I've taught English on and off for...wow, 14 years. Good grief, now I feel old! Back before the twins were born, I was volunteering here in Memphis with a different organization whose students are primarily Spanish-speaking. I liked volunteering there, but unfortunately their class schedule doesn't work out with my child care options. So a couple months back, I started volunteering teaching ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) at a local nonprofit that works with refugees. It's been going great so far!
Back in Seattle, I taught English with a refugee-serving organization for while, so I actually have some experience with the needs of this population. Many of my current students fall into the "pre-literate" category, which means they don't really know how to read and write in their native language. You can imagine it would be especially challenging to learn English in that situation! We use a lot of hands-on tools, songs, and physical movement. Sometimes we write down a few things. (And, I actually do have a handful of students now who can read/write their native language.)
Normally I teach on Thursday mornings, but the Monday teacher had a conflict and wasn't able to be there today so I subbed. Here's a sample of what we learned. I'll note that this approach is called Total Physical Response. I don't have a lot of formal ESOL training, but I did learn about TPR at one seminar I attended many years ago!
Intro:
-Review days of the week, yesterday/today/tomorrow, today's date, months of the year
-Talk about the letter N and words with the "N" sound like November (name, nose, night)
Lesson:
-students identify items in the classroom that are various colors (red, orange, etc)
-briefly review shapes - square/circle/triangle
-Pass out items to each student for hands-on practice: colored sticks, a styrofoam cup, and colored shapes cut out of construction paper
-I say "Show me the black square." Everyone finds their square. Then, "Show me your other square - a different color." Everyone finds their orange square. "What color is it?" "Orange." Repeat with circles and triangles.
-Demonstrate various prepositions using props. "Put the black square in the cup." "Take the black square out of the cup."
-Students follow along as I do the action. Next, I give directions verbally but do not accompany with a demonstrative action. About half of the class could successfully follow verbal directions. Increased to about 75% with repeated practice.
-Finish by practicing in table groups, arranging objects and students speaking to describe their location
We did these prepositions today: IN, ON, UNDER, IN FRONT OF, BEHIND, NEXT TO
I see now that I forgot to do "above" or "on top of," to contrast with "under." I was also planning to do "between," but using three items at once seemed like it was going to overwhelm some of the students.
lesson prep :)
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