I'm still ironing out the kinks of the lesson plans. Here's what I'm finding:
One major difference in writing lesson plans for ESL camp in Ukraine and writing lesson plans for high schoolers or middle schoolers in the States is that my Ukrainian students actually WANT to be in my class. More than that, they WANT to learn the finer points of English. I finally have an enthusiastic class rather than a captive audience on which to impart my intense fascination with the minutiae of the English language!
One major difference that causes me to squirm a little bit, though, is that they want to learn ALL the little details. Now, I know a lot about English, but I’ve found that I begin to question my knowledge and capability when focused students inquire relentlessly. That’s when I start to fidget and sweat and forget my present progressives, past participles, adverbial clauses and wish that I was teaching colors and items you find on a menu.
But…I’m going in armed with scores of idioms and advanced vocabulary words. This year, I’ve decided to take the game “Apples to Apples” (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/74) to use in teaching vocabulary. I’m not sure if it will work well or not, but I’ll try it.
With advanced classes, I try to incorporate a lot of discussion opportunity. The camp leaders have given us daily themes to talk about:
Day 1: friendship
Day 2: family
Day 3: dating
Day 4: career
Day 5: making the right choice for my life
I love to hear what the students have to say about their lives and the people that influence them. I take pictures of my family and friends to class and talk about my life to get the ball rolling (ha…another idiom. Yesssss.). Theoretically, they’ll get excited about discussion. Here’s hoping! I’ll totally let you know. Don’t worry.
VERY small sampling of the pictures I'll be taking:
Mom and me...and my diploma!
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My sister, Amiee, and me
College roommates: Kirby, Molly, Amanda, and me
5 comments:
Thanks, Erin. 4th of July is actually one of the hardest days for me to be away from the US. Thanks for thinking of us!
so I'm jealous of your adventurous life and need to hear the story of how this happened!
Glad to see that you have joined the world of blogging. Watch out it can be addicting. :) Can't wait to keep up with you and know how we can pray for you during this special time.
Let me know if there is anything at all that we can help you with.
Love ya girl!!
I'm glad you have this blog to keep us all informed about what's going on and how to pray for you. I'm looking forward to keeping up with it.
lovelace 1 for life!!!!!!!!!!
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