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The last 9 weeks, I’ve been teaching young learners, 7 days a week!
Yep, threw myself into the deep end. Teaching many brillant, bright “tweens” public speaking and presentation skills.
The last decade, I’ve taught some young learners but mostly I’ve built edtech companies, taught graduate students and did teacher training of both pre and in-service teachers. I decided it was time to refresh my skills.
Boy O boy, did I get a rude awakening! I loved the teaching but it was tiring. I remembered my years teaching grade 4 and grade 8 ESL in Canada and abroad and nothing has changed. You need to be a special person to do this job! You must be patient. Curious. A bit of the kid in you too. You also got to be caring (see Nel Noddings for a good read on this) and have empathy. Plus loads more things.
I’ve enjoyed the kids, my time in class has even sparked the kid in me. You have to inspire children, they need your inspiration and one aspect of that is relating to them, playing with them, acknowledging their world - but always with the teacher’s fine line.
I’ve written a lot and trained teachers a lot on how to teach young learners. See this prior post with some links and a lot of information. But after the past nine weeks with 100 kids, in one building … I’ve come out the other end of the rabbit hole and really think 5 things are super, super important when teaching young learners language. Here they are for your consideration. P.S. I highly recommend Joan Kang Shin’s materials - take a look at her site for free things and articles.
Teaching Young Learners
Be Hands On. Get dirty. Get tactile. Draw. Dance. Do TPR (Total Physical Response). Create. Make things (bookmaking for example). See language as something that is used, enjoyed, not just studied and remembered for tests or whatnot. Think Montesorri style education.
ME. ME. ME. Children respond best and learn best when the content and context is THEM. They are ego driven. Plan and use materials where they connect to the content and can express their own world, desires, thoughts. And too - a teacher MUST share their own life with young learners. It’s primary. You might not want to but it is a best practice. See the work of my Canadian colleague Kieran Egan and his Learning In Depth. - a curriculum that focuses on student interests.
Drive learning through imagination. Young learners are very creative, imaginative and use it or lose them. Storytelling works wonders but anything that gets students using their imagination, wondering and thinking is essential. It’s why kids love Pixar animations so much. They live in a world of color and possibility. Go there, bring that world to your classroom.
Routines. Repetition. Young learners need order. They WANT order. They’d make good dictators, I kid you not. A teacher should have a well established set of routines to use and teach them to the students. Repeat lesson routines, just substitute the content. That day in and day out structure is essential for the success of young learner learning.
Be Fair. Young learners are so sensitive about “fairness”. If you aren’t totally fair, always, they’ll never forgive you. You can’t play favorites. You can’t give special treatment to some (unless you explain it fully). It seems a small point but I put it right up there with the big considerations. Young learners demand fairness and rightly so. It’s part of the empathy package a teacher must have and which I mentioned at the start of this article.
So there you have it. My thoughts based on my immersive experience the last 9 weeks. I did survive and you will too! I’m so much more enriched for the chance, the opportunity to spend time with these youngsters!
So True!