So a couple of days ago on social media I asked you guys what you think is the
most challenging aspect of teaching English. So let's take a look at some of
your replies. It would be classroom management for me. Definitely classroom
management. Classroom management. reigning in my northern accent so the Chinese
kids don't sound like they're off the TV program shameless. I'm from Bristol I is,
I can relate I can. Hi my name is Jema Perry and welcome to
Mooncake, where is our teaching is made easy. If you're new here then you need to
know that I make weekly ESL teaching tip videos to help you improve your English
teaching. So if you are teaching ESL abroad make sure you subscribe below and
hit that notification bell for weekly ESL teaching tips. Also real quick if you
are new here, say hi in the comments below and let me know where in the world
you are teaching. So a large number of you find that classroom management is
your biggest challenge. So today we're gonna talk about that and see what we
can do to help. I've actually already made a video on classroom management
which you can find right here. So if you haven't yet make sure you check it out
linked below. Now in that video I talked about how often students behavior comes
down to us and the lack of planning and thought that we put into our lesson
plans. So today we're going to talk about lesson planning and how to plan a lesson
effectively to try and help prevent that unwanted behavior in the class. So make
sure you stay tuned right to the end where I'll be sharing my top five points
that you have to consider when planning your lesson. So with all that out of the
way let's get started by looking at our lesson structure. Now, all information I'm
sharing today is available on the Mooncake English website and if you go
to the freebies section you're able to download a free mooncake english lesson
planner. So make sure you check it out. Setting goals is the first step to
lesson planning. If you don't know what your goals are then how can you make a
plan to achieve them. And this is more than just knowing what your curriculum
is. You need to think about where your students are now and where you would
like them to be at the end of the lesson so that you can create a plan to achieve
that. But goals need to be clear simple and achievable. There's no point in
setting a goal like this... I want my kids to be able to talk about family by the
end of the lesson. A clearer, more achievable goal might be something like
this... students will be able to recognize and repeat three new words related to
the topic of family. Of course everyone's goals are going to be different
depending on your students, the subject that you're teaching, and where they are
with their learning. Now the warm-up is usually around five minutes and its
purpose is to grab students attention and focus so that you can create the
right conditions to start introducing new material. If you're looking for some
fun warm-up ideas then you can check out these videos or if you're teaching very
young learners then this video will cater to their age group. All the links
are in the description below. The warm-up is also an opportunity to review
previous material. So you might want to play a game that students already know
how to play using language that you've already taught. Now we use the warm-up to
get students attention but it should still have purpose and it should be
linked somehow into other previously taught material or material that you're
about to teach. But before we start thinking about how to introduce new
material to students, we need to think about how we're going to transition from
that warm-up into the next section of the class. One mistake that newer
teachers do make is that they use too much language to explain what they're
about to move on to. Okay if I do now we're going to talk about the weather or
I'm gonna look outside and I want everybody to tell me what they think the
weather is okay. If kids are quite young or their English level is quite low then
try to minimize this incidental language because there's just too much the
students don't understand you're gonna lose their attention and you're gonna
start to see some of that unwanted behavior. Look outside look, outside are
you ready? What's the weather, what's the weather... Note the repetition and the
rhythmic chants. Remember this has to be straight after your warmup without any
pauses .Otherwise you're gonna lose students attention and you'll start to
see some of that unwanted behavior. Now our students are warmed up we're ready
to introduce some new material. Now we all know that we need to use some
flashcards or realia to help students understand the meaning of the
words that we're teaching. However ,it's not enough just to put up a flashcard
and have students repeat the word. We need to find fun ways for students to
discover the flashcard or set a fun activity for students to complete in
order to be rewarded with a flashcard. NowI have quite a few ideas and examples
of this in this playlist. Such as cups and what's in the box. So if you need
some ideas about how to introduce new vocabulary to students make sure you
check it out linked below. When students have discovered a flashcard or completed
a task and being rewarded with one then to introduce that word using TPR and
chants. This means that you need to have a chant and an action planned for each
word that you're planning to teach, so that you're not just making things up on
the spot. Really take some time to think about how many times you're going to
repeat words and what actions and chants you're going to use. If you're not sure
how to use TPR in your class and you can check out my video on TPR linked below.
So, by now we've warmed up the class and we've introduced our target language by
having students discover materials in a fun way or by completing a fun task. Next
we need to practice this language in a sentence. The best way to do this is by
playing a game. But how do we choose the right game? Well we need to consider the
students age, their English level, and the number of students in the class.
Generally speaking competitive games don't work so well for those younger
students in that 2 to 4 year old bracket and this is because the games can be
quite complex and students at his age haven't quite grasped the idea of
competition. So instead for that age group one of those vocabulary games Imentions
earlier might be enough. Students over four years however love team games and
the competition between peers can be very motivating. But you do need to
choose a game that works for the class and the subject that you're teaching.
Make sure you're choosing a game that's gonna fit in the time scale that you
have. If you choose a game that's too complex or takes too long to play then
you might not have time to finish. Lastly when choosing a game you need to think
about how you can keep everybody engaged. If you just have those two students
playing at one time, what strategies could you use to try and keep everyone's
attention? Otherwise if only two students are playing everyone else is gonna get
bored while they wait for their turn and again you're gonna see some of that
unwanted behavior. A simple example would be to have the whole class chant
questions together to the students that are playing the games, and then you can
give points to whichever team is chanting the best. For a whole load of
fun game ideas you can check out this playlist linked below.
Finally, the dismissal. How are you gonna end the class? Well I would start by
thinking about the next activity after your class. Now if you're a teacher that
finishes the class and leaves, then maybe a goodbye song is the way to go. However,
if you're a homeroom teacher and you're not leaving the class when you finish
then why would you say goodbye song? Are your students gonna be rushing to the
bathroom after your class? In which case a staggered dismissal
might be best. I think we can even add in some review
here by asking questions to students one by one before dismissing them. I
personally like to have students review their personal introduction before
leaving my class. Okay so by now we have our goals and our lessons structure but
how do we time everything? Well of course I would depend on the length of your
class. Now this table right here gives you a rough guide on how you can time
your lesson. Let's look at the top five tips that you have to consider when
planning your lesson. Plan activities with a logical link. If your class flows
well from one activity to another those students are more likely to stay engaged
and learn faster. For example, if your main subject for the class is family
then you might want to warm up with the family finger song. Think about the pace
of your class. If you're planning a fun and exciting game that you know is gonna
get students energy levels up , make sure you follow that activity with a
calmer one. Plan adjustments for the different levels of English in your
class. So every class has that one or two students that has a higher level of
English or a lower level than the majority of the class. Think about how
you can adjust your activities so that they can also be involved. When you
think about how to introduce different activities to students in a way that
they're understand. Minimize that inconsequential language and demonstrate
with an assistant teacher if you need to. Review your class after teaching it .What
went well? What didn't go so well? Did your kids go crazy? If they did at what
point did they go crazy and what can you do next time to try and prevent it? So
there you have it, we talked about setting goals we've talked about the
structure of your class and the main points that you need to consider when
making your plan to try and help prevent that unwanted behavior. Go ahead and
visit the Mooncake English website, click on that freebies page and download your
free lesson planner. Keep a record of all your classes and start building your
lesson portfolio today. If you like this video let me know by hitting that like
button and by commenting with the word 'helpful' in the comments below. If you're
looking for more classroom management ideas and make sure you check out my
video right here. That's it for this video thanks so much for watching. You
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