Last Journal Third Period

“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.” 

Teaching has been a challenge for me every single day during this semester even when there are many things related to grammar structures or classroom management that as a student and as a former teacher I already know. Teaching will always be a challenge for me because one never knows when the students are going to be in the mood to learn. However, as a teacher is important to remember that we have to be ready to face whatever thing that may occur during the class and of course a teacher must do his/her best always.

This was my last class teaching at Intermediate English I, and I can say that there were many things that I learned from this level. One of the important things that I learned during this period was that it is important to establish a good relationship with the students because one never knows if one is going to meet with the same group again. I learned that is very important to establish a good rapport because when students feel confidence to ask and clarify their doubts they learn more.

I consider that I was a lucky girl because I had to teach grammar since my first class until the last one. I learned something really important. We don’t have to complain about teaching grammar, we have to look new ways to teach it. This last class I tried to teach grammar in a new different way. This time I had to teach adverbs of manner. There were about 10 rules, so I decided to prepare the rules with their examples. I prepared some cards with numbers from 1 to 8; the students had to explain the rule corresponding to the number of card they had chosen. I gave the students 5 minutes to read and understand the rule and to create their own example using the adverbs of manner of their rule. After the 5 minutes, the students passed to the front. They explained the rules, made the changes to the adverbs, and finally they wrote their own example. It was a nice experience because they were very focused on their task. They considered this activity very interesting and they said that they understood better.

I thank God because even when teaching to groups that come late to class, or groups that don’t like to participate is very hard, I have had good experience and I have gotten good results.

After a whole year of teaching practicum, I feel very satisfied with the work I have done and I feel happy to know that teaching is a process that never stops and that I will never do things perfectly; however, I know that every class I teach is a new chance to improve all those things that I have done wrong. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to learn new things trough this teaching experience.

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

Journal III, Third Period

After teaching my third class to the group of Intermediate English I, I consider that there are many things that I have improved and there are many things that have gone well till this day. I know that many things have gone well in the class; however, there are many other things that need to be improved as a teacher.

Thank God the objectives have been understood by the students and I consider that we have reached the objectives in every class. Today’s objective was about identifying the Present Perfect Tense. I didn’t know that the special gift for me during the last period of the teaching practicum was to teach grammar only. I have learned something important in this last period; a teacher doesn’t have to look for excuses for teaching grammar, but for a way to teach grammar differently.

After the warm up activity, I used a song for presenting the topic. The song was “Have you ever seen the rain?” the students had to order the slips of sentences to form the song. They all were involved. After forming the song they had the chance to sing together, and I consider that this was part they engaged and enjoyed the most because they like to sing.

As my previous classes, I had to teach grammar again, but have been using different ways for teaching grammar. In this occasion, the students were the responsible to create the grammar explanation. I provided them with the material, and they only had to stick the material on the board. It was really nice to see how the students create their own explanation. After doing this, they had to write some examples. The examples were in some envelopes. They only had to order the words to form sentences and they did it very well. The last part was about creating their own examples based on the explanation and using the verbs I provided them. By doing this, the student demonstrated me that they had understood the topic.

This was very important because all of them were involved in the activity, they enjoyed the activity and the most important aspect was the fact of practicing the language. I know that for teachers is not so easy to have all the students participating in every single activity, but I think that teachers must use strategies to make all the students participate in the activities.

This issue has not been easy for me, but I consider that what has helped me is the fact of showing confidence and enthusiasm when giving instructions. If the teacher doesn’t show enthusiasm, students won’t show enthusiasm either. Enthusiasm is a very important part of teaching.

After this class I have realized that there is a single thing that I will continue doing because this aspect will always help me in my teaching career no matter what level I teach. What I want to continue doing is keeping the enthusiasm in the class because this will help me as teacher to encourage myself to do things that I don’t like and enthusiasm will also help me to encourage my students to feel confident and to do things no matter if they make mistakes or not.

I have to remember that “The truth teacher is the one that teaches from the bottom of his/her heart.”

Journal II ....last period

Being a good teacher is something that takes time. Teaching is not theory, but practice. This was my second class in the group of Intermediate English I and I think that many things went well during the second class and these things helped me to feel good and at the same time those things made my students to practice grammar structures too.

During my second class I taught grammar again. I know that to teach grammar is something not so easy, but I have nothing to complain about because even when teaching grammar is difficult, a teacher has to do his/her best by trying different strategies when teaching this part of the lesson. I have been using different ways to teach grammar and I considered that they have worked until this day. The topic was about prepositions of place and I had to explain the uses of three basic prepositions of place and a huge list of other prepositions. In order to make this part interesting, I prepared the prepositions of place, the explanation, and the example in slips of paper. I asked the students to help me to read the uses and to stick the examples, but I did something else. I selected a part of the board for the students to write their original examples. This helped them to understand better. After this activity, the following part was to read or to explain the other list of about 30 or 40 prepositions of place. What I did was that I told the students that they were going to develop the other part of grammar. I divided the students in four groups and I gave them a piece of paper, a list of 10 prepositions, and an envelope containing the meanings of the prepositions of place. With this material they had to create their own chart with prepositions of place, meaning and original example. This was an interesting activity because all of the students were very concentrated in what they were doing and all of them were very involved in the class. After 10 or 15 minutes I gave them the opportunity to use their handout. They didn’t notice that what they were doing was in their handout. This was a nice experience. The students worked together. They worked by themselves. They read what they did, and I was there to help them to construct their own knowledge. We applied constructivism and I consider it really worked. This was a very nice class. The tutor teacher was happy to see how the students worked and she was glad to see that even the shy students were very involved in the class.

Sometimes we don’t want to teach grammar, but I guess it’s time to look for new strategies and challenge our students to learn by themselves. We are in the classroom just as a guide for our students. This is our job, to make our students learn by themselves.

Journal I last period

“In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work.  It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.”  ~Jacques Barzun

Being in Intermediate English  I has been a nice experience to me because I have had the experience to teach different levels and I have confirmed that every level requires a different attention and it also requires different ways to apply strategies according to the students and according to the activity that the teacher is going to develop.

During my first class I had the opportunity to start the lesson plan and of course I had to teach grammar. I can say that during this first class, almost all things have gone well. Objectives have been reached, activities have worked, the classroom management and the rapport have been good, and many other things have worked well. The warm up activity was an activity that the students enjoyed very much. Also the grammar part was not too difficult. The students helped me to develop the grammar part. I gave them the uses and the examples in slips of paper and they helped me to explain and to give the examples too.

Even though many things went well during the first class, there is something that I consider students and teachers still need to improve regarding with time. Sometimes it is very hard to start the class with few students and this group has the peculiar characteristic of coming late to the class. However, I consider they will improve this aspect in order to benefit themselves. What really makes me feel happy is that through these experiences I grow as a teacher and these things help me to see what my responsibilities are as a teacher. I know that what I have to do is my best no matter what things I can face in the classroom because there will always be a sun behind the darkest cloud.

V Journal My last class

“A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.”

What can I say about my last experience???

Well, I am grateful because things went well during my last experience in the level of Intermediate English I. things went well since the very beginning of the class. The warm up activity was a drill in which students had to use the future tense, the structure they were studying.

Something that I consider interesting during my last class was the presentation and the grammar part. The presentation was about a conversation students had to repeat and perform. What I did in order to make something different was the running dictation. Students had to run and read the conversation I had posted on the wall, and then dictate the sentences to the person that had taken the role of secretary. After 5 minutes, the students had the chance to read the whole conversation that I had posted on the board for them to read. The funniest part of this was that when the students saw the conversation on the board they said “It was the same conversation!!!! Teacher you are bad .After this they repeated the conversation and two pairs went to the front and acted it out. I liked the way in which the students involved in the activity. All of the students where participating, thank God. The other activity that I consider went well too was the grammar part. I divided the grammar part into rules or uses and examples. I gave the students the uses of the WILL and the examples that I had written on slips on paper. I told them that we were going to study this part and they explained when we use it and provided the examples. This was very interesting because it was not me that explained the grammar alone, but together with the students. They also provided their own examples. As I said before, things went well during my last class. And I feel satisfied with the results in this group.

I learned many things from this group. They taught me that a teacher can grow together with the students. Something that I really like is that I feel comfortable with this group, they respect me, and they see me as someone that can help them. They ask me things and treat me as a real teacher. That is something that makes me feel very well.

I am sure that there are many things that I would do again and again with other groups, but there are things that I surely wouldn’t do again.  

I thank God for giving me the opportunity to learn new things from people every day.

IV Journal

“If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

Here we are sharing our experiences once again.

I’m happy to know that my fourth experience in the level of Intermediate English has been very nice. I have nothing to complain about the group, neither the tutor teacher. To be sincere, I consider that everything went well in my fourth class even when I didn’t have the tape recorder when I started the class, but everything was fine during my fourth class.

During this special class we were studying the comparatives and I consider that the students were practicing this structure in the whole class. There were two activities that I really enjoyed and the students enjoyed too. The first activity was about a conversation that contained sentences with comparatives. I played the conversation once in order for the students to be familiarized with the conversation. Then, I asked the students to form three groups. I gave the students the conversation in slips of paper because they had to order the conversation as they were listening. I played it the second time so the students could check it. Then I played it the third time for the students to repeat it. After this, they discussed about the conversation. What I really like was that they new what was the conversation about since the first time I played it. The second activity was about a song. I asked the students to form to groups. I played the song “You gotta be”. The students had to make a list of the adjectives and the comparatives the song mentioned. It was a nice activity because the students were all involved and were very attentive to the song. I’m sure that if I had to teach this lesson again, I’d do these activities again.

As I said before, I considered everything went well in this week because I reached my objectives, and the most important part: all the students were involved in every single activity thank God.

This group has taught me that teaching requires patience and consistency.

Journal III

A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.  ~Author Unknown

Day after day I’m living the experience of learning from every student in my classroom. Every day God gives me the opportunity to see that we are in the classrooms not to say how things are, but to discover together.

My third experience was great; and I can say that things went very very well. I was happy at the end of the class because I felt satisfied with the work I had done and because I received good comments only. My experience in the third class was very nice. I liked the way in which students involved in every single activity because this made the class more interesting and at the same time they work together. After teaching during almost a year I have proved that to make students be involved in the activities depends on the strategies teachers choose for developing their activities. Of course that we are not always going to make the hundred per cent of students participate, but at least the major part of them will do it.

Something I really liked from my third class was the last activity we developed. Because we were talking about past actions and using the past continuous, we developed an activity in which students used this structure. The activity was about the description of a picture. The students were given a picture that they had to describe using the past continuous, but I asked the students to narrate the picture. While the narrator was saying what had happened, the rest of the students had to dramatize the action. The narrator started the activity saying for example “yesterday morning I was walking around the park when I say John riding his horse…” The student that had taken the role of John had to do the action and so on. This was a very interesting and funny activity, but the most important thing was to observe how the students used the structure we were studying.

There are many things that I would do again if I had to teach the same lesson, but I have to keep in mind that as a teacher, I had to adapt the activities according to the students’ necessities. I will never stop learning from my students and my tutors teachers because every day is a new opportunity to learn new things from every person we meet.

Journal II, Second Class

“Every day is a new opportunity for gaining new experiences in the teaching field for the rest of our lives.”

This was my second experience of teaching at Intermediate English I and I consider that things went much better than the previous week.

There were many things that went well during my second class. Actually I can say that practically all things went well. The warm up activity was very interesting because all the students were participating and were practicing the grammar structure they had studied the previous week. I consider that is better if warm-ups activities are connected with the previous topic students have studied or the topic the teacher is going to develop in the class because in this way we help our students to practice what they have learned previously and we also introduce them to the new topic they are going to study.

The activities we developed all through the class went well. There was a particular activity in which the students had to choose a famous person and think about some questions they would like to ask these people if they were alive. Some of these famous people were for example Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Celia Cruz, etc. It was very interesting to observe how the students formulated the sentences using the simple past tense. One of the students for example, said that if Albert Einstein were alive, he would like to ask him why he invented the relativity theory. The students made interesting questions, and the best of all was that they were using the correct structure.

I know that there are many things I still need to improve, but I feel satisfied with the work I’ve done until this day. I know that I still have to look for a way to make all the students get involved in every single activity. I know they have problems with this aspect, but I will try to do all I can to help them to improve these aspects. At the end I will help not only my students, but myself too.

Journal I, Second period

Every day is a nice chance to learn all the new things that life bring to us through different experiences.

This was my first week at Intermediate English I, and I consider that I began my new challenge for this period. I like my new group because I was with them last semester; however this group presented me the greatest challenge for me during my practicum. I started to think about the strategies I will use in order to make all the students to speak because they do not like to speak and this makes more difficult my class.

There are many things that went well during my first class. The warm up activity for example was very appropriate for the topic students were developing during the previous classes.

Another thing that went well too was the classroom management because I asked the students to work in pairs, in groups, and I also asked them to develop a face to face reading. As there is not a perfect teacher, neither a perfect lesson plan, my first class was not perfect and I had to face some situations that made my first class not so good. Something that was hard for me was the grammar part. I received some comments about this part not because I couldn’t explain, but because according to my tutor teacher we have to look for a way in which students speak more than the teacher in grammar explanation. Of course that this is not an easy task, but I will try. I know that my second class will be better than this class, but I am happy to know that I got a new experience today.

Next period

What will bring us the next period???

Teaching Practicum... Journal III (August 12, 2010)

To learn how to teach is something that takes time. Honestly we say that we teach, but have we learned how to teach indeed?
We need to learn to teach in order to be able to teach others because we never know how we influence the people we teach to.
This was my Third class with Technical English I and until this point I can say that I am happy to know that being in that group has been a nice experience for me and I have nothing to complain about.


To teach English for future Kindergarden teachers was a nice challenge for me. At first I thought that it was going to be hard because I was going to work with a Whole group of girls. There was not a single boy in this group and this made think that these girls were going to be pickier or something similar, but what I didn't know was that in certain aspects it is better to work with girls only.
I really enjoyed every class since the first class and I felt very confident and comfortable since the very beginning of this period. Things went well during my third class thank God. 


*The warm up activity went well, but I have to remember that we have to use the appropriate vocabulary according to the level we are in. We were playing the category game and I asked the students to say the name of any fruit, but some of them didn't know any name, so next time I will consider the vocabulary I have to use.


*The activities went well too. The students worked individually, in pairs, in trios and in groups of 5. I consider that this helps the students to interact each others and to practice the language in a better way. Something related to all the activities we developed is that as a teacher I have to check the pronunciation of certain complicated words in order to avoid making mistakes when teaching the words to the students.


*Finally I want to highlight the importance of making the students to repeat the words, or expressions as much as they can because this will help them to remember the correct pronunciation. Something very important that I want to comment too is the fact of asking the students to pay attention to the teacher or their peers while they are speaking when necessary. Sometimes we do not ask the students to keep silence and this affect our activities because when someone interrupts the class it is harder for others to concentrate on the tasks.


I am gratreful with my tutor teacher for making me observations to improve my classes. Thank to my tutor teacher I have learned important things during my Teaching Practicum.

"A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. " 

Teaching Practicum... Journal II (August 3rd)

Here we are sharing our experiences once again!

This was my second week at Technical English I. And thank God, this week was better than the first one. I consider that things went better because I tried to follow my tutor’s directions and observations. I know that teaching English at any level is a challenge and sometimes we face serious problems, but the rewards of this are better than we imagine because we grow in knowledge and in experience.

I want to share some of the things that went well this week.

• 
  
  Conversation practice was an activity that went well during the class. The girls practiced the conversation at the same time that they were performing it. Something very important when performing conversations is the fact of having the objects the conversations mention for example because this makes the conversation much more real and interesting.
  
• 
  
  Another activity that went well too was an activity in which the students had to write the plural of some nouns using the demonstrative pronouns. I could prove how important is the fact of correcting errors at the moment the students are working because in this way we help our students to do things in the correct way. Otherwise our students are going to think that things are correct in the way they do it.
  
  
• Finally I want to point out the importance of checking out our material before using it. I made some mistakes when I prepared my material and I didn’t check it before printing it. I didn’t notice that I had written the word ADRESS with 3 letters S (ADRESSS) until a student noticed it. So next time I will remember to check things twice or thrice before printing them.
  
  I want to continue doing the things that went well and to change those ones that didn’t work. : )
  

“In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.” ~Jacques Barzun

Teaching Practicum... Journal 1

Teaching is such a challenge for teachers every day. However, these experiences help us to enrich our knowledge and in this way improve our language, techniques, methods, etc. During my first week of teaching practicum I lived new experiences that I never imagined. One of these experiences for example was the fact of teaching Technical English. I had no idea about who my new tutor teacher was going to be neither my group of students, but the truth is that I was surprised to know that I was going to teach only girls!! This was new for me because I had never taught to girls only, but my first experience with them was great. The tutor teacher is a great person, too. I know that the class was not perfect, but there were many things that went well during my first week at Technical English. Some things that went well on my first week were for example:

 The warm up activity. The students enjoyed the warm up activity at the same time that they were practicing what they had learned the previous class.

 The activities went well too because all the students involved in every single activity. This is kind of difficult, but thank God the girls participated in the activities.

 Time was smething that went well during the first class. This is something that I have tried to improve during my previous clases because it is important to keep track of time in the class.

As a human I made mistakes too. Because of a confusion, I only mentioned the objective. Next time I will have to show the objective to the teacher. Something that I have to consider next time is to keep eye contact with all my students eventhough the classroom be narrow. I can mention some other mistakes I made, but I will share them next time. Being an excellent teacher is a challenge. Isn’t it?

EXERCISE: 1

LEVEL: Intermediate +

ACTIVITY: Cloze

SKILLS: Listening/Writing

INSTRUCTIONS

Divide the class into groups A & B
*

Hand out copies of Worksheet-A to each member of Group-A.
*

Hand out copies of Worksheet-B to each member of Group-B
*

Instruct students to fill in the missing words, as you play the song.
*

Do not allow students to compare the words they have written.

SHUT UP

Sung by The Black Eyed Peas Lyrics
(Worksheet A - Woman's words & those of others)

Chorus-1
S_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ u_ [x3]
S_ _ _ i _ u_ ! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! S_ _ _ u_


Chorus-2
W_ t_ _ t_ t_ _ _ i_ s_ _ ,
B_ _ w_'_ _ s_ _ _ _ l_ _ _ _ _ c_ _ _ _ _
A _ _ w_ t_ _ t_ m_ _ _ i_ w_ _ ,
B _ _ i_ s_ _ _ _ e_ _ _ u_ t_ _ w_ _ _
A_ _ I'_ c_ _ _
F _ _ t_ _ _ _ _ t_ b_ y_ _ _ l_ _ .
I t _ _ _ _ I'_ g_ _ _ _ c_ _ _ _

Verse-1
Girl, me and you were just fine, you know.
We wine and dine;
(We) Did them things that couples do when in love, you know:
Walks on the beach and stuff, you know,
T_ _ _ _ _ t_ _ _ l_ _ _ _ _ s_ _ a_ _ d_,
I love you boo, I l_ _ _ y_ _ t_ _ .
I m_ _ _ y_ _ a l_ _ . I m_ _ _ y_ _ e_ _ _ m_ _ .
That's why I flew you out,
When we was on tour.
But then something got out of hand.
You start yelling when I'm with my friends,
Even though I had legitimate reasons.
B _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !
You know I have to make them dividends.
B _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !
How could you trust our private lives, girl?
That's why you don't believe my lies
And quit this lecture

Chorus-3
S_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ u_
S_ _ _ i _ u_ ! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! S_ _ _ u_
[Repeat Chorus-2]

Verse-2
Why does she know she (‘s) got to move so fast;
Love is progress if you could make it last.
Why is it that you just lose control?
Every time you agree on taking it slow.
S_ w_ _ d_ _ _ i_ g_ _ t_ b_ s_ d_ _ _ t_ _ _ ?
’Coz fools in lust could never get enough of love.
Showing her the love that you be giving,
Changing up your living,
For a loving transition.
Girl, it's a mission trying to get you to listen.
Being mad at each other, has become our tradition.
You yell, I yell, everybody yells !
(I’ve) Got neighbours across the street, saying:
W _ _ t_ _ H_ _ _?
Who the Hell?
What the Hell's going down?
Too much of the bickering
Kill it with the sound and ....

[Repeat Chorus-3]
[Repeat Chorus-2]
[Repeat Chorus-1 (x2)]

Girl our love is dying.
Why can't you stop trying?
I (have) n _ _ _ _ b_ _ _ a q_ _ _ _ _ _,
B_ _ I d_ d_ _ _ _ _ _ b_ _ _ _ .
Believe me, I will do bad.
Let's forget the past
And let's start this new plan.
W _ ? ‘C _ _ i_'_ t_ _ s_ _ _ o_ _ r_ _ _ _ _ _
A_ _ t_ _ _ n_ _ _ w_ _ _ I h_ _ _ t_ _ _ s_ _ _ _ _ .
Girl I know you're tired of the things they say
Y_ _'_ _ d_ _ _ r_ _ _
’C _ _ I h_ _ _ _ t_ _ _ l_ _ _ d_ _ _ e_ _ _ _ _ _ j_ _ _ y_ _ _ _ _ _ _
That was a different thing
N_ , i_ i_ _’_
That was a different thing
N_ , i_ i_ _’_
That was a different thing
I_ w_ _ t_ _ s_ _ _ d_ _ _ t_ _ _
S_ _ _ a_ _ e_ _ _ _ _
B _ _ y_ _ '_ _ u_ _ _ _ _ _
Waaaaaaah!

[Repeat Chorus-1 (x2)]

"Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." --Ludwig van Beethoven

She calls out to the man on the street
"Sir, can you help me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back
He pretends he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
Can't walk but she's trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she's been there
Probably been moved on from every place
'Cos she didn't fit in there

Oh think twice...

Teaching Kids with Music

children are natural music lovers you don't have to convince them that it will help them learn. If you feel uncomfortable singing in front of the class to teach a song, use a tape or CD player. (Don't expect your students to sing if you don't. Remember, that they don't care about the quality of your singing voice, just like you don't care about theirs.) Here are some suggested activities to use with kids (If you are not familiar with any of the songs mentioned, simply put the titles into an online search):

• Transition songs: Teach simple songs that indicate transitions from one activity to another, such as "clean up" songs and "hello/goodbye" songs.
• Energy boosters: Teach simple action songs that require kids to stand up and move around. Think of traditional birthday games that use songs, such as pass the parcel (use a classroom mascot or other favourite item instead of a gift) or musical chairs.
• Animal songs: Children love learning about animals! Teach animals and animal sounds using repetitive songs like "Old McDonald had a Farm" and "There was an Old Lady who swallowed a fly."
• Multi-culturalism: Teach about multi-cultural instruments and learn how to create them in class.
• Remembering Names: Help students remember names of their classmates (this helps teachers too) with songs like "Willoughby Wallaby Woo."
• Alphabet songs: Use lots of different alphabet songs (not just the traditional ABC) to help kids remember them in English. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault is a catchy children's book and song.
• Colours: Teach the colours with various colour songs and rhythms, such as Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" or Kermit the Frog's "It aint easy being green."
• Rewards: Reward hard working kids with "Music Time". Let them make requests for background music that they can listen to while they work on their written exercises.
• Student teachers: Encourage the kids to teach each other songs from their own language. Turn this into an English lesson by having students translate the meaning.

"Musical nourishment which is rich in vitamins is essential for children." Zolton Kodaly

Tips for Using Music Effectively

• When teaching students a song, it is a good idea to introduce an instrumental version first (If an instrumental version is not available, play the song softly in the background while they are working on something or hum the melody before introducing the lyrics). If students become familiar with the sound of the music first, they will be more likely to understand the words.
• Make a vocabulary list ahead of time. Go over the words once before you introduce the song.
• Expose students to a certain song many days in a row. Within a few days, students will not be able to get the song out of their head!
• Choose interactive songs whenever possible. Adding actions enhances language acquisition and memory.
• Have soft or upbeat music playing before class to encourage a positive atmosphere. Turning the music off is a great way to signal to a large class that it is time to begin.

	Music is the universal language of mankind.
	Henry Wadsworth Longfellow