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