A new student has come to my school, she has lived in America for 5 years. Her English is excellent already. I think mum is bringing her here to make sure she doesn’t lose the skills.
She’s a very sweet girl. But everything I’ve tried on her she finds incredibly easy so it isn’t a challenge for her.
I’ve never dealt with a child like this. My more advanced students are usually adults and we watch BBC clips and discuss them. But she’s only 9 so I want to keep things fun! Any suggestions?
Thanks!
12 comments
I’d probably research what 4th graders are doing in the States and mimic that. Maybe she can research an animal and write a paragraph, or make a small booklet with facts and pictures? There is also kids news that you can discuss. Read and write poems. Learning how to write a good story – going over the hook/beginning, rising action, climax, resolution. Play card games or board games that you would probably be able to play with kids.
Look into the Oxford Discover series. It’s an ESL text for near fluent kids. Nine years old, maybe level three?
Are her classes solo? If not, really encourage that, otherwise balancing that will be basically impossible.
I would look at Brain Quest for materials.
I have a couple of returnee classes. I usually pick interesting topics and then we use normal English materials. Like design your own dinosaur and use dinosaur books etc. Then they have to do a mix of writing and drawing and use words like prey/predator, carnivore/herbivore etc. Words a normal native kid wouldn’t necessarily know either.
See it as CLIL teaching. Teaching other subjects in English. Biology, History, Geography etc.
If you come across new words they have to write them down in a notebook with an simple explanation or synonym.
When I taught a highly proficient 9 year old (though never lived abroad) I’d often have her like draw a picture then make a story. Then she would write the story out so I could check her spelling. She also liked to read which is how she learned so well, so I’d have her explain what she read.
Another activity is I would have about 2 minute video clips of Tom and Jerry and she would have to describe what happened or even voice the characters.
A 9 year old is difficult because they are too fluent to do normal EFL activities and you don’t want to bore them with school work.
Look into what she would be doing if she were still living in the States and use materials similar to those.
There are some excellent newspapers and magazines for younger readers, I’m not sure what online availability is like. First News is my favourite, lots of puzzles and activities as well as articles.
If you like using the BBC, use horrible histories! It’s perfect for ESL, especially at that age
Watch family-friendly sitcoms and discuss them?
Early chapter books and storytelling/roleplaying games are my go-to for high-level kids. They love them, and learn a lot.
These are short articles for Japanese learners. The discussion questions at the end are pretty good.
https://eikaiwa.dmm.com/app/daily-news
I teach ages 8-9 in the UK and we watch news aimed at kids every day.
They read a lot so incorporating reading and activities around the chapters of the book is a good idea. A lot of vocabulary and expressions come up in fiction books that most children aren’t familiar with so lots of learning opportunities.
BBC bite size used to have stuff aimed at key stage one and two you could use.
UK schools use Twinkl a lot for activities and resources so you could make an account to download and use age appropriate English activities.