Lynn Durrant’s webinar is designed for teachers who are dealing with very young learner classes or going to be teaching children around the ages of 4 to 6 and want ideas on how to deal with this age group. The webinar covers areas related to organising the classroom, creating protocols for behaviour and how to stimulate learning.
Teaching young children can be extremely challenging. You are teaching young learners more than just language; for example, how to respect each other and how to act in a classroom. This is why the most important part of teaching young learners is creating a happy environment which they want to be part of – happy learners make a happy teacher.
There are three things very young children need in the classroom:
– a sense of belonging
– a chance to experiment and use their imagination
– a safe and secure learning environment
A regular classroom routine will create a sense of security and belonging, as well as encourage sharing toys and materials. Get off to a good start by greeting your children at the door, and train them to answer with simple phrases in English. Don’t worry if your young learners don’t get the phrase perfect – accepting a child’s contribution is more important than correcting them.
Your first challenge is teaching young learners how to act in the classroom. You can create physical boundaries in class with the ‘magic line’ technique: draw a ‘magic line’ in chalk on the floor to show where the children can sit; when you’ve used the ‘magic line’ a few times, the children will accept it as a routine.
Patience and flexibility are essential for teachers of very young children. Remember to praise children for being good – don’t just tell them off for being naughty. If your class is misbehaving, you can use the ‘sad teacher’ box – draw a box on the floor which the teacher goes to when children are naughty. It’s better to show that naughtiness makes the teacher sad rather than angry.
For more activities you can use during a class with very young learners, as well as other tips and tricks to ensure the children in class focus on learning, watch the webinar recording below: