Tips For Teaching Young Learners

[mamer 0]

If you don't like to spend much time with a class of little kids simply don't consider teaching young learners. If you enjoy their company then you'll naturally fit in and they'll most probably enjoy your teaching. Learning from experienced teachers in the field, here are some tips for effective teaching that I would like to share with you.With young learners you need to be punctual so that the learners are not left alone. Also, you will need to be organized and have a well-planned lesson. It’s essential because particularly with that age group you need to be in control of the class at all times and get them engaged in learning activities. That helps you maintain discipline. The worst thing is to have your students with nothing to do but teasing each other or making trouble and noise.Exploit your students’ knowledge of the world, interests and experience. It's important. Try to find out what your students are interested in and feed the content of your lessons with topics and activities that meet their interest. Watch them while they’re on the internet and find out what they like to do and talk about.Be yourself, be natural but keep a measured distance of respect. Respect is always important, to achieve that you will need to decide on and enforce clear ground rules. Keeping that in mind, you’ll need to strike a balance between humor and seriousness. If you're serious all the time your students will never relax and most probably will be intimidated by your presence.You need to consider each student’s needs and abilities. Some students will like activities that involve motor skills more than others so they will participate in certain activities while others will prefer to observe. You will need to plan how to occupy hose observers by assigning them appropriate roles such as voting for the best performance. That should motivate those observers to take more active part in future activities

Edited February 6, 2013 by mamer (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Exploit your students’ knowledge of the world, interests and experience. It's important. Try to find out what your students are interested in and feed the content of your lessons with topics and activities that meet their interest. Watch them while they’re on the internet and find out what they like to do and talk about.

This is something a lot of people don't do, but it's definitely important. Keeping up with what people are interested in and shaping what you're teaching to their interests helps them not only relate to the new information, but also learn it quicker and better. Pretty much anything you could want to teach can be altered in a way to cater to different learning styles and interests, such as by creating a story or something to help.

[mamer 0]

Yes. And I find mathing what you do in class to the different learning styles of your students is the most challenging and interesting part of the job.For example instead of getting a young learner to answer some question verbally it would be a good idea if they can pick a card for the right answer, get up and stick it on the bowrd then you ask the rest of the class if they agree to the given answer. That modification involves different learning styles: visual learners, verbal learners and kinesthetic learners. It also gives an opportunity for observers to take part in that very little activity.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Yes. And I find mathing what you do in class to the different learning styles of your students is the most challenging and interesting part of the job.
For example instead of getting a young learner to answer some question verbally it would be a good idea if they can pick a card for the right answer, get up and stick it on the bowrd then you ask the rest of the class if they agree to the given answer. That modification involves different learning styles: visual learners, verbal learners and kinesthetic learners. It also gives an opportunity for observers to take part in that very little activity.

An added benefit of that is helping people "break out of their shell," as well. While I was in school I hated when I was the one called on to do things like go write an answer on the board and such, but I do see where the overall value comes from.

[jlhaslip 4]

Try to develop a teaching plan which allows an element of play in the program.Kids love to play and this also shows them how to incorporate what they are learning into their experiences, which is an ideal teaching platform.

[mamer 0]

Try to develop a teaching plan which allows an element of play in the program.Kids love to play and this also shows them how to incorporate what they are learning into their experiences, which is an ideal teaching platform.

That's a good tip. Playing games here will be a kind of two-layer learning experience where playing is at the foreground and learning is at the background. That simulates real life learning experiences where tasks we do are in the foreground but a lot of learning takes place naturally without explicit learning instructions.
Edited February 8, 2013 by mamer (see edit history)