Everything I do in the classroom has two major goals.

1. Entertain

2. Educate

Because of the age group I work best with and most with, entertaining works well to build rapport which lowers the wall of “I don’t trust you, you’re a big person”.

With new classes, my main goal is to let the little students know I’m just like them. Silly, pure, care free, funny (to me), and fun to be around.

One of the ways I do this is hand them a bag asking them what’s inside. They have no idea what I’m saying so I just use body language to convey the question while asking it.

Inside the bag is this:

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Here I am teaching my favorite age group of ESL students.

I used to dread teaching this age group because I had no idea what the hell I was doing but these days, I’m very comfortable working the room.

You’ll here me teaching the following;

1. Give me one please. (give whatever language target you teach a rhythm to it and they’ll pick it up fast. This has been tried and tested over and over.)

2. Thank you / your welcome

3. I got it!

4. Site down (instruction)

5. Short / Long (Once I get them into the learning zone, I slip other language in for fun, education and spontaneity. This can keep the activity fresh.)

6. Bingo Chips please.

Please take note of the voice variation, this is a big time lesson I learned over the years from working with this age group.

Why does it work so well? (students being highly receptive) Just have a look at some of the programs they watch on T.V., you’ll notice the voice variations of the characters are off the charts thus holding and guiding the kids attention.

Here is a big tip: Stop the game at the peak of enjoyment. I try to end all activities on a high note. This goes for closing the class as well.

If you have kids in tears because they do not want the class to end, you’ve succeeded in winning their hearts. But if they keep looking at the clock on the wall as if they’re counting the minutes until the class is over, you have lesson plan issues. This has nothing to do with education but rather rapport with your class.

You’ll need a high level of rapport with your students in-order to educate them fast.