Ideas for a teaching demonstration ?

[danharman]

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming interview for a english teaching role based in Japan. Part of the interview process involves me conducting a teaching demo of a lesson suitable for beginners, focusing on conversational english. I am particularly interested in teaching kids, so any advice / ideas for a suitable lesson plan would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Daniel.

[eric_p_m]

Dear Daniel,

I just finished teaching for five years in China and most companies there request a teaching demonstration although they only refer to it as a "demo", due to their limited English proficiency.

There, I found that class demonstrations were usually just a way to entice an outside company to sign a lengthy contract for the benefit of English training centers.

As far as a business interview goes, your potential employer is looking to see how his or her client base will react to your education ability in and outside of the classroom. My advice to you is to forget about the concept of "demo class" and just initially assess your students and get to know them by engaging them in meaningful conversation. At the same time, this approach will give you a better idea about your future employer and if you will be happy teaching the students there: turn the tables on them! :twisted:

Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

[eric_p_m]

My pleasure, BrandomJR. 8)


Sincerely,

Eric Paul Monroe

http://www.eric-tesol.com/

[Shelley]

Hi Daniel,

Before you start you need to find out what they already know - so you don't go in and teach that.
Pick a new grammatical structure to teach them, and use familiar vocabulary - that way you won't be teaching them all new stuff in a short demo. My approach would be to have the students using the new structure by the end of the demo - to show that you get results and the pupils enjoy it.

If you have beginners then I would teach a handful of new words or very short sentences, such as "I like butter". If the goal is to have the students using the language by the time the demo is up then you don't want to be over ambitious.

I would do this using games - now my experience is with beginners to intermediates, and mostly children. That's no doubt why I find games to be the best method of teaching - and especially in terms of interacting well with the class. (The pupils love you.)

Also, if you are going in with games and activities, then have a few spare ones under your belt so you can drop what you are doing if you see it isn't working.

I should also say that my approach is totally interactive as I believe in people being able to speak a language when they learn it, and not just be able to write. However if the place where you are doing a demo is really into silent lessons where students quietly fill out worksheets then they wouldn't like my lessons for sure. So you had better check that out before you prepare too.

Kind regards
Shelley
Free games and ideas to make teaching children more fun. Receive free games here: http://www.teachingenglishgames.com