Uber Teacher Primer

Dear Teachers,This primer is meant as a review of the major tips that you can use to improve their classes, and a summary of the expectations of an ESL teacher in the classroom. If you are a new teacher, this guide can help you get in tune with what Pagoda-style language education should be. If you are a current teacher, this guide encourages you to look at every aspect of your teaching and find ways to improve. I hope you find it useful, happy teaching!

Real Communication

The purpose of the SLE program is clear, to encourage communication and expression in English. It purposefully shies away from academic topics and instead focuses on those situations, whether through work, study or lecture that the students may find themselves in both at home and abroad. These range from everyday topics such as talking about people and leisure interests to jobs, money and travel. The aim is to promote a sense of comfort when using English both in the classroom and in real life. Although study is obviously an important part of learning language, it is the practice element that we are promoting more than simply learning structures and conjugating verbs. So it is with this goal in mind that we approach all SLE levels “to get the students speaking”.

So what can we expect of the different levels in general?

LEVEL EXPECTATIONS OF SPEAKING ABILITY

1-2 Students still unsure of a lot of basic grammar and topics and so need to practice correct sentences, lots of reporting answers needed and steady pair work. Lots of modeling language.

3-4 Students exhibit more ability to construct sentences but need to connect to a solid understandable topic to express themselves properly. Good structure needed and modeled language.

5-6

Students should exhibit confidence when dealing with everyday topics and using a wide variety of grammar but with many easy to fix mistakes, self-correction should have begun. Also able to begin giving opinions on more complex topics.

7

By now basic mistakes in grammar should no longer be frequent but certain more native vocabulary may be lacking. Language and topic should be more natural and understanding of the teacher should be much more natural.

8 As 7 but with a more complex use of vocabulary and natural pronunciation, small errors and self-correction.

ADV Almost native, fluent, errors only in word choice.

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Adapting Tasks

Although the books will always have a good number of activities for each topic it is more important that you consider the type of student that you have. If the book has many discussion style activities but you know that your students do not really enjoy this, you will find a lot of disgruntled silence. Most speaking activities can be easily adapted to your lesson and group and require just a little creativity, let's look at a few examples.

Number One: SLE 3 (Book 1C) Unit 2 Lesson 2 Activity B: The Old and the New

In this activity, students are asked to compare the old-fashioned versions of things to the modern versions.

Old-Fashioned ModernSail ships Cruise shipsRotary phones Smart phonesCoins Credit cardsHandmade clothes Machine-made clothes

Sail Ships vs Cruise Ships; Rotary Phones vs Smart Phones, Coins vs Credit Cards, etc. In particular, the students are supposed to use language related to where and by whom something is made.

Example: AirplanesA: How are old airplanes different from new ones?B: Old airplanes were made of cloth and wood, but now airplanes are made of steel and plastic.C: The first airplanes were made by inventors like the Wright brothers, but now they are made by big companies like Airbus.A: What was good about the old ones? What's better about the new ones?

Doing this activity in pairs or small groups can be difficult for some classes, because much of the conversation hinges on looking for ways that old-fashioned technology might be preferable to modern technology. Students will often resort to just saying that modern technology is better, and move on. To make this activity more interesting, therefore, you can put students into two groups and have one group discuss the advantages of old-fashioned technology, while the other discuss the advantages of modern technology. Then regroup the students and let them debate, now that they are properly prepared.

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Number Two: SLE 5 (Book 2B) Unit 1 Lesson 2 Activity C: What would you do?

In this activity, students look at pictures of four different environments: Paris city center, a park, a shopping mall, and an oceanside town. They are meant to talk about what they would do in these locations if they had a free weekend.

Example:A: If I had a free weekend in an oceanside town, I would definitely start by going parasailing. After that, I might try to go surfing because I love being active.B: Wow…I prefer relaxing, so I would probably sit on the beach all day every day.

This is a good activity for practicing type II conditionals (If.., I would...), and the images are helpful for generating ideas, but the students tend to use only activities that can be seen in the images, making it less than authentic conversation. As an extension, you could ask your students to write down three cities or countries that they would like to visit. They could then use the same language points to share their ideas about what they would like to do in those places. Alternatively, you could have the students create their ideal weekend getaway with their partner. Give them a blank 3-day schedule and ask them to fill it in, then share it with a new partner or present their plan to the class.

Number Three: SLE 8 Unit 8 Lesson B: Circumstantial Crime, Main Activity A

After several warmup questions, the students read four short passages related to crime and gun ownership in the US.

Three Strikes Law In some parts of the United States, habitual criminals can be sentenced to extreme punishments if they are arrested and convicted three times. One man in Texas had previously been arrested twice for fraud, once for $80 and once for just $28. He was arrested a third time after refusing to pay a $120 repair bill and sentenced to life in prison.

Stop and Frisk In New York City, the police stop people for no specific reason, check them for weapons, and ask them questions. They say that the policy has proactively taken guns off the streets and made the city much safer. African American and Hispanic pedestrians are the targets of stop and frisk searches about 88% of the time, even though they only make up about half of the city’s population.

Victimless Crime Many people believe that activities such as prostitution or taking drugs are victimless crimes, and adults should be allowed to make their own choices. They say that police ignore violent crime and focus on victimless crime as it’s easier, safer, and more lucrative for police departments. Others disagree. They believe that drugs and prostitution damage society and endanger innocent people

Gun Ownership Detroit residents know that they cannot rely on police to protect them. The city is having financial problems, so the police simply do not have enough available staff and resources to handle all calls. The average response time for a high-priority 911 call, such as a shooting or an abducted child, is about one hour. The chief of police is now recommending that Detroit residents buy guns to protect themselves.

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These passages are followed by discussion questions about the passages. Each of these issues is likely to be very engaging to students, especially considering the cultural differences they highlight. However, you might feel that discussing each issue is diluting the topic slightly. You might decide that honing in on one of these issues would be more productive and interesting. You could bring in a short article from an online news source for the students to read, or show a short (3-5min) video for the students to watch and discuss. Rather than continuing to the discussion questions included in the material, you could create 5-6 discussion questions based on the article or video you provide.

The key point to all of these is that you should not feel completely limited to the activities only as they are presented in the book. Like the tasks presented above most units can be adapted quite easily to what you think would work better for the students in your class. If on the other hand, you think the activity itself is not what you want to do in the class don't merely skip it look for a better activity to include in your lesson plan.

Example Lesson Plan

We all know the importance of a lesson to keep our lesson on track and to make sure we get the most out of the books and our classes. Many teachers will take the unit at face value and follow it through the pages from language points to discussion questions. While sometimes this can work, most of the time a working lesson plan will make it better.

Level : SLE 2B

Topic: Hobbies and Free time

Subject (s): Getting to know you (follow up questions), used to for expressing habitual activity in the past. Comparing now and then.

Vocabulary: Hang out, go out, past time, routine, trendy, catering

Time

Aims Ss get to know one another. Use used to to express habits in the past. Compare the past to now.

Materials SLE Book. W/B. handouts from www.pagoda21.com/sle. Name cards.

Warm Up Hand out name cards. Have students write names on cards. Use “So ________ what did you do last weekend?” Use follow up questions to asses ability.

5 min

Presentation(s) 1. Segue into Activity A. Tip box. T-Ss what is a follow up? Elicit information question.

2. T-Ss ask about favorite pastime when they were younger. Write a few responses on the board for analyzing. Introduce LP. Repair sentences to reflect LP. If advanced group, then look at difference between am used to and used to.

3. Listening- look at the picture and talk about who is who. Then ask them pre-listening questions.

2min

5min.

5min

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4. Segue into then and now. Compare past to present (I used to…,but now..)

5. Ask Ss how they used to communicate vs. now. Go to Segue Activity

2min

1 min.

Activities 1. Get to know you. S-s. Part 1 practice in pairs. Part 2 have students write a question about one of the topics below. Check questions for mistakes. Ss stand up, mingle, and switch. Enforce follow ups!

2. Handouts from web. Ss enter the correct verb, S-s ask and answer questions.(skip if they are advanced). Correct common mistake “I was used to”

3. Ss listen to level speed and native speed check to see if pre-listening predictions were correct. Then ask post listening questions.

4. Ss do part 1 comparing Susan then and now. Advanced class continues with part 2.

5. Ss read out Segue in different roles. Discuss if time

10 min

5 min

5 min

5 min

5 min.

Anticipated Problems

Class will have difficult time being friendly. Not asking enough follow ups. Have them ask “why?” after every statement like an annoying 8 year old.

Ss find material too easy. Add bonus activity from end of unit.

Wrap up Introduce optional writing task and ask Ss to look at phrasal verbs, collocations, idioms for next class.

2 min

Language Presentation

The teacher must be aware of what language (vocabulary, grammar etc) is being brought to the class that day and how you are going to present it. It should also be short, too often we accidentally lecture the students with a lot of information that even an advanced student would struggle with. Keep it brief and to the point and on topic, students learn better if the language relates to one topic. Get to a practice as soon as possible.

“When we talk about healthy living and exercise there are many words and expressions that we use to talk about it. Some useful, some not so useful. On page 27 there is a list, the first one “to be a health nut” means a person who really, really, really loves taking care of himself and goes on and on about it to everyone else.......

How healthy are you? Tell you partner what you do to keep healthy.... (3 mins later) On the board are 6 expressions that a person who is healthy or not or likes to exercise, repeat after me. Now with your partner discuss which of these you think you are and why.

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Modeling

When presenting language to be practiced in activities, students need to know what the teacher is expecting of them. Most textbooks have a “let's do the first one together” example but the teacher should also do this. Give the students a model answer and write it on the board as a reference.

“If I were rich, I would buy my own island.” Am I rich? Do I have an island? No, it's a dream, a fantasy, not real. So with your partner tell them 3 things like this you would do if you were rich.

Ok I want you to talk about things would do if you had a lot of money, you can imagine almost anything just let your imagination run wild, maybe you would have a yacht.. or not!

Instructions

You can have the best activity lined up in the world but if you cannot get the students to understand what they should do and consequently do it, you have a few problems.

So you should read through the list and choose which of the surgeries you would have and which you wouldn't and then you should tell your partner the results and then discuss your choices and finally decide whether cosmetic surgery has positive or negative effects on Korean society.

Ok we are going to talk about what surgery we would have. Look at one number one; botox, I would have that because I hate wrinkles, Yunhee? I wouldn't because I worry I would need it many times. Very good now go through them all like this.

Feedback and Correction

It goes without saying just how important it is for the students to receive feedback from the teacher both their successes and also how they can improve on their mistakes. It is very difficult to remain motivated about learning a language if you never receive any sort of constructive advice or criticism from the teacher, so it must be valid and it must be regular.

Get into the habit of praising students, speaking a language in front on a group of your peers is difficult, when a native speaker is present it increases the nerves. Therefore POSITIVE PRAISE is essential to keep students motivated to keep trying. Of course they also need;

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Error Correction

It is a well-established fact that in order to improve a skill you must first learn from your mistakes and this neatly applies to language as well. Students who receive no corrections are dissatisfied with the class and the teacher as they did not pay merely to stay at the same level. So what do we look for in the class?

Lots of pair / small group activities: How will you assess your students if you can't hear them speak?

Target Language: To keep a class coherent you have to choose a certain amount of vocabulary and grammar that will be used that day for practice. So this is the language you focus on first on corrections. Are they using it correctly? If not correct it or what is the point of the class?

Pronunciation: An important point to listen out for not just in the target language but in reading, warm up, practices, what words need to be addressed to make them as natural sounding as possible.

Common Mistakes: At all levels you are going to hear certain errors be they with verb tenses, prepositions, word choice etc that perhaps you hadn't planned to teach or are not in the book but you realize students in your class have trouble with. Keep a note of this, can you correct in the class or perhaps you will incorporate it into a later class as an activity.

Ways to correct

On-the-spot: During questioning or pair work you will hear certain mistakes that may get in the way of communication or understanding. Often these are individual errors and therefore it makes sense that they are corrected immediately to allow the student to continue. Mistakes with target language or pronunciation should be corrected straight away.

On the board: Many times students need to see the mistake and correction on the board in order to properly retain it as only oral corrections can easily be forgotten. Keep a note of the mistakes/errors and get these up on the board, to make it more engaging for the students they should work together to try and fix them. To make it more engaging, mix in a few correct sentences and see if they are able to spot this. Can be easily turned into a game where they come to the board and write their correction the fastest for points.

Worksheets: Can be very useful as a study method or review for future classes.

How often to correct

Most successful error correction is done at various points during the class and not only at the end. Always aim to do it at least twice in a 50 minute class and more in a 100 minute class.