Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Volunteering II: More teaching English in Argentina

For my past few times volunteering, I was the only teacher and I made up the lesson from scratch. There are usually about 10 kids, ages 8-12. On one trip, I used flash cards that other volunteers designed and focused on vocabulary, pronunciation, numbers and asking “how many…?”.

Before leaving, I asked the kids “Why is it good for you to learn English?” Not feeling ready to engage them in a conversation about the role of the U.S. in the world, I provided personal examples to their responses (work, travel, school, etc.), explaining how I enjoy the same benefits while learning Spanish. I then asked them what they wanted to learn next time. Their list included types of vocabulary as well as basic verb conjugations.

I taught myself the present simple, present continuous and past simple tenses on wikipedia before designing a lesson on them. The lesson I attempted was too challenging for a few students and I didn’t get past present simple tense. I have a few more sessions with these kids. If anyone out there has any tips or websites, don’t hesitate to send them my way.

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