Useful Information for Teaching

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Useful Websites for Teaching English.

Former volunteer Sander from Holland compiled some useful websites for help teaching English. For every level (beginner to advanced) there's a lot of useful stuff available on the internet to practise English...

China Daily	Read articles on China in English. EnglishChinadaily.com.cn is the largest English portal in China, providing news, business information, BBS, learning materials etc.
Shanghai Newspaper/	Read articles on China in English from this Shanghai newspaper.
Hello World ABC Song	An ABC song. Listen to the pronunciation of the letters of the ABC/alphabet.
Beginner's ABCs	Listen to the pronunciation of the letters of the ABC / alphabet.
Genki English	Listen to the sounds of English.
Phoneme Chart	Listen to the phonemes.
Pronunciation Help	Listen to the phonemes. You have to click the"Listen to the sounds" link at the middle of the page.
HowJSay	Type a word to hear it pronounced.
About ESL Dot Com	Very useful website with loads of useful excercises (listening/reading/writing for both teachers and students

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Teaching Tips, Marijke, Holland, May-June, 2008

I had grades 1 and 2 (7-9 year old's and 8-10 year old's) while my co-volunteer, Suzanne, taught grades 3 and 4 (9-11 year old's and 10-12 year old's). Of course you will have your own way of teaching and some methods you will prefer above others. I can try to tell you what the children in my classes know and how I have been teaching.

All children know the alphabet; don't worry about that, it's in their minds through and through. They are very good at spelling any word you give them, even in grade one. If you want them to spell, you'll only need to put a finger in the air, say and write the first letter, and the whole class will follow you. Oh, by the way, I'm not sure how the kids will do at the start of a year, it might be that you need to teach the first grade students the alphabet after all. No need to buy any posters though, as there's a small education materials shop next to the school which sells anything you'd like to use. Suzanne and I really loved to sniff around a bit in that shop, they sell teaching posters, magnets, loads of stickers, pencils, brushes, paper, ink,...

For an English teacher, it is best not to try to use any Mandarin, but only pictures and English words that describe them. If a game needs to be explained, or you want the kids to do something for you, you can get assistance from the Chinese teacher who is in the back of the class. Being able to speak some Mandarin is useful though, because it helps you start up a conversation with the other teachers in the office (you'll spend quite some time there too) and the kids totally love it if you say something to them in Chinese, and if they can teach you their language!

The way I used to set up a lesson went as follows:

1. Getting started/warming up (5 min) - I say "hello!" to the class and they say "hello!" back. I ask them "how are you?" and the class answers back "fine, thank you!"

2. While walking through the classroom, I ask the kids individually some general questions which they can answer for sure, like 'which colour do you like?' 'how old are you?' 'what's your name?' 'which animal do you like?' 'what's on your desk?'... Sometimes you need to help them on answering the question, or let another student answer it if the student you ask doesn't know. Be careful not to hurt their feelings though. Later on, in grade two I used to ask the children to ask me questions, which often results in ten times answering the same question, but for the kids it's fun. You can help them to make up different questions by asking a different question in return yourself and see if they ask you that one next time. Another thing I did was saying a subject, and a kid had to answer as quick as possible a word that belonged to the subject, like me: "family!" kid:"brother!" me: "animal!" kid: "monkey!" etc. etc. I tried you have this type of short conversations about the subject of last lesson, so they can rehearse a little what they learned there (sometimes you find out they remembered awfully little...) The children know the question "which...do you like?" and they will return with "I like..."

3. Introduction into subject (5 min) Here I used a Powerpoint show with lots of pictures (beware: 1st and 2nd graders use no capital letters! Never make long sentences, best is 3 words at max.) In the first grade I would teach them maybe 2 new words in a lesson and rehearse another four. You will constantly need to repeat words in different ways of teaching, for instance by singing a song (ten little indians, hello and how are you?,... that might be something good to look up in America: some nice and easy (not more that 2 new words...) childrens songs). It also helps if you can do a little bit of drama or hide something that has to do with the subject in a bag (can also be a virtual bag on powerpoint, but real life is always much more fun of course!). For instance: when I taught about sports I put a ball in my bag and let the kids guess. Who had a try could take a peek. In the end I asked: "What's in my bag?" And a kid would say "A ball!" "Okay, can you catch?" I'd ask, and the kid would have to catch it and throw it back at me. By literally showing the actions that belong to certain words they would learn easier than if it only were pictures. When I had a lesson about drawing I dressed myself up as Vincent van Gogh and did as if I was painting. They would all start giggling by seeing me with a beard doing as if I was painting the classroom. I could teach them the word brush.

4. Teaching the words (10-15 min) For sports, I would teach them the words run, jump and swim also. I wrote words down on a paper in advance of a lesson. I would let them spell each word, and then say it three times. Often I would go through a row of kids by showing them the word and they would have to say it individually. You can hear which things they say wrong. If there's one thing the whole class says wrong, you can repeat the word with the whole class, by laying emphasis on the mistake they all make. With the sports, the kids had to make the movements that belong to the actions (by staying on their chairs of course). I would point at the different words and they would have to make the movement, or I would point at pictures/make a movement and they'd have to say the word. After that, I often let the kids compare words and pictures by let them put them up on the blackboard with magnets.

5. Playing with the subject (10-15 min) After you have taught the kids some words, you can try to make a sentence using them. You can ask them which they like, or you can teach them a conversation. For instance: "What would you like to do?" "I would like to jump!" on the powerpoint and let them rehearse this in groups of two before asking kids to say it in front of the class. (For instance: if you want to teach them about the words wish and would, you can let them say "I wish I could jump!" "I would like to run." but you'll first have to explain how you use those words. In first grade I would sometimes sing a song about it, or let them draw something and tell me what they had drawn.

5. End of class If I had spare time, I would play hangman or repeat a song of last class. Sometimes, if you've prepared the next lesson already, you need to ask the class to do something for you for next time you see them.

Take care to change your teaching method every 10 minutes, to keep their attention. Maybe, if you can find it, a book with a lot of pictures that you can show to the class would be handy. Pictures must be seen throughout the whole class of forty kids. I don't know which subjects you're going to teach though, so you might just want to get the pictures during preparations at school. You'll have plenty of preparation time at school, so don't do too much!!

Facilities   For the nights we stayed at our dormitories, which are really good: there's a bathroom and a normal toilet. You can wash your clothes and there's air-conditioning and clean water (hot and cold). There are no cooking facilities, but meals are taken care of by the school, in the canteen of the school during lunchtime and in the mornings and evenings in a sort of labourors canteen where you can get enough food, though not always as diverse. About the coffee: I left a whole pot of instant Nescafé in my dormitory and also some instant milk. Making fresh coffee might be possible if you take your own filter from home. You can buy ground coffee in the shops in Shanghai, though it's expensive and not everywhere available. I just stuck to the instant Nescafé. One jar of instant coffee for about 50 cups of coffee (this is a guess) will cost you about 60-70 yuan (don't know how the dollar is at the moment...)

In your dorm room there is a computer, connected to the local network within the school and connected to internet. However, the headset I used to use Skype didn't work on the computer in my room, I don't know if Suzannes computer worked with a headset. she used a laptop. You would have to take a laptop for that if you have one, or buy a laptop in China... Also in the teacher's office you have your own desk and there are computers, but most what's most important of the teachers' office of course, is that there are very nice teachers and every now and then some sweet kids.

Oh, and I almost forget something important! Suzanne and I left two bicycles at school for future volunteers, a red one and a green one. We left the keys of these with the teachers. It's very nice to go cycling on the island after you've finished class and explore. The village where school is, is pretty much near big factories and you see quite some industry. If you take the bike, you can find small orange fields, people selling vegetables, some acres with crops and of course the housing style. For more about our stay/trip, my site or the T2T organisation's site or Suzanne's site.

I'm not sure about the computer and the screen, I think it might be possible, but you'll have to talk about it with one of the teachers. I just used a memory card on which I put my powerpoints, and there are also teachers using Flash sometimes, if they use the computer. In the first grades the screen/computer often didn't work well (bad virus scan I suppose), so I would always take care that I had a back-up in case I wouldn't be able to use any electronics...

I forgot to tell how much you'll be teaching: I had seven classes in total, which I would teach once a week for 40 minutes. Apart from that, we had English Corner of 30 minutes every day except Tuesday. In English Corner, a selection of children from all the classes of one grade can attend (so 4-6 kids from each 1st grade class for English Corner on Monday and 4-6 kids from each 2nd grade class for English Corner on Wednesday). You cannot use your computer, but also you don´t need to keep strict to the theory. You will sit in a circle with the kids and can play games or sing songs or show them something about your home country or tell them a story and let them guess which words were in it or something like that. It is all to your own creativity on this one :o) So all together 11 lessons if none of them were cancelled, which every week was the case with one or two.

A Fun Game: Leek Slap
Here´s a game which I did during the English Corner and which was very successful - the kids didn't want to stop! This game is usually done in large groups of people (10-20) who don't know each other yet. The aim is to learn each other's names. I changed it a little to make it useful in English classes. You need:
  - a group of kids in a circle on chairs (you can sit there yourself as well)
  - pieces of paper on which there is a picture of any word you want them to
     learn by heart (make pictures of words you're sure they know, like 'ball', 'dog', 'pencil'...)
  - a leek (onion), or a newspaper rolled up, or some A4 paper rolled up
First you show the class the cards with the pictures you have. You ask the kids to tell them which English word belongs to the picture, to make sure at least some of them know it. Then you give them all a picture. The kids need to hold up the picture so that everyone can see it. One child has to come in the middle of the circle and receives the leek/rolled up newspaper. He/she doesn't need a picture. Now the child in the middle points at one of the kids, this kid has to say the word which is one of the other kids´ pictures, for instance 'dog'. The child in the middle now goes to the kid holding the 'dog' picture and has to slap with the newspaper on the knee (leek/newspaper should not be too hard so it won't hurt) If the kid holding the 'dog' picture says a picture of another kid (e.g. 'pencil') before the kid with the newspaper slaps on the knees, the kid with the newspaper goes on to the kid with 'pencil' and tries to slap on the knee. Now the kid with 'pencil' has to say quickly another kid's picture word and so on and so on. If the 'slapper' is first with slapping before a kid says another picture word, the kid who has been slapped gets the newspaper and can go into the middle of the circle to slap. The other kid gets the picture and sits in the circle with the other kids.

The best way to explain the game is to do it yourself to show an example and use your movements. It might take a little time, but don't give up; they'll understand it and they'll love it. Suzanne did it as well in her classes and her kids were very enthusiastic.

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Music Videos for Teaching English, John, USA, Sept-Dec, 2008

The videos below were created for teaching English to primary school kids at ChangXing Primary school just north of Shanghai. All three videos may be appropriate for grades one through four but this will depend on the particular school and children involved. The only way to know if any of the videos is appropriate is to try it out on your kids :-)

Music Video: Wheels on the Bus

I found that this video was a fun way to teach vocabulary to second and third graders. First graders enjoy it but are probably overwhelmed by the number of new English words it uses. Fourth graders also enjoyed it but were probably a little less into the music - perhaps they think it sounds a bit childish for their tastes? Again, you may find it works for your classes or not, depending on the English level of your kids. The Powerpoint Presentation teaches the vocabulary words needed to understand the song's lyrics. I presented it before the video in the first 2 or 3 weeks: after the kids demonstrated they knew the English words, I used only the video and, in the second grade, we sang it every week to start the class for the durtion of my stay (13 weeks.) We also used hand and body movements - we circled our hands/arms in the air while we sang "around and around" - moved our arms like windshield wipers in time to the "swish, swish, swish", stood up and sat down in time to ".. people go up and down". The kids really enjoyed the movements and they can do them even before they learn the words.

	To download, right-click on icon below and select 'Save Target As'"
	MPG Video (37MB, high quality)
	WMV Video (7MB, medium quality)
	Powerpoint Presentation (52MB)

Music Video: Hello

This video was enjoyed by kids in all four grades. It has a smaller vocabulary than the Wheels video but the song's speed makes it challenging to sing along, especially for the younger kids. The fourth graders loved the guitar-playing monkey but I was a little disppointed that they were more interested in playing along on their "air guitars" than in singing the song. The PowerPoint presentation is very simple and can be used as is - or could serve as the starting point for a more detailed and helpful introduction to the song.

	To download, right-click on icon below and select 'Save Target As'"
	MPG Video (39MB, high quality)
	WMV Video (9MB, medium quality)
	Powerpoint Presentation (92KB)

Music Video: Big Nose

This video is fun for all kids and, although the vocabulary required is not large, there are some words/phrases that are difficult to explain - e.g. "This is quite a sight." I tried to explain these words/phrases in the Powerpoint presentation which is also available below. I found a pair of funny glasses with a big nose attached at Carrefour's near the Xu Bo flat and I put them on at the end of the video at the point where the man with the large nose appears. Great laughter resulted - even greater laughter when I let the kids take turns wearing the glasses/nose.

	To download, right-click on icon below and select 'Save Target As'"
	MPG Video (39MB, high quality)
	WMV Video (11MB, medium quality)
	Powerpoint Presentation (3MB)

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Games for Teaching English, Sarah, Holland, Spring, 2008

I was an English teacher at ChangXing Primary School for two months. I taught grade one and grade two. At this school I was the first volunteer: I had to improvise a lot because they did not know what a volunteer was for. My children also didn't speak English outside of the standard vocabulary. I noticed that the English Corner class (lunchtime informal class) really helped the students to get confident. When you make English Corner interesting and let them to take active part in it, it will also improve your normal lessons. I noticed the best way was to play games, games that helped them to develop their listening and speaking skills. The games below can be played with the children from grade one and up. Of course the children in grade one, might require that you explain more carefully. You need to look at how your children respond to the games, if they respond well, you can play the games also with grade one.

English Corner is the place where you can put in all your creativity, to make it a fun lesson. Don't try to make the lesson plan flawless: all the grades and classes are different. The level of English changes every time with every class. It is good to have a start, know what you want to discuss, but leave room for improvisation.

Try to make the English Corner similar to the topic of that week: that way the children can recognize things. For the children it can be difficult to adapt to your lessons, because the children are used to sitting still and listen to the teacher. They don't normally interact during their lessons. The English Corner is a good way to encourage the children to start talking and take active part in the lesson.

Playing games I think is a great way to go. Games don't necessarily mean you let them to run around screaming. For example, you can make stories in a way that it is like a game for them, but still they practice English.

Games You Can Play

Hangman

Begin with words they already know. Let them spell it by asking: "Is there a .....?" For example, you take the word pencil. The children then need to guess the word: "Is there a B?" - "No, there isn't" - so you draw a line. And so forth. After they are familiar with the game, you might read them a story using new words. When the story is done and they understand it, you can use some of the new words to play Hangman. That way they'll learn in a fun way.

Story

You can read a story that they know, or you can find a story on the internet. Read it to them and find/create an activity for it. For example, if you read about 14 stars, make a little paper with 14 stars and let them count. Or you can make your own story. You can use the topic from that week as a start. For example, if you talk about gifts. You can tell them a story about what you do at home. In Holland you have Saint Nicholas; all the children put their shoe in front of the fire place and sing a song. In the morning they'll have a gift in their shoe. In class you make your own fire place, let them sing an English song, they'll close their eyes as if it is night and you put a gift in their shoe. You can also take a word and make sentences with it. For example, use the word "why." You can make a little story using sentences to explain the word - "Why", said the little mouse. "Why can't I reach the window?" You can draw a window with the little mouse. And so on.

Labyrinth

A lot of children find it difficult to remember right and left. For example, you make a labyrinth and let the children to find their way. After they're done they can tell you which way they are going. "I'm going up, I'm going down, I'm turning left, and I'm turning right", etc.

Competition

Divide the children in two groups and then tell them to say as many words with a "B" as they know. One by one, the group with the most words wins. After that you can continue with the letter "C", and so forth. Let the two groups answer the questions without saying yes or no. The group, who does it the best, wins.

Sing a Song

Teach them a new song. Don't make it to hard. For example, you can teach"Twinkle, twinkle little star". Prepare by writing the words down and give it to the children. First let them recite the words until they can say them all. After that, let them hear the song, and then slowly let them learn to sing the song. Choose a song that the students have, or have not, heard before. Choose about 8 pieces of vocabulary from the song and write them on separate pieces of paper. Then pronounce the words with the students. Stick each word on the board. Divide the students into 2 teams each one in a line before the board. Play the song. When the 2 students at the front of their line hear a word in the song that is on the board they must race each other to grab that word from the board (this can get quite violent!). They then go to the back of the line and it's up to the next pair. The team with the most words wins. Don't choose words that come after the other. You can usually play the song a couple of times until they get all the words. Another idea is to choose a song they already know, and get the lyrics for the song. You will need several copies, one for each student. Cut the lines of the song and ask the students to put the lines together in the right order. You can play the song as many times as necessary. The student who finishes first wins.

Simon Says

The children have to listen and follow the action. They can only follow the action when the action is preceded with "Simon says..." For example "Simon says sit down" means they should sit. If they only say "Sit down" they should not sit down. For example, a child is picked to be Simon. He says: "Simon says, touch your toes" All the children need to do it. If not, they are out. It continues until one is left standing, he/she is then Simon.

Find your Partner

You can make sentences, ones they already know or new ones. You have 2 types of sentences, a question and an answer. Every child gets one sentence and has to find the sentence that fits. For example, “do you want something to drink?” The child with that sentence has to say it to someone until the sentence “ Yes, I would like some milk.” Comes up. This you continue until every student finds his/her partner.

Shop

First you explain the conversation. Hello, how can I help you? I would like some bread. And so forth. For example, you divide the students into clerks and shoppers. The clerks manage their own stand (with food, pencils, and so forth), the shoppers get money (fake money!). They must get one item from each stand, using the correct sentences. After some time you ring the bell and name an item. All the children with that item need to give it to you and start over. The child with the most items wins.

Who am I?

One person states they are either a person, place or thing and the others then ask questions - "Are you blue?, Can you speak?, Do you bark?, Dan you be eaten?", etc) until they guess what the person is. The one who guesses it is next.
What am I describing?
For example, each student gets one sheet of paper. One student sits at the front of the room. He/she describes an animal/person/object/ …, the student’s then need to draw what is being described. Once the student has finished describing it, he/she reveals who or what it is and each student show his/her drawing. Also the students can ask questions about the thing that is being described.

Twenty questions

First one student chooses an object, an occupation, or an action, whichever you decide. Then the students try to discover what it is by asking questions which can be answered by "yes" or "no". For example, if the subject is "work" then the questions might be like these: "Do you work in the evenings?", "Do you work alone?", "Do you work outside?"

Sentence Race

Here is an example:
  Prepare a list of vocabulary words.
  Write each word on two small pieces of paper (write the word twice, once on each paper).
  Organize the pieces like bundles, 2 bundles, and 2 sets of identical words.
  Divide the class into 2 teams. Get them to make creative team names.
  Distribute each list of words to both teams. Every student on each team should have a paper.
    (Both teams have the same words.)
  When you call a word, 2 students should stand up, one from each team. The students must then
    run to the blackboard and race to write a sentence using their word.
The winner is the one with a correct and clearly written sentence.

Queen Bee

You pick a person for the Queen Bee; the Queen bee will pick an object in the room. They can only tell the color of the object, such as, a red curtain. The Queen Bee then says: "Bumble Bee Bumble Bee, I see something you don't see, and the color of it is red". The other players start guessing objects that are red until someone figures out what it is. When the object is guessed correctly the bee with the right answer becomes Queen Bee for the next round. Then he/she will pick an object and tell the color by repeating the rhyme and so forth. If nobody knows, you can give a hint.

What's the Message?

Divide the class into two teams. Line up the players. If there are an odd number of players, one can be the teacher's "helper". The teacher or his helper whispers a message to the first person of both group A and group B. The game only starts when both players know the message. Then each player whispers the message to the next player in his group successively until the last player gets the message. The team which can repeat the message first and correctly receives a point. Start the game over with the second student of each group becoming the first ones in line.

Catch the Ball

Students stand up in a circle around the teacher. A ball is tossed to a student and the teacher asks a question, e.g.: "Say a color". The student then responds and throws the ball back to the teacher. The teacher then throws the ball to another student and asks another question. For higher levels, you just make harder questions. This is a fast game, you can review the vocabulary.

The ABCs

You can practice the alphabet in different ways. For example, write the alphabet on the board. Throw a ball to someone and say a word beginning with the letter A. This person must catch the ball, say a word beginning with the letter B and then throw it to another person this third person says a word beginning with the letter C and so on. You can adapt this game in many ways.

Draw the Teacher

For example, divide the class into two teams. Then draw two oval shapes on the board. Then yell "Draw the teacher's eyes!" and the two leading students from each team run up and draw your eyes on the oval. Then yell "Nose!" which is drawn by the next two students. And so it goes. The students get a ball out of this as they have permission to make fun of you and your image can get to look pretty distorted. You can add other features, such as nose and ears. This will also work if you want to do body parts as well. Just draw the basic torso instead of ovals. If the kids are unsure as to which facial/body part you're talking about, just point to it. At the end say both images look pretty good and call it a tie.

Beeping

Choose around 10 volunteers to come and stand in a line at the front of the classroom. The first student in line must begin counting from 1, and each student in turn calls out the next number. However, every 4th number must be replaced by the word "beep". Following a "beep" the next student in line must call out the next number, and not the number that has been replaced. For example, 1, 2, 3, beep, 5, 6, 7, beep, 9 etc. If a student hesitates too much or makes a mistake he/she must sit down, so eventually only one student remains. Whenever a student sits down, begin from 1 again.

What is Different?

Ask a volunteer to go out of the classroom. While the student is out of the room, the other students change their sweaters, shoes, coats and so on. Bring the student who went out of the classroom back inside. He/she has to guess the differences (speaking in English, of course.).

What is Your Name?

One student sits in the front of the classroom with his back to the other students. You then point to students in the class and asks "What's your name?" The student indicated must respond "My name is________" with either his own name or the name of someone in the class. The student in the front cannot see who is speaking. The teacher says to him, "Is it_________?" and he must say "Yes, it is" or "No, it isn't". If the student in front is correct, he gets to stay there, but if he's mistaken, he changes place with the student who fooled him. To make the game more interesting, you can encourage the students to change their voice. This game is nice to fill time.

If you want to get some ideas from the internet you can this website from the British Council. They have games, stories, songs and much more!

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Castle Crashers: A Game for Kindergarten: Robert, Germany, Spring, 2009

I came up with this game, which I also called "Arthur's Armour," to play with the children in Kindergarten. I think it's perfect for the 4-6 years old. It's big fun for the children, but requires some handicraft work and drawing.

The game consists of major parts that interact with each other.

1) I made a big, funny drawing of a guy with beard in underpants, that's Arthur. Then I drew and cut out different parts of a knights armour (helmet, legs, hands, also a sword). They were of such size and form that they just overlap the respective bodypart of underpants-arthur (the sword is just put into one hand). On each peace of armour I also wrote the English name for it.

2) Then, I drew, cut out and glued some round castletowers out of paper. Keep it simple, just draw some bricks, and fold the paper into a tube.

3) No here's the thing: the towers are positioned on a table beside each other. Inside each tower lies a piece of armour. The children have to throw paper balls at the towers. If they manage to knock over a tower they can take the piece of armour that lay inside it, and fix it on the respective bodypart of the Arthur picture, which hangs on the board (or a wall). We used magnets to fix them. This way, the kids dress up Arthur bit by bit by knocking over the Paper Castles. You don't need to make one castle for each single armourpiece, just build three and reuse them.

4) It's important to let the children talk English. Let them announce which castle they want to knock over before they throw the paper ball („the middle one“, or „the red one“ (if they're colored). Then also they had to declare loudly on which bodypart the piece of armour has to be fixed.

Have fun!

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