Emily wrote in to ask:
Hi Richard, I’m currently teaching English in the Czech Republic. Having looked through your site all of your lesson material seems to focus on the 45min lesson plan. Most of my classes are 2 hours long and some are 3 hours long, so I guess I was wondering in your personal opinion as to whether Genki English would be suitable for such a long duration of class?
Hi Emily, thank you very much for writing in. Actually you’ve reminded me that I have to do a blog post about this (and here it is!)
With longer classes it actually works out a lot easier to teach, as you get more contact time per week, and Genki English works great.
For 2 hours, you can just do the regular lesson plan ( either Traditional “Teacher” Version or the more Modern Version ) but spend a little more time on each part of the lesson, there is a lot of content there and 2 hours gives the kids a chance to fully master the English. I’d also add in the “5 minute phonics” either in the middle as a break or at the end. You could spread the phonics out to be 10 or more minutes (but no longer than say 15) http://genkiphonics.com
You don’t need a whole three hours to learn one theme with Genki English so I would recommend splitting those lessons into two and doing two lessons from the curriculum, each with 90 minutes with a little break in between. Actually once you get a little practice with each lesson, and if the kids are fast enough, you might even find that you can do 3 lessons in the time – the kids will get really good, really quickly then!
Be genki,
Richard
Three hours! Wow…most of the classes I teach GE to are 20 to 30 minutes in length (they’re preschoolers). Richard, do you have any tips for getting the most out of that short time. It feels even shorter than it sounds.
With 20 minutes you can do a really good “input” stage of the lesson or a really good output stage, but it is really tough to fit in both for anything other than the simplest themes.
SO… My biggest tip would definitely be “make more time”! 🙂
You can do so much more with preschoolers as they learn so fast *and* don’t get tired – they can keep going all day! So if you can I’d say definitely invest the time with them at this age compared with higher ages – the parents should be happier with it too!
Hello Richard,
Currently the issue I am having is that I have a class of 40 1st grade students. The school would like more games played but the classroom set up makes it difficult. The children sit at desks so it is hard to get them to move around. What do you suggest if I cannot use an open area.
Thanks!
Hi ELT,
With each of the lessons in the curriculum you need to use the first “recommended game” for each lesson. I purposely chose all those to be used in classes in India or China where there are similar problems with unmovable desks – although often with 100 or even 150 kids in class! So with 40 it should be no problem.
Ninja Tip: These games are also the ones written up for each lesson in the “easy” printed lesson plans book: http://genkienglish.net/manual.htm
ELT;
If you’re in japan:
try to get your school to arrange a room for English.
Most schools are having a room left stuffed with things that can be put elsewhere.
It seems to be my biggest achievement to convince principals in this point: All the schools I had seminars this year are creating a special room for their English classes right now.
You can put the Digital white board in there, each school usually has at least one these days and can do so much in there.
Mark,
I think you mentioned before that most of your kids come several times a week? No way to have them come only once and make the lessons longer? I think you could get so much more out of it, and it would be easier for all parts, won’t it?
I have 60 minutes from ages4-12, and I keep the time until 10, after that age I never make it in time, and even with little ones it would be an easy thing to go on longer…
I have the same problem as Mark, I see each kindergarten group once a week for 20 mins and I can do nothing about it… I think I’ll split each lesson into two parts, though I’m not happy about it. Any solutions, fellow teachers? 😉
Thanks alot for your helpful lessons .Indeed,feel much better than before my english is emproving my english.