50 kids in my class ... help!

[sandra1]

Hi there! I'm a non professional English teach (foreign).

I have 50 kids (5th grade) in a class. It's difficoult to find games that will make them learn... without making a huge mess (otherwise then it's too difficoult to have their attention back)...

Furthermore, the class time is two periods of 35 minutes each. I have to use "NEW CONCEPT ENGLISH" (L. G. ALexander) and for each period I have to teach two lessons!!!!!
How can I find the time to teach children new words, read the text, do the excercises and ... make them have fun?!!!

I'm so disappointed in this period because neither me nor them are having fun
:(

p.s. sorry, but I really don't like the text book I'm forced to use

[Nasier]

Dear Sandra 1,

May God Bless You! I had encounted such problem before. A class of 48 pupils. I'm not an expect in this area but sometimes it's good to share your experience for the betterment of the teaching profession. What I used to do was to break the students into groups of 5-10. Each group must be lead by a student who is better than the rest of the group members. Assign them simple tasks for examples using the daily newspaper to identify the verbs(present and past form), adjectives, adverbs and so on. Or ask them to narrate a story (pictures sequencing) using pictures found in the newspaper. For the good students they can write out the story and for the weaker students encourage them to tell the story. Besides goup work, I used to asked them to work in pairs. I selected their pairs to ensured that they can lead and guide each other. I would assign them tasks such as completing simple projects that are related to the lesson for that day. Have a try! It works in my case. :D

[sandra1]

Ciao!

Thanks, I'm used to divide them into groups but I've never thought to have at least one or two good students in each team... I usually divide according to the place where they are sitting!
You really gave me an excellent suggestion! Thank you a lot!

:D

Have a nice day!

[zhang]

Hi,ladies and gentlemen,
please visit my website http://www.i-eg.cn for a new way of learning English words.
my email address: i-eg@i-eg.cn

[joannap73]

Very helpful, creative illustrations/graphics to learn/teach a few English vocab words! Website is in Chinese, but you can see the English vocab words on the right side of the screen. Way to go, Zhang! I bookmarked this page to show my students this year. :lol:

[GiddyGad]

Hi Sandra,

In a class of 50 pupils, some kind of division is inevitable.

Just do some calculations:
35 minutes/50 pupils = How much time does each pupil have to speak under control of a teacher, considering that the teacher can only control one pupil at a time? = 42 seconds!!! What do pupils do the rest of the time: 35 minutes - 40 seconds = 34 min 20 sec? And taking into account the time lost, when students are being instructed and organized, what is left? 15 seconds? Is it worth wasting the time?
Mind you that uncontrolled speach practice isn't what pupils come to classes for.

The usual practice is that, when you divide the class, you single out stronger, more experienced, pupils and disperse them among groups of weaker ones so they could help weaker pupils. Those stronger pupils can also be involved in checking homework and preparing materials for a lesson. Kids love to render a helping hand, just ask them.

My ha'p'orth,

GiddyGad

[Shelley]

If you have internet access and a printer you can access loads of free flash cards and with these using games you can run entire lessons - particularly with beginners to lower intermediate.

I have taught mostly with no course book (although I'm not against them at all), exclusively using games just with a few picture cards. I'm not a big fan of making zillions of photocopies anyway!

Even if you don't have picture cards you can have your students make some as long as you at least have pencil and paper.

Check out some of my games, free, if you like on the site mentioned below.

To make your life easy it's good if you follow a course book anyway, to save you worrying about which language to teach, but you teach the language in that course book with games, and not using the book itself - it's just your guide.

Kind Regards,
Shelley, Fun English Games
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com

[Shelley]

Also, to add to my previous post, in my view less is more.

What is the point of trying to rush through 2 lessons which the children will not absorb properly at the time, never mind remember a week down the line.

My approach has always been to teach less, but firmly implant the words and structures into the pupils' minds. My pupils may have come across fewer words by the end of a term, but they can use the words they have learned with confidence. They have learned them by heart and they are confident saying them and using them in sentences. (This is my approach with children anyway).

Having said that I do introduce more vocab through the use of songs - which by the way are excellent when it comes to a large class.

There are games you can use with big classes - where the children must stay in their places, and can only whisper or they lose a point for their team - otherwise as you say, it's just pandemonium.

Kind regards
Shelley Vernon

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com - make your job easy and fun teaching children English with games