Teaching Grammar with Fun Learning Games

12:25 PM English grammar, Fun Learning Games, learning while they are playing, motivated to learn grammar, Teaching Grammar, the students to repeatedly hear a new grammatical structure. No Comments

Teaching English grammar can be hard going - for the teacher and the students.  It doesn't have to be difficult or painful, however.  You can teach English grammar using fun learning games and before you know it your students will be more than willing.  How does it work, you ask.  Well, there has been a movement away from the traditional methods of teaching English grammar through writing, rewriting and worksheets to using a more active approach through games.  Researchers have also begun to look at how and why these new methods work. 

Four sound reasons to teach grammar with games

1. Arif Saricoban and Esen Metin, authors of "Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching Grammar" explain how and why games work for teaching grammar in an ESL classroom.  They say, "Games and problem-solving activities, which are task-based and have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech, are the examples of the most preferable communicative activities."  They go on to explain that grammar games help children not only gain knowledge but be able to apply and use that learning.

2. Additionally, games have the advantage of allowing the students to "practice and internalise vocabulary, grammar and structures extensively."  They can do this because students are often more motivated to play games than they are to do desk work.  Plus, during the game, the students are focused on the activity and end up absorbing the language subconsciously.  One can also add that fun learning games usually contain repetition, which allows the language to stick.

3. While games are motivating for the students, probably the best reason, according to Saricoban and Metin, to use games is that "the use of such activities both increases the cooperation and competition in the classroom."   One can use games to add excitement through competition or games which create bonding among students and teacher.

4. Aydan Ersoz, author of  "Six Games for the ESL/EFL Classroom" also explains more reasons why games do work for teaching grammar.  Learning a language requires constant effort and that can be tiring.  Ersoz says games can counter this as because:

* Games that are amusing and challenging are highly motivating.
* Games allow meaningful use of the language in context.

Children are more motivated to learn grammar with games

The theory of intrinsic motivation also gives some insight as to why teaching grammar through games actually works.  Intrinsic motivation refers to the internal factors that encourage us to do something.  Most young learners will not internally decide that they want to learn grammar.  They don't yet understand the concepts of why it's important to know proper grammar, so these external factors won't affect them much either.  Instead, intrinsic motivation can lead encourage them to play games.  If these games are good then they will be learning while they are playing.   

Using some movement is crucial because movement helps activate the students' mental capacities and stimulate neural networks, thus promoting learning and retention.   If you have a large class with no space you still have options.  Children can stand up, sit down, move various body parts and pass things around to each other.  Movement does not only mean children tearing around the playground.

What Kinds of Games Work Best?

When you are looking for games to use in your classroom, don't just pick something to be a "time filler" which does not have a definite linguistic outcome.  These games may entertain the students, but when you don't have much time with them each day as it is, you want your game to do double duty to get the most out of the time you spend playing games.

Have a clear linguistic outcome for each game.  

The game can be a listening game to allow the students to repeatedly hear a new grammatical structure in use, or it can be a speaking game to allow practise of the grammar once it has been absorbed through listening beforehand.  There are degrees of difficulty with speaking games from basic repetition in a fun context to more creative sentence creation for revision or more advanced practise once the basics have been mastered.  The teacher should lead the children through this progression so that the game at hand is always well within the grasp of the students.  

This makes games fun rather than laborious.  It is a mistake to play a speaking game immediately after the new grammar has been presented.  Ideally reading, spelling and writing games come after the new grammar has been absorbed and the students can use it orally.

Another thing to watch out for with grammar games is that a maximum of students are involved simultaneously.  If you have thirty children you want to avoid a game where only one child is speaking at a time.  

What are the other twenty-nine children supposed to do in the meantime other than get bored?  On the other end of the scale however are games that cause chaos in class and make teachers unpopular with colleagues because of high noise levels.  A variety of suitable games are available for you to try free in the resource box below the article.

Now you can stop the eye-rolling and complaining from your students when you even THINK about teaching them a grammar lesson, and have some productive fun. 

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Are You Dealing With A Math Problem?

7:25 AM Math is a sequential, math is black and white, Math Problem, Math seems to be a much more difficult fix than reading, right or wrong. No Comments

In the past few years there have been more and more students needing special help with math.  Not too long ago most of the help was given to students with reading problems.  But now, math is taking over.  And, it's no longer just boys who need help in math or reading.  Five years ago most of the students who needed help in school were boys, but now girls are appearing as frequently as boys.

 Math seems to be a much more difficult fix than reading.   In part this is due to the increased standards that are being imposed on students who are just not developmentally ready.  But there is also a definite processing problem as far as math goes.  Students can't seem to understand the language of mathematics.  

 Here are the basic problems that are occurring in math:
 1.  Students can't process more than one piece of information at a time.
 2.   Students are unable to process information sequentially.
 3.   Students can't switch gears during multi-step problems. 4.   Students lack a basic working knowledge of addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts.
 5.   Students are not able to thinks through story problems.
 6.   Students make a large number of computational errors.
 7.   Students are unable to neatly organize a paper so that the correct answer can be achieved  for instance  lining up columns or spacing problems out on a page.
 8.   Students develop an actual fear of mathematics and freeze up when asked to perform math problems.

 Math is a sequential, logical activity.  The student must be able to access the left hemisphere of the brain in order to accurately perform math computations and problems.  The right brain dominant student is at a severe disadvantage as far as math goes, but there are brain exercises that will show the student how to access the left hemisphere of the brain.  These exercises are like magic, in that the once confused, unorganized student can now function in a logical, organized manner.  The language of math makes sense.  Computations can be performed accurately.   The fear and anxiety can go away.  Success can be found.

  In addition to brain balancing exercises, the student can benefit from perceptual, spatial, and visual memory activities.  Memorizing facts can often be a big chore for students, even though these very students are extremely intelligent.  If a student has not mastered basic math facts, then higher level mathematics is nearly impossible.  As the student stops to figure out a multiplication problem, he will lose his place in the entire process and get lost.  Once this happens, not only has a lot of time been spent, but it is difficult for the student to find the correct answer.  

  In addition, math is a developmental process.  When a student is ready to understand a mathematical concept, it is easy.  It clicks.  But when a student is not ready to understand a concept, it really doesn't matter what you do to try to help the student.  He simply is not yet ready for this concept.  The new, highly difficult standards imposed by No Child Left Behind do not take this into consideration.  All it takes is a review lesson of Piaget's levels of development to understand this simple concept.  If you leave this same kid alone for a few months and revisit the same skill, more times than not, the skill can easily be learned.

 In math, there are no points for almost right.   In reading a student can muddle through some words and still understand the basic concept.  But math is black and white, right or wrong.  There is no in between. Students need help to succeed in math. If you know of a student who is suffering from math problems, there are many things that can be done to help. 

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How Can Our History Change Their Future

7:15 AM Change Their Future, elementary school, How Can The World Change? No Comments

History gets a bad rap in school. Many of us have memories of history class being taught by rote memorization of facts and dates and names with little or no application to our daily lives.  No wonder its considered boring and dull.  Anytime we are expected to simply recite and repeat bare data for the sole purpose of passing a test, that information is unlikely to have any lasting change or effect on our lives.  In order to use the valuable lessons that history can teach us, it needs to be presented to children (and adults!) in a way that brings it alive and connects to our present day way of life.

How Can History Make a Difference?

History has many valuable lessons for us that can spur us on to greater achievement and accomplishments, but only if we can find a way to teach it to our children in a way that will get them excited and revved up.  If a child is  taught that the great discoveries and milestones in our history shaped our culture and our world, and that these discoveries were made by ordinary people JUST LIKE THEM, they can be inspired to go and achieve huge milestones and accomplishments of their own.

However, if, as parents, teachers, mentors or role models, we did not have a passion for history ourselves, it becomes  nearly impossible to stir up an excitement for it in our children. We have become so accustomed to our world that we take for granted the amazing discoveries and accomplishments of  the ordinary people who became extra-ordinary by using and building upon what has already been learned by others.  By finding ways to get our children excited about the value of historical information and lessons, we can inspire them to see possibilities for their own future. We need to show our children that history is NOT simply a recitation of the events of the past, but a proving ground for the greatest challenges and accomplishments of the future.  We can learn from those who have gone before us and use that knowledge to shape the events that will carry us into the history of the next generation.

 Historians have long known and espoused the need to apply the wisdom of the past to the problems of the present in order to change the future. Frederick Jackson Turner, one of the two most influential American historians of the early 20th century, once said, Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time. Because we can more readily relate to the world in which we live than we can to a distant past, we view our history from a perspective that is based on today. 

How Can The World Change?

So, how might the world change if we could find a way to instill a love of history into our children when they are in elementary school? If children in third, fourth, fifth grade were able to really connect with some of the ordinary people in history who accomplished extraordinary things, what would they go on to accomplish in their own lives?  Here are a few ideas of what could happen:

●         If a child learns the history of Marie Curie what might that lead to?  When Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discovered radium, it eventually led to an effective treatment for many types of cancer.  Their work and subsequently Madame Curie's own death from aplastic anemia, almost certainly from overexposure to radiation, also led to the discovery that too much radioactive exposure is fatal.  We now live in a world where nuclear radiation is a global threat. If a child can learn about chemistry and Marie Curie, then she can learn how to counteract any bio-terrorism or nuclear attack and save millions from certain death and devastation.

●         If a child learns the story of George Washington Carver or the history of agriculture, she will learn that the introduction of agriculture was instrumental in civilizations being able to evolve from hunter-gatherers who were constantly on the move in order to feed themselves to becoming more stable and settle in one place.  Furthermore, developments in agriculture, allowed individuals and families to produce enough food to feed the entire community, freeing up others to perform other tasks that led to further growth and expansion. They will learn that innovations in agriculture changed the entire economic dynamic of the American south as reliance on cotton was lessened.   By learning about crop rotation and hybridization, then she will grow up knowing that there are new techniques and hybrids waiting to be developed and she may finally find a way to feed the starving children of the world.

●         If a child learns about the reality of the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews, as well as millions of other Europeans who were determined to be less than desirable by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers and their rampage of hatred across Europe, he can  become the political statesman that finds a way to end the genocide that still takes place in this world in many places such as Darfur and Rwanda. The fact that genocide still takes place in our world after the unthinkable horrors of  the Holocaust is a tragic outcome of what happens when we refuse to learn from history. But it will be a child who has found a passion for history who becomes the individual who finally finds a way to end this kind of calamity and prevent it from being allowed to continue or begin again.

●         If a little boy learns about the search for insulin to treat diabetes and discovers that the first insulin was extracted from dogs, he can use the tenacity that was involved to cure Parkinson's disease or spinal cord injuries. By learning about the trials and errors of scientists of the past, especially when times were primitive and tools were crude, that child will learn that there are no boundaries to what we might learn or find or create?  In 25 years time, there could be a cure for AIDS, diabetes and cancer.  How would our world change if we could find the cures to such devastation?/

●         If a child is taught the mathematical genius of men like Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, he can learn that mathematical equations are the basis of all space travel and as he learns about how to apply that knowledge, together with the historical knowledge of astronomy, he could work with other scientists and chemists and  discover how to recreate the Earth's atmosphere  on another planet or moon and the real possibility of a space community/colony can happen.

●         If a child learns the history of the civil rights movement, in a way that shows and creates empathy for the very real feelings of the people that lived and still do live with such terrible injustice and intolerance, cruelty and ignorance, she can learn to find ways to end the rest of the racism in America. The lives of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. are taught in history classes, but usually not to the depth that can create real change.  If a child could be shown the creation of prejudice by a class-based society when he is seven, eight or nine years old, before he has been exposed to a lifetime of bigotry, he could readily accept the faulty thinking involved and prevent it from passing on to his generation.

●         If a child learns the truth of wars like Vietnam he could learn that  war really doesn't solve a thing. Although we salve our egos with noble causes like ending Communism, ending slavery, ending terroristic rule, most wars are caused by power, hatred, and greed. If a child learns that these are really the reasons that thousands and thousands of soldiers and civilians die, he might learn to live a life free of these crippling, deadly emotions. If all of our children in third, fourth and fifth grade could learn to live without a need for power, a hatred of others and a greed that drives him to do unthinkable things, how might that change our world in 25 years?

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Teacher Motivation - Who Teaches The Teachers?

7:11 AM support or to motivate a teacher, teacher motivation, teachers to get training to improve their skills. No Comments

In these days of budget cuts, classroom overcrowding, and compulsory high-stakes testing, teacher motivation is more and more difficult to sustain.  Many teachers decry the lack of control they have over their classroom scheduling due to federally, state, or district-mandated programs.  

Not only is their classroom time rigidly controlled, it is also often very complex, with students being pulled out or sent in for enrichment or ability-grouped mini classes.  Sadly, the lack of effective teacher motivation is a prime factor in experienced teachers looking for work in other fields.  If your school wants to keep its teachers happy, here are a few ideas.

Of course, one of the biggest ways to show support or to motivate a teacher would be by paying him a salary commensurate with his worth.  With so many budgets constricted at a district level, though, there is often little a principal or parents group can do in this regard.  What they can do is to make things easier on the teachers.  If a support staff is truly supportive, they limit classroom interruptions, extracurricular requirements and faculty meetings and streamline procedures so that the teachers can concentrate on teaching.

Maintain a positive school environment for the adults as well as the children.  Celebrate together when you can, but treat everyone on the staff as professionals in and out of school hours.  Morale is crucial; since teaching requires a great deal of giving, a nurturing environment will help to replenish the teachers.

If you are in a position to do so, encourage teachers to get training to improve their skills. This applies to all walks of life of course; people like to feel that their employers invest in them as well as in their business.

Feedback is a vital part of teacher motivation.  Everyone wants acknowledgement that they are doing a good job, and suggestions on how they can do even better.  Thank your teachers sincerely when they have done something well appreciation is the greatest gift of all.

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Education is for People, Training is for Puppies

6:09 PM [be a teacher], [become a teaching], [becoming a teacher with a bachelor s degree], Education is for People No Comments

Do you want an education or just some training?

We train a dog to sit, stay and roll over on command. We train soldiers to march, follow orders and respond like machines. Training can be a simple conditioned response and is effective on any higher-functioning organism with stimulus-response capacity.

The great thing about training is that once you are conditioned to do something a certain way, you are likely to keep doing it that way almost automatically. While this may be a desirable trait for soldiers on a battlefield, it is not so great for employees in a dynamic workplace. If they need to change, it can be difficult to break an old habit. 

Education has the potential to be more complex and challenging than training. It requires more from an individual than simply attaining a level of competency in a fixed range of skills. Education involves learning principles that can be applied to a range of different settings and results in the ability to adapt to changes in your environment. It exercises the mind and increases its potential to manage new information and solve complex problems not previously encountered. 

So while training may help you get a job today, education can help you keep it, realise your full potential and turn your job into a career.

What then do you want?

If you want an education that increases your capacity to see, identify, think, communicate and solve problems; you need to choose what and where you study very carefully.

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5 Keys to Winning Science Fair Projects

5:42 PM 5 key to winning science, sciense Fair Projects No Comments

The key to creating an award-winning science fair project is to understand what the judges are looking for - how they select a winner. The point scoring system for your science fair may differ from others -- there is no standardized point system -- but generally speaking, science fair judges have a similar method of judging. That is, they start with a neutral score, not good or bad, and then depending on the performance of the presenter, points can be added or subtracted from the final score. If you do the following things, there's a good chance to improve your score.

OBJECTIVES

Is your project full of original and well-thought-out ideas? Were you clear in describing the problem you were researching? Be sure you know your material, especially the content of your final report. Was your science fair project too easy? A difficult or advanced project can make a difference in how the judges evaluate it, and whether or not it becomes a winning science fair project.

SKILLS

Are you knowledgeable about the experiment itself--did you design it and perform the experiments? Having a good command of the technical aspects of your project reflects very well on you. Know what you're talking about, and know your experimental data, but also know the ins and outs of the experimental apparatus.

DATA

Was your data collection scientifically professional? Be sure to use a journal to record data from the experiment. This demonstrates organization. Did you repeat the experiment? Repetition lends much more reliability to your data. Repeat it if you can.

INTERPRETATION

Is your use of tables and graphs helpful to the judges in understanding your data? Did you use the tables and graphs correctly and collect enough data to reach a reliable conclusion? Make sure that you are confident in your final numbers. Science is all about proof.

THE FINAL PRESENTATION

Are you able to answer the judges' questions knowledgeably and confidently? Be sure to use your display while the judges talk to you. It isn't just a backdrop, it's a visual aid to the information that you've worked so hard to obtain. Make sure that you explain every element of the board and make sure that the board looks as professional as possible.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The final judging is mostly subjective. While the judges are looking for a few specific things, the way that you represent yourself and your project, and the way that your display board looks can make the difference between leaving a poor impression, and impressing the judges with your award winning science fair project.

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3 Key Challenges To Reduce Homework Time and Stress

2:35 PM children No Comments

Parents have asked us why homework takes their child 2, 3 and even 4 times longer than their peers and what they can do about it. This article defines the 3 key issues and what parents can do about it. Student’s key issues often include:

1- Attention is a major problem, both in class and while doing homework

2- They often have one or more vision issues too often these students eyes are either: not working together; skipping words or lines when reading; or they have difficulty copying off the board

3- They become tense when doing homework and often lose it

When a student has trouble paying attention in class, they often must be re-taught the information at home. What makes matters worse is that the students homework time, which should have taken 45 minutes, gets stretched to 1 and hours due to re-teaching, and then to over 2 hours because they cannot stay focused.

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