When you were an elementary school student, how did your teacher introduce a lesson? Did they simply tell the class to open their books to a certain page and then start droning on? What were the students doing? I’m sure some students were paying attention to the teacher (or at least pretending to!), but many were probably looking out the window, passing notes to their friends or, worse, misbehaving.”
If teachers make no effort to get their students interested in the lesson, they cannot expect students to pay attention!
One easy way to involve students is to use the pictures in textbooks or picture dictionaries. Remember, these pictures are there for a real reason; they are not just decorations! When you introduce a new page in the textbook, take the time to let the students look over the page and tell you what they see. Ask them what things are on the page, what colors and numbers they see or how many they see of a certain object.
The We Can! Starter has two features that make this important task easy for teachers. Every unit has two hidden letters of the alphabet and one thing that is strange. Before you have the students search for the letters of the alphabet, have them point to the letter on the Alphabet poster (from the Starter pack) or write the letter in the air with their fingers before finding it on the page.
Students who find the letters first can help slower students. Then look at the pages and say, “That’s weird!” with a surprised look on your face. Ask the students, “What’s weird?” and have them find the weird thing on the page. If they can’t figure it out, give them hints or act out the weird thing.
For example, if you are teaching Starter Unit 20 (Months/p. 46 and 47) and they can’t tell you that the strange thing is a monster in the mountain scene, walk around the room with your hands up in the air like a scary monster.
Now that you have effectively engaged your students, let’s move on to some great review and extension activities, using the Starter!
If you are teaching shapes in WE CAN! Level 1 Unit 4 (Happy Birthday/page 34), and the students need more practice, turn to Starter Unit 14 (Shapes and Sizes, pages 34 and 35). After doing the above mentioned hidden alphabet finding and “What’s weird?” activities to involve the students, review the shapes and ask them to point to the blue monster wearing purple glasses on page 35.
Ask the students what shapes the monster is made of, i.e. His nose is a triangle. Then, tell the students they have five minutes to draw their own monster, made entirely of shapes. Set a timer and walk around the room, checking on their drawings to keep them on track. Once time is up, ask them to point to and say what shapes make up their monster. In a small class, students can take turns telling the teacher; in a large class, students can tell a partner.
As I mentioned in last month’s blog entry, our brains learn new things more quickly when they are linked to previously learned ones, so the Starter can also be used to teach new words that expand on the same theme. After teaching weather in Level 1 Unit 8 (Seven Days/ pages 68 and 69) students can also learn the names of the seasons and other weather related vocabulary in Starter Unit 21 (Seasons and Weather/ pages 48 and 49).
After doing the hidden alphabet finding and “What’s weird?” activities, introduce the seasons and elicit what kinds of weather you usually have for each season. Write the name of each season on a different piece of paper and put one in each corner of the room.
Review the names of the seasons as everyone points to the correct corner of the room. Then describe the weather of one of the seasons (i.e. It’s cold, snowy and windy.). Students listen, go to the correct corner of the room and call out the name of that season. (i.e. winter) Repeat for the other three seasons.
The next time you plan your lessons, take a few minutes to think about how you will start of the class by getting the students interested in the lesson. I guarantee you and your students will have a more satisfying experience!
|
