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June 06, 2007
Teaching Tips and Tricks- Mind Maps
Hello Readers,
Back when I did my CELTA course, I remember how eager teachers were to show that they could present vocabulary in an interesting way to the students. Some of the trainees spent hours coming up with riddles about key words and phrases to help elicit the words from the students. While I find elicitation to be an effective method for vocabulary teaching, there are quick ways and incredibly time-consuming ways to do this.
It is well-known that it is easier to remember a set of words that have something in common than a set of random words. While the key words in a text may not always belong to one common group, ...
... often times, at least some of the words do. In order to teach these words, I find drawing up a mind map on the board an effective way to elicit some of the key words for a lesson.
Let's say you have a text about holidays. In the text, the words "all-inclusive", "beach holiday", "honeymoon" and "relaxing" occur. Before having the students read the text, you can simply write "holidays" on the white board, draw a circle around it, and ask the students to describe different kinds of holidays that one could take. Write up the words the students come up with on the WB around the main word (in this case, "holiday"), draw a line from the elicited word to the main word, and draw a circle around the new word. Students will shout out words that aren't in the text; that's fine. Write them up anyway. By doing this, students are testing their own personal vocabulary knowledge, using words that they've learned, and are able to learn from each other. If the students do not come up with the words you're looking for, then you can give hints to get the word out of them. You might be surprised with how easy it is to do this.
What are some other ways you can present vocabulary to the students? Feel free to add your comments below.
Hope that helps!
Carol Rueckert
Writer, ESL Lesson Plan
E-mail: crueckert@eslemployment.com
Blog: www.esl-lesson-plan.com
"I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand." - Chinese Proverb
*For more ESL Tips & Tricks from ESL-Lesson-Plan, please click HERE!
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About the author of this entry:
Carol, a native English-speaker who hails from the small town of St. Joseph in Minnesota, USA, worked in China for more than 7 years. During that time, she worked with students of all ages and levels. She worked at universities, private language schools, grade schools, international schools, and did private tutoring as well. Besides teaching, she also worked as a head teacher, an education manager, and a material development manager. In addition to working on this newsletter, she also writes a monthly column for Time Out Beijing. Carol is also currently working on her MA in TESOL at Oxford Brookes University in England. Look for her posts on the ESL-Jobs-Forum discussion boards!
Posted by crueckert at June 6, 2007 12:49 PM
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Comments
I am taking my TESL training and have a listening practicum coming up. My theme is political statements through music. The first song I am going to play is John Lennon's Imagine. I was going to lead-in to this by getting the students to close their eyes, take a couple of deep breaths (I do this too to lessen the self-consciousness) and "picture" the world as it is today, the problems that exist. I will have the students do this for a couple of minutes....then I get them to open up their eyes and talk to their partner about what they 'saw' in their mind...then I put political statements on the board in the middle and get students to make a statement about their world....
Next, I was going to ask them what do we call it when we picture things in our mind? Hopefully one of the students will say 'imagine'...and then that leads into the playing of the song..i.e. "John Lennon probably did what you just did, except he put his images on paper and to music." I play the music.. I then give them the lyrics perhaps with some words missing, etc
Does anyone have any other ideas for how I can modify this or make it better?
Posted by: Susan at June 19, 2007 08:45 AM
iam a graduate teacher from makaerere university what are my chances of geeting the teaching jobs you advertise.
Posted by: babukiika allan at June 20, 2007 08:06 AM
Check out this link for more info on mind maps:
Posted by: Igor at June 22, 2007 05:51 AM
Hi Susan,
I really like the idea of using imagery in the classroom. One thing you might want to consider is instead of telling them simply to "picture the world as it is today" is to guide them through the exercise a bit more with a few other prompts. Perhaps you want them to think about what makes them happy or sad about the world, what life was like 10 years ago, what they think the future will be like in 10 years time, etc. (This is also known as 'guided imagery').
It's great that you are having them discuss their ideas with a partner before doing feedback in a large group, as it will give some of the weaker students some time to rehearse what they want to say and/or to figure out what's going on if they misunderstood the instructions the first time!
I'm not sure what you mean about making statements about the world; do you just mean that you are going to have them write down a few sentences like "The world would be a better place if..."?? What's the purpose of the writing the statements? That might need more thinking. It's doable- it's just important that you have a reason for doing each exercise (especially for an observed class :))
Your question leading up to the song is a good one; don't be surprised if they don't quite get it right. They might say imagination or thinking or something else. Be prepared to explain the differences if necessary. (Depending on the level, that is).
Make sure you have some kind of activity for the students to work on while listening to the song. Usually when we do listening exercises, we include some of the following:
* predicting (eg. instead of telling them the name of the song, you could ask them to guess the name of the song based on the lyrics, assuming they won't know John Lennon ...)
* listening for gist (eg. how do you think the singer is feeling?)
* listening for detail (fill in missing words)
Each time students listen to something, there should be a purpose. Depending on their level and the listening task, you might want to play the recording more than once. If you do, let them know that you will play it more than once to lessen their anxiety.
Once you're finished with listening to the song, you might want to think about a discussion activity or a writing activity that you could have the students work on that deals with John Lennon as a singer, the problems of the world today, a final chorus to the song, etc. Or, you could look through the song to find a grammar structure or word set that sticks out and have the students work with that.
Sounds like an interesting lesson plan!
Good luck!
Carol
Posted by: Carol Rueckert at July 3, 2007 12:38 PM
Hi Babukiika Allan,
Generally a BA and a TEFL certificate are the main requirements for teaching overseas. In many places, there is a preference for native English speakers, but will also employ qualified non-native English teachers.
Good luck with your job search!
Posted by: Carol Rueckert at July 3, 2007 12:43 PM
