Some schools make it easy for you. They already have everything figured out
about how and what to teach the students. The system is already set up and
you just plug right into it and go.
That's why, as we previously discussed, it's important before you go into any
teaching situation to find out what's expected of you.
But even if the school has the whole thing laid out for you it's good to not go
into class empty-handed. In other words, come in with your own ideas about
what and how to get through to your students.
I've been fortunate in that all of my teaching situations I have had to rely on my
own skills and creativity to come up my own lesson plans.
What I do...
I usually start each of my classes with a few minutes of conversation just to
get them warmed up and settled down after the break. Our classes are small
so I try to get everyone to say something.
The important thing is you gotta keep the class interesting, you gotta keep it
moving.
I've found that the best thing is to go into class with many different things to
do. I may not get to all of them, usually don't.
And sometimes an interesting topic for conversation might come up at the
beginning of class that might segue in something deeper or into other topics.
And I wind up not even getting to any of the material I'd planned! (This is where
it's important to be flexible which we'll discuss later.)
Now the above was for intermediate to advanced. Obviously, in beginner level
you're mainly working on grammar and pronunciation and basic vocabulary so
you may be limited in your opportunity to have any kind of deep conversation.
I teach three levels: beginner to advanced. I have what I call my bag of ESL
tricks that I reach into to plan my lessons.
They include:
• conversation,
• grammar,
• idiomatic expressions,
• reading and discussing short articles or stories,
• vocabulary building,
• dictation,
• practice TOEFL tests and discussion,
• essay writing,
• playing games (even for adults),
• watching movies,
• studying poetry.
Having a variety of and ready resources to choose from will never leave you
feeling stranded and wondering “what the heck do I do now.”
Keep your eyes and ears open. The great things about teaching English is that
there are infinite resources everywhere and more is added to the vast ESL
“databank” each day.
