More on American Football

If you enjoy my last blog post or want to teach your students more on the topic of American football.
Here are two useful website that I came across with:
elcivics.com
This website has great flashcards that explain all different parts of the game really well. They also have four different types of worksheet for exercises. Great for game time!

eslgo.com/
This one has a fantastic grammar lesson plan using NFL reference. The lesson plan might be a bit old (2002)but the general concept of the lesson plan is still solid!

American Football Lesson Plan: Vocabulary

Super Bowl just ended, did your favorite team win?
Super Bowl is one of the most important sports events in America and has became the culture icon for American pop-culture.
Why not teach your students something about American football ?

This lesson plan includes the following vocabulary:

stadium 體育場

---a large building with seats for sports fans and a field for players.

 “The largest stadium in the America is the Michigan Stadium.

goalpost 門柱

---one of a pair of posts (usually joined by a crossbar) that are set up as a goal at each end of a playing field.

“In order to win the game, each team tries to kick the ball into the goalpost.”

referee 裁判

--- someone whose job is to make sure that players in a game obey the rules.

“My father will be the referee for tomorrow’s basketball game.”

quarterback 四分衛

---an important player in the sport of football who gives instructions to other players.

“I am the quarterback of my team.”

offense 進攻

--- the part of a game such as football that involves trying to score points.

“They’re a team that has always been stronger on offense.”

defense防守

---the players in a team game who try to prevent the other team from scoring points.

“Our defense team is not as strong as our offense team.”

touchdown 底線得分

--- An act of carrying, receiving, or gaining possession of the ball across the opponent's goal line for a score of six points.

“The football fans screamed out in joy after they saw their favorite team scored a touchdown.”

end zone 得分區

--- the area at the end of a football field where you have to take the ball in order to score points.

“After he received the ball, he ran as fast as he could to the end zone.”

fumble 漏接

---to try to hold, move, or find something using your hands in a way that is not skillful or graceful. In football, it means dropping the ball.

“He fumbled at the goal line.”

Super Bowl 超級盃

--- The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL).

“Super Bowl is one of the biggest sports  in America.”

Download American Football Lesson Plan: Vocabulary

Teaching Grammar

I used to teach all the subjects in my English school. The subjects ranged from reading, writing, listening, grammar, phonics, to science, math , and project. Among all these subjects, grammar is the least favorite subject from my students.
Instead of drilling them with lots of paper-based exercises, I noticed that if I spent less time explaining the rules and more activities-based drills. It created a more joyful learning atmosphere and my students seemed to learn faster and actually remembered it better. However, this method is a two-blades swords, by decreasing the paper-based exercises, it also decreases students's familiarity to the test/evaluation formats. Different teachers, students, classroom settings will all effect on the results.

So how do you manage your class when teaching grammar? Please share with us!

Elementary school subjects

As an English teacher, do you know all the subjects that your students take? I often find myself wondering what other subjects/courses my students take other than English. If you share the same wondering like I do, then please continue reading!

Ministry of Education outlined all courses for both elementary and junior high school into six groups at the following:

歷史文化 culture
自然生態  nature
生命教育 life
人文藝術 art
科學教育 science
健康醫學 heath

Each school can decide and choose what kind of materials they want to use for all different groups. In general, for most elementary schools these different groups translate into the following subjects:

國語 Chinese
英語 English
數學 Math
自然 Science
社會Social study
藝文 Art
健體 Health
生活 Life
, and with optional 客語 Hakka and  閩南語 Fukanese.

"Taiwan's education situation"

I am extremely honored to be invited to write for Collegia Vanguardia Educativa, a Mexican magazine. My article was to introduce Taiwan's education situation to the Mexican reader!

Here is the link to my article in the Magazine:

Taiwan's education situation


Here is my article,

Education Situation in Taiwan

Taiwan is a small island situated next to China. Taiwan is influenced greatly by Chinese culture and passes the same vision of the importance of excelling in academic activity to their young generation.

The current Taiwanese education process includes 2 years of preschool education, 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of junior high school, 3 years of senior high school or vocational education, 4 years of college or university, 1-4 years for master degree program and 2-7 years for a doctoral degree program. Taiwanese students usually go to school 8AM to 4PM, Monday to Friday.

Taiwan adopts the 9-year compulsory education system. Therefore 6-year elementary school and 3-year junior high school are mandatory. With the social consensus on high academic achievement, cram schools for all kinds of talents such as English, math, science, writing, music, art and dance class are very popular.

Children start going to cram school at the age of 6. Since most public schools end around 4PM, cram school will send team of teachers to pick up kids from school and take care of them until their parents are off work. Sometimes kids will stay in cram school until 9PM to finish and review their homework.

The amount of homework is not too overwhelming, it usually takes students 2-3hours to finish it. However, the amount of test is, most students have different quiz on different subject at any given day.

The average of total expenditure on 9-year compulsory education per public school student is 4,967 USD and extra 14,767 USD on cram school(s); per private school student is 37,067 USD and extra 553,267 USD on cram school(s).

After graduating from junior high school, students have to take the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students in order to apply for high school or vocational school. Every junior high school tries its best to deliver the highest entrance rate for entering the best high schools. Therefore curriculum, materials, teaching style hence became test oriented and memorize based. Sometimes “less important subjects”---such as physical education, art and other classes which are not included in the test--- will be shorten or replaced by “important subject”---such as Chinese, English, math, science, geography, history. Junior high school students on average will spend 14 hours on studying per day.

The same situation continues to high school since high school graduates will once again take College Entrance Examination to apply for college or university. Although with the high acceptance rate of 90.44% for college in 2011, the competition reminds intense. After all, everyone wants to be the best of the best.

For those who want to be a teacher in Taiwan, you will have to either graduate from teacher’s college, Normal University or take education courses at undergraduate level. After that they need to pass the Teacher Qualification Assessment for Kindergarten to Senior High School in order to teach.  

Under graduate and graduate education is more relax for Taiwanese students and allows them to have more free time to learn more about themselves.

Aesop's Fable: The dog and the shadow.

After New Year vacation, are you refreshed? I know I am!
Let's kick off the year with the classic Aesop's fable!
This lesson plan includes the following vocabulary:

peace: (noun.) a state of mutual harmony between people or groups.

plank: (noun.) a long, flat piece of timber, thicker than a board.

brook: (noun.) a small, natural stream of fresh water.

shadow: (noun.) a dark image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light.

reflected: (verb.) to cast back (light, heat, sound, etc.) from a surface. reflect-reflected-reflected.

beneath: (preposition.) below; under.

snap: (verb.) to make a sudden, sharp, distinct sound.

beware: (verb.) to be wary, cautious, or careful of.

lest: (conjunction.) that (used after words expressing fear, danger, etc.)

substance: (noun. ) the actual matter of a thing, as opposed to the appearance or shadow; reality.

grasping: (adjective.) greedy.

The dog and the shadow lesson plan.

CD or no CD?

Most textbooks often include an audio CD. An audio CD is like a two blades knife. Sometimes it creates great effect but other times it might not be so effective.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the recorded audio:

Advantages:

--- An audio CD allows students have the opportunity to listen to few different voices and accents instead of only one person.

---Audio CD is portable and ready to use. You don’t have to read through or be trained for the text. It is already there, all you have to do is to hit PLAY!

Disadvantages:

--- The volume and the quality of the recording could be tricky. There were a few times that the recording was simply not loud enough for everyone to hear it clearly or the quality was so bad and distorted. Nowadays everyone uses CD for recording, sometime there are might scratches on the CD and it just won’t play. These technical problems could go on for a full list.

---- Another interesting thing I observed throughout the years is that like all students have to ability to listen and comprehend at the same speed. Some students of mine, they understand the materials completely but it takes them a longer period of time or slower speed to react to it. Therefore using pre-recorded materials might restrict the possibility for your students to learn at their own speed.

Extensive Listening

As a teacher, sometime I found myself in the situation that my students struggled with listening. No matter how hard I try, they never seem to improve at all. Later, I learned that through extensive listening and intensive listening, students can improve their listening skills. So what is extensive listening?

Extensive listening is “where a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement.(303)” according to The Practice of English Language Teaching.

Extensive listening could be done during class time. However, it might take up too much time. As a result, extensive listening is best executed at home or outside of classroom. For example, I often assigned my adult students to listen to English radio one hour a day. They might not be able to understand it at first. But after a few months of listening to it on a regular basis, they start to pick up. They learn new vocabularies from it!

Another good example of extensive listening is Christmas caroling. Instead of simply teaching your students the lyrics, you can make a CD with all the songs you want them to learn and ask them to listen to it everyday. My young students learned how to sing the song before I begin to teach them!

However, there is still downfall for extensive listening. Extensive listening is only effective when your students have strong will enforce it. And the materials got to be exciting enough for them to follow through. 

More Christmas Craft Ideas

If you have seen or made all the crafts on my previous blog entry and want to tone the Christmas craftness up a notch. You go visit Marthastewart.com for up to 49 kids-friendly crafts!

Christmas Craft Ideas!

Do you want to make Christmas craft with your students and children but don't know where to start?
You can go to http://www.enchantedlearning.com for more Christmas crafty ideas!