“Work like hell. Put in 100-hour weeks every week. If others are putting in 40 hours and you’re putting in 100, even if you’re doing the same thing you will achieve in 4 month what it takes them a year.”
~ Elon Musk
It is easier to just use what someone else gives us. It is easier to just follow what they tell us. It is easier to do it their way.
But,
Does this fit for all students? Does each student benefit from the lessons that are standardized?
My thoughts are that teaching, and lessons can, and should be, more flexible. Some concepts are tougher to grasp, sometimes the student isn’t really up to taking the lesson, and just skipping it, when each lesson is connected can be very difficult for both the student and you as a teacher. Having the freedom to choose the vocabulary and speed at which you teach, is a major benefit of creating your own lessons.
In this article, I will be giving an example of how I create a lesson for a group of young learners that I recently began teaching.
This is something that I would do for children under the age of 7 with a beginner level of English. This may or may not work for your students of the same age or level. I am writing this to give examples on how I would create my lessons and what I include in them. 😊
Books
I always, always, always include literature in my lessons. Literature is an amazing tool that can be used, even in online learning. You can teach vocabulary, grammar, comprehension and more through reading to your students. Plus, you can introduce these books to their parents, and this is a great way for them to help their children practice their English skills outside of the classroom.
How do I choose a book?
When choosing books, I try to stick to the theme of the lesson. For example, in a lesson where I was teaching my students how to answer the question “How old are you?”, I introduced birthdays to them. I decided based on this topic that I would use the book “If You Give a Pig a Party”, by Laura Numeroff.
Here is a list of book ideas and subject areas that they relate to:
“Green Eggs and Ham”, by Dr. Seuss
(food, rhymes, introductions (I am__), vocabulary)
“Opposites”, by Sandra Bounton
(haha this should be obvious but you can teach opposites)
Mo Willams series
(There are a lot of books on manners and simple little ways to solve problems, vocabulary, grammar, conversation)
Toot and Puddles series, by Holly Hobbie
(friendship, adventure, travel, grammar)
“The Giving Tree”, by Shel Silversteen
(concepts (to give), feelings, ways to help)
“The Rainbow Fish”, by Marcus Pfister
(Colors, loss, finding something, asking questions)
“A Color of His Own”, by Leo Lionni
(colors, feelings, vocabulary)
Phonics
Teaching phonics can be very simple, and you do not need to be a rocket scientist to come up with activities by yourself. They could be as simple as showing the letter and the sound that is associated with that letter for beginners.
For example, A is for apple. Now say ‘a’ as in apple. Say it three times.
‘a’
‘a’
‘a’
Apple
Bam!!!!
You have a good introduction to simple phonics and letters.
Below I am attaching pictures from an actual lesson that I made through PowerPoint. I want to give credit to PowerPoint for creating a place that anyone can use to create presentations. This presentation was for the group I had previously mentioned.
This first picture is how I introduced the phonics. I used two vocabulary words that began with the letter and sound "Ff' and introduced the difference between big "F" and small "f".
The next pictures are how I reviewed the phonics sounds with them in words. They had to listen for the correct sound in for each picture/word. They also had to find the letter mixed in with other letters. Enjoy!
These are only examples of what can be done. Please let me know if you have any other ideas! 😊 I am all about sharing.
Movement
This is very helpful to include in your online lessons with younger children. Children are active, lively, and full of wonderful energy. If you are giving a child a thirty-minute lesson, and you are expecting them to just sit their and repeat things after you, this obviously will not work very well. They need engagement, and since you are not doing this in person, you can make up for face-to-face interactions by incorporating movement.
Just because you are at home, does not mean you should just sit in your chair. Children need movement, and if you provide this to them, you can accomplish a lot more in the classroom. I have a couple of examples from the PowerPoint I used to show how I incorporated movement into my online classroom.
This should happen a few times during class, not only once. Repetition is helpful in learning any language. Repetition and language use. 😊
Songs
Songs are a great way to incorporate your vocabulary words and use some movement. Singing and music also stimulate another part of the brain. So break out the tambourines and saxophones, because this is a need for teaching little ones online. The music is a break from speaking, but it also presents learning opportunities. Try to include songs that are related to the content you are teaching. You can look up kids’ songs on Spotify, Youtube, Kids Channels, etc.
Vocabulary
This can be taught simply with photos.
For the unit where I was teaching about expressing your age, I taught the following vocabulary words: cake party, balloon, candles, presents. For each vocabulary word, I included a picture and the written form of the word. Including the written form is important, because it introduces them to reading, helps with word recognition, and is not bothersome at all to the lesson.
I usually use vocabulary words from the stories I read to the children. This makes it easier for the student to recognize words during the story and follow along. This means that I usually teach the vocabulary first during the lesson, and I finish with the story.
I hope this helped you have an idea on how to go about creating lessons for younger online students. Let me know your thoughts on content creation! Have a wonderful week! Bye. 😊