Young Learners

Teaching English to Elementary School Children

I have found that teaching 6th graders is very different from teaching 5th graders and below. Something about moving into the top year of elementary school seems to have a very big impact on how children behave in English lessons (and not only English lessons apparently, according to my colleagues at the elementary school I teach at). The games and activities they enjoyed up to that point suddenly aren't as widely enjoyed, and the children seem less motivated than before. I don't know the reasons for this but I guess it may be due to a combination of reaching the age where children want to seem older than they are and therefore not liking anything that they view as childish, their English ability being much lower than their general mental ability which is verging on adult-like, and perhaps feeling that English isn't rewarding in terms of learning new things about the world, In order to try and deal with these things I have tried teaching topic-based lessons which only require fairly basic English but in which children are challenged mentally, learn something new about the world, or at least revisit something that may have already been learned in regular classes or at home, and the format of which is more adult-like. Three of these lessons are outlined below.

Topic: The Solar System
Required language: colours, numbers, moon, hot, cold, warm, big, small, medium-sized, It's ...., It has........., How many ... does it have? What colour is it?
Taught language: solar system, planet names
Useful websites for planet information for teacher:
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_system_level1/planets.html
http://kids.nineplanets.org/title.htm

1. Draw a basic solar system on the board. When students realise what it is, introduce the English name if no-one knows it, and do the same for planet names. Label the planets.

2. Ask the following questions about the Earth, Is it big or small? Is it hot or cold? What colour is it? How many moons does it have? Elicit answers.

3. Write the four questions on the board. Give out a big sheet of paper to each group or pair of students. Ask them to write answers to the four questions for the other eight (or seven) planets. Give them a time limit. Tell them they can write just one word answers.

4. Monitor and help where necessary. Encourage them to guess if they don't know.

5. When the time limit is reached, ask questions about the planets in random order. Award points for correct answers. Encourage full sentences at this point.

6. Students individually draw a solar system, label it and write some information about each planet, or choose one planet and write about it for a shorter writing activity.

Topic: Animals
Required language: animals, colours, habitats/countries, run, swim, fly etc., meat, grass, bamboo, fish etc. can, eat, live
Taught language: animal categories (mammal etc.)

1. In groups/pairs students try to think of an animal beginning with every letter of the alphabet.

2. Elicit animals and write on board in columns (mammals, birds, insects (or bugs to include spiders etc), reptiles, amphibians).

3. As students understand the reason for the columns, label each column and tell them the English categories.

4. Choose one animal and ask the following questions about it, What colour is it? Where does it live? What does it eat? What can it do?

5. Decide as a class on five animals - one form each column - and have students try to answer the same four questions for these animals. (Same as steps 3-5 in above lesson).

6. Students choose an animal and draw it and write about it.

Topic: Food
Required language: types of food
Taught language: major food groups (protein etc.)

1. In groups/pairs students try to think of a food beginning with every letter of the alphabet.

2. Elicit foods and write on board.

3. Write four headings on board - protein, carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, sweets and snacks. Write one or two items under each column so that students understand the headings. (Put a non-meat product, such as tofu or cheese, under protein so they know it doesn't mean only meat.)

4. In groups/pairs get students to put all the previously elicited food under the four headings.

5. Elicit foods for each heading in turn.

6. Draw a food pyramid on the board showing YOUR diet. Write examples of each category in the pyramid. Explain a little about the pyramid at a level suitable for your students, using gestures where necessary. Make it clear that the base is what you eat the most of, and the tip is what you eat the least of.

7. Ask students to draw their own food pyramid with examples of food they eat drawn and labelled.

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• Topic-based or pattern-based curriculum

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