What’s my lesson plan today? A “shared topic”
As a teacher, I often wonder “how school will go today”, “will the children like my lesson today? Will they have fun?”. My hope is that what I prepared for them will not burden or bore them.
All these many "ifs" and "doubts" lead me and make me think I will not carry out the lesson serenely.
As a teacher, do you ever feel a little insecurities?
Perhap when teachers work in school they feel overloaded with responsibility, and they do not always find the right topic, fun activity, attractive little game to run with your students.
The teacher's ultimate goal is not only to pass knowledge, but also to share thoughts in an active, natural way, with interest, motivation and enthusiasm.
That's why the preparation of an activity requires time, care, and dedication.
When working with bilingual children, it is also difficult to find an interesting and engaging topic that can capture kids’ attention.
With this in mind, I decided to experiment a new method with a group of older children called "shared topic". From the very beginning it worked great, so I want to share it with you.
In preparation for the next lesson, I proposed to my kids a list of topics and I asked them to vote on them. In general, this was a winning strategy because a lesson plan that starts with a student's interest can’t be so boring. Instead of making a topic interesting for the students, the students pick their own topic! Genius!
When the students pick their favorites topics, they help me understand their interests and personality better. In this way I didn’t only tune with my students, but I also created a "winning" lesson because I use their interests and what they like to do.
Another strategy is used for the little ones (4-7 years old). I still like to use fun learning games, such as game categories, guess who, bingo of animals, etc, children can play even at home within their family.
Both teachers and parents should use the “share topic” method to play and motivate their kids.
Don’t get discouraged! Simply put, get your children involved!
Here are simple but very effective examples!
Use moments of daily life to "play in Italian". For example when you go shopping, or when you set the table up for dinner, name the objects in Italian. Finally, tell them a good bedtime story.
I wanted to share this topic with you because I would like to know your point of view and also because I think that learning something new (in this case the Italian language) must be accompanied by tools and methods that help us to involve pupils so that they will actively learn!
Finding new ideas and different points of view helps us to grow professionally and enrich ourselves as teachers and parents.
How do YOU choose your topics? Have you ever experimented with a method that helps you motivate your pupils?
How do YOU, parents, help your children gain experience with Italian.
So, parents and teachers GO WILD… I want a lot of comments!
by Salvatrice - 02/01/2021