yoyoyossif
26-03-2010, 09:46 AM
General Tips For Teaching English
These tips are very important to achieve your goals of teaching :
1-Use pair work as your basic strategy for doing / checking activities to maximize practices , give everybody equal opportunity & allow you a chance both to see / hear what each individual is thinking /has understood .Take notes or interfere quickly as necessary.
2. Manage the room & the students, don't let them manage you. Move chairs & students to your advantage & mix students up regularly and don't fossilize into ' fixed' groups.
3. Prioritize speed over beauty at the board. Divide the board into 'sections' & practise economizing layout to keep the amount students have to copy to a minimum. Ensure students all copy at the same time.
4. Make sure you input language visually as well as verbally, e.g. body language, the board, flashcards, realia, examples, phrases, interesting language on the walls. This will allow you to speak faster. Exemplify rather than instruct, i.e. give visual as well as verbal examples of what to do / say rather than rely on instructions.
5. Don't always feed off the strong, e.g. /Ask a question then say, "Don't tell me, tell your partner!" to give everyone a chance to formulate an answer (or at least understand the question & think) before you take an answer.
6. Use Arabic intelligently rather than prohibit it strictly .Be relaxed about students using it when in closed pairs, e.g. to check what they have to do, to compare what they understood from a listening, to confirm answers, etc. But try not to allow them to get away with using Arabic lazily, e.g. for what they can paraphrase or express in (broken) English, via mime or drawing.
7. Avoid echo to make students listen to each other: stand back & say Pardon? & encourage students to do the same so they can speak up & hear each other & break eye contact with students when they're talking to you to encourage them to turn, look at & speak to the rest of the class.
8. Don't get trapped doing things, e.g. reading aloud textbook Qs, each student in turn answering every single Q right round the class, students writing Qs & As on the board, etc. Don't be a dinosaur just because you were once "dinosaured" yourself at school!
9. Change (something) every (5) minutes: move/make students move their minds/ focus/eyes/necks/bodies to add pace to classes. E.g. in the middle of an exercise change the seating or partnership arrangements.
10. Involve Ss in your pedagogy by letting them know what your managerial intentions are, & giving them
choices to respond to. Teach in different ways on different days & invite comments
Alaa Mohamed Shawky-Negeer Secondary School
Reference: Mansoura Forum. Ustaz Mohammed El Alfy.
These tips are very important to achieve your goals of teaching :
1-Use pair work as your basic strategy for doing / checking activities to maximize practices , give everybody equal opportunity & allow you a chance both to see / hear what each individual is thinking /has understood .Take notes or interfere quickly as necessary.
2. Manage the room & the students, don't let them manage you. Move chairs & students to your advantage & mix students up regularly and don't fossilize into ' fixed' groups.
3. Prioritize speed over beauty at the board. Divide the board into 'sections' & practise economizing layout to keep the amount students have to copy to a minimum. Ensure students all copy at the same time.
4. Make sure you input language visually as well as verbally, e.g. body language, the board, flashcards, realia, examples, phrases, interesting language on the walls. This will allow you to speak faster. Exemplify rather than instruct, i.e. give visual as well as verbal examples of what to do / say rather than rely on instructions.
5. Don't always feed off the strong, e.g. /Ask a question then say, "Don't tell me, tell your partner!" to give everyone a chance to formulate an answer (or at least understand the question & think) before you take an answer.
6. Use Arabic intelligently rather than prohibit it strictly .Be relaxed about students using it when in closed pairs, e.g. to check what they have to do, to compare what they understood from a listening, to confirm answers, etc. But try not to allow them to get away with using Arabic lazily, e.g. for what they can paraphrase or express in (broken) English, via mime or drawing.
7. Avoid echo to make students listen to each other: stand back & say Pardon? & encourage students to do the same so they can speak up & hear each other & break eye contact with students when they're talking to you to encourage them to turn, look at & speak to the rest of the class.
8. Don't get trapped doing things, e.g. reading aloud textbook Qs, each student in turn answering every single Q right round the class, students writing Qs & As on the board, etc. Don't be a dinosaur just because you were once "dinosaured" yourself at school!
9. Change (something) every (5) minutes: move/make students move their minds/ focus/eyes/necks/bodies to add pace to classes. E.g. in the middle of an exercise change the seating or partnership arrangements.
10. Involve Ss in your pedagogy by letting them know what your managerial intentions are, & giving them
choices to respond to. Teach in different ways on different days & invite comments
Alaa Mohamed Shawky-Negeer Secondary School
Reference: Mansoura Forum. Ustaz Mohammed El Alfy.