Teacher Tips and Teachniques (New section at Liz's suggestion!)

Hyojin - somehow I don't think the following is all 'your' original content. If you have lifted it from a website or a textbook, you really should reference it. Otherwise it is - well - theft...

:-)

~ Jason

Hyo-Jin Kim wrote:1. Discussions

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons. The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial sentences like “people learn best when they read vs. people learn best when they travel”. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way. This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas. Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.

2.Role Play

One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)

3. Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students. Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.

4. Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.

5. Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely. The good characteristics of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas.

6. Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class.

7. Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions. Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class.

8. Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.

9. Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news. Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class.

10. Playing Cards

In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For instance:

Diamonds: Earning money

Hearts: Love and relationships

Spades: An unforgettable memory

Clubs: Best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example:

If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:

Is money important in your life? Why?

What is the easiest way of earning money?

What do you think about lottery? Etc.

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.

11. Picture Narrating

This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating.

12. Picture Describing

Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

13. Find the Difference

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures.

I'm a teacher! When my students look depressed or sad, I always help and encourage them with warm-heart.

However, these days, I'm so much depressed and do not want to do anything.

Even attending class makes me stressed. If there is a wise teacher for me, what would he/she say for me?

I know I can learn something new by teaching. But I do not want to do neither of them.

These web sites are what I really need. Whenever my students ask me to play a game with me I don't know what to do.

And I needed some materials for my class. Thanx a lot!!

Liz wrote: Today, I'd like to introduce a couple of web-sites. Maybe some of you know have already been using these.

First of all, http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com

You can make puzzle worksheets here. My favorite one is criss-cross puzzle and hidden message.

Secondly, http://bogglesworldesl.com

There are lots of ready-made worksheets. I often use these materials for the classes that are specialized for low level students.

Lastly, http://www.schoolholic.net/

Here, you can watch many interesting cartoons which are based on school life. By the way, those cartoons are in Korean.

I think that everyone has experienced depression like you.
I guess it depends on weather,health, situation..
How about taking a walk in good weather with your pets or friends?

Kang Eunmi wrote:I'm a teacher! When my students look depressed or sad, I always help and encourage them with warm-heart.

However, these days, I'm so much depressed and do not want to do anything.

Even attending class makes me stressed. If there is a wise teacher for me, what would he/she say for me?

I know I can learn something new by teaching. But I do not want to do neither of them.

In excuse of my busy day, I have just check the news video and my assignments in this website. But today I look around all over this site,
I found there are so many useful materials for teaching and education and regret that I had not known that before.
Thanks for so many useful website. I tell you one good site for elementart schoolers and I tell you more if I find very useful site.

www.enchanted.com

I was looking around the forum because I would like to know what I did including others' work. Some of you say that it is not the time for me to do because the spring semester hasn't yet finished. Yeah, I know you're right, but before it's done, I think I need more energy or passion to burng the last part of this semester.
I realized that I didn't give any comment to Liz who gave us a useful information.
Thank you for your offering, especailly first address.
It will be so helpful for me to use it in class as a make-up-for lessons during the summer holiday.
Although tt is getting hot nowadays, many people around me got a cold.
Keep yourself tight with your blanket at night.^^
I will see you next week.

Liz wrote: Today, I'd like to introduce a couple of web-sites. Maybe some of you know have already been using these.

First of all, http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com

You can make puzzle worksheets here. My favorite one is criss-cross puzzle and hidden message.

Secondly, http://bogglesworldesl.com

There are lots of ready-made worksheets. I often use these materials for the classes that are specialized for low level students.

Lastly, http://www.schoolholic.net/

Here, you can watch many interesting cartoons which are based on school life. By the way, those cartoons are in Korean.

I am in favor of you. But in our real world somehow, students in Korea don't like to be bothered by the subject, English language. I am sure they are so tough now due to their hard duties such as homework, private institutions or personal tutors at home or other places with their other various subjects to study, - you know what, a number of elementry students are joining the sport clubs to learn how to perform the sports owing to their scores, Korean-style of portpolios, etc
Students don't like to focus on just one subject, English. Therefore, they want quick service by Korean English teachers, which is the translation of teachers beside them.
Neverthelss, I am sure that students should think in an English way when speaking and writing. I believe that this is the best way to learn Enlgish language. If students have difficutlies in English, they should try to fix them in English because solving in the way of Korean doesn't help them improve their ability in English. Surely the mastery of English in this way takes long time, but sure enough for them to feel confident using English in class or in real life.
Though the difficulties are there for students to confront in the school, I certainly think that they should utilize English only in the class.

bakbann wrote:Is translation needed during English classes? I'm just wondering your thinking.

Few days ago, I had a small talk with my professor and other graduate students who did their first practicum. One of them said, she wanted to use Communicative Language Teaching Approach with a lot of activities. She wanted to encourage students to communicate each other with low inhibition or pressure. However, Her plan was frustrated by the teacher who is in charge of her. The teacher believes translation is one of the indispensible elements in English class and she is a strong supporter of Grammar Translation Method. My professor were against this idea. He argued that although students may not be able to translate English writing into Korean exactly, they can understand what the writing is about. Moreover, It is much more effective way to explain English words in English like English-English dictionary largely based on its context or by synonyms and antonym. It is meaningful learning, he added. He also insisted translating English words to Korean and making students memorize them won't last long in their cognitive structure.

I believe there are numerous students who want direct translation into Korean to make it clear. However, I also agree with my professor that students can understand English without translation. I know this is highly controversial among many teachers and educators, but I just want to hear various opinions about this.

What do you think?