The job of a teacher seems straightforward and quite obvious - you know English and tell others how to speak, write, etc. Some believe that practically nothing needs to be done at all - they came, talked and left. But few people, except us teachers, know that a huge part of this work remains behind the scenes. After all, each lesson is a well-developed and carefully prepared material, adapted to a particular student, built into the structure of lesson cycles in such a way as not to violate the integrity of the entire educational process.
How much time to waste
In schools today, teachers are required to prepare carefully with written notes for each lesson. This is very labor and time consuming, especially for young teachers who have not yet got their hands on this difficult task. In private schools and courses, this is not required, but the preparation for the lessons has not been canceled either. Some teachers believe that each lesson should be prepared for about an hour in order to find suitable material, prepare or adapt assignments for the lesson. If you have two lessons a day, then it's not scary, if you have six, then get ready to spend the rest of your life behind a pile of books or in front of a monitor screen. Of course, everything can and should be optimized as much as possible.
Do the essentials in preparing for the lessons, and then it will take you an average of fifteen or twenty minutes. By and large, the teacher has to work mainly with the same educational materials. So, if the textbook is new to you, it will take more time to carefully read the tasks, read the texts, listen to audio recordings, and familiarize yourself with the additional tasks presented in it. Plus, spend five minutes thinking through the creative game tasks in the lesson, and plus five minutes to write everything down nicely and legibly.
First impression
Preparation for the first lesson with a new group and a new student is especially important. The first meeting is always very important, as it puts in the student's subconscious the impression of the teacher and the lesson with him. At the first lesson, you can infect the student with a huge charge of motivation or discourage the desire to study at all. That is why it is worth preparing especially carefully for the first lesson. Some modern methodologists argue that it is normal for a teacher to spend all day preparing for a lesson with a new group of students. But, unfortunately, not everyone has such a luxury and can afford to spend so much time, even with all the desire. Here it is important to take into account some factors.
- First, it's your experience. If you are just starting to work, and you still do not have your own developments, you do not know what to expect from the first lesson, how to properly develop its structure, then in this case you will need much more time, perhaps a couple of hours. If you are an experienced teacher, you should not relax, as each new student is a new “challenge”.
- Secondly, it is important to be prepared for the fact that different people have different pace. The number of tasks that one student will complete a whole lesson, another can complete in ten minutes. Make sure that you don't have to figure out what to do with your more active students during the lesson.
- Thirdly, remember that the declared level of a student does not always correspond to the actual one. Often people either underestimate or overestimate their knowledge. Therefore, if the tasks are too easy or too difficult, there will be no sense. Prepare at least two options for tasks more difficult and easier, during the lesson, already decide what is better to apply.
- Fourth, make sure that the lesson is not boring. Everyone loves positive emotions. Include a game moment in the tasks, take interesting topics for discussion or small humorous articles. Be sure to praise the student.
materials
There is no clear opinion about what materials to use in preparing for lessons. Some methodologists encourage the development of creative abilities of teachers and strongly encourage them to apply them in life. Some enthusiastic teachers draw pictures, invent crossword puzzles, almost write books themselves. But there is also an opposite opinion - why invent a bicycle? There are tons of great tutorials that are freely available from various resources. They already offer a lot of interesting and extremely useful tasks. They are well structured, developed by talented and experienced methodologists and educators. Just take and consistently perform all the exercises in order.
As always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The best way is to use several textbooks in preparation for the lesson and personal work that, in your experience, resonates with students. It is extremely effective to combine several textbooks on a similar topic. For example, you are working on the Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate tutorial and go through the first module in it, which touches on the Present Simple tense. In addition, you can take a grammar book - R. Murphy for adults or Round-Up for children, to further work on grammar. You can also suggest some grammar game or your own developments. Thus, the lesson will be rich, it will affect all aspects, and you will be able to work out this topic with the highest quality.
Remember that the time spent preparing for classes will pay off handsomely. You will always feel confident in any situation in the lesson, and you will not be taken by surprise. Always take into account the needs and wishes of your students, taking into account their individual characteristics and ability level. Then your lessons will always be interesting and your students motivated.
Big and friendly family EnglishDom
We all know how an English lesson begins. The teacher enters the class, greets the students, asks who is on duty, what date, who is absent, what was the homework, what is the weather like outside, etc. Of course, all these questions are in English. And students, accordingly, must answer in the same language. What is to be done for someone who not only cannot answer, but does not even understand what he is being asked about? Our article will help you understand what the teacher says in an English lesson.
We have selected the necessary information for you, thanks to which English lessons will become much clearer for you, and therefore more interesting.
The teacher always starts his lesson with a greeting:
Good morning / good afternoon, children / everybody! (good morning / good afternoon children / everyone).
Hello children! I'm glad to see you today! (hello, children! I'm glad to see you today!) - Hello, Anna Ivanovna (hello, Anna Ivanovna).
How are you? (how are you?) - Fine, thank you (thank you, good).
The next thing the teacher will ask is who is on duty today? - Who is on duty today?
I'm on duty - I'm on duty.
Petrov is on duty today - Petrov is on duty today.
Who is absent today? (Who is absent today) - Everybody's here (everything is in place) / Berestova is absent, she is sick (Berestova is absent, she is sick).
What day is it today? (what day is it today) - Today is Thursday (today is Thursday).
What date is it today? (what date is today) - Today is the twentieth of September (today is the 20th of September).
We always use ordinal numbers with dates. They answer the question which? (which?) and are used with the definite article (the definite article) the. Ordinal numbers end in th. Exception words: the first - the first, the second - the second, the - the third.
What is the weather today? (What is the weather like today?) For answers to this question, see here.
Take the duster and clean the blackboard, please (take a rag and wipe off the board).
I think it's time to start our lesson. (I think it's time to start the lesson).
Let's check your homework (let's check your homework).
What is your home task for today? (What was your homework for today?)
1) We have to do the exercise number six on the fifteenth page orally and the exercise number four on the same page in written form ).
2) We have to learn the poem about autumn months by heart (we had to learn the poem about the autumn months by heart).
3) We have to retell the text about animals and make our own questions (we had to retell the text about animals and make up our own questions).
4) We have to read and translate text number eight in our text-books (we had to read and translate text number 8 in our text-books).
5) For today we have to describe the picture orally on the page forty - (for today we had to describe the picture on page 40) /
6) We have to complete the dialogue in our copy books - (we had to complete the dialogue in workbooks).
New words (new words):
to do exercises - do exercises,
orally - orally,
in written form - in writing,
same - exactly the same
to learn by heart - learn by heart,
to retell - retell,
to make the questions - make up questions,
to read - read,
to translate - translate,
to describe the picture - describe the picture,
to complete - finish.
Every person who has ever attended a language course or individual lessons with a teacher asks himself the questions: “How effective are my lessons? Does the teacher build the course of the lesson correctly?
We will try to answer these questions and approximately recreate the structure of the ideal lesson. I would like to immediately note that the sequence of blocks that we will indicate may vary depending on the desires of the teacher.
1 . Let's start with the fact that an effective lesson cannot last less than an hour and a half. 1 hour 30 minutes is the time during which the teacher will be able to explain all the new material, check your homework, play a small lexical or grammar game with you and give you audio materials to listen to or watch videos.
2 . In addition, the number of people in the group must be limited. If there are more than 8 students in the audience, then the lesson is considered ineffective. The teacher cannot devote time to everyone and interview everyone, check homework, and so on. So it is better to choose mini-groups where 4-7 people are engaged.
3 . Each lesson must begin with a homework check. Why didn't we do it at school? Why homework? - hear your indignation. The fact is that homework, sadly, plays one of the main roles in learning English.
Many people who come to language courses do not even suspect that they will be asked to work at home, and some simply declare right away that they will not do anything at home. But it's not right! Homework is necessary so that you constantly maintain a normal level of knowledge and consolidate the material covered. Therefore, homework cannot be abandoned!
4 . Next, there should be a new topic in the lesson plan. Here the teacher plan and new lexical material and grammar. To consolidate the lexical material, you can watch a thematic film or other video materials, to consolidate the grammar, do a few exercises, play a grammar game, etc.
5 . In a good lesson, there must be time devoted to listening. The teacher puts you a dialogue, monologue or audiobook, you must catch the oral speech, and then recreate it yourself in English (retell). For groups where the language level is not very high, listening is often practiced as homework. Students first listen to the material in the lesson, the teacher explains incomprehensible points, and then the students independently listen to the same material several times at home and retell it at the next lesson.
7 . There should be a relaxing part at the end of a good lesson. You can watch a short piece of a movie in English, tell the latest news or a funny anecdote, etc.
If the teacher pays attention to only one student in the class or does not have time to interview everyone, do not be too happy about this (they say, cheers, they got off me!). If you do not participate in the dialogue, you will not be able to consolidate the knowledge gained. In addition, you will never be able to overcome the notorious language barrier, because you will not have the skills of speaking.
In general, a good English lesson is a lesson in which the teacher puts his soul into it. If you feel that something does not suit you in a lesson, it is better to change teachers, because there will definitely not be any sense from such lessons.
We used to think about how to make the lesson useful: how to plan it so that we can do everything? How to explain a new topic intelligibly? How to work it out effectively? But no less attention should be paid to making the lesson interesting. No matter how much useful material we prepare, the student will learn it much faster and better if he is involved.
Here are some strategies you can use to make any lesson and any topic interesting.
1) Warm up
Usually the beginning sets the tone for the entire lesson. Therefore, if you want your lesson to immediately involve the student, start with an interesting warm-up, for example, with a game.
2) Games
This is the most effective way to keep the student interested and at the same time practice new material. Games on any lexical or grammar topic can be found on ESL sites and in various collections, such as Grammar Games and Activities and Vocabulary games and activities. By the way, adult students love games in no way less than children.
A practical and interesting task that does not require additional materials - role-playing game. This task is more complex than just discussing the topic. It requires active participation, acting and creativity from the student, and, accordingly, full attention.
3) Songs
Music is great for learning a language. Rhythm-based words are remembered faster. In addition, the same grammatical tense is usually used in the song. Find out from the student what musical styles and bands he likes. Singing phrases from favorite songs, he will quietly learn new vocabulary and learn the necessary grammatical forms.
4) Stories
Present the student with a new grammar or vocabulary in the form of a story. For example, if you are studying the topic “Past Continuous/Past Simple”, you can start: “Yesterday, while I was going to work by the underground, a man came into the carriage and sat down opposite me. He had a monkey in his lap. The monkey was wearing jeans and a yellow jacket”(by the way, this is a true story). Such a presentation of the topic will be much more interesting for the student than: “Right, today we are going to study the difference between Past Continuous and Past Simple.” 
5) Communication
Include the Speaking element in any task, because for most students this is the most interesting aspect of learning a language. Even if you need to complete an exercise like fill in the gaps, discuss with the student the photo that comes with the exercise or the most interesting sentence in it. Any task can always be “diluted” with the help of communication. 
6) Change of tasks
Never turn a lesson into a lecture. Even students with a good concentration of attention will find it difficult to listen to a monologue in a foreign language for 20 minutes. In addition, modern students are accustomed to a quick change from one activity to another and to an interactive form of learning. Therefore, in order to make it interesting, alternate the type and duration of tasks. Also, always prepare assignments that involve communication and active student participation. Written exercises are best left for homework.
7) Creative homework
By the way, about homework. Of course, it should also be “useful”, but this does not prevent it from being interesting. Give the student creative homework that he wants to do. For example, if you are learning the past simple, ask him to prepare a summary of an episode of his favorite TV series. If you are studying food, ask him to create a menu for his own restaurant. Creative and interesting homework can be thought up for any grammatical or lexical topic. 
8) Flexible Lesson Plan
The plan is a necessary part of the lesson, and structuredness is the key to a good study result. At the same time, the lesson is much more interesting if the teacher knows how to adapt the plan to its course. Sometimes there comes a time when you need to deviate from the plan, for example, if a student asked a really interesting question about grammar or the text you are working with affected him and needs to be discussed.
9) Personalization
Any topic can be made interesting by connecting the student's personal experience, opinion or preferences to it. For example, if you are studying Present Perfect, ask the student about their travel or work experience (e.g. Which cities have you visited? Where have you worked?). The same can be done with any lexical topic. 
10) Update
In this paragraph, we will talk about how to make the lesson interesting for the teacher. Your lesson can be interesting for your student only if it is interesting for you. With new tasks, strategies and methods, the same topic can be taught differently each time.
An interesting lesson = your student's full attention = fast and efficient learning = progress and enjoyment of language learning.
Good luck and interesting lessons!
Numbers from 1 to 20
Numbers 1 to 20
How many?
The next step on the way to the knowledge of the English language will be numerals. We must learn to determine the number of objects around us.
This is a fairly simple topic. The main point is the numbers to remember.
In the previous section, we talked about the location of items in the plural without specifying their number:
There are books on the table - There are books on the table
We don't know exactly how many books are on the table, we only know that there is more than one book on the table.
However, if we need to specify the number of books, then we must put a numeral before the noun. For example, two in English would be two. Let's try to say "There are two books on the table":
There are two books on the table
Everything is very simple. Putting two in front of different nouns, we clarify that there are two subjects: two books (two books), two beds (two beds), two boys (two boys).
There are two trees in the garden - There are three trees in the garden
There are two houses in the street - There are two houses on the street
Instead of two, of course, you can substitute any other number.
Below are numbers from 1 before 10 . Remember the English score and always keep these numbers in active reserve.
|
1 –one 2 – two 3 – three 4 – four 5 – five |
6 – six 7 – seven 8 – eight 9 – nine 10 – ten |
Here are examples of sentences with various numerals:
There are four cups in the kitchen- In the kitchen four mugs
There are nine desks in the classroom–
In class nine desks
There are six pencils in the box–
In the box six pencils
There are ten flats in the house–
In home ten apartments
Pay attention to the grammar of all the above sentences. They must use the design there are, and nouns must of course be plural.
Don't say: There is six pencils in the box or There are six penci in the box.
If we are talking about one subject, we use the there is construction, and put the noun in the singular:
There is one shower in the room– There is one shower in the room
There is one man in the car There is one man in the car
Questions. Questions
Now let's learn to ask questions like " How many pencils are in the box?"
To do this, use the interrogative pronoun How many?- How much?
Word order in sentences should also be interrogative, as we saw in the last lesson.
Here are some examples of questions how many :
How many pencils are there in the box? – There are six pencils in the box
How many pencils are in the box? – There are six pencils in the box
How many flats are there in the house?– There are ten flats in the house
How many apartments are in the house? – There are ten apartments in the building
How many flowers and trees are there in the garden?– There are seven flowers and eight trees in the garden
How many flowers are in the garden? – There are seven flowers and eight trees in the garden
Try to ask yourself questions to the following sentences:
There are two girls in the classroom
There are three dogs behind the bush
There are five cars in the street
There are nine green cats in the park
Forcheckslet me downcursor
Here's what direct questions with numbers would look like:
There are three rooms in the flat- The apartment has three rooms
Are there three rooms in the flat?–
Does the apartment have three rooms?
There are seven pens in the bag– There are seven pens in the bag
Are there seven pens in the bag? –
Are there seven pens in the bag?
We already met exactly the same questions in the last section, except that numbers are added in these sentences. The most important feature in direct questions is word order. Stick to this word order and memorize this type of question.
Try asking direct questions to the following sentences:
There are two rivers in the city
There are four cups in the kitchen
There are six shops in the street
Forcheckslet me downcursor
Do not forget about alternative questions where the conjunction or - or is used.
Are there three or four cups in the kitchen? Are there three or four cups in the kitchen?
Look at examples of whole replicas that you can now easily translate and even compose similar ones yourself:
Are there three cars in the parking lot?
– Yes, there are three cars in the parking lot.
- No, there aren't.
There are six cars in the parking.
How many rooms are there in the flat?
– There are four rooms in the flat.
Are there five rooms in the flat?
– No, there are four rooms in the flat.
Are there two or is there one river in the city?
There is one big river.
In conclusion, we present numbers from 10 to 20. Learn how they are pronounced and spelled, try not to make mistakes.
|
11-eleven 12-twelve 13thirteen 14-fourteen 15-fifteen |
16 - sixteen 17-seventeen 18-eighteen 19-nineteen 20-twenty |
Exercises
Exercises
1. Read the following phone numbers by numbers
323 012 4835
714 658 3097
07 8904 9225
61 2 8250 3128
44 798 325 6672
011 44 253 432 8920
2. Write down the following phone numbers in words
228 453 916
320 721 147
812 681 052
3. Answer questions according to the model
Example:
a. How many trees are there in the garden? (4) ; b. How many mugs are there in the cupboard? (5) ; c. How many doors are there in the hall? (one) ; d. How many stars are there in the sky? (7) ; e. How many lakes are there near the village? (2) ; f. How many streets are there in the town? (ten) ; g. How many students are there in the classroom? (3) ; h. How many rooms are there in the house? (6) ; i. How many birds are there in the cage? (nine) ; j. How many candies are there in the box? (eight) ; k. How many bottles are there under the table? (one) .
