In this article, Zach Foster shares his top tips that have helped him to inspire his students to love his subject, English as a Second Language
As an educator, one of the most satisfying feelings to experience is when a parent tells you that their child talks about your class all the time at home and looks forward to it every day. To me, this makes me feel as though I have truly inspired that child to love my subject. While I would love to sit here and tell you that I have found the secret to help captivate all young learners to love your class, that simply is not true, there are too many types of learners out there for a one size fits all approach. However, what I will share with you are some ideas that I have learned over the years that have helped make my job easier in inspiring young learners to love my subject, English as a Second Language.
One of the first pieces of advice about teaching I received that has stuck with me when planning everything I do in the classroom is the question “is it accessible?” By this, it means, have the students learnt what they need to know to complete the task you are asking them to do. For instance, if I am asking a class to play and game where they need to use English to play, I need to make sure I have taught and reviewed the grammar needed to play that game. As educators, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of our kids at times to make sure we are appropriately challenging them. I think everyone can remember a time in their lives, maybe a high school math class, where the teacher presented a problem, when you had absolutely no idea what the answer was. It is in these situations where students can feel overwhelmed and discouraged. So how do we help avoid situations like this for our students? We ask ourselves before assigning tasks “have students learned the tools needed to complete this task?” By asking this question, teachers will be able to create achievable tasks for their students which can help to boost their confidence in that subject. A classroom that is confident in their learning will feel inspired to learn.
Anyone who has ever spent a lot of time around young learners will tell you that kids can be exhausting at times. Young learners have energy, and they need time where they can get this energy out. For me, I remember being that kid who could not sit still in his chair for extended periods of time in class. This led me to get red sad faces on my desk from my teacher. It was in these moments where I felt frustrated at my teacher and just wanted to get out of that classroom to do something more fun. These memories have helped inspire me to make my classroom a more active classroom. I do this by giving my students time where they can move around, whether that is answering questions posted around the classroom, walking around to other students to exchange information, or using Total Physical Response to help explain new vocab to my students. By giving them several opportunities to move around, my goal is to empower them to feel comfortable in my classroom and enjoy their time in it. I implore any teacher who is struggling to keep their kid’s attention, to try making more active lessons and I believe you will see your students reciprocate with more engagement in your class.
The last idea I have about inspiring my students, is one that is much easier said than done. That is to make my class interesting for my students. The reason this can be so challenging is because the first thing you must do is know your class. Every class of young learners is different and is constantly interested in different things. In the past I had a class that loved dinosaurs, anything dinosaur themed they went crazy over. So, I created a lesson about dinosaurs to help them understand parts of the body and they loved it. However, the next year I tried the same lesson with a different class and there was absolutely no excitement about it. They just wanted to create zombie monsters… Sometimes, with young learners, they can even change interests within a matter of hours. They might have play time on the playground where they play a game with a crocodile, and then all come back to the classroom with endless curiosity about crocodiles. Young learners are imaginative, and their interests align with their imagination at times. This shows us as educators, that we must constantly be evolving with our classes’ interests, which sometimes means adapting on the fly if you can take advantage of a sudden spark of interest they have. We also must remember that children love to feel understood and by creating lessons that interest them, we make them feel heard. When we as educators can make our kids feel heard like this, they will feel special and enjoy learning in our subject.
When I think about how I have inspired my students to love my subject, I know the three ideas I discussed above are not the complete answer to that question. There are all the little intangible things that happen every day, the laughs, the accidents, and the memories that cannot be put onto a piece of paper, they are simply just enjoyed in that class. However, these three ideas, that I always keep on my teaching tool belt, have helped me create a basis for what I do in my classroom. It is with this basis, which has helped allow for all the beautiful moments, that no one could have ever planned for, to happen in my classroom. These moments are what the students will remember as they grow up and are what helps inspire them to love learning in my classroom. It is important to remember that young learners are like plants, we cannot control everything they do, all we can do is try to provide them with the best environment and watch them grow.
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