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Help the children!!!

09:57 / 31.10.07

I am also looking all over the net for websites and such, but if anyone can point me in the right direction it would make me so happy!

jentacular dreams

10:33 / 31.10.07

Is this any good?

15:05 / 31.10.07

Might want to see if you can find copies of Hop on Pop, too.

Since it's searchable on Amazon, you even might be able to print out some pages.

00:59 / 01.11.07

What language are you teaching them to read? The bit about "words that can be read phonetically" is a bit confusing to me. Are you trying to teach them to read English, and looking for English words with sounds that will be similar to those found in Japanese? Like simple vowels, and so forth? Or just words with straightforward orthography?

08:40 / 01.11.07

I am teaching english in a full-on fully english school.

The kids start when they are 18 months, and learn english at almost a native level. The kids really do speak english at the level of any English speaking 3 or 4 year old. The preschool has recently added a private-school kindergarten coarse, which I am teaching. But they have nothing for me to work with. They have given me these students and hired me away from the states, where I was working my way through school, to work as a kindergarten teacher. These kids have opted out of their first year in a Japanese kindergarten to go to a private english speaking kindergarten. The public school offers kindergaten but it is optional, so a number of parents choose private schools.

The school has purchased a number of books, containing large words and the kids just cant read them. They start my class knowing the alphabet, and I need to teach them to read. I am looking for lists of easy to read words, beggining reading words, so that I can write my own reading materials for the kids.

Anyway, thanks for any help.

09:49 / 01.11.07

The school has purchased a number of books, containing large words and the kids just cant read them. They start my class knowing the alphabet, and I need to teach them to read. I am looking for lists of easy to read words, beggining reading words, so that I can write my own reading materials for the kids.

So...you're getting paid right?

Do the sodding work yourself then you lazy get.

All Acting Regiment

13:29 / 01.11.07

Stuff like:

Cat/sat/mat/bat/that/chat/

It/sit/grit/lit/bit/kit/

Would that help?

13:40 / 01.11.07

There's a great store near where I live that specializes in curriculum materials, mostly for younger children. I had problems with some parts of their website, but try looking here -- seems like they have what you're looking for.

13:44 / 01.11.07

Guys, I don't feel like going in to work today. Will someone cover my shift?

13:45 / 01.11.07

For the children's benefit you understand.

13:50 / 01.11.07

Leave him alone, he said he's looking for the stuff himself as well. Damn, can't a person ask for extra help?

23:49 / 03.11.07

Thanks very much for the help!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:18 / 05.11.07

I'm surprised that a couple of people are taking Ender to task here just for asking for a couple of word lists. Teaching a class of small children isn't easy, especially when the school appears not to have provided age-appropriate materials, and it's quite usual for teachers to obtain materials online or from other teachers. I mean, for my class today I'm going to be using a list of prepositions I got off an ESL website; is that the same as not doing my job? Sorry, but you're being a bit funny.

Ender, I'm sure you've seen it already but I like Dave's ESL Cafe. About.com have a lot of free resources (although running them through a spellchecker is usually a must).

09:24 / 05.11.07

I'm surprised that a couple of people are taking Ender to task here just for asking for a couple of word lists.

(mutter) I'd have gotten away with taking the piss if (mutter grumble).

Sorry then.

17:40 / 05.11.07

Phonics strategies for kids

There's a heap of stuff on the UK DCFS website (although there's a bigger heap of stuff elsewhere where people are debating whether phonics is a useful strategy for young kids, personally i think it's decent as a start, along with reading good stories to kids so they work out how language works). This section of the website runs through the six-part framework, with pdfs and audio/video clips to get you started.

It's mainly for native speakers, and I've used it for that, but I've also adapted bits and pieces for kids with English as a second language, so you should be able to find something usable in there.

Good luck!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:40 / 23.11.07

Heya, I wonder if any of the other ESL peeps around here can help me. I'm tutoring an 11-year-old lad one to one, and I'm having a heck of a time keeping him engaged for the full hour. He's a bright kid with a high-intermediate level of English. I have him 3 days a week and I'm rapidly running out of games and projects to keep his attention. Any ideas?

13:02 / 23.11.07

A readthrough of 'The Invisibles', maybe?

14:40 / 26.11.07

Comics might work, especially if tied to some upcoming movie the kid was interested in.

But what has worked best so far?

I wonder if online stuff would help - MMPORGs or something.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:46 / 26.11.07

He's well into his videogames, so basing classes round that has helped. "You should give your Sims a nice house. You must keep your Sims happy..." etc.

It's just really hard to get an 11-year-old boy to pay attention to phrasal verbs on a Friday evening...

16:59 / 26.11.07

Jesus, wait - three hours a week, a full hour each go?

That's a recipe for problems, I think - for college students, the average length of time before boredom sets in is around 20 minutes. I try to break classes into three chunks - a reading/discussion thing, a lecture and some kind of writing exercise. I wonder if you can do something similar with shorter chunks.

And if one class is on Friday evening, I wonder if watching videos of some kind of engaging English-language thing would be possible. Monty Python movies? Episodes of Star Trek? Smallville? (What else would an 11-year-old be into...?) I'd say Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that might turn into "spot the incorrect grammar," which could be its own kind of fun.

It seems like a lot would depend on what the else kid likes to do. Play music? Ride bikes? Go fishing? Vandalize public buses? I wonder if you could do something like, I dunno, set up a Second Life account or something for real conversation with people who really speak English.

Or if that would be a recipe for disaster....

17:02 / 26.11.07

I wonder if online stuff would help - MMPORGs or something.

MMORPGs, grant, but that was a test, surely?

I don't know... old people.

17:06 / 26.11.07

My brain refuses to accept that the games are Role Playing but not Multi Player, for some reason.

Anyway, I was thinking about doing something actually on the computer rather than just about it.

jentacular dreams

19:25 / 26.11.07

Wait a minute - there's grammary wonkiness in the buffyverse?

14:34 / 27.11.07

In Buffy-speak, lots of verbs became "-ing thing" or "-yness" ("keep up with the stakeyness" or similar). I think this was a stab at California teen lingo.