I am at the end of my three-month long syllabus that I created for younger children. In this syllabus, I included different types of vocabulary, sentence frames, questions, phonics, books, songs, etc. I am including a link to the article about the development of this lesson plan, and the link to their first assessment by clicking here. 😊
Next week is our final class for this course, and I am so proud of the children I taught this too. I found this was a really nice course for younger students who are beginners in English.
We do hour long lessons each week, and then at the end of four weeks, we have an assessment. The assessment includes the vocabulary from the previous three weeks and sentence frames that we have been working on.
In this article, I am going to talk about three major points: the assessment for the end of the course, the teacher evaluation/feedback, and the development of the next syllabus.
The Assessment:
Vocabulary
Our final vocabulary categories for this course are shapes, colors, and toys. For each week, I would teach 5 to 10 new vocabulary words that were centered around these topics.
Phonics/Alphabet
We also learned the letters “Ss” through “Zz” during this last month of lessons. And a few words that begin with each letter. I have heard teachers critique the idea of giving the first letter of a word as the example for each letter (“M” is for monkey).
For example, a child may associate only one letter for their name, instead of recognizing that their name is made of several letters.
To fix this problem of associating only one letter with a word, I type out the entire word and have the students identify the other letters in the word as well. This also a great way to review the letters that they previously learned too.
Sentence Frames/Answering Questions
It is important to not only develop a person’s vocabulary, but to practice using this vocabulary in various sentences. I introduce new sentence frames to the children and then ask questions to help them recognize question/answer dialogue.
The key to language development is repetition. So, when a person is developing their language skills, they need to use the language they have learned frequently. Therefore, only an hour of lessons during the week is not optimal to learn a language.
Giving homework, reading, vocabulary building practice, writing practice, or even multiple shorter lessons throughout the week is beneficial for language development.
Books
I cannot stress how important literature is. All my lessons have some sort of reading materials in them. Literature is amazing. Please feel free to look at any of my other articles to see my rants on literature. Haha 😊
Songs
Music is a great way to stimulate the right side of the brain. On the left side of the brain we have to areas of language: Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area. I have discussed this in another blog article about how these areas of the brain help us with language, but here is a small recap.
Wernicke’s area: is an area on the left side of the brain that aids in the comprehension of written and spoken language.
Broca’s area: is also on the left side of the brain and helps with the production of language.
Right side of the brain: the more creative part of the brain, controls the left side of the body, etc.
Songs are a great way to develop language, while using multiple areas of the brain. 😊
Teacher Evaluation/Feedback
Criticism is important for us to develop ourselves, and it is important to criticize others in a constructive way. You can take that criticism and create better lessons and meet the expectations of your students better.
I have developed my first feedback form for the parents to fill out with the children on how the lessons were. I am including a screenshot of what this looked like.
Why should I include the child?
Because the class is for them, not the parents. The parents are usually listening and enjoying the lesson as well. I often hear them laughing in the background as we get silly and do fun things. 😊 But they aren’t experiencing the lesson.
As you can see, I include some yes/no questions with a line underneath each of them. I want to make it easy for the parents and allow them the option to write more if they have a comment about a certain topic.
Below this, I include questions for the student. This is where you get an idea for how the student felt about the difficulty/easiness of the material, what they enjoyed, what they would like to learn next, and I included a fun question for them to answer. 😊
I also included a simple letter to the parents to promote my lessons and spread the word. I tried to make this simple and enjoyable. I used a simple Template (with flowers because it is Spring) off Microsoft Word to complete this document, and I will send this via email in PDF form.
Sometimes you will have parents that tear your lessons apart and dislike certain parts. When you have someone who harshly critiques your work it can be really discouraging.
But you can use that to your advantage to talk with the parents and children to see how you can make the lessons better for them. Maybe the group doesn’t fit, or the vocabulary is too difficult or too easy.
Calling the parents and talking with them about the feedback they gave personalizes the experience for them and allows you to gain information on how they would like to proceed with lessons.
Everyone likes to be heard, and if your students or parents feel like they have a say in how the lessons are structured then you will have happier parents and students.
This is not as easily done through “cookie cutter” platforms that put kids on the one-way track. This is why specialized lessons are so unique and beneficial. 😊
The New Syllabus
The benefit of have a syllabus that only covers three months, is that you can create a new syllabus with information that is better suited to the student’s language level. You can include old information, new information, and anything that the student’s or parents would like to have in the lessons.
The key to developing a syllabus is time. You need to be developing this over time.
Waiting until the last minute or the last week is not helpful for you at all.
I have spent the last month slowly putting together their next syllabus. I have used information that I know they still need to work on (possessives in this case haha) and incorporate them more in the lessons. Also seeing where they are heading with their vocabulary is extremely important.
Here I will include a few snips from the new course syllabus:
For each month, I include a new “theme” for our learning. This syllabus is structured very similar to the other syllabi I have previously created.
I want uniformity to make it easy for the parents to follow along with the lessons. I want them to practice this outside of the classroom as well, and having that syllabus to see what we will be reviewing in lessons is a great way for them know what is coming next so they can review it on their own.
This again was a template from Microsoft Word. There are so many templates online as well. You can also use https://www.overleaf.com/ . This website is incredibly easy to use. It gives you many templates that are well put together. It can take a little tinkering around, but after you get the hang of it, it is quite simple.
If you would like more information on this and how to use it, Luke Smith has information and videos on how to use this. This is where my fiancé and I learned about this and we both enjoy using Overleaf to type up documents. Here is Luke Smith’s webpage:
For a timeline on how I developed this syllabus:
February:
complete month 1 of the new syllabus.
March:
Finish month 2 of the syllabus
April:
Complete the syllabus and turn it in to the parents.
I worked on this slowly every week a little bit. This is how you can develop lessons and all the forms that I have developed and written about on this blog.
*Organization and time management are key to developing lessons.*
That is it for this article. I hope everyone has a great week! Please feel free to subscribe and stay up to date on my content. 😊 Bye!