This got me thinking about behaviour charts in the YL ELT classroom. For many years I have used them in my classes. In some cases, they have been highly successful, and others were not as successful as planned.

Here are some tips that may help if you plan to chart or not…

1 Focus on positive behaviour. You want your class to work towards this. For this reason, avoid any negative behaviours and reward the good things your learners do, for example, stars or points for speaking English, rather than removing them for speaking their first language.

2 Keep your chart simple. Prioritise the most important things you want from your learners and add them to your chart. Being kind to others may take priority over tidy handwriting (something not all learners can do). Work out what your class needs and chart accordingly.

3 Be consistent and fair. All learners are different and have good and bad days. Tune in to how they are feeling and award accordingly. If you notice a lack of engagement, you may want to be slightly generous to get learners back on board..don’t exaggerate but use your good judgement —points for being ready to learn or helping others are never bad.

4 Balance the points you award. No one enjoys being on the losing side. Try to distribute points evenly amongst groups. This will keep motivation levels in the class consistent and motivate them to participate.

5 Don’t be disappointed if learners don’t respond. In life, some things work for a group of learners, and others don’t. If you notice a lack of engagement, don’t be disheartened. There are other ways (follow me for further suggestions).

My boys are now 12 and 17, and we don’t chart their home chores. When I think back, the chart helped establish family ground rules and let them know what we expected from them. They now automatically do their tasks (bed, dishwasher..we’re still working on the dog poo) and will regularly snitch on each other when they haven’t. I have also seen similar automated behaviours in classes I have taught for several years.

So, to answer the question: chart if it is well received, but be selective in the criteria you use and how you award points.

If you found this post helpful, you may wish to join my Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/eltconfidentyounglearnersteaching and continue the conversation.

If you are a newly qualified ELT teacher or transitioning into teaching young learners, my short course ELT: Confident Young Learners Teaching essentials is starting in September. I am currently waitlisting candidates and will open the doors in September. Sign up now to avoid missing a place. https://youtube.com/shorts/lhgISckedBw https://www.teachyounglearners.com/my-courses/

Thank you for reading, and see you soon!

Today was quite an unusual day for me. It was my first lesson back with my upper-primary students. Campania, the region of Italy I live in, has been on a rollercoaster ride of misinformation and sudden changes to policy, which resulted in the first day of term online (with the expectation to remain that way until the end of January), followed by a sudden overturning of that decision. The next day the whole school system went back to teaching face to face.

Totally unprepared.

I saw my students for the first time since December. A group of sixteen lively young F2F learners class had become eight in the room and two online. I stupidly made the mistake of asking one of my favourites – E – How his Christmas had been. He said it had been awful, as both of his grandparents had had Covid-19. (They are fine; I just asked the wrong question).

Since September last year, I have been teaching all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) online for two years and hybrid classes with my University students. It has been a steep learning curve, but I now feel in control of my teaching and feel I am supporting my learners to the best of my ability. However, none of this prepared me for my YLE Movers preparation class. Young Learners are different. They need more from us.

I won’t go into all the gory details. I will say I was lucky to have the support of my colleague. We team teach the class together, and we managed to monitor and keep the students engaged for the lesson, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best class I/We’ve taught.

But what if I hadn’t had that support? What if it had all gone terribly wrong?

Hybrid teaching is hard work. It’s like teaching two lessons at the same time. I can’t change Covid, the stressful situation in which we find ourselves (again), but I can reflect and plan for my future lessons….which is what I did.

Here are five things I plan to implement to help support my students’ learning better:

1 Downtime

Include tasks that take students away from the screen. Today we were learning about comparative adjectives. I asked my students to draw a monster to compare them. The five minutes they had to do this gave them a moment to relax after a long day at school. Where possible, plan for this, or send worksheets in advance, so students at home are not constantly looking at a screen. Include tasks where they can draw, make, find or create things offline.

2 Classroom layout

Have the students that are present near you (as far as distancing allows) and have a webcam that gives students a similar view of you. If your students are using google meet or teams, check with your school administrator that they have access to breakout rooms so they can continue to do pair or group work.

3 Equipment

As mentioned above, a webcam, positioned to reflect the classroom (and you) as normally as possible. This really helps. Have a headset handy, so you can connect with learners online and listen to your students closely.

4 Differentiate tasks

As I mentioned, I wanted my students to compare their monsters. Unfortunately, we didn’t have access to breakout rooms today, and the two students online couldn’t hear each other and work in pairs. I gave them a slightly different task where they wrote about their monsters and compared them to themselves. They did it brilliantly. 

5 Praise

Teaching online was tough. Hybrid is tougher. We are constantly reacting to change and need to congratulate ourselves and our students.

When I ask new teachers which area of teaching Young Learners they need help with, nine times out of ten, they mention lesson planning. Planning is something everyone needs support with, and here are some ideas I find work.

Plan backwards 

Ask yourself what you want the learners to be able to do at the end of the lesson. Having a clear idea of your end outcome will help you prioritise the activities you include in the build-up to the final task or activity.

Choose your activities carefully.

Whatever it is you are planning to include, question its relevance. I’m not against being inclined to experiment. You find new ideas on the internet, and you instantly want to try them out. Your choice of activity needs to be relevant to the lesson content and not a random activity you have chosen because it is fun. 

Break activities down into small and manageable parts. 

If your final activity is a discussion, think about the language they need and may already have. Do your students know the questions (forms) you plan to use? What vocabulary will they be using? Different activities that build towards the discussion form scaffolding and help build learners confidence and generally perform better.

Demonstrate

Plan how you are going to demonstrate the activities.

Will you give them a model? Will you answer the first question as a group? When you plan a lesson, make a note of how you are going to do this. It will help the lesson run smoothly and check that your students know what to do.

Write checking questions

To keep learners focussed, we need to ask simple questions to ensure they know what you want them to be doing. We also need to ask questions about the language they are learning or practising. The more questions we have, the easier it is to gauge that learners are engaging and learning.

If you would like to continue the conversation, come and join my Facebook group.

ELT: Confident Young Learners teaching

It’s a group for teachers who need a safe space to share ideas and learn more about teaching and managing young learners’ classes. Each week we will contemplate different areas of ELT teaching for Young Learners, and you will find activities and lesson materials to boost confidence in the classroom.

In the group, we will be talking about:

·      Teaching English to young learners

·      Talking to new and experienced Teachers, Trainers and Authors

·      Building (your or others) confidence in the classroom

 Jane Ritter