- Before meeting a student, it is very difficult to understand what level of knowledge they have, what teaching aids to use, and so on. Therefore, it is important to ask as many questions as possible before class. If you have a lesson with a schoolchild, ask the parents how long the child has been studying English at school, what grades he has, whether he has any difficulties in doing homework, whether he has ever studied with a tutor before. Be sure to ask what textbooks your child uses at school, this will help you figure out which topics the student is currently studying at school and which ones have already been covered.
- If you are going to study English with an adult student, the most important thing is to find out the purpose of the study. Maybe a person has got or is going to get a job where English is required, perhaps even preparation for passing some kind of certificate is necessary. In this case, you will need to focus on grammar and writing. If a person just wants to improve his language a little for traveling, then the main time of the lessons should be devoted to conversational practice.
- When preparing for the first lesson, try to select as many diverse tasks as possible to test the student’s knowledge in various aspects. You can even create a short test with tasks for listening, reading, writing and grammar. Then you will have a better chance of understanding the student's level of knowledge.
- When you first meet a student, try to get in touch with him right away. Behave kindly and attentively with your child, ask what problems he has in learning English, look at his textbooks and notebooks to understand how the child studies at school. With an adult, you can start the lesson with a short interview, during which you can find out more about the person’s work, hobbies, and goals for his education. This will help you relax, and at the same time give you more information to prepare for further classes. If the student’s level of knowledge allows, it is better to speak English, at least partially.
- If your student is a preschooler or elementary school student, try to prepare the first lesson in such a way that it contains more interactive material: educational videos, songs, cards, games. Grammar assignments for students of this age should also be presented in a playful way; explain the rules using cards, books with beautiful, attractive pictures. This way, the child will immediately develop an interest in English.
- At the end of a lesson with your child, be sure to give him homework for the next lesson. Immediately explain to the student how important his independent work is, and that this way he will be able to achieve success in learning English much faster. Adults can print out a book to read, for example from the Cambridge English Readers series. Usually these are either detective stories or small exciting stories. At the next lesson, it will be possible to discuss the chapter read in the form of a retelling and questions about the text. This is excellent conversation practice and an opportunity to learn new words.
- A properly conducted first lesson will create a positive impression of you. Further in the learning process, the main thing is not to lower your standards, continuing to select interesting materials for both adults and young students.
Grankina Svetlana Pavlovna,
English teacher,
GBOU gymnasium No. 49 of St. Petersburg
The beginning of the lesson is the key to a successful lesson. It is necessary to start an English lesson correctly in order to interest children in the subject.
What's the best way to start an English lesson?
The classic beginning of a lesson is a dialogue with the teacher.
These are questions familiar to us from our childhood:
Are you ready for the lesson?
What's the date? The day of week?
What's the weather like today?
Whatwasyourhomework?
Students remember the answers quite quickly. The next stage is the ability to ask other guys. You can practice in pairs, and then ask one pair from the board. You can type questions with missing words, for example:
Whatistheweather____ today?
The student reconstructs the question and then answers it. In a strong class, you can add one new word every lesson (this means exactly the beginning of the lesson). For example, you can learn to use not only “like”, but also verbs such as “tobefondof, enjoy, adore, takedelightin, …”
I propose to move away from tradition and introduce an element of novelty. There must be constructive dialogue so that students and listeners become direct participants in what is happening. You can start the lesson on a friendly note by asking how the students spent the weekend or what their plans are for the coming day. Many students will open up on the other side. You will learn about their hobbies and interests.
Checking homework and consolidating the material covered is an obligatory part of any lesson. How to diversify them? It depends on the topic. If the topic is “Weather”, you can play meteorologists; if the topics are “Home”, “Family”, “Appearance”, you can use your imagination and ask one of the children to tell about their vision of the future. All advice and recommendations must be given in English.
The key to the lesson is speech warm-up. It is designed to create a special foreign language atmosphere in the lesson, for the so-called “entry into the lesson”.
Thus, for a teacher, speech warm-up is, firstly, a way to interest and attract the attention of students; secondly, it is a unique tool for teaching language in all aspects (language - vocabulary, grammar, phonetics, sociocultural, etc.). All this at the same time and in just five minutes.
We implement the main principle of teaching English - personalization, which is that only what is directly related to a person is well learned and remembered.
More examples of speech warm-up:
1. Teaching “How are feeling today?” (“How do you feel?”) students have several answer options and we introduce one new word, thereby expanding our vocabulary and practicing statements.
2. News. Students were given a news review in the previous lesson. There is news of various kinds: political, criminal, music, sports, etc. Some of the guys were lazy and did not complete their homework, and therefore they take news from their mobile phone on the go. It's okay, let them practice translating.
3. Horoscopes are of great interest.
4. Tongue twisters can be used for these purposes.
Pansies purple, poppies red,
Primrose pale with golden head. (p)
Lovely colors glaming brightly,
Laughing water lapping lightly. (l)
William Winter and Walter Wilkins always wash the walls between the windows white with water. (w)
5. Chants, songs
Chants are good because they are easy to remember, which means vocabulary and grammatical rules are remembered.
Working with a chant: one student reads the left side, the rest answer in chorus (right side).
Banker's Wife Blues
Where does John live?
He lives near the bank.
When does he work?
He works all day and he works all night
At the bank, at the bank, at the big, great bank.
Where does he study?
He studies at the bank.
Where does he sleep?
He sleeps at the bank.
Why does he spend all day, all night, day, all night
At the bank, at the bank, at the big, great bank?
Because he loves his bank more than his wife
And he loves his money more than his life.
Practice questions and answers in the simple present tense.
An experienced teacher can come up with his own chant with current vocabulary.
Songs are a source of new vocabulary, but more importantly, they help students relax, learn correct pronunciation and feel capable of learning English.
Songs need to be changed more often, but sometimes return to those that have been studied. The lyrics of the song can be changed.
If there are pictures associated with the song, then you can interrupt the singing and devote 2-3 minutes to describing the pictures.
6. Idioms, proverbs
Once a week, an idiom or proverb changes, which students talk about - explain the meaning, use it in a short story, dialogue, talk about its origin, describe a funny picture, select a Russian equivalent. By the end of the week, the idiom becomes “native” and is actively absorbed.
The main thing is for the teacher not to forget it and use it more often in oral speech. If the teacher often uses “toplayhooky” (nottogotoschool), then children not only remember the idiom, but also use it instead of “beabsent”, “missclasses”.
Students can be asked to draw a picture to explain the idiom. The drawings are very successful and have been used for many years.
Proverbs can be studied very intensively - one in two lessons, you can come up with stories that end with a proverb.
For younger schoolchildren, these are simple poems that almost everyone in the group should learn. It is advisable to connect the poem with the topic being studied: “Food”, “Animals”, etc. You can recite in chorus, line by line, even read, but the text must contain missing words.
You can choose an idiom or proverb for the poem, which we explain when everyone (or almost everyone) has learned the poem. You can change the poem, and with the active participation of children. For example, we studied the poem:
Fly, little bird, fly!
Fly into the sky!
1, 2, 3, you are free!
The students were able to creatively rework the poem:
Run, little rabbit, run!
In the forest have fun!
One, two, three, four,
Do you want to run more?
Cats sleep anywhere
Any table, any chair,
Top of piano, window-ledge,
In the middle, on the edge,
Open drawer, empty shoe,
Anybody's lap will do,
Fitted in a cupboard box,
In the cupboard with your frocks -
Anywhere! They don't care!
Cats sleep anywhere.
It is advisable to choose a picture to describe the poem. But this is the next step.
8. Pictures
It is better to use student drawings and real photographs.
It's good when the textbook has a good picture on the current topic.
Then you can give homework - describe it, but in class you must add your own question, a new word, an expression, which you must remember in the next lesson.
If you have collected a large stock of pictures, then there are problems with phrases:
will not be. But there can be a lot of pictures and you need to practice often. Modern textbooks for elementary school are good, but for older students (especially those who are lagging behind), additional pictures should be used.
Learning new vocabulary can turn into a fun game for kids
- “Isitunderthe____?”
Younger schoolchildren are very fond of another game “Hiddenpictures”, with the help of which they also practice new words, as well as new phrases. For example:
I have got a pie. My pie is red.
If there are 10 words hidden in the picture, then you can give 3-4 words and collect the pictures that are not signed, so next time the pie may get a green one.
What not to do at the beginning of the lesson.
A) Delay the start of the lesson for more than 5 minutes
B) Ask the same students
B) Put twos
D) Giving too difficult a task
D) Be too predictable
E) Start with the test
The beginning of the lesson plays an important role in creating a foreign language atmosphere in the lesson and the so-called “entry into the lesson”, this is a way to interest students and attract their attention.
Literature
1. V. Rogovskaya, article “Atthebeginningofthelesson”, magazine “Foreign languages at school”.
Most of the tutors studied at a pedagogical university, where they were taught pedagogy, psychology and methodology. But studying and practicing are two different things, and when preparing for your first lesson, it seems that you were taught only theory, but not what you will need in practice. How to start a lesson? How to present the material? How to conduct a lesson so that it is memorable and effective? And by trial and error you have to find the answers yourself.
In this article I want to touch upon not only pedagogical, but also psychological part of the lesson, and everything written here will be true for students over 12 years old, since I do not teach younger children.
How to teach a lesson: Beginning
I check and draw conclusions - the student must see and correct his mistakes ( myself! let him use his brains!), and for myself I note which topic can be considered completed, and what still needs to be repeated.
Now let's begin. And we start with productions goals. The student must know why he came to class! We told him why his day today would not be in vain, and now... we need to remember the pronunciation and meaning of the words that we went through? Brush up on your grammar? Practice sounds that the student can’t do? We have a great solution - phonetic exercise! We warm up our speech organs and remember how to speak English beautifully.
I'll bring you example: studied Present Simple and Present Continuous, and we need to understand the difference between them. We watch a short video, the student repeats the phrases spoken by the characters and explains the choice of this or that time ( link to video). This way we kill several birds with one stone: the speech apparatus warms up, we repeat grammar, and interest in the language increases - at school and university, very few students see any visual aids other than the textbook.
A person remembers well what happened at the beginning and end, so it is important that the beginning of the lesson is interesting and the student knows that we have not just come to study - but to acquire certain knowledge, practice skills or consolidate skills.
If the structure of the lesson is planned listening(an aid for introducing a new grammatical topic/reinforcing the vocabulary covered/training listening comprehension/training the “Listening” part of the Unified State Exam), then the beginning of the lesson is the optimal time to conduct it. Why? Because the student’s brain has not yet really tensed up - it has not been loaded with a new topic - which means that listening comprehension will best take place in the first part of the lesson.(If in doubt, do an experiment - give listening in different parts of the lesson - and ask the student when it was easier for him!)
How to teach a lesson: middle
Here I enter either new vocabulary, or new grammar. I try not to take both in one lesson, because it is very difficult for a student, especially at a level below Intermediate (and the vast majority of such students). Up to this level, almost all topics are new to the learner, and many of them differ from our native Russian language.
I devote the rest of the lesson to consolidating new material.
N.B.: If a difficult grammatical topic is expected and the lesson lasts more than 60 minutes, after about 50 minutes of the lesson you can take a short break - play the guitar, offer tea and cake, and older students - alcoholic drinks. Just kidding =) But a pause needs to be made so that the student can rest a little and then swallow the English pill with renewed vigor. Watch a video, listen to a song by the student's favorite artist (again, one that fits into the lesson plan), read a fun article, or talk about a topic that interests you both.
Have you rested? There's still time to practice your skills! Reading, writing or listening. But the text for listening at this stage of the lesson should not introduce anything new (many incomprehensible words and grammatical structures), but only practice what has been learned in this lesson or earlier. It would be better if this part of the lesson was related to the material covered.
The student's attention here is slowly beginning to fade, and it is unlikely that you will be able to squeeze any new information into his tired brain.
How to teach a lesson: the end
By the end of the lesson, both you and the student are tired of each other and of English. Like any good movie, a lesson should have a beautiful and memorable ending.
There are a lot of gaming materials on the Internet dedicated to grammatical and lexical topics (for example,). I try to use them at the end of the lesson. For example, when we are studying the topic of conjunctions that introduce defining relative clauses, I write the words that I have recently studied with the student on cards, cut them, put them on the table with the blank side up, and everyone in turn draws out the word that they must explain, without naming themselves words, but using sentences starting with conjunctions who, which, that, when, where and whose.
And these are ready-made cards from the New English File Pre-Intermediate manual:
You can read more about the games in class.
And at the very end, I ask the student to sum up what he learned, what was easy, and what requires more practice. Be sure to ask questions! You and I already know the language well and have forgotten the initial stage of learning, when the topic seemed complicated, and the teacher could not understand how such simple material caused so many problems? Plus, there are students who sit with the same facial expression throughout the entire lesson, and you can understand what he understood and what he didn’t only by asking a direct, specific question.
So, the student himself told what he achieved in the lesson. If he misunderstood the purpose of the lesson or even finds it difficult to say what you were doing, this is a good reason for introspection - it means that you planned or explained something incorrectly.
That's all, all that remains is to give homework to consolidate the material covered, and say goodbye until the next lesson.
Here are a few exercises that will help you make your lessons more interesting, using only textbook material (from personal experience). These exercises contribute to the development of all types of activities, namely writing and speaking, listening and grammatical skills, and also develop independence in learning. And most importantly, your students will come to your aid!
Working on written speech: punctuation
Exercise 1. Punctuation marks
- Type it, removing all commas, periods and, accordingly, capital letters.
- Instruct students to copy the text into a notebook, using punctuation marks and capital letters.
- Ask them to compare their version with the text in the textbook.
- You can arrange a competition between two teams, each of which writes text on different halves of the board.
Development of linguistic conjecture
Exercise 2. Broken sentences
- Take a short text from the textbook.
- Print it, then cut a strip the width of a ruler and stick it in the center of the text.
- Students should read the sentences, inserting possible words into the sentences as they go.
Note. As an option for pair work, you can ask students to simply cover the text with a vertical strip of paper and read the sentences one by one.
Development of listening skills & activation of vocabulary
Exercise 3. Listening to activate the covered topic
(it is advisable to ask homework to repeat the words on this topic)
Option 1.
- Before listening, students must write down 5 words in their notebooks that they can hear in the text.
- Then have them switch notebooks.
- While listening, students cross out the words they hear.
Option 2.
- Give students a list of 15 words on the topic(They will hear 10 of them in the recording, and 5 not).
- Ask them to choose 5 words related to the topic.
- While listening, students cross off the words they hear from the list.
- If someone guesses all the words, then he wins (come up with an incentive).
Exercise 4: Use your best students
Texts for audio recordings (appendix to any textbook) are very valuable material. Be sure to use it!
- Divide students into small groups (3-4 people).
- Instead of an audio recording, have the best students read the text for the rest of the group to complete the listening task.
- During the reading process, you are allowed to ask to repeat sentences in English (Can you repeat that, please?, etc.), but only 3 times.
- Play the audio recording to review the exercise during your final listening session.
Note. This exercise should be practiced in cycles until everyone in the group acts as a speaker. The composition of the groups needs to be changed: for the second time, for example, you can unite strong children together.
Exercise 5. Repetition
- For repetition, use texts that you have already listened to, but in a different form.
- Type the text, but remove 10 words from it, leaving gaps.
- While listening, students must write the words into the text.
Grammar
Exercise 6. Work in mini-groups with experts
After carrying out the verification work, you can organize work on errors in a similar way.
Tell students that you will need helpers for the next lesson. Those who want to be experts will help you review the grammatical topics you have covered and where you made mistakes. Also ask students who are not very knowledgeable about such topics to raise their hands.
- In the next lesson, expert students give a short explanation (presentation of this section) in mini-groups.
- Then weak students ask them questions and correct their mistakes.
- You oversee the process, adjusting your assistants as needed.
- In conclusion, you can suggest completing a short test (5 minutes) on this topic.
Note. For strong classes, you can ask experts to study any grammar section, which is given at the end of the textbook, usually in English or Russian (available on our website). They then explain the topic to their classmates in mini groups (about 10 minutes).
This practice is very motivating and engaging for children, and also contributes to the development of reflection in the child.
Development of writing skills
Oh, how tired I am of these template letters to imaginary friends! And ask your students to write a letter to the authors of the textbook! By the way, the address is on the cover. Let them write in a letter what they think about the textbook, which section is the most interesting, which is the least interesting, what topics they would like to see in the next edition of the textbook. By the way, you can ask a few questions to the authors of the textbook.
Use these simple exercises and your English lessons will become much more interesting. Good luck to everyone in their difficult teaching work!
English lesson notes for primary school. Subject: Hello English! Hello English!
The lesson is intended for English teachers in primary schools, designed for children in grades 1-2 (the first year of learning English), it is possible to conduct the lesson as part of a class hour. Students receive new information through games and fairy tales, update existing knowledge, and apply it in practice.
Target: introduce students to the subject, practice new English words and sounds in oral speech, create conditions for the development of creative abilities.
Tasks:
develop speaking skills with new LE;
develop the ability to work in pairs, compose an etiquette dialogue-greeting;
develop the ability to work in groups, participate in games in an organized manner;
promote the formation of positive interest in learning English.
develop the ability to recognize and use words on the topic “Acquaintance”, recognize the teacher’s attitudes in English.
Equipment:
transcription icons; toys, mood cards for each child, pictures of cartoon characters.
Lesson type: Combined.
During the classes
1. Organizational momentHello, children. Hello children.
Sit down, please. Sit down please.
I "m Alina Yuryevna. What is your name? (children answer in Russian)
2. Setting the lesson goal
How many of you know why we have gathered today? Right. To learn English. Why do we need it? (children answer in Russian)
Where is English spoken? (children answer) Good. Fine.
Let's look at a cartoon character who speaks English and try to recognize him. (children are shown a picture of Mickey Mouse)
Well done! Well done!
Having learned English, you and I will be able to find friends from other countries, go on a trip and communicate freely, we will be able to write, read books in English, even watch cartoons!
3. Phonetic warm-up.
Have you noticed that English words are pronounced a little differently? In order for you and me to be understood, we must learn to hear English sounds.
Let's play a game. I will name the words. Every time I say an English word, quickly clap your hands and we will try to repeat this word.
Progress of the game: the teacher names the words after hearing English words, the children clap their hands, then repeat the new word in chorus several times.
Words:
Telephone;
ball;
doll;
a cat;
cat;
dog;
a dog;
teacher,
a teacher;
hello;
children.
Great! Great! So we learned how to greet you. Let's say hello in English “Hello, children”, the children answer “Hello, teacher” (we repeat several times)
4.Acquaintance with new sounds, updating previously familiar sounds. (Transcription icons)
Now I will tell you a very interesting tale about our tongue. But I will really need your help, we must repeat and show each sound.
Fairy tale:
Show me your tongue.
Where does the tongue live? In a warm, cozy house (point to cheeks, lips).
When the tongue is scared, it hides behind a strong fence (show teeth).
One day the tongue got bored and decided to meet with friends.
He met a goose [g], [g], [g], [g], [g].
Met a cow [m], [m], [m], [m], [m].
Met a hedgehog [f], [f], [f], [f], [f].
Met a dog [r], [r], [r], [r], [r].
Suddenly a strong wind blew, , , , ,
door slammed [w], [w], [w], [w], [w],
the rain began to patter [p], [p], [p], [p], [p].
The tongue ran home [t], [t], [t], [t], [t], lay down in the crib, stretched and snorted [h], [h], [h], [h], [h]. Let's not disturb the tongue from sleeping and say shh-sh-sh-sh-sh.
5. Physical education minute.
Hands up, (we raise our hands up)
Hands down, (we lower our hands down)
Hands on hips, (hands on hips)
sit down! (sat down)
Stand up, (stood up)
hands to the sides (hands to the sides)
Bend left, (bent to the left)
bend right. (leaned to the right)
6. Training in the use of studied samples and vocabulary in dialogical speech.
Now we know how to pronounce sounds in English. Let's try to get acquainted. I "m Alina Yuryevna. And you? (children say their name)
Now let’s choose a toy for ourselves and play (With the help of toys, children make up a greeting dialogue and introduce themselves).
7. End of lesson. Reflection.
I'm always very happy when the guys do so well. Did you like the lesson? What have we learned today, what have we learned? What was difficult/easy? Let's choose a card with a mood and tell us how we felt during the lesson. Why?
