Session One

Teaching 8-10 year olds

 When’s your
birthday?
January, February, March,
April, May, June, July, August,
September, October,
November, December.
Teaching English in the 1º ciclo
A Foundation Course
Teaching 8-10 year olds
Classroom routines
Approaches and methodology I
The 1º ciclo programme
Approaches and Methods II
Language awareness and styles
Learning styles
Activities and materials
 So, how long
have you been
teaching
English to kids?
Have you been teaching long?
So, how long have YOU
been teaching 8-10 year
olds?
Some guidelines for selecting what
and how to teach this age group
Stir
Settle
Fun
Visual
Physical
 REFLECTION

Do you agree with what’s been said so

far?
How was the first activity organised to ensure students used
the target language?
With 25 students, how would you need
to adapt these ideas?
So, what are 8-10 year olds like?

Brainstorm race!!!
 REFLECTION
How have the activities so far reflected
concern for ‘stir’, ‘settle’, ‘fun’, ‘visual’ and
‘physical’ ?
What are the benefits (and drawbacks) of a
relay race?
Julian Edge Circles
Which age groups could do the previous task?

3-5 6/7 8-10

11-13 14+
 The experts speak
Piaget
Egan Kieran
Curtain and Pesola
How does your writer divide up the age groups?
Which is best?
1. Read
2. Underline
3. Summarise in groups

Make a poster!!!
 REFLECTION
POSTERS: Motivating? Collaborative? Visual? Fun?

What themes/language could be included in poster work?

How could Julian Edge circles be used?

Is it actually important to know what experts say?

 Children of
this age...
like
need
are
can

Watch the class and take notes

 REFLECTION
How does the teacher cater for 8-10
year olds’ needs, likes, abilities and
general characteristics?
 Taking stock
CHILDREN ARE…
•Tactile and energetic
•Curious
•Relatively uninhibited
•Sensitive to peer pressure
•Enthusiastic
•Only able to concentrate for a short period of time
•Interested in the product and not always the process
•Concerned with meaning
•Not necessarily self-motivated
•All different!
 Taking stock
CHILDREN NEED…
•support and encouragement
•as much opportunity as possible to use English
•variety of pace, focus, interaction, activity, etc.
•to relate English to their real lives
•to learn social skills e.g. cooperation
•to be motivated
•to feel at ease in the classroom
 Taking stock

CHILDREN LIKE…
•to move about
•to use their imagination
•being active
•a balance of familiar and unfamiliar activities
•games, chants, rhymes, stories, songs, etc.
 Taking stock
CHILDREN CAN…
•deal with chunks of language
•get bored easily
•retain things that are memorable
•acquire language we don’t ‘teach’ them
Another real life classroom
Could you do this with your classes?

Why?
Why not?