Page 18 - Our World 1 (2nd Edition AmE demo)

TEACHING WITH OUR WORLD
OUR WORLD CONTENT
Global Citizenship
To empower Young Learners for the 21st century,
teachers of English as a Foreign Language must
understand the global importance of English, as well
as what it means to be a global citizen.
Our World uses real-world and multicultural content
to help Young Learners grow up to become successful
global citizens. Dramatic photos and content from
National Geographic spark curiosity and broaden
students’ perspective by exposing them to multiple
cultures and ideas.
Home and Cultural Connections
It’s important to encourage Young Learners to
connect to their home cultures while in the English
language classroom. Making connections to the local
culture helps Young Learners relate personally to
the content and build a stronger understanding of
themselves and their place in the world. In addition,
learning to express aspects of their own culture
in English is another step toward effectively using
English as a global language.
Global Values
Each unit in Our World Starter Levels 1–6 has a
National Geographic Value or Mission page that
connects to the real-world content presented in the
unit. These pages promote universally recognized
values for students, bring real-world content to the
classroom, and inspire Young Learners to develop
their curiosity and to value their own cultural
traditions as well as those of others.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
YOUNG LEARNERS
In general, Young Learners are energetic and
spontaneous. They don’t like to sit still for long
periods of time, and they have relatively short
attention spans. They can be easily distracted, but
are curious and will pay attention if the topic is
interesting or if the activity is engaging.
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Although these characteristics can make
teaching Young Learners challenging and even
difficult at times, they can also make the Young
Learner classroom joyful and rewarding. By using
developmentally appropriate activities that cater
to their learning profiles, Our World keeps Young
Learners active and engaged.
Learning Styles
Young Learners tend to process information
about the world primarily through their senses.
The principal sensory learning styles are visual,
auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic.
• Visual learners notice the details of their
surroundings and use color, shape, and position to
help them learn and remember information. They
tend to understand instructions for activities better
when they’re shown rather than told what to do.
Visual learners respond well to board work, and
to activities involving photos, drawings, flashcards,
posters, video, arts and crafts, murals, projects,
puzzles, and board games.
• Auditory learners learn and remember
information through sound and rhythm. They
memorize information easily and can repeat back
the text of stories, role-plays, and song lyrics after
listening only once or twice. They understand oral
directions for activities and may be willing to act
them out or repeat them for other students. They
do well with listening and pronunciation activities,
and enjoy discussions, sound tracks, video and
computer games, songs, and chants.
• Tactile learners use touch and the manipulation
of objects to help them process and remember
information. They depend on their physical and
material surroundings for cues. For example, when
trying to concentrate, they may flip pencils or
play with their hair. To understand instructions,
they need to see, hear, and physically carry them
out. Tactile learners do well with arts and crafts,
flashcards, puzzles, board games, and realia.
• Kinesthetic learners process and remember
information through physical movement. Like
tactile learners, they touch and manipulate objects,
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and they’re good at working with their hands.
They understand directions for activities more
easily when they can see, hear, and physically carry
them out. They need to release tension through
movement and will look for ways to do so—going
to the pencil sharpener or trash basket several
times, for example. Kinesthetic learners do well with
Total Physical Response (TPR) activities, charades,
role-plays, puzzles, and board games.
SKILLS AND STRATEGIES
Learning Strategies
Strategies are generally defined as behaviors that
learners use to understand and complete a task.
Instruction in the use of learning strategies can
benefi t Young Learners as well as adults. Strategies
generally fall into three categories: metacognitive,
cognitive, and social-affective.
• Metacognition is “thinking about thinking.” For
Young Learners, this means helping them plan
before doing a task. They need to think about
the purpose of the task, what information is most
important, how they will use the information, what
the best way to do the task is, and how much they
understand about the task.
• Cognitive strategies include accessing prior
knowledge about a topic, seeing how new
information connects to the material the student
already knows, identifying where more information
could be accessed, thinking of good ways to
organize the material, and identifying ways to
remember the new information.
• Social-affective strategies are especially useful in
language classes, as language is social by nature.
While using English, Young Learners can ask for
explanations from teachers and classmates, find
out how and when they can ask for help, discuss
how they can work together with classmates, and
discuss how they can get and give feedback.
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Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking is a higher order of thought
that involves analyzing, evaluating, and
synthesizing information. In many young learner
classrooms, teachers’ questions are limited to basic
comprehension questions (What is the story about?
Is it a happy or sad story?) and to display questions
(Is it hot or cold?). Even though children under the
age of ten have not yet developed analytical abilities,
teachers can nevertheless encourage and model
simple forms of predicting, classifying, comparing,
contrasting, ranking, sequencing, and summarizing.
CREATING SUCCESSFUL LESSONS
Effective teaching begins with a lesson plan. A
lesson is like a road trip that requires a map: the
final destination or goal cannot be reached without
carefully planning each stop along the way. A lesson
plan is the map. The steps in a lesson plan help
learners reach lesson objectives, which are the final
destination of the trip teachers and students are
taking together, successfully.
A good lesson plan has many benefi ts. It helps
teachers prepare for class and includes gathering or
creating the materials needed to make the activities
successful. It lays out step-by-step instructions that
provide a guide for every moment in class. But most
importantly, it requires teachers to define objectives
for the lesson, and plan activities in a sequence that
will ensure student success.
Stages of a Lesson
Our World uses six basic steps recognized as the
standard for effective language instruction: Warm
Up, Present, Practice, Apply, Extend, and Wrap Up.
• Warm Up These activities help English language
learners switch from their native language to
English, help them remember material from earlier
lessons, and help them begin class feeling confident
about what they know. Warm-up activities create
interest and excitement about the topic and
prepare learners for the new language input. In
Our World Starter, students transition from their
native language to thinking in English using the
English Time chant. 17
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