Today was my first English class with my fifth grade students. I have been worried about teaching for the past three weeks. What will I teach them? How much will the know of English already? Can I even communicate with them at all? I think these questions were important, but I didn’t need to dwell on them too much. I had bought an English book that is for 3rd graders and followed its curriculum.
We started off with introductions. I said my name and what my favorite hobby is. I then asked Wonjay, Jiesuhn, and Hyanna to introduce themselves and what their favorite thing to do is. This proved hard for several reasons, shyness and the inexperience of speaking these phrases. I eventually found that Wonjay, a boy, likes soccer. His favorite team is Manchester United. I think there is a Korean who plays for them, which might bias his affinity. Both Jiesuhn and Hyanna, both girls, like music, though they don’t play, nor could they tell me their favorite music to listen to.
The rest of the two hour lesson was spent learning what the book had to offer. Some of the topics we went over were how to say what day of the month our birthdays were on, how to use past tense when making a statement, and what articles of clothing we should bring to a beach or camping. At moments the lesson lagged, and Wonjay had the hardest time of all three students, but he keeps trying with some proding. The hardest concept I tried to teach them today was the difference between I, we, and they. Try doing this in your head when the word ‘include’ is not understandable. If you can, tell me. I would like to know.
Overall, I am very impressed with how much they know. They are very good students who listen to what I say, and participate willingly. I find this the most important. I want to make the class more fun in the future, more hands on. I will have to look into what we learn next to figure this one out.
By the end of the two hours, I was a little tired. I could tell the students were ready to be done too. But I felt good about what we had accomplished by the end of the lesson. I don’t know how much it helped them. I think we might have reviewed and strengthened past knowledge, but that is fine for me.
I gave them a homework assignment that is due this Tuesday. I want them to write a short essay on who they are, how old they are, where are they from, that stuff. For an example I wrote, ‘My name is Chris Cooley. My birthday is on May 19th, and I am 25 years old.’ At this, Wonjay read what I had wrote, which I was very pleased with. ‘My name is Chrisu Cooley and I am 100 years old. Both girls laughed, and so did I. Wonjay seemed happy, too. Maybe he is embarassing me like I did to him durring the lesson. Which did happen a couple times, I think. But I wanted to make sure he understood the point I was trying to teach. He then repeated my fake age to everyone when I was saying good-bye to the stuents and their mothers. We all laughed again.
When I returned home, I changed into my running clothes and went for my first run in a month. I can’t say I felt the urge before now.
