English
is a scary lesson! May as a teacher you ever listen that statement from your
students who really don’t like English. They just like building mental block on
their mind and becoming unmotivated learners in the class. It is a natural
thing finding students who do not interested in English lesson especially for
young learner since English is a foreign language. Although young learners have
a high capability to learn many languages but it can not be maximized without
dealing with their characteristics such as short attention span, need to get a lot
attention and praise, lack of exposure, and engine of energy. Regarding to
those characteristics, an English teacher should set a comfortable classroom,
so young learners will comfortable to learn English as a new language. One of
classroom setting that an English teacher can do is providing an interesting
lesson on their class. There are some
strategies that teacher can do to have an interesting lesson, namely get
students participation, keep your pacing
crisp and your students active, and plan lesson with crafty care.
The
first strategy is getting students participation. In this point, learners are
expected to involve and engage with the lesson. Concerning to short attention
span of young learner, learners involvement on the lesson will help teacher to
teach four English skills without distraction because of misbehave on the
class. First activity that can be done to get students participation is social
cues. Delivering social cues in the class means a teacher intends to say the expected behavior in a classroom. This cue indicates students have to correct their behavior and desired behavior helps them to learn. For example in writing
class, there are some students who chat one another and do not start their
writing work while the others student named Umi, Ochi and Maryam have started.
By using social cues, teacher can say “ I
can see that Umi has started her writing.
Ochi is writing the first simple sentence. Thank you. Thank you also to Maryam
who has written the second sentence”. I think this way also covers young
learner’s characteristic who need a lot praises.
The
next activity is random turns for individual . In this activity, a teacher
writes each of student’s names on ice
cream sticks. During the lesson, it can be used to call student’s name for a respond. For example in speaking class. A Teacher shows two things and asks
students to compare those orally using comparative adjective. the teacher
doesn’t need to call a student’s name directly but she can use ice cream sticks
name. The teacher calls student’s name by choosing randomly name on the ice
cream stick. Because it’s chosen randomly, every student will prepare him self
for respond. Another activity is a
teacher can do small- group short response. At this particular activity,
students engage to the lesson by discussing and sharing in a group. A teacher
may use this activity when he introduces new vocabularies through pictures. For
example, the teacher shows seven pictures with jumbled letters under them.
Students discuss for guessing the vocabularies. When time for sharing come,
each group tells the vocabularies in turn. The teacher writes the vocabulary
list of each group on the white board.
Those
three activities above direct teachers to lead students participation but they
have not been sufficient yet to gain interesting lesson for young learners in
English class. Providing interesting lesson can be continued by doing the second
strategy, namely keep your pacing crisp and your student active.
In
this second strategy, avoiding boredom and facilitating engine of energy
characteristics can be covered. this
strategy requires teacher to demonstrate dynamic paces of class. An activity
that can be done is moving beyond the rote. Leading students to explore their
own thought and perception are the aim of this activity. This activity can be
applied for young learner at grade 4-6.
For example teaching vocabularies for grade 4. A teacher can post a picture and
ask students to predict vocabularies related to the picture. Then she may ask
students’ opinion about the picture. Another example is doing story circle for
composing short story. Students sit in a circle and every pupil continues the
story in turn. A teacher can start to decide the title of story and deliver the
first sentence.
Another
activity in the second strategy is breaking up the boredom with a change of
pace. A teacher changes the class circumstance, does different activity, even
surprises the class with something unexpected. Bringing children who always
study in the class to experience learning English outside classroom is an
alternative for changing the class circumstance. Pupils are able to play
vocabulary games on play ground which may require them to do physical movement.
While for getting different activity on learning food and drink, a teacher
switches learning through video by doing role play in a small cafe setting.
Besides
two strategies above, completing work on an interesting lesson is continued by
doing the third strategy, namely plan a lesson with crafty care. It means that
teacher plan meaningful and controlled classroom instruction. The lesson plan
also generates high interest of students. The first tactic for making this
lesson plan is considering what students will do in the class. An English teacher
should pay attention on cone of experience concept. It’s stated “people generally remember information 10%
of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what
they see and hear, 70 % of what they write and say, and 90% of what they do”(Edgar
Dale). By using this,a teacher is expected preparing various teaching
methods in the class. For example teaching reading at grade 3. A teacher prepares
not only a reading book activity but also prepares another activity related to
reading such as make a simple graphic organizer about a text that students have
read.
Another
tactic is preferred modalities. It’s clear that not all pupils learn in the same
way. Some of them are more comfortable learning through listening. Others are
through visual mode. The rest are through physical movement. It is impossible
expecting teacher to deliver instruction by covering all students’ modalities
in a session but an English teacher can enrich her lesson plan by incorporating
two modalities. For example teaching direction to grade 5 students. An English
teacher can combine visual mode and physical movement. At the warm up session,
students are in groups. Then each group stands in a line while puts hands on
his friend shoulder who is standing in front of him. The teacher tells simple
directions and each group moves together based on the directions. In the main
activity, the teacher prepares for displaying picture of directions or maps.
Then, students recognize direction through picture and learn how to pronounce
through audio lingual method.
The
next tactic is use students ideas. In this particular tactic, a teacher plans
to include opportunities for students developing and sharing their own ideas and conclusion.
As we know that a teacher is not the only one learning resource in the class. It
is good to give students chance as learning resources of others because it
actually builds students interest when they hear from peers. A teacher also
should consider that “the minds of
children are not an empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge from on
high. They are active muscles that develop only when they are exercised” (Adamson,2010:84).
For this term, an English teacher may use peer-assessment on holiday plan
writing. The planning runs like let students write their holiday plan. Then,
each student sits in a group. Next each member on a group reads his writing
while the others correct the use of be going to on that writing.
The last tactic is seating
arrangement. Young learners characteristic who like to move and becomes engine
of energy can be handled by arranging the seat. This tactic also helps teacher
access the whole class and strengthen proximity control. There are some seating
arrangements which can be considered in planning a lesson. if a teacher plans
for reading aloud together, U- arrangement will be suitable because whole class
is easily monitored through this way. If a teacher plans for practicing
dialogue in a group, clustered desk will be good. The number of chair and table
of this seating arrangement depends on how many member in a group. if the
planning goes to listening a story, big circle seating on the carpet is chosen.
When the class is planned for exam, traditional row seating is appropriate. For
a class with mixed ability, chair and carpet control can be useful. At this
arrangement, high and middle ability students sit in groups of some clusters
whereas low ability students who needs more guidance sit together on the
carpet. The teacher easily give a lot attention to the low students while the
others work autonomously.
In conclusion, young learners who have unique characteristics can learn well by applying the
power of interesting lesson in the class. Participating students, providing dynamic paces of class, and planning meaningful lesson plan are the strategies
for gaining interesting lesson. Using those strategies as power of interesting lesson will be very
helpful for an English teacher.
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Ramadhan 29
2016
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