The Wheels on the Bus
...written on 04.15.04, @ 9:27 a.m.
Thu April 15, 2004
My teaching week starts on Tuesday since I have Sunday and Monday off. This week, I will teach the same grade level two, three or four times, so that means that the youngsters on Tuesdays are guinea pigs to my crazy ideas and I get to refine as I go through the week. Let me say that yesterday, Wednesday, went swimmingly. That means "very well" in English vernacular. I even had two potential students participating in the class of five four year olds.
Last week my four year olds had a TPR (Total Physical Response) lesson. "Get on the bus", "Sit down", "Stand up", Get off the bus." This week we had to learn, "Hi, I'm Kim! What's your name?" Well, I managed to get everyone to say their name when asked the question, which believe me, can be quite the victory, but the sound bite "What's your name?" was going to take a little longer. I wasn't worried because the phrase is in a catchy tune that they were getting into during class. I also wanted to review their old vocabulary, "dinosaur", "firetruck", "jump rope", "doll", and "robot" .
I've asked the mothers to help the kids make their own study cards at home. These cards depict the vocabulary and the TPR phrases. We play with these cards in class. I think it's stimulating for the students to use materials that they have made themselves. We regularly play "Concentration" and there are many other games we use the cards with as well.
Yesterday I had them help me lay down two long pieces of rope. "Let's make a bus!" As they were responding to last week's TPR phrases "Get on the bus!", I was busy pulling out their vocab cards and laying them out in a little "store" I had made. When I finished, I jumped on the bus, said I was the driver and that we were going shopping. I gave them all play money and had them count it. I listened carefully. One girl made it all the way to ten, the others usually stopped at six.
Our room is small, but the bus made many turns and when I looked back, the kids were smiling adorably. I stopped the bus and said "Red light". I heard one of the children say "Aka" ("red" in Japanese).
We finally made it to the store and all the kids crowded around. I got into place as the vendor. I asked the first child, "Hi! What's your name?" When they responded, I asked them what they wanted to buy and they had to ask for the "doll" or "firetruck" or whatever. The cards are numbered and whatever number it was, I made the kids count out their play money and give it to me. They all counted together as each one individually bought something. I then had the buyer come around and help me sell. That's when I got to hear them say "What's your name?" Very nice.
I have three sixth graders as well. They haven't gotten the message yet to be quiet and reserved as they are in some other branches, so I must admit, I take advantage of this to great effect.
I have seen that they really enjoy role playing. Well, our lesson was "Where are you going?" "Is she going to the Bakery?" etc. I pulled out the bus rope and off we chugged to various locations. Later I gave them laminated copies of my old cell phone and had them call each other and say "I'm at the Toy store. Where are you? Where are you going?" etc.
Again, I put the phrase to a catchy tune that facilitates not only their remembering the phrase, but making their speech more natural sounding as well. Japanese is not a stress timed language (funny, I always feel stressed when my teacher comes on Tuesday) like English, so any time I can get them away from the using the robotic sounding even stress of their language with English, I do.
We start teaching phonics in the third grade, so I had my third graders grabbing their throats or putting their hands on top of their heads or in front of their mouths to feel the effects of the various sounds of English.
They were having trouble making "duck" and "dog" sound differently, so I had them feel their throats for the voiced "g" in "dog" and put their hands in front of their mouths to feel the air come out at the end of "duck". Then we played a game called "Duck, duck, dog". Really, it's "Duck, duck, goose", you know, kids sit in a circle, one kid is "it" and goes around patting each kid on the head saying "Duck, duck, duck . . ." and when they are ready, they tap someone and say "Dog". That kid then gets up and runs and tries to touch "It" before he/she gets to the safe seat.
Now if that game didn't show them how important it was to say the words correctly. All the kids were listening intently and trying to discern : Was that "duck" or "dog"?
Sometimes happy accidents happen in class. Inspirations will come at opportune moments. For example, on Tuesday with the fifth graders, I had to work "I think . . ." into the lesson.
We were gathered around the pink table with my "Buzz-in" game. It's a row of lights with numbered paddles, like a quiz show board thingee. I was using some animal flashcards and asking the kids "What is it?"
They know the cards very well, so it was a breeze for them. I was pulling my hands out from under the table and flashing the cards rapidly. On one turn my hands hit the bottom of the table and didn't come out before one boy had hit his button. He was about to reset the game when I said "Wait, what do you THINK it is?" and I modeled the answer structure for him.
The kids enjoyed guessing what animal would come up next. I even had them doing the sounds for the animals too. Hee. I mean do you know what a panda, zebra or giraffe sound like? It's not your typical Old MacDonald farm menagerie.
I enjoy teaching very much.