Teaching grade one and two
One of my Korean surprises was finding out that I get to teach grade one and two completely by myself. English education in Korea begins in grade 3. But in my school, because their level is so low and my hours aren't even maxed out yet, I teach grade 1 and 2. At orientation we were only prepared to teach grades 3 and up, and they are pretty easy at that. But my real challenge is teaching grade 1 and 2 without a curriculum. I have no real guide to teaching these kids. Its such a challenge because they are so young, so my material really needs to move quickly. It's really hard to teach them vocabulary and grammar in their 5-10 minute attention spans.
I teach my grade ones around 3 times a week. This is because at least six of them consistently show up to my grade 1/2 after school class. I also teach grade 2 once a week, because they almost never show to that same after school class. The amount of work that I have to put into grade 1 and 2 alone is phenomenal. It probably takes up half of my time spent lesson planning. Namely I have to make three and a half unique lesson plans a week (I teach grade 1 and 2 the same lesson). Where am I supposed to find that many games! Here are some of my challenges. First I had no idea where the kids abilities were. Do they know their alphabet, how to count, the numbers, etc...? Can they say simple sentences? I am still trying to figure out their abilities because within the classes themselves some kids get the material much faster than others who struggle to even say the words. Second, their attention spans are so short that I have to put in a few more activities than in my older kids classes. Third, most of my activities require some form or preparation because I like to keep their activities rather low tech and more hands on than watching a computer screen. Fourth, there is just no winning them over when they are all in bad moods, so, there goes that lesson. Fifth, usually someone gets hurt. Its ridiculous, it could be nothing yet their arm has been injured or their eye cant open. I know it is attention grabbing so I mainly ignore it unless they are bleeding or full on crying.
So, what do I do you ask. How do I make up four interesting lessons a week to teach relatively the same kids each time? Mainly I teach my kids vocabulary and phonics, the sounds that certain words make. We went through the alphabet in my first month here. However, I am pretty confident that they know how to write and say the different letters of the alphabet. I'm sure the previous GET went though all of that with them in January along with their homeroom teachers. So, now, I have started to teach them about feelings (over a few classes) and we are moving into shapes and colors. In my opinion I would say pick a theme and run with it for a week. Drill that vocabulary into their heads with songs (I play a song every class for review), games that get them talking, and questions. Don't forget to reduce your own talk time (it's really hard trust me). Most importantly, don't forget you can fail. I have learned what works and what doesn't work through all of my terrible classes that just make me wanna run home. Also, just because you think a class failed doesn't mean that the students think so. I didn't think my students had any fun in my classes. They were constantly demanding games and one or two of them would just sit and not move. However, their homeroom teacher told me that they look forward coming to my classes. Even though your class went horribly or you feel like you failed it's not always so. Finally don't forger teaching is really hard! Be repetitive and use the same classroom commands and eventually they will start to understand when you tell them to sit down (without having to say the Korean along side it) ( I have finally reached this with my grade 1's and 2's, mini successes!). And I think lastly, for the purposes of this particular blog, don't forget to ask for help from your co workers and fellow teacher friends and share your materials. That is what they are there for :).
God this is kinda long. Haha. Teaching young grades is really intimidating but they share a lot in common with the older grades. I wonder if coming in at the beginning of the school year is a little bit easier because you can start from the beginning rather than coming in when I did, in the middle of the school year and having to figure out what the kids have already learned.
