[redcopper]

Hi,
I hope I can get some help from you more experienced teachers.
Background. I'm living in a small village way south of Daejon. So I decided to give the village kids free English lessons- after all who better than a native speaker living in your village and free.
Problems. The ages range from 5 up to 13 and I get on average 12 ss per class (1 per week for 45 minutes) but that can sometimes swell to 20+.
A class survey shows that most know the alphabet to some extent, a few can read and fewer can write.
I've limited the class to conversational lessons as I don't think a classbook would cover that range of abilities. My mission is to give the kids a jump start to their next school level e.g. kindergarten to primary etc. Even then I have some trouble getting the balance just right so the more advanced aren't too bored and the real beginners can't follow.
We've done all the basic greetings, time,calender, numbers,weather, do you like ..., I am... some basic verbs etc.
I'd like to start doing some more stuff such phonics & blends and trying to teach the younger kids to read simple words and I'd like to get the more advanced kids more actively involved.

Question. Is it a good idea to split the class into groups and allow one of the more advanced kids to lead a group in say how to read the word "apple" for a 5 or 10 minute session in the 45 minutes? Or am I being too (what's the word - I've been living in foreign countries for the past 25 years and my English is not what it used to be)?

Apologies for the long post.

[Eric]

you're living near jirisan? lucky! its beautiful down there!

Quote redcopper

Question. Is it a good idea to split the class into groups and allow one of the more advanced kids to lead a group in say how to read the word "apple" for a 5 or 10 minute session in the 45 minutes?

i wouldnt have your advanced kids lead the less advanced kids unless you were very confident that the advanced kids are solid in what they would be teaching.

its a tough situation for sure. im not sure if this would be possible but i might try something like the following. it might not be super effecient but you could at least try to meet everyone's needs. why not introduce whatever material to your youngest students for the first 5-10 minutes of class. then give them an activity to practice it. while their practicing, introduce material to your older students. its not ideal but you might be able to address most needs.

another thing you could do is to split your class into 25 minute segments (25 for advanced ss, 25 for younger ss). then you could have focused 'power lessons'. if you assign homework so students are familiar with what you'll be covering before they arrive you could get through more material.

i hope that helps,
eric

[Eric]

another thing about splitting your class into 2-25minute segments is that you would reduce the class size, too! another bonus.

[redcopper]

Thanks Eric,
As usual some sound practical advice. I'll give it a shot probably next week and let you know how it goes.
Cheers