In this webinar, Guess What! author Kay Bentley set out to answer some key questions about teaching content to young learners: what do we actually mean by ‘content’, how can we motivate students to learn it, and why is it important to teach it to young learners?
What do we mean by content?
Kay answered the first of these questions by explaining that ‘content’ is the subject-specific language required to think about the concepts involved in school subjects. To find out what this language is, we need to look at the subjects students are learning in their first language, and specifically the learning outcomes. These outcomes will show us the language that students need to learn.
Successfully motivating students to learn about subject content begins by activating their prior knowledge of the subject topic. Photos can be a great way of doing this, stimulating learners’ curiosity and getting them talking. Once you’ve done this, you can start presenting new content vocabulary and concepts. An effective way of doing this is to show some relevant videos showing the new content in context, with explanations. Kay showed some of the videos from Cambridge’s course Guess What! – click on the play button on the video below to watch three of these.
To watch the webinar in full, please see below.
Click here for more tips and inspiration for teaching your young learners.
Don’t forget that you can get teaching insights and resources straight to your inbox when you create your free World of Better Learning account today.