Teaching vocabulary
I would like to comment on the video about teaching vocabulary. My general reflection on the lesson is that despite it being a little bit noisy children are really having fun. The teacher is using visual aids to teach children vocabulary. He is showing pictures representing the vocabulary which he wants children to revise. Indeed, children are very exited about learning and they are proud of themselves when are able to name the object from the picture. The activity is well structured as even those children who might feel reluctant to speak, can participate because it is the activity for the whole class to work collaboratively. When a child says a word, the teacher repeats it and expects the children to repeat after him chorally. When a child says incorrect answer, the teacher is questioning it and encourage further guesses.
On the beginning of the lesson, children together with the teacher are signing the song, which probably is their routine. Children are very keen on routines, they like when everything happens in the same order. It helps them to understand it is the beginning of the lesson, that it is the time to transfer to the mood of learning, concentre, stay calm and actively participate in the lesson. At the end of the lesson, the teacher is acknowledging children's participation by clapping his hands, whereas children express their enjoyment by cheering and jumping.
The teacher maintains classroom discipline by reminding children to raise their hand before speaking. He is even counting to calm down children. It seems he is trying to use different strategies to ensure classroom management. On the other hand, the lesson seems to be a little bit too loud. The teacher keeps shushing children whenever they are too loud, but even repeated many times they are shouting the correct answers aloud. However, we need to consider that they are children and are very exited about the lesson. Nevertheless, the noise may be especially challenging for the teacher who is going to have some more lessons during that day. It might be too tiring and not every teacher would be able to survive the day by teaching in the class like this. Therefore, it might be significant to consider managing children's behaviour by repetition about raising hand before speaking and speaking one by one. As a result, children might learn the desired behaviour and lessons would be less noisy. Hopefully, children will learn to raise their hand before they start speaking.
Well done Teacher! I wish you energy for the whole day.
(Lesson available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El3g57taeKs)
How about you dear Reader, will you survive this lesson as a teacher?
Angelika
To much noise for me! I really liked the lesson and the energy in the teacher and students but I hate the way he was not paying attention to all of them. It was a big class and some of the students that we can see at the back of the class don't participate in the lesson - they look at the posters... We could only see 6 minutes of their time so there is a chance that some activities involving everyone.
ReplyDeleteAfter 45 minutes in this classroom I would be sooooo tired. The noise is good but too much noise is not.
Domi
Hi Domi,
DeleteThank you for sharing your opinion. I agree with you that it can be too much for a teacher. We need to consider having also other lessons and responsibilities. Well spotted that the teacher is not involving all students, I did not pay attention to it. But as you mentioned, it is only 6 minutes, they probably had some other activities too.
Hi Angelika,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog. I couldn't agree more about your way of teaching vocabulary. For me, I don't mind noise as long as it's controlled. I think it's useful to play with our voices. For example, repeating words at different levels e.g. in a whisper than REALLY LOUD! I find that it is effective and helps learner's to remember the words better.
Sara
Hello Sara,
DeleteIt is definitely important to keep everything under control, otherwise students may be very noisy and disruptive. I agree it is crucial how well we can manage our voice. Thank you for sharing the strategy which we could implement to support our teaching, I believe it is worth trying. In fact, I used to do it in the nursery. Children became very attentive and curious.
Dear Angelika,
ReplyDeleteI do agree that it might be challenging for a teacher to deal with the noise, but as you mentioned, students really enjoyed the activities and they were fully engaged, and to my mind this is the most vital.
Thank you for this post and for sharing your opinion ;)
Magdalena M
Hi Magda,
DeleteLearning through play and learning with having fun is definitely something we should aim for. However, we need to be able to balance the classroom management and enjoyment of the lesson. We should acknowledge that there may be some other activities or we could mange that one differently in order to be more in charge as a teacher; We should let children have fun, but always keep in mind the common sense :).
Thank you for your contribution.