When I retired from teaching sixteen years ago, I never thought that I would ever be writing lesson plans again. But I am. Monday I started giving Alejandro's nephew Ezra English lessons via Skype.
Ezra just finished the fourth grade, and English has been part of the school's curriculum since the first grade. He is a very good student; in fact, he is first in his class. There have been a few times when I have been at Alejandro's house that I have helped him with his English homework. However, he has been very hesitant when I have tried to sit down and simply converse with him in English. Even though the two of us get along well, Ezra is a bit shy, and I suspect he is afraid of making mistakes or not understanding me. Nevertheless, what he needs is to improve his pronunciation by listening to a native speaker, and to feel more comfortable conversing.
I suggested that twice a week we do lessons on Skype. Ezra's mom thought it was a great idea and Ezra agreed. Beforehand I told Ezra not to be afraid of making mistakes (goodness knows I still make mistakes in Spanish! 😀), not to be upset when I correct him, and not to be bored if I am covering things that he already knows.
I prepared a lesson plan. For our first session, we did a series of questions and answers about personal information... name, age, birthday, nationality, etc. He already knew much but not all of the material. I had him repeat sentences after me, working on his pronunciation. I think he made some improvement with the "th" sound in English when I moved close to the camera and showed him the tip of my tongue against my upper teeth. Next I asked him the questions, and then he asked the same questions of me. We followed up with an exercise that was a little like "Jeopardy"... I gave him an answer, and he had to come up with the appropriate question. For example if I said "October 3rd", he would ask "When is your birthday?"
I finished the lesson by teaching him a song, "Are You Sleeping?" He knew the song in Spanish, but did not know it in English. The entire session last just under a half hour.
Occasionally there was a bored look on his face, but most of the time he was cheerful and seemed very much engaged. Alejandro told me that after the lesson he seemed very happy about it. He practiced his song, and as soon as his mom came home from work, he sang it to her.
So, I think our first session went well. I already have prepared another lesson for later this week, and have started one for next week.
In Korea, I found really emphasizing my mouth with r and l helped a lot. You could tell the difference between the kids that started phonics with me vs a Korean teacher. There was two other letters that I had to exaggerate my mouth movements too.
ReplyDeleteI also learned that th has two distinct sounds. I pronounce them correctly, but I can't really hear the difference between them. I suspect that I have a bit of an auditory processing disorder because I struggle with things like b and p and other similar sounding consonants.
Next week, part of my lesson plan for the babies is introducing a baby's first word book in Spanish. I just discovered our curriculum has Highlights Hola to go along with the Highlights Hello magazine. I've ordered some books from the library. I'm also going to spend some time this weekend putting together a Spotify list with kids songs in Spanish.
Have fun teaching!!!
I need to work with Ezra on the "r" sound since it is so different in Spanish.
DeleteThat is really cool that you are introducing some Spanish to your "niños"!