Teaching English as a Second Language

Keeping Your Classroom Under Control

Children need guidance. Just letting your students do anything they want creates chaos and is an incorrect learning environment for the children to experience.

When Your Classroom Is Under Control

When you are firm (or strict) and set rules, it is easier to accomplish more things during class, including playing games. You can do things at a faster and smoother pace. Therefore, the class ends up being more fun.

Continue To Aim For A Fun Class

You still need to be positive and make the class as fun as possible. Just because you have set firm rules for your classroom doesn’t mean your class needs to be boring.

Example of Classroom Rules

1) Always sit properly.

2) Raise your hand to speak.

3) Listen to people when they are talking.

4) Make good lines when we line up.

5) Don’t be crazy & silly all day long.

6) Be nice to everyone and share with your friends.

7) ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH!!!

What Else to Teach

Reading

Read, read, and read some more of anything and everything you can possibly find. Let your students practice reading everything you come across.

Writing

Writing is a very difficult skill to master and therefore takes a lot of practice.

Listening

The best way to improve your students listening skills is to have an English only classroom & also to make sure your students pay attention during class.

Speaking

Correct their pronunciation. If you hear one student who makes an incorrect pronunciation of a word, stop!

New Vocabulary

You should always be feeding your students with as much new vocabulary as you can.

Verbs

Teach your students every verb you can think of. Have them change the verb into its different tenses by changing a target sentence to reflect each tense.

The Six Main Verb Tenses

Past Continuous …………………………….……………. I was walking down the street.

Past Simple …………………………………………….………. I walked down the street.

Present Simple ………………………………………………………...… I walk the street.

Present continuous ……………………………………..….. I am walking down the street.

Future simple ………………………………………………… I will walk down the street.

Future continuous …………………………………..…. I will be walking down the street.

Grammar

Remember when teaching new grammar points to keep it simple. Take it slow, give lots of examples and give your students lots of time to practice.

Review, Review, Review (The 3 R’s of Teaching)

Reviewing is one of the most important things you can do with your students.

Only Speak English!!!

This is by far the most important rule to have established in your classroom and hopefully your whole school.

More Tips

Teaching Tips

Keep eye contact with your students as much as possible. Look around the room and look into their eyes, let them know you are there. Don’t just stare at the back of the room or at one or two students. Example: That smart kid who is always participating, that misbehaving attention seeker, try to look at everyone.

Don’t let the children talk amongst each other while you are talking. When the teacher is talking, students listen. When anyone is talking at the front of the class whether it is you, a guest speaker or another student, everyone listens. This is called respect and can easily be followed if you enforce it as a classroom rule.

Speak loud and clear. Enunciate your words. Your students need to hear your voice in order for things to stick.

Classroom Tips

Make letters and pictures on the whiteboard as big as you can.

Make a Lesson Plan for Every Class

Come to class prepared and keep your class as structured as possible.

Have Fun!

Create competition amongst the students often.

Be a Positive Role Model

Be enthusiastic and up the pace, the children will follow your lead.

Be Firm & Have Some Expectations for your Class to Follow

Have consequences (punishments) ready for bad behavior and don’t hesitate to use them.

Teaching Younger Students (Under 10 years old)

Physical activities are excellent and you should use them as much as possible to get the kids up and doing things.

Games

Quick Games

2 lines / quickest sits. (No props needed) Have all your students line up in two lines down the middle of the classroom and ask the first two students in line a question. The first one to answer your question correctly gets to stay in the game and go to the back of the line. The loser has to go sit down. The last student standing is the winner.

Whiteboard Games

Snakes & Ladders. A big die, two magnets) Team A/B. Draw a snakes & ladders board on the whiteboard. It is a grid of 50 or more squares. Use a black marker for the squares and numbering, a red marker for the snakes, and a blue marker for the ladders. The first team to the top corner square is the winner.

More Games

Two chairs at the front game. (2 chairs) Team A/B. One student from each team comes to the front and sits in a chair with their back to the whiteboard. You print a word or draw a picture on the whiteboard. The whole class needs to verbally describe this word to the two students at the front without saying the actual word. The first student at the front who guesses the word gets a point for their team. If the team describing the word accidently says the word, the other team gets the point. If no one can guess the word after 1 minute, no team gets a point. Move on to the next word and the next two students.

Games For Younger Children (Under 10 years old)

Hammer game. (2 hammers, some English flashcards to hit) Team A/B. Spread about 6 to 8 flashcards on the floor or on a sturdy table. Have one player from each team come to the front and grab a hammer. There teacher says what flashcard to hit and the first student to hit that flashcard gets a point for their team. Two new students come up to the front and the game goes on and on like this. Play up to 10 points.

Activities

Wordsnake. (No props needed) Write a word on the top left corner on the whiteboard with a dash next to the word. Your students have to come up with more and more words for you to snake along. You keep printing them on the whiteboard and they keep shouting out words for you to print. The last letter of the previous word needs to be the first letter in the next word. Example: pig – girl – lion – name – elephant etc. Once all words are on the whiteboard, use your finger to guide them along as you read out each word as a class. If your class is advanced enough, have them stand up and put a word or two or three into a sentence before they can sit down.