5 things you need to know for teaching kids in China
1) Prepare stuff they’ve already learned
Most soon-to-be foreign teachers come to China with barely any knowledge of grammar (me included- I felt I’ve learned more grammar in China then I ever did in school at home). Chinese English teachers, however, have it drummed into them so they know pretty much everything you don’t need to know about grammar. So it’s best to leave it at that- don’t teach them grammar or new sentence patterns, get them to use what they already know, and use it on you. This is why textbooks are important- if you didn’t have them, you’d never know what they’d learned. The glossary at the back of the book can handily tell you what they’ve learned, and what they will (eventually) learn.
2) Toilet humour- literally…
…and figuratively too. Drop a mention of the WC in an example in class and they roll around laughing and suddenly have an interest. ‘Taking a shower’ is a new one for my class these days (where did they learn all this from? It certainly wasn’t me), so I’ve added it in accordingly. However, they don’t realize that ‘shit’ has more graveity in English than in Chinese, so it can be hard to calm them down. Don’t scold them too much for using it though- they don’t know that. I blame Western/American films with liberal uses of swear words- so much so that even kids on the other side of the world are desensitized. Globalisation is a harsh mistress.
3) Celebrities
Similar to the last point, drop a celeb in all they go weak at the knees. I imagine it’s because they don’t mention any celebs in politics or chemistry (unless Hu Jintao and Marie Curie can be counted), although I can’t be sure. I always have a safe list of celebs who I can draw on., although I’d err on the side of caution if you’re not sure if the class will know him/her (as much as I want to, I think dropping Bruce Forsyth or Montell Williams would draw a blank). I’m still surprised the effect that Justin Bieber has on a class of girls: even showing them a picture gets a idolatic scream every class. It’s the closest I can come to the effects of Beatlemania.
Western safe bets are:
Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, David Beckham, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Obama, Mickey Mouse, Bill Gates (!), Harry Potter, 007 (“oh oh seven”), Cristiano Ronaldo (“C.Luo”), Michael Jordan, possibly Taylor Swift.
Chinese safe bets (that I know of):
Yao Ming, Jay Chou/Zhou, Du Hai Tao, Xie Na, Wang Han, He Jiong, Chen Long/Jackie Chan, Li Xiao Long/Bruce Lee (Chinese as far as they are concerned), Xi Yang Yang, Xi Li Ge, Liu Qian, Zhao Ben Shan, Liu Xiang, Ou Di, Wang Fei, Ma Lin, Liu Xiang. DON’T use Mao, Lei Feng etc- as they will combine them with any of the key words I mentioned in point 2) and you could have a diplomatic incident on your hands.
4) Reading things in unison
Best if you’ve got Powerpoint (there are other similar products on the market), reading aloud is something that all can take part in, at any level. Obviously they don’t use their brains much, but it’s always something everybody is willing to do, and you can see it. It took me a while to learn that a good prompt is “ready…go!”. Reading games are great for this (see my post on reading games)
5) Discipline
Kids are kids. They can be the same everywhere- unruly, loud, lazy etc (not all of them, mind). So you’ve got to be prepared for this- I wasn’t, having come from two years of teaching uni-aged students where discipline was never a problem. I find shouting as loud as you can destroys everything in sight but takes a hell of a lot of energy; staring at the class in eery silence is just as effective but takes more time and a fraction of the effort (I always dread the day when they won’t react to my Nasty Face); and taking a book from the kid that’s been drawing in repeatedly kills indiscipline for a group of kids for a few weeks- many of them write diaries etc so are horrified when I take it away. They end up coming to the office and saying “sorry” repeatedly until they get it back. Magazines I just chuck away. As I’ve said before, you have to be a bastard (or a bitch- we at Chingogo believe discrimination is a plague upon person-kind).
Reading Games
Reading texts can be so boring. Even worse if you’re the teacher and have to get students enthused. Here’s a few reading games I use to spice things up. Obviously the text should be read through in unison beforehand (see here) for full effect.
Reading with actions
For example, get them to read the text through, except:
-any words beginning with p, clap
Get them to read through to the end. It usually gets a few laughs as kids mess up. Then, introduce a new rule
-any words beginning with t, stand up.
Add this rule to the last one- the kids are always so excited that we use not one, but two rules (the other classes must be so tepid)!
Silence!
Split the class into 4, give each team 10 points. Explain for every mistake, they lose a point.
-First, they read the text as normal, but each team says one word- so 1st team “I”, 2nd “went”, 3rd “to”, 4th “the”, 1st “bank” etc. I usually guide them through this, playing the role of some strange conductor, speeding the reading up until I hear a sonic boom.
-Then, explain any words that begin with o, they cannot say. This is always hilarious in the classes who read with gusto as there’s always one poor sod who shouts out a word by himself, with ensuing hilarity and slaps from his team-mates. They usually end up getting clever and saying “shh!” or something on the designated word, so I change the rule that no noise can be made at all.
Silence! 2
One could only assume that this game bombed. Badly.
Not much different to the last games, they were all pretty gung ho for this game too. This needs 2 teams.
-They read with one team saying one word, but explain any three letter words they cannot say (like the last game)
-Then add another rule: two letter words must not be read, but clapped. This adds a degree of complexity, and even more if you finish early and then switch them around (2 letters=silence, 3 letters=clap).
Typhoon!!
For the end of semester review class, I played Typhoon. Famous in the ESL world, this game turns bored students into little interacting monkeys. It’s the element of revenge that drives it, I think.
The class is split into two teams. The two teams choose their own names (it never fails to astound me how animated they get just for choosing a name for their team).
Have rows and columns (4 x 6, for example) labelled 1-4 on the rows and a-f for the columns. Each team takes it in turns to choose a square (a1, c2, e4 etc), and then answer the corresponding questions. The team will either get 1,2 or 3 points or Typhoon- which wipes the other teams points off. The students don’t know which square will give which amount of points or Typhoon, and in my classes I’d always get the students trying to crack some code to see where the Typhoons were (as if I was that into making it).
Typhoon- best done indoors.
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Unit 3- What were you doing when the UFO landed?
This week, I’ve mainly been teaching Unit 3 of Go For It! （新目标） It’s finally a braver attempt at something interesting than the usual snotty-nosed characters asking each other with utter gusto “How often do you go to the zoo?”.
I started off with showing a few cliparts of the new vocabulary before telling the kids to turn to p. 105 to look at the new
vocab. I then split the board into 4- Nouns, adj., verbs, places- and get the students to offer me new words from the Unit as I fill the blackboard with whatever they’ve suggested. I don’t do this for long, because anyone knows it’s pretty boring. But it’s necessary for the next step- mad libs.
I had to tweak the mad libs a bit because the kids would often make it “yellow” (for yellow read blue in our culture)- so I had to make it as sexless as possible. I gave them a few minutes to write adjectives, nouns etc before revealing the baseline for their story. Seeing them laughing with glee at their new story is a reason why I’m still a teacher.
Aliens- harmless and internationally interesting. Great for a textbook then.
Shopping
This is a great and lively activity for the ESL shopping/business class at intermediate level.
Shopping- big in the 80s
I start by brainstorming- asking the students what they think of when they think of the word ‘shopping’- elicit responses, before adding some of your own vocab (think queuing, hardware store, kiosk, bargain (v. & n.), rip-off etc). Then get some volunteers (8 or 9 for a class of 50). They’re the shopkeepers- so give them a ‘shop’ to be the boss of and a list of items they sell (i.e. for the hardware shop: hammers, mirrors; for the kiosk: newspapers, magazines etc). The rest are shoppers- get them in pairs, and print off shopping lists to give to them with around 5 or 6 items on. They then have to go to the ‘shopkeepers’ and get the cheapest price as possible. Place the shopkeepers around the classroom, and then go.
I found the students would ALWAYS talk English, bargain the hell out of everything, and generally seem to have a good time. At the end, find out which shop was a bargain or rip off, and who had the cheapest or most expensive shopping list. This took around 45 mins overall, possibly a bit longer if you want to drag out the reviewing part.
Language of Agreement & Disagreement
20 phrases- the students decide if it’s in agreement/disagreement and how strongly so. Get the students to think of their own afterwards. Simples.
Language of agreement and disagreement
He agrees. Or does he?
Celebrity Interviews
No worksheets here- make it yourself.
Confucius- seconds before doing The Worm
Make up around 6-7 sentences with no relation to each other, i.e. “That’s why my mother was on fire”, “Who told you I was a vegetarian?”, “The bell was as thick as gravy”, “Twice a month” etc. Make different sentences for different groups. In class, get the students into groups of 4 or 5, and then get them to think of a star. Hand out the sentences (6-7 for each group), and explain that they are to conduct an interview with said famous star and must include all the sentences at some point during the interview.
This took around 45 minutes including explaining, planning and performing, and had some funny results- with Zhou Enlai telling us he could only eat bananas on Tuesdays and Confucius explaining why he liked break-dancing.
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Teaching in a Middle School in China
There are so many things I wish I was told before I started teaching in a Chinese (Junior) Middle School. I’d taught in a University and a college before, but this is way beyond those. Here’s 10 things nobody told me: so I’m telling you!
1) Don’t be friends
I made this mistake from the start. Yes, it’s nice to show you’re human and that you’re not just some foreign bot without any background, or perversely, that you’re this exciting nutter who’ll X-ray the kids and take them to the Moon. But really, you’re a teacher, and you should just be prepared to be accepted just like the other teachers- don’t bother trying to change things.
If that distinction between friend and teacher is blurred at this age in these types of schools, then you’re finished. You have no hope. You need respect, and unfortunately this might have to take form by being strict, and if the occasion calls for it, being a nasty bastard.
Also, don’t pander to what the kids want. Give it to them occasionally in the form of games and fairly exciting activities, but remember, you’re in charge. Then when you unexpectedly give them a game or something, they’ll be a lot happier. And they’ll respect you for it. I’ve read on another ESL forum that trying to get the kids to like you is a sign of unconfidence in your own lessons and ability and I couldn’t agree more. Be confident. Be that bastard.
2) Call their bluff
If they’re bad or noisy, give them a rollocking. Nobody likes being shouted at, and I find that they’re much better afterwards.
If you stare at a kid who’s making too much noise, they’ll eventually back down.
If you take the magazine off the kid who’s reading and throw it away, they won’t do it again.
If you make the kid who’s done something pretty bad to stand up or stand in the corner for the rest of the lesson, they’ll be OK.
What I mean about calling their bluff is that even though I have nothing beyond shouting or staring, they won’t dare to call my bluff. Thank God for that.
Me: an artist's impression. He was promptly fired.
3) Kids sometimes can’t work
Sometimes kids just aren’t that bright. I try going up to a student who isn’t working, and they just don’t understand me. They don’t understand English. Remember when you were in Physics class and didn’t understand or like it? Yeah, happens in English too. Unfortunately, the best thing to do is to leave them alone. You’re not going to fix the problem in five minutes.
4) Remember, it’s not always your fault
Following on from the previous point, kids are the same in most classes- not just yours. That lippy kid who makes snide comments in Chinese? Yeah, he does that in Maths too. Let’s face it, he’s an annoying little so and so. The kid at the back who never works? Her mum and dad are going through a messy divorce and she just can’t concentrate or care about work. It happens in my class, because it happens in others. Don’t beat yourself up about it.
5) Games at the start of class- NO!
Ｉsometimes think that I’m a little kid too. I love playing games in class and having fun, but once or twice I let excitement get the better of me and we played the game at the start before doing serious work. Bad idea. The kids get too excited, won’t want to do work, and discipline problems arise even in the best class.
Although I would add a footnote- I’ve used games at the start with some success with some classes. These classes are the ones who are great, but painfully shy. A game at the start can help them break out of their shell. Generally though, it’s a bad idea.
6) Monday afternoons are not your friend
Mondays are pretty much terrible for anyone, unless you love work and that horrible feeling of dread on the way to work. In Middle Schools here though, it’s even worse- for all concerned. At around 7.30-8am the whole school will congregate on the school playground and will be subject to ritual patriotism: the raising of the national flag and the singing of the anthem.
Unless you’re fairly unlucky in that your school’s governed by a tin-pot dictator, you as the foreign teacher won’t have to be there. But it still has effects on your classes, namely that everyone’s a tiny bit more cranky and unruly than usual. So Monday afternoons will not be your friend.
7) Things will change- get used to it
I’m currently writing this after being told that my only Monday morning class was cancelled, and that I now have 3 hours to do nothing. I could have just had a lie in at home. But that’s how things are- your lessons can and will get cancelled at short notice. Just look on the positive side.
Conversely, however, things can be added on at the last minute- the one time that sticks in my memory was at 11:50am on Friday, just before lunch and the final push towards Moscow/the weekend, the tannoy announcing that we were all to be in school on Saturday and Sunday. It’s hard to carry on teaching enthusiastically at this point, but that’s how things are. That’s China time- the last minute
If you're this old and teaching in a Chinese middle school, leave. Quickly.
8. Use Powerpoints
If you have this technology at your disposal, don’t let it go begging. I started teaching in a middle school with great facilities after being in a fairly rural place with not much to speak of in terms of technology- it seems they blew their whole budget on installing whiteboards instead (don’t get me started on those evil things). So I carried on as usual with only a blackboard. That’s my style, I told myself.
Unfortunately, kids lose interest quickly. You’ve got to compete with a world of Iphones, Xboxes and whatever else (bizarrely, yo-yos recently)- so make it interesting! Since using Powerpoint (I hasten to add there are other programmes on the market), the kids will take more of an interest and will be grabbed by the swirly pictures and flying text. Magic!
9.Eye Exercises
Why didn’t anyone tell me this? In middle schools across the country at 10:50 and at 15:30, peaceful music is piped into class, along with a soothing voice announcing numbers. The kids sit there and massage their eyes along to the music for around three minutes. The first time this ever happened, I was surprised to say the least. Just go with the flow- walk around and gesture for students to do the eye things and soon you have a class full of peaceful, eye-massaging little angels. For three minutes.
10. Be thankful you can plan your own lessons
I used to hate the fact that I had to plan lessons- I’d plan three a week, hoping that they’d be successful , although everyone has a dud now and again. And I’d curse the school for not making teach from a book. Now, however, I have seen the light. I usually do some type of Powerpoint game where questions are answered and teams get a point or two for answering. It seems pretty repetitive, but it’s a barrel of fun for the 12 year old who has just had politics class (I still can’t believe they teach that at this age). Obviously, they’re rarely my ideas and have been pinched from other sites (see the links page), so I feel highly guilty when a teacher has come up and called me a genius, or that I’m a fantastic teacher (they obviously haven’t seen my dud lessons or when I think that murder is an adjective).
Remember, the other teachers in school will teach from a textbook- you can do whatever you want and will be seen as the creativity king/queen for it- even though plagiarist king/queen might be more appropriate.
Idioms of Success and Failure
A tache and a clipboard bigger than yourself. That's a true measure of success.
One for the Business English class- both intermediate and advanced. It’s a list of idioms, with space to fill in the meaning yourself. What I did was to give each of the students a number, and they had to guess a) if it was for success or failure and b) the actual meaning. I found the students were quite happy as I’d give them a few minutes to prepare and so they were ready to hazard a guess.
Quick Games
5 minutes left in class and you’ve already done everything?
Maybe the computer isn’t responding or the projector has broken?
It’s always a worst nightmare- having NOTHING as a backup when things go wrong. So, keep your cool, and memorise these games. They take little preparation, but will kill those minutes that need killing. I find that teachers of other subjects in my middle school never need anything like this as they always have the textbook to keep ploughing through (a perk of not doing your own lessons!). So I suppose even when timings don’t go well, just think: you could be teaching boring stuff from a textbook!
These games need little preparation (which can take 5 minutes sometimes I find and can drive me crazy!) or props.
1 or 2 Fingers?
Always a treat. Thanks to crimsect at ESLHQ for this one. Split the class into two and the blackboard two. On each side write new vocabulary and the team’s points tally. I’d give each team 10 points and take away a point for each mistake.
Maybe rude, but that's the way this hand rolls.
Kids would get so into this- going crazy with the kid who said the word by mistake etc. As the game got going the kids would often shout “SHHHH!” when I used two fingers, so I changed the rules to no sounds at all if I used two fingers- often taking a way a point from the over zealous members of the opposite team!
How many words do you know?
One for the lower levels perhaps, but will work for any level. Split the class into 4 teams and the blackboard accordingly. Have one volunteer from each team to go up to the blackboard.
The game: the volunteer has 1 or 2 minutes to write down as many words as possible on the board with a theme (verbs, things that are white, 5 letter words etc). Teams can communicate with their volunteer- noise ensues!
The kids loved this game but there is a problem with large classes as those at the back can’t get too involved.
Label the body
Similar to above: draw 4 featureless bodies (corpses?) on the board- one for each team. Each volunteer must label the bodies with body parts, or with illnesses for the second round.
Hangman
Much used and maligned, but I found this worked very well in my past-tense class- you do one past tense verb and then whoever gets it right does the next past tense verb and so on ad nauseaum/boredom. Although there’s not much communication going on, it reinforces spelling and I found that the worst students who NEVER talked/tried would hazard a guess at a letter and get really involved.
Backs to the board
The place goes crazy for this. I could have done this for the whole 40 minute class and it wouldn’t have got boring. 4 teams again, 4 volunteers.
The game: the volunteer has their back to the board as I write a piece of new vocab (and cover it while I’m writing to stop those cheeky cheating monkeys). I take away the cover and voila! The team must communicate the word to the volunteer who must face the team at all times. The first to put their hands up can hazard a guess.
I would let the kids use Chinese to communicate, as long as the word offered by the volunteer was in English. I’d take away points for teams just shouting the word. Hilarity ensued as some Chinese words sound the same due to tones- thus one team offered watermelon instead of habit etc. Maybe you had to be there.
Good luck!
Money Phrases
A simple fill-the-gaps exercise. This took around 10-15 minutes to complete for my intermediate class in the Business College I taught in. As you can see, the cultural references are Chinese so you might need to edit that out if you’re not teaching in China!
Many of these are idioms/phrases (in the red, tighten your belt etc)- I found that students” vocabulary was often very limited and idioms and phrases can colour speech up a bit!
The bag's bluffing. Unfortunately for him, the bag is full of cheese.
Family Roles
This worksheet was used to discuss family at an intermediate level, and also at an advanced level. As the answers are fairly open, this allows for both these levels. I would never use it for my beginners or pre-intermediates though!
An overly-happy family
I’d usually give the students a handout either in pairs or individually and give them around 10-15 minutes to discuss between themselves before discussing with me. I’d draw a corresponding table on the board and then fill in as necessary. It would take between 20-45 minutes, depending on the class and their level.
