Thread: learning new words with children

Having experience teaching languages, I have found that it is helpful to give students visual aids, and practice speaking it along with fun exercises.

If you look at the website in my signature (below) you will see some examples of what I mean.

[url]http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/spanish_friends[/url]

Here is one specific example of how I teach Personality and Character to students through the web. It is for Spanish instead of English, but the same techniques apply.

I am a Spanish teacher, too, and have taught ESL as well. I like to use fairy tales to teach new vocab, but I make sure to have it visually displayed. I will highlight certain words as we go, and the first student to find the word in their dictionary earns a point that leads to a prize later. I have a whole series of fairy tales, and I have found that many of them use the same vocabulary (wolf, pig, house, little girl, little boy, etc..) and the repitition is very helpful.

I use alot of children's books to teach on all grade levels too, and games such as BINGO, etc.

Sounds like solid techniques TaterTot. I might have to try offering points/prizes.

Usually, I have just done dictionary drills as a bell ringer type activity. I call out 3 words in Eng and 3 in Span, and the first one to find it in their dictionary gets a dot in my gradebook. At the end of the 9 weeks, they can either purchase prizes (such as candy, trinkets, homework passes) with their points or turn them in for a little extra credit (limited). This year, I am going to issue McMillan Moneda (thats me) - little green bills with my pic on them lol and they will work like the drill points have in the past.