Hello, as the title says, I’ll be teaching 1st and 2nd grade from now on and was wondering if anyone has any general advice for teaching that age group. All I know is that maybe it’ll be higher energy. I’ve taught 3rd-6th prior to this.
Although any advice is welcome, I am particularly interested in the learning valency of that age group. For example, 6th benefits from mental stimulation and challenges, 3rd-4th benefits from activities and active ness etc.
13 comments
Keep it short and simple. If your in public school it could very well be the first time kids have experienced any English. You’ll likely have a few kids that don’t care and will never care about the lesson. Songs are useful and being generally more “hyped” is useful. I believe that this age really responds well to the teacher’s demeanor in class. Be excited for them! They are doing something new and unfamiliar. Also, remember they are capable of way more than their teachers give them credit for. You will hear teachers parrot that “it’s difficult” even for the most simple lessons. I’ve found it’s not actually difficult for them if I approach it in a fun and active way.
Interac in shinagawa by chance?
If so welcome to the cushiest job of your life.
Great teachers nice schools. Read some stories, sing some songs, do some dances, and go home.
1st and 2nd were my favorite grades to teach! They are so enthusiastic with everything you do and absorb things so quickly. I’m normally pretty chill and reserved but with this age range, I could just ham it up and you could see them all just light up whenever I walked into the room.
However, the material can be very basic and honestly a waste of time depending on the curriculum. I was supposed to cover things like animal names and colors for a month straight. Since I felt this wasn’t a great use of their time, I asked the head teachers for permission to teach phonics and how to tell the difference between “this” and “that”. They followed along with no trouble and by the end of the year, they had better pronunciation skills than the 6th graders.
I didn’t even now 1st and 2nd graders take English classes. That sounds like a nightmare.
Don’t fall for the fruit basket meme.
Make a good first impression and always bring the energy.
Lots of music, lots of movement, change activities as often as possible without ruining the lesson flow, and relevant games. 1st and 2nd graders won’t respond well to sitting for long periods or lecture style lessons.
Think of their attention span as their age +10 mins. Lots of shorter activities and less teacher talk will keep them engaged. Phonics is great and is meant for teaching in short slots; I also like easy, repetitive stories that you can add actions to (Going on a Bear Hunt, for example). Picture books can easily be scanned into a PowerPoint. A fun age group to teach!
They usually have a short attention span, so I would try to think about how to drill and practice the same material in as many ways as you can possibly think of. I wouldn’t run any one activity longer than 10 minutes.
You’ll be fine, pace yourself at the beginning, especially if you have 5 or 6 classes a day.
This is coming from a person that never really like dealing with elementary age kids, especially 1st and 2nd grader age kids.
You will be fine. When I was teaching elementary it was more fun and enjoyable than JHS. Just play games and make jokes with them. I’m not a high energy person but it was easy and enjoyable.
Two big things that can help. And you will need practice so don’t worry.
1. Be loud and concise with what you want. (for example instead of “Ok guys, today we are going to learn about a lot of things. I wrote on the board a bunch of things. Repeat after me.” … You might want to say just “Repeat after me”.
The reason is in big classes of that age if you trail off you lose a big chunk of them and getting them back is hard.
2. Sprinkle in funny faces or little funny things (For example, when repeating FRUITS words on the board, say “gorilla” or “banana” on one of them. It brings their attention back up and gets a laugh which they need.
KISS. **K**eep **I**t **S**imple, **S**tupid. Though I will say, the short time I was assiting with 1st and 2nd grade at my elementary schools last year, I was surprised just how many English words those kids knew and understood when I said them. The HRTs were doing a fantastic job.