Viv's EFLT course 04
by Viv Quarry (www.vivquarry.com)
Homework, revision and the alphabet
Homework
After setting homework in a previous class, it's important to check that it has been done. As a teacher of English, you will need to compete for the students' time with their jobs, schools, universities, family and free time activities. Very few people of any age have lots of spare time with nothing to fill it, so unless you show students that you value the homework that they do, you'll probably find that sooner or later in won't be completed. However, if the rules are clear from the start of a course, and the students learn that if they don't complete homework, there will be consequences, this will cease to be a problem. What I do when homework hasn't been completed, is to mark the uncompleted exercises (previously noted on the homework page of their notebooks) in red. I then clearly explain (and if necessary write on their hwk pages) that if the exercises haven't been completed by the following class, then they will not be able to enter the classroom. The student will still have to pay for the class, and if a class is cancelled because homework hasn't been completed, then this class will also be charged. After a student has been sent away from class for the above reason, they are usually angry and don't say 'goodbye' in a very friendly way, but they will always bring the completed exercise the following class and it is very rare for a student to have two classes cancelled because hwk hadn't been done. With private students, I also keep on complaining throughout the class, which makes the students so uncomfortable that they will generally try to do everything I've asked them to do :-). If you're teaching children, it's even more important to help create the notion that homework is important. However, you can't send kids away from class if they haven't done their homework after already being warned! In this situation, any kids who haven't done the homework, can be separated from the rest of the group. They complete their homework in class, while the rest of the group does a fun activity like a game or song.
It's a case of having to be cruel to be kind, because if your students don't do reading, writing or grammar exercises regularly at home, they are unlikely to be successful in improving their English.
For this reason, the first entry in the next lesson plan should be 5 mins. Check homework set last class. There are several ways to go about this, one of which is to ask students to exchange hwk exs with the student sitting next to them. Students correct each other's work; there will be some embarrassment if hwk hasn't been completed! :-) Any students arriving late for class should be asked for their homework in front of the rest of the class, which may kill two birds with one stone (hwk and late arrival). Before checking the homework on numbers set in the previous lesson, ask the students to go to page 28 at the back of their notebooks. Write 'Punctuation' on the board, then + = plus - = minus x = times ÷ = divided by '=' = equals. If SS have any problems with the pronunciation of 'minus', ask them to turn to page 27 at the back. Write 'Pronunciation - Words' on the board and SS write this at the top of the page. In blue write 'minus' and next to it in red write /MAINUS/. To help them with this symbol, I often write 'my' = /MAI/. Now students can say the sums set in the first homework exercise out loud.
The alphabet
If you want to organise your student's vocabulary and grammar notes so that they will be accessible in future, it's essential that their student notebooks be set up as soon as possible in a course. If you don't do this, students will naturally start writing English class notes, homework from other subjects they're studying, shopping lists etc at random in their notebooks and the page numbering completed in the last class will become redundant. Therefore, an index for vocabulary and one for special areas of difficulty should be added to pages 1 at both the front and back of your student's notebooks as soon as possible. This can be done very quickly by photocopying the vocabulary index and special areas of difficulty index on Viv's site, and then simply gluing it onto the appropriate pages in the students' notebooks, but I prefer to use the organisation of indices as an opportunity to practice the English alphabet.
For Brazilians (and for English speakers living in Brazil) a major difficulty is the fact that the vowels are often completely misleading ('i' in Portuguese is the same as 'e' in English), so we'll start this class with a warm up activity designed to deal with this problem. In your new lesson plan, write '10 mins' and 'Warm-up activity p.5.'
Now go to page 5 in your teacher's notebook and at the top of the page write "Warm up 2". "Objective" and ' To teach English vowel sounds and letter which don't exist in the Portuguese alphabet'. Underneath write "Materials (Mats)", and below this write " Squares of paper with the letters 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U', 'K', 'Q' and 'Y' written on them. Sticky tape or blue tack to stick them up on the wall. (depending on the size of the classroom, you could just use the vowels). Then "Preparation (Prep) followed by "Stick the paper with letters on the walls around the classroom before the students arrive."
Underneath this write "Pre-teach?" and then "Selected letters of the alphabet"
Then below write "Teacher's Instructions (TI)" and "Write the letters on the board and drill them". On a new line write "Point to me and say in a loud voice "I" and then move to stand in front of the letter 'I' on the wall. Say "I" again and beckon all the students over to where I'm standing. Now say "Y" and move to the letter "Y". Teacher moves to a neutral area and says the letters - students have to move around and stand in front of the letter you say (there's no problem if one of the letters is outside the classroom, providing you don't disturb anyone else). Finish activity after about 5 minutes."
Then "Student instructions (SI)" and "Stand up", "See these letters" (indicate where the letters are). "Everyone stand up" (use gestures to indicate what this means). "Ok! - sit down please" and indicate what you want them to do if necessary. See example of activity page 5.
Now back to your lesson 2 plan page (p.51f). Write "15 mins." in the margin. Then "Draw 7 columns on the board. At the top of each column write 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U', 'F' and 'R'. Number each of these columns from 1 to 7. Briefly practice the sounds on the board, then tell your students that every letter in the alphabet fits into one of these seven categories (see 'Using L1 in class). Below the columns, write 'B' and say "Which number?' pointing to the numbered column headings. The answer is '2' ('B' has the same sound as 'E'). Go through the entire alphabet putting the letters in their respective columns." (see p. 13 of the Headstart student's book for the final result). Don't forget that 'Z' goes in column 2 in American English /ZEE/ and in column 6 in British English /ZED/. When all the letters of the alphabet have been put in their respective columns, ask your students to open their notebooks at page 51f, and copy the alphabet table onto this page.
To help students with difficult letters, I point to my eye and say "eye", then I point to myself and say "I", then using one finger to put an imaginary dot above an 'i' formed by another finger, I say "i". "E" is 'easy'", and write YOU for this letter. "Jane is a genius" help with 'E's, 'J's and 'G's, and thumbs up followed by "ok" and "extra" help SS remember the letters 'K' and 'X'. With 'Q', I write the phonetic sound (/KYOO/) for beginners and match it with the work 'queue' for SS at intermediate level and above. Writing the question word 'WHY' will introduce SS to this word, and help them pronounce the letter.These words can be written under the alphabet columns on page 51 of their notebooks.
Next write "15 mins." in the margin and put "Tell SS to go to page 2 at the back of their notebooks. At the top of the page ask them to write "Metalanguage", spell it for them slowly, then write it on the board for them to check they've written it correctly. Now write 'Can you spell it, please?' on the board. Drill it and ask SS to copy it to p.2B (page 2 at the back of their notebooks). Drill this structure, then in open pairs, practice 'What's your name?' then 'Can you spell it, please?'. Don't forget to write 'space' on the board so that first names, middle names and surnames can be separated. Put SS in pairs, facing each other to ask and answer. Then go around the class giving each student one of two letters e.g.; S1= I, S2=Y, S3=I, S4 = Y etc. Now say "Stand up all the 'Ys'". Then indicate that all the 'Y' students should move one space to the left to join a new pair. The same 'name?' and 'spell it, please?' questions and answers are asked and answered. Repeat the process until everyone has asked everyone to spell their names."
The next activity probably lasting 15 mins, will consist of the teacher demonstrating the layout of the Vocabulary Index on page 1 of the SS nbs (student's notebooks) and 'Special areas of difficulty' index on page one at the back. Teacher gets students to number the left hand margins from 1 to 10, then says "On page 1 write 'I-N-D-E-X'", on page 2 write 'G-R-A-M-M-A-R space I-N-D-E-X'
Organising the student notebook with
intermediate students and above
Higher level students will already know all the cardinal numbers (except, perhaps, a few who may spell 'forty' wrong), so what I do with these students is:
Revision
Most language teachers fail not because they are bad teachers, but because the keep on teaching! Unless you regularly revise what you have taught before, you'll find that when you get to the end of a course your students will have forgotten everything that they did at the beginning! Part of the function of a well-designed course book is to recycle both vocabulary and grammatical structures, but this should also be integrated into your teaching too.
A fun way to revise both vocabulary and the alphabet is to play 'Hangman'. You put a dash on the board to represent each letter in the word and then say "Give me a letter!". If the letter given is in the word, it gets filled in. If not, you start to draw the components of a scaffold. When the last leg of the 'hanged man' is filled in, the class 'dies'. The last five minutes of this class can be spent playing hangman using the numbers taught when numbering the pages in their notebooks - you can also take the opportunity to revise the word stress on 'teens' and 'tens'. If they are presenting problems, we'll set up our 'Word stress' page at the back of SS nbs next class. If you've never played this game before, draw a practice 'hanging man' on page 6 of your teacher's notebook and put 'Activity 3 - Hangman' as the title of the page.
Homework activity: How could your
students organise the words in which they have problems stressing the correct
syllable in their notebooks?
On page 53 of your teacher's
notebook, using the teacher's book, prepare a lesson plan following the model
plans on pages 50 and 51 for material in the first unit of the course book you
are using. Add the instructions for any warm-up activities you would like to do
to the next blank page in the 'activities' section at the front.