal | Place | People Have students to jump in front of the correct answer. (similar to take a stand) Wear a Crown Draw crown on the board, similar to jumping game, have student wear the crown Crown 1 (a) Crown 2 (an) Crown 3 (the) Make a Line: Give students words card (both sides) and have them construct question and sentence. He/he, is/Is, cute, ./? Use the words they already know to teach grammar Grammar is already a difficult concept for kids to grasp, therefore, do not overload them with the words they dont know.

Listen and Raise Your Hand: First have all the students stand up and close their eyes They must raise their hand in order to answer the question Correct Sit Down Incorrect Keep standing One layer grammar concept from the base and add on more layers of grammar, one layer at the time Cross Your Arm: Everyone stand up and cross arms when hear the right/wrong answers Minimize writing for young learners Simple way to teach pronouns Write all the pronouns on the board, two players ready to tap Teacher will say words like John You and I Sarah Cat and the students who tap the right word first wins. 4 P Instruction Presentation form, meaning, use Practice Production Personalization

Comparison practice when a new grammar is presented, sometimes students would mix it up with the grammar learned in the past. Hence, it is important to compare the difference. It also gives students a chance to review. For example They are vs. There are Hit and Answer Hit the correct answer on the board They are or There are Find the Same: Give all students a slip of paper and instruct them to find someone who has the same time tense sentence as you. (Past, Present, Future) Spiral Curriculum Simple to Complex, One layer at the time and review the past.