(1) THE YOUNG LANGUAGE LEARNER
This book assumes that your pupils are between 5 and 10 or 11 years old. There is a big difference between what children of 5 can do and what children of 10 can do. They divided to two main groups; 5→ 7 and 8 → 10
What 5→7 year olds can do at their own level?
 They can talk about what they are doing
 They can tell you about what they’ve done or heard
 They can plan activities
 They can argue for something and tell you why they think what they think
 They can use logical reasoning
 They can use their vivid imaginations
 They can use a wide range of intonation patterns in their mother tongue
 They can understand direct human interaction
Other characteristics of the young language learner
 They know that the word is governed by the rules (a feeling of security)
 They understand the situations more quickly than they understand the language used
 They use language skills long before they are aware of them
 Their own understanding comes through hands, eyes and ears.
 They are very logical –what you say firs happens first
 They have a very short attention and concentration span. The dividing line between the real world and the imaginary world is not clear.
 Young children are often happy playing and working alone but in the company of others.
 The adult world and the child’s world aren’t the same. Children don’t always understand what children are talking about.
 They will seldom admit that they don’t know something either
 Young children can’t decide for themselves what to learn
 Young children love to play and learn best when they are enjoying themselves
 Young children are enthusiastic and positive about learning. It’s important to praise them if they are to keep their enthusiasm and feel successful from the beginning.
What 8→10 year olds can do at their own level?
 Their basic concepts are formed
 They can tell the difference between fact and fiction
 They ask questions all the time
 They are able to make some decisions about their own learning
 They’ve definite views about what they like and don’t like doing
 They’ve a developed sense of fairness about what happens in the classroom and begin to question the teacher’s decisions
 They are able to work with others and learn from others
Language development
 Understand abstracts
 Understand symbols (beginning with words)
 Generalize and systematize
What is clear here is that most 8→10 year olds will have some sort of language awareness and readiness which they bring with them into foreign language classroom. The magic age seems to be around 7 or 8. at around 7 or 8, things seem to fall into place for most children and they begin to make sense of the adult world as we see it. Think about young children telling jokes. 5 year olds laugh because everybody else does, but they don’t always understand it. 7 year olds think jokes are funny and they learn them off by heart.
What this means for our teaching
Words are not enough: don’t rely on the spoken word only. You will need to have plenty of objects and pictures to work with. Demonstrate what you want them to do.
Play with the language: make up rhymes, sing songs, and tell stories. Play with the language→ let them talk nonsense, experiment with words and sounds.
Language as language: facial expression, movement, etc. we should make full of these clues. So reading and writing are extremely important for the child’s growing awareness of language.
Variety in the classroom: variety of activity, of pace, of organization, of voice
Routines: children benefit from knowing the rules and being familiar with the situation. Use familiar situations, familiar activities. Repeat stories, rhymes, etc.
Cooperation not competition: avoid rewards and prizes. Most of us enjoy the feeling of belonging and this is particularly true of young children. Group them together whenever possible. This doesn’t mean that they have to work in groups all the time. Some pupils work best alone.

Grammar: children have an amazing ability to absorb language through play and other activities which they find enjoyable. How good they are in a foreign language is not dependent on whether they’ve learnt the grammar rules or nor. The barest minimum of grammar. The best time to introduce some sort of simple grammar is either when a pupil asks for an explanation. (what the difference is between do and does? You might use the term “a yesterday question” and “a today question”. What is important is that the explanations should be given on an individual/group basis when the pupils themselves are asking the questions, that the explanations are kept as simple as possible.
Assessment: it is always useful for the teacher to make regular notes about each child’s progress. You may want to tell parents how their children are doing.



(2) CLASS MANAGEMENT AND ATMOSPHERE

What’s an ideal teacher?
As a teacher of young children it helps a lot if you’ve a sense of humor, you’re open-minded, adaptable, patient, etc. You can work on your attitudes and abilities.

Abilities: we can all learn to mime, to act and to draw very simple drawings.
Attitudes: respect your pupils and be realistic about what they can manage at an individual level. As a teacher you’ve to appear to like all your pupils equally. You can build up your own security by planning, reading, assessing and talking others.

Helping the children to feel secure
• Know what you are doing. They need to know what is happening.
• Respect your pupils
• Whenever a pupil is trying to tell you something, accept whatever he says –mistakes as well.
• They have to be told that everyone makes mistakes when they are learning a new language and that it is all right.
• Establish routines. It builds up familiarity and security for both age groups.
• Give them the responsibility for doing practical jobs in the classroom (genuine language activities)
• Avoid organized activities. Language learning is a situation where everyone can win.
• Avoid giving physical rewards or prizes. It is far better to tell the pupil that you like his work
• Don’t give them English names. You are the same person no matter what language you are using.

The physical surroundings
Put as much on the walls as you can. Have anything which adds character to the room. Encourage them to bring in objects and tell a little bit about them in English. Have an English corner. Mark all your files and boxes so that you and your pupils know where to find what.

Arranging the desks

Arrangement A is good for pupils to sit in groups. It lets you do pair work easily and leaves you a space in the middle of the classroom for more general activities


Arrangement B works for individual and whole class work, you can easily do pair work. It doesn’t encourage natural communication. It is not as suitable as Arrangement A for language work.


Arrangement C is more flexible than Arrangement B and leaves you with space in the middle of the classroom.



Grouping the children
5 and 6 year olds are often happiest working alone and are not yet willing to cooperate and share.
PAIR WORK: it’s simple to organize and easy to explain
• Let them who are sitting near each other work together. Don’t move desks.
• Establish a routine for pair work, so that when you say ‘Now work in your pairs’, pupils know what is expected of them.
• As soon as you see that several of the pairs have finished, ask the others to finish off and move back to their own seats.
• If you don’t have a even number of pupils who simply do not like each other
• Go through what you want your pupils to do.

GROUP WORK:
Introducing group work → if your pupils aren’t used to working in groups you can introduce them gradually to group work
• Start by having teaching groups
• You can go on introducing self-reliant groups
• Start with just one group. Tell them clearly what the purpose is and why they are working together.
• Go through this process with all the groups.

Numbers → limit numbers in the group to between 3 and 5
Who works with whom → children should not be allowed to choose their groups. It takes a lot of time and some usually is left out. Mixed ability and intelligence groups.
Classroom language → for cooperation and communication it is useful to give them necessary tools like classroom language, phrases like; “I don’t know”, “I don’t understand”. It helps their development, language and ability to communicate meaningfully. They should be taught as phrases not as words or structures. Try to speak English as much of the time as you can. Keep you language simple but natural and keep it at their level.



(3) LISTENING
What we are talking about are the activities which concentrate on the listening skill.
1. Listening in the classroom
 What the pupils hear is their main source of the language. We also give them as much visual back-up as possible through facial expression, through movement, through mime and through pictures
 If you are reading, you can go back and check or you can re-read something you don’t quite understand. This isn’t possible when you are listening, so when we are talking and the children are listening, it’s important to say things clearly and to repeat them.
 The listeners can’t re-listen in the same way that they can re-read. Young learners have a very short attention span. But it’s important to overload children when you’re working on listening tasks.
 The activities presented in this chapter try to ask for understanding as the children listen and not check for understanding only at the end of the exercise
 Make them concentrate on what is in front of them and create a peaceful atmosphere. Sometimes you want to have a nice quiet atmosphere and sometimes you want your children to move about.

2. ‘Listen and do’ activities
Instructions: giving genuine instructions. Most classroom language is a type of ‘listen and do’ activity.
Moving about: the younger pupils, the more physical activities they need. You can ask them to do all sorts of crazy things. You can check classroom vocabulary, movement words, counting, spelling, etc. Pupils learn from each other. You can let them take over the role of ‘instructor’
Put up your hand: when they are learning the sound system, you might ask them to put up their hands when they hear the sound /dz/ You might want them to put up their hands when they hear a certain sound.
Mime stories: in a mime story the teacher tells the story and the pupils and the teacher do the actions.
Drawing: keep the pictures simple. In ‘listen and draw’ activities the teacher or one of the pupils, tells the others draw. This activity is particularly useful for checking object vocabulary, prepositions, colors and numbers.

3. Listening for information
We are taking it to mean listening for detail, for specific information. These activities are often used to check what the pupils know, but they can also be used to give new information.
Identifying exercises: simple identifying exercises
Listen for the mistake: you can use picture in your book but make mistakes in the text you read, so that they have to listen for the mistakes. The correct text and the wrong picture.
Putting things in order: pupils listen to the text and put the pictures in the order they think is right.
Questionnaires
Listen and color: instead of just letting them color it by themselves, make it into a language activity.
Filling in missing information: make full use of the tape recorder and any other visual aids which you have available.

4. ‘Listen and repeat’ activities
Rhymes: they are repetitive, they have natural rhythm and they have an element of fun, of playing with the language. Children play with language in their mother tongue, so this is a familiar part of their world.
Songs
Exercises: the most obvious ‘listen and repeat’ exercises are the ones where the teacher or one of the pupils says something and the others repeat what has been said.

5. Listening to stories
Rearrange the seating so that you have an eye contact. It’s important that they are comfortable. If they’re relaxed and comfortable, they are more open to what they are about to hear. Listening to stories allows them to form their own inner pictures.
Telling stories: telling stories to children of all levels means that you can adapt the language to their level, you can go back and repeat, you can put in all sorts of gestures and facial expressions and you can keep eye contact most of the time. Traditional fairy tails start off with a setting (when and where) they are goodies and baddies win. It’s best that you go through the story first and write it down in sequence.
Creating stories: a very early stage is to create stories with the children, so that you tell their stories. First the setting. You must accept the first answer that comes, no censoring allowed. Making up stories with the children at all stages helps them to put their thoughts into words.
Reading stories: this not the same as telling story and in this case you should not change the story at all. For the older group it is often good to have a continuing story so that you read a bit of the book every time you see them.

6. Independent listening
English corner where you have a comfortable place to sit, books to read, a notice board, etc. The more they hear, the better they will be able to speak and write.

(4) ORAL WORK
1.General comments
Limitations
Part of the magic of teaching young children a foreign language is their unspoken assumption that the foreign language is just another way of expressing what they want to express, but there are limitations because of their lack of actual language.
We don’t know what they want to say
If you want your pupils to continue thinking about English simply as a means of communication, then you can’t expect to be able to predict what language the children will use.
Finding the balance
What is important with beginners is finding the balance between providing language through controlled and guided activities and at the same time letting them enjoy natural talk.
Correction
If they make mistakes at this stage, then they should be corrected at once. So correction is straightforward. When pupils are working on free oral activities. If pupils are doing problem solving or working on any of the activities, then correction of language mistakes should not be done while the activity is going on. Teacher can note what he thinks should be corrected and take it up in class later. If pupils ask you should give them the answer.

2.Presenting new language orally
When children start learning English, they obviously need to be given language before they can produce it themselves.
Through the pupils: the sentences should be true and accompanied by the appropriate actions and sounds
Using a mascot: having someone familiar constantly on hand with whom you can have conversations about anything and everything is a wonderful way of introducing new subject and new language to young children. Note that a mascot should belong to only one class
Drawing: you can use very simple line drawings on the board
Silhouettes: they can be given movement if you attach a piece wire to them
Puppets: these don’t have to be complicated
Other suggestions: simple and clear pictures, mime/act situations, relia.

3.Controlled practice
It goes hand in hand with presentation since it is important that pupils try out new language as soon as they’ve heard it
Telling the time
What’s he/she doing?
Familiarity and safety are necessary to help built up security in the language

4.Guided practice
It usually gives the pupils some sort of choice but the choice is limited. Telling the time, asking the way, talking about colors, etc.
What’s the time: this exercise would follow on from the controlled practice above. The language remains the same but pupil A never knows what the time is going to be.
Chain work: it uses picture cards or word cards. Put all the cards face down in a pile. Obviously this activity can be used to practice whatever vocabulary or structure you are working on at the time.
5.Dialogs and role play work
Working with dialogs is a useful way to bridge the gap between guided practice and freer activities. Intonation is terribly important too and children love to play around with this.
Using objects: here are 2 dialogs which show how physical movements or objects can make a dialog come alive for young children and give it am amusing communicative purpose. Children can choose which dialog they want to follow
Role play: in role play the pupils pretending to be someone else like the teacher or a shop assistant or one of their parents, etc.
1. With the 5→7 year olds you can give them model first by acting out the dialog
2. Next stage can be to practice the dialog, but asking for different things
3. In real role play the language used comes from the pupils themselves. This type of role play is more suitable for the 8→10 year olds at level 2
Dialogs and role play are useful oral activities because:
- Pupils speak in the first and second person
- Pupils learn to ask as well as answer
- They learn to use short complete bits of language and to respond appropriately
- They don’t just use words but also all the other parts of speaking a language
- They can be used to encourage natural chat in the classroom, making up dialogs about the little things which have happened and which occupy the children at that moment. If the atmosphere in the classroom is relaxed and nobody worries to much about formal mistakes

6.Free activities
 They focus attention on the message/content and not on the language
 Free activities are one step nearer real life –and they let us know that we can communicate in the foreign language
 Free activities will really show that pupils can or can’t use the language
 Free activities concentrate on meaning more than on correctness. We are trying to get the pupils to use the language with a natural flow (fluency) Fluency is more important than accuracy at this stage
 Teacher control is minimal during the activity
 The atmosphere should be informal and non competitive. All pupils should win.
 There is often a game element in the activity
Pair work: →with older children working in pairs, give one pupil map A and the other map B. They should explain them each other. → information gap principle. Give everyone in the class a picture to color –use one in your workbook. Make them speak about the pictures after coloring.
In both these activities teacher plays a non-dominant role that of the organizer.
Group work: →a picture story. Each pupil will describe them. Groups will put them into right order. →story telling exercise which will be formed by pupils.
Whole class activities: → matching of the pictures. This is useful for prepositions, colors, actions and all sorts of object vocabulary. → questionnaires. The class is divided into 2 groups and given them different tasks.



(5) READING

Approaches to Reading
Children whose mother tongue isn’t based on the Roman script have more stages to go through when they’re learning to read in English.
1. Phonics
It’s best to start off with 3 or 4 letters that can make up a number of words
2. Look and say
This approach is based on words and phrases and it makes a lot of use of flashcards. The teacher shows the children the word and says it while pointing to the object. This happens several times with each word
3. Whole sentence reading
The words aren’t presented in isolation, but as whole phrases or sentences
4. Language experience approach
This based on the child’s spoken language. The teacher writes down a sentence for the child to read which is based on what the child has said.

WHICH METHOD TO CHOOSE: If your pupils have a mother tongue which isn’t based on the Roman script you will have to spend quite some time teaching phonics and word recognition first.

Five to seven year olds (5-7)
• They have to go through the process of doing reading-like activities first. Picture books with and without text are invaluable at this stage.
• If your pupils haven’t learnt to read in their own language, many will not yet have understood what a word is, nor what the connection is between the spoken and the written word.
• Sentence structure, paragraphing, grammar means nothing to most pupils at this stage
• Decoding reading is a very involved process. A visual clue is vital to meaning.

Eight to ten year old beginners (8-10)
You can spend much less time teaching the mechanics of reading and concentrate more on the content.
1-Starting off
Reading a story from a book
a. This is not a big book, so you will have to read with quite a small group.
b. Read the book so that all the pupils can see it and point to the words as you say them. Read at just under normal speed the first time, keeping your intonation correct.
c. Let pupils point and ask questions, but not so much that it interrupts the flow of the story.
d. Encourage them to talk about the story. Ask them questions in their own language.
e. Tell the group they can read the story on their own if they want to
f. The next week read the story again. Let them give you some of the words.
g. Tell them to follow it as you read
h. If pupils point to the wrong words sit with them and point with them
i. Let them read the book silently for themselves
j. Go back to it from time to time and read it with the whole class

Reading a class story
There is also the point that shared and created stories are always a good starting point. When you make the book ask pupils to help with the illustrations. Remember that the story must look like a book with the pages to turn and pictures to look at it.
Reading texts based on the child’s language
Each individual pupil has his own written text which says what he wants it to say
a. Ask the child to tell you about the picture
b. If he gets stuck, ask either/or questions
c. Translate but don’t write words which are new or unfamiliar
d. Write a sentence in the child’s book based on what the child has told
e. Let him see you writing the sentence and say the words as you write them
f. He repeats the sentence after you, pointing to the words as he says them
g. He can aloud to you
h. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to do this
i. This sentence can gradually be built on
j. As the child’s vocabulary increases, you can gradually build up stories

Reading familiar nursery rhymes or songs
The children can ‘read’ what they already know off by heart. The pupil can behave like a reader and it helps to build up confidence.

2- Reading Aloud
This type of reading isn’t recommended because;
• It gives little pleasure and interest to the listeners
• It encourages stumbling and mistakes in tone, emphasis and expression
• It may be harmful to the silent reading techniques of the other pupils
• It is a very inefficient way to use your lesson time

This can be a useful technique when used differently;
• Reading aloud to the teacher should be done individually or in small groups
• If pupils are going to read aloud rest of the class, they must be well prepared

3-Sient Reading
Make as much use of your English corner as possible; have print everywhere, put up jokes on the notice board, give your pupils messages in writing, try to give them their own books and listen to what they are saying about their reading.

Building up Confidence
• You should spend some time building conf. with the whole class about silent reading. Give them all a story that they have listened to before and give the two minutes. Talk about the story with them in their mother tongue. Clear up any difficulties. Let them finish the story at their leisure.
• Give them only half the story and discuss what happens next in the mother tongue. Then let them read the rest of the story to see if they were right
• For 8 to 10 year olds you might want to use silent reading as the starting point for role play for the whole class or for a smaller group.

4- Different reading Materials
Reading cards, home-made books, books for native speakers of the language, easy readers for foreign language learners, picture dictionaries, books with tapes

5- Introducing New Books
b. Show them the new book and tell them what it’s about
c. Look at the cover of the book and try to work out with the pupils what it might be about
d. Read them an amusing or interesting bit from one of the books
e. Put the title of the new book on the notice board
6- Book Reviews
a. Help you to decide on the suitability of book
b. Give you some indication as to the progress the pupil is making
c. Help other pupils to decide abut the book
d. Help them to develop a critical approach
e. Show that you are concerned about what your pupils are reading


(6) WRITING

Writing is not always easy
It has certain characteristics which seem to make it difficult for younger pupils;
• You can’t make the same use of body language, intonation, tone, eye contact
• Very little of what you write is concerned with the here and now, which is where many young children exist for a lot of the time
• Many children take a long time to master the skill of writing
• Writing in a foreign language is all too often associated with correcting errors

Writing is a good thing
• It adds another physical dimension to the learning. Hands are added to eyes and ears
• It lets pupils express their personalities
• Writing activities help to consolidate learning in the other skill areas
• Lots of structures in the language appear more frequently in writing
• There is a special feeling, enormous satisfaction in having written something which you want to say

Controlled writing activities
Controlled and guided activities are being done to practice the language and concentration is on the language itself.

Straight copying (this helps them to see the connection between the written and the spoken word. The sound symbol combination)
Matching (to match pictures and texts, or to choose which sentence they want to write about text)
Organizing and copying
Delayed copying (write a short, familiar sentence, give them a few seconds and rub it out and see if they can write it down)
Copying book
Dictation (be short, have a purpose, be connected to work which has gone before or comes after, be read or said at normal speed)

Guided written activities
Fill in the blanks (they do required understanding)
Dictation (you might like to try dictating only half a sentence)
Letters/cards/invitations (it is a useful way of getting pupils to write short meaningful pieces of writing)

Free writing activities
• The language is the pupils’ own language, no matter what their level is. Teacher should be the initiator and helper
• Correcting should be done while the pupils are still working on it. The aim is to produce a piece of written work which is as correct as you can expect from that pupil.
• Older pupils should be encouraged to re-write their work. If they are just learning to write or if they find writing difficult, don’t ask them re-write.
• Pupils can decorate their own folders and learn to keep their work in order

Pre-writing activities
Their vocabulary is limited. They are still not confident about mechanics of writing. All pupils need to spend time on pre-writing.
Talking about the subject (a short simple conversation on the subject)
Word stars (put the key word on the blackboard, ask them to write down all the words they can think about connected with the key word)
Vocabulary charts (simple drawings or pictures with vocabulary collections are fun, easy to make. Make use of picture dictionaries)
Topic vocabulary (vocabulary can also be built up by collecting related words. Pupils don’t have to remember all these words. You are only collecting words to help them write their story)

Dialogues
Speech bubbles, model dialogue

Descriptions
First you spend time doing preparatory work and encourage an imaginative approach by asking leading questions
Collages: is usually a large paper or a board which is made into a poster or a picture by sticking on illustrations, texts and other materials.
Picture descriptions: when you first prepare a piece of written work orally, then you must expect the language to reflect this.

Letters
The first free letters could be little notes to other pupils. You can establish contact with an English-speaking class.

Stories
Make sure that pupils do lots of pre-writing activities.

Summary of dos and don’ts on free writing
Do
• Concentrate first on content
• Spend a lot of time on pre-writing work
• Make sure that it springs naturally from other language work
• Try to make sense of whatever the pupils have written and say something positive about it
• Encourage, but don’t insist on re-writing
• Display the material whenever possible
• Keep all pupils’ writings

Don’t
• Announce the subject out of the blue and expect pupils to be able to write about it
• Set an exercise as homework without any preparation
• Correct all the mistakes you can find
• Set work which is beyond the pupils’ language capability

(7) TOPIC-BASED WORK

Why do topic-based work?
• The content of the lessons becomes more important than the language itself
• The children can associate words, functions, structures and situations with a particular topic
• Brings out reactions and feelings in the pupils which are not always covered in the textbook
• Allows you more easily to give a personal or local touch to materials which may not have been produced in your country.
• Topic-based teaching allows you to rearrange your material to suit what is happening generally at the time of teaching
• The amount of time that you spend on a topic can be as long or as short as you like
• The work in the classroom naturally includes all the language skills as well as guided and free activities

How to set about it?
Choosing your topic
Planning time (-Ideally you should decide at the long term planning stage which topics you are going to work on and how long you plan to spend on each topic –If you have not done topic-based teaching before, then it is probably best to start off on a very small scale)
Collecting material (All sorts of written and spoken texts, pictures, objects, cards, ideas)
Functions and situations (Work out which situations and functions of the language you want to concentrate on.
Methods and activities (Familiarity nurtures security, so make use of the full range of what is already familiar to the pupils as well as activities which are in the textbook)
Assessment (Do it in the mother tongue and ask them what they think

Having decided on what you want the pupils to learn, there are lots of ways of tackling the work itself. Here are just a few suggestions;
- vocabulary work
- free activities
- stories, songs and rhymes
- recipes and making food


( 8 ) PLANNING YOUR WORK
Why good teachers plan their work?
1. It makes life much easier in the classroom
2. It saves time for future works.
3. You know what you will need for each lesson and how to balance the lessons
4. It gives you security and confidence
5. Allows you to use more of your energy and enthusiasm
6. As pupils get older they like to have well-prepared lessons.

When, how and with whom to plan?
• Long term planning (which may be for a whole term)
• Short term planning (which might be for a unit of work)
• Lesson planning (for individual lessons)

LONG TERM PLANNING
• It will take place either before and at the beginning of term. Think about aims, methods and assessment
• Talk to the parents about what you intend to cover and ask them what topics they are interested.
• You might decide to change the order of the course book or miss out something which isn’t suitable for the pupils
• If you aren’t using a text book, decide roughly what you want to cover this term and how long it will take you for each unit/topic/language item
• Try to work with other subjects teachers as well
• Thing which are used in other subjects can be used for English lessons, too. Like maps.

SHORT TERM PLANNING
• It usually covers from 3 to 10 lessons
• If you are using a textbook, much of the work at this stage is done for you. After a time you will have different timing, different problems and different classes.
• Look at the texts and note down if there is anything that you or children have to make
• Decide what language items you are going to teach
• Make sure you know how the language items are used
• Decide roughly on the way you want to teach the unit and find activities that suit you topic
• Both teachers and pupils like to know how they are doing
• Don’t let you short term planning get too detailed. It is only a rough guide.

LESSON PLANNING
• It has to be done before every lesson
• Experienced teachers don’t have to note al the details
• Here are some points; 1.decide when and how to use group work 2. Link the lesson with the one before and think about one after 3. The time of day is important 4. Indicate how much time you think each activity will take 5. Always have more activities 6. Balance; quiet/noisy exercises, different skills, individual/pair work/group work/whole class activities teacher-pupil/pupil-pupil activities.

How did it go?
Don’t spend too much time analyzing each lesson. Go through it quickly and see what you can learn from it, then file it away for future reference. You can make a quick checklist.

What to do when things go wrong?
Young children do and say whatever comes into their heads. They can’t concentrate for long on one activity. Try to make the bits that went wrong into something positive.

AN EXTERNAL DISTURBANCE: if a fire engine passes the window, teach the word ‘fire engine’ and then go back to your plan as quickly as possible.
AN INTERNAL DISTURBANCE: if a pupil burst into tears, give the pupils something quick, easy and quiet to do.
THE CLASS IS OUT OF CONTROL: use a calming activity like telling a story or filling in the words (emergency activities)
AN ACTIVITY IS TAKING TOO LONG
YOU HAVE EXTRA TIME: use one of your emergency activities that suits the mood of the class
AN ACTIVITY DOESN’T WORK: don’t try to repair or change things like tape player that doesn’t work in the middle of the lesson.
AN ACTIVITY IS TOO DIFFICULT: stop it gently and move on to an easy activity.


(9) THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Materials to make
Puppets, class mascot, paper dolls, English corner, cardboard boxes, picture cards, card games, board games, word/sentence cards, books/reading cards, transparencies, calendar
Materials to buy
Readers (coding, displaying the books and borrowing cards), maps, wall charts, toys, building blocks, cassette recorders, cassettes, overhead projector.
Materials to collect (yoghurt cartons, assorted ribbons, old cards, postcards, cotton reels, all sorts of paper)