Basic Elementary School Lesson

Evan Brankin

OBJECTIVES:

• To break the ice with students
• To introduce some English expressions and allow the students to practice them

INTRODUCTION:

Generally I teach at Junior High Schools, but like many JHS ALTs I have found myself moved into the elementary schools at times, sometimes with only a little warning and no real guidelines as to what to teach, how to teach it, etc. This is a staple lesson plan format I used and built on for elementary school visits. Since the new ALTs are starting this year, I figured this might make a useful addition.

PROCEDURE:

Introductions. Name and English greetings. With the younger kids, a good 10 or 15 minutes can be done going over all the ways to say hello in English, comparing them to their Japanese counter parts, etc., but the older grades (san-nensei through roku-nensei) will get bored quickly with this. English greetings are always good for review in later visits as well.

My standard first lesson introduction actually incorporates most of the lesson into it. Starting with the greeting and giving my name, I would continue to talk mainly about myself. I would use various props, or draw on the board. The first part of this lesson usually stresses simple vocabulary, like "big." For example, I would draw America on the board and say I was from the "Big country of America," all the while using big gestures and generally acting like a clown. Then I would add more to the map, like Chicago, Lake Michigan etc. I then showed the students pictures of Chicago (post cards worked well since I could bring several and give them to students to pass around). From there I could constantly emphasize that I came from the Big city Chicago, with the Big buildings and next to the Big lake, etc. It was from here that I would move into the next part of the lesson.

Warm Up: I generally don’t use a warm up in the first lesson, however in later lessons the warm-up was generally a game or review of the previous lessons learned vocabulary sets (foods, insects, weather, etc.)

The Main Point: From what I have heard, having a grammar point in an elementary school class is usually not wise for an ALT to do. Of course I did not know that going into my first elementary school visit, so I did one anyway and it worked fine. From my talking about BIG things I would always capitalize on yet another BIG specialty of Chicago, that being food, and more specifically, pizza. Chicago style pizza is the biggest pizza around, and by drawing a huge 3-D pizza, or bringing pictures, the kids would realize that Chicago must have some amazing pizza. Kids being kids, 99% of them love pizza, which makes it a sure win.

This leads directly into the grammar point of "Do you like ______?" I would talk about pizza, and then using English and Japanese ask for a show of hands of who liked pizza? The kids would throw their hands up, and then I would proceed to ask whether they liked a couple more foods, either as a group or picking some of the less shy boys I knew wouldn't mind answering.

Once they got used to the question, I would write it down, and the responses (not that all of them could read any of it, but it seemed to help them focus on what was being said), of "Yes, I do," and "No, I do not." Once I had written them we would practice them with food cards I had made previously. You can either draw big poster cards with a specific food, or just print them off a computer, etc, but having the visual element will always help.

Closing: Then you can have the kids practice asking "Do you like _____?" outside of food items by having them finish class by asking you what you like. Since the kids will definitely want to ask you tons of questions, teaching them a basic instruction form lets them ask and get answers they can understand in English, reinforcing what they learned.

NOTES:

For later lessons, this same pattern can be largely repeated, by using the warm-up period to review their foods, review the "do you like" form, etc. Then you can expand on either the vocabulary, or the question, by following with the main point being about various bugs instead of foods, (again make bug cards, the kids will love it), or asking kids "do you play," or "do you want," etc. I visited one elementary school about three or four times over the course of a year, with months in between, and this lesson format not only ensured the kids remembered the previous lessons but also learned about fun topics. Eventually you will be able to do a general verb lesson with the "Do you" question form, and can play a game where kids have to copy all the verb actions you do, like running, or playing baseball. Any game where the kids get up and move will be a hit, guaranteed. Oh, and watch out for kancho.