Hi Torsten and Ian!
I hope you both had a nice holiday. The Grimma course went well, so far and I really enjoyed the 3 days there.
Let me try to put everything in a logical order:
The group consists of 19 women and 1 man and they are taking this 2-year training preparing themselves for 3 different types of employment. (sales, office and sports).
4 students are absolute beginners (no English in school at all) - for them I prepared every day very simple exercises (e.g. the verb âto beâ present/ past, personal pronouns, I tried to work with them on spelling and explain rules regarding the plural of nouns both regular and irregular). These 4 ladies are very motivated and willing to learn. Ian make sure you have handouts for them because they âwantâ them in the morning and they will right away start working on them.
The second category needs encouragement and a lot of speaking practice. They had English in school but some are simply unable or refuse to utter a simple sentence in English.
The third group consists of about 7-8 students who are doing a pretty good job. I tried to have them help the others during the pair or group activities.
MATERIAL:
Prepare your handouts and in the morning even if Herr Meinel is not there yet, you can ask either the secretary or another lady (sorry, didnât catch her name) to make you copies. You have at hand a projector and loudspeakers but you need to pick them up from the office and bring them back at the end of the day.
Ian, I left for you on the blackboard the daily schedule (from 8-15, with all the lunch and coffee breaks).
Content:
- getting to know each other ( ask your colleague and then introduce her/him)
-my family (incl. genitive e.g. My motherâs son is myâŚ, etc.)
-spelling and copies for each student :the NATO alphabet (I had them use it every day when we came across a difficult word: those who knew the correct spelling needed to dictate the word to the rest of the group using it)
-group discussion: difficulties encountered while studying English
- the 30/30 challenge (incl. sources for their media library)
-pronouns (personal pronouns, possesive adjectives/ pronouns, reflexive pronouns)
-plural of nouns incl. nouns ending in -ss, -s, -tch etc.
-present simple / continuous (A, I, N)
-Clothes (here I used a PP and then we stopped at âjeansâ. I used here the video about the Levi Strauss CO. and a very simple text). We tried to descibe people.
-adjectives (colours, I used a short recording from this site:Learning English - The English We Speak - Green
maybe you will find some useful material as well.
-I used a text that allowed me to speak a few words about a possible structure of an enterprise (we focused on the sales and the qualities of a sales person)
-I made copies for each student: Europass CV and explained to them the stucture of a cover letter
-I tried a role-play activity (which wasnât quite successful): interviews but we made a list containing those âdifficult questionsâ). I used the recording from businessenglish podcast
-homonyms (as we came across them in different reading materials)
-time management and its importance (the students got handouts with exercises and useful expression, such as: due, on/in time, be running late/ ahead of time, etc.)
- I took TOEIC test 2 ( Q11-Q40) as a listening activity and about 7-8 students did very well (only 2-7 mistakes)
-dictation: we listened to an ABBA song and the students had to write down the lyrics
-we watched about 45 minutes of the film âThe secret of my successâ and in groups they took the quiz.
Torsten,
I have no idea if I did the right thing when I came up with a suggestion. On Wednesday, Herr Meinel entered the classroom with a group of 3 people in charge with the entire training program. As far as my German knowledge goes, I understood that they were asking the students about the content and structure of this 2-year course. One lady spoke a fairly decent English and I told her that maybe, if there are funds for such thing, some of the students should be encouraged to take a TOEIC test and get an additional certificate. She seemed to like the idea and promised to speak with Herr Meinel about this possibility.
Ian, you will have 3 different âKlassenbucherâ and 3 lists on which you will find some grades I managed to give to some of the students. We ought to do this grading since the âupperâ guys are asking for it. Please make sure you fill in the âgapsâ. I tried to do my best but there were some students to whom I simply couldnât give a mark. It is just not me to grab my pen and write figures just for the sake of having them on paper.
Sorry. guys, for writing such âessayâ but I really want us to work as a team and KNOW what the other is doing (the students complained about some courses where they have several trainers but they never know what the previous one did).
I know Ian will probably be commuting but just in case anyone needs accomodation in Grimma here is the address of the B&B I stayed for 2 nights:Pension am Schloss Bufe, BrĂźckenstrasse 19, tel: 03437911151 (Frau Hessel). Nothing fancy about the place but it is nice and cozy. About 15 min walk from the school.
If you have any further questions, drop me a line and Iâll get on skype.
Many thanks and a grand time in Grimma, Ian. (The gals are excited to meet âa very nice Irish chapâ)
Best wishes to both of you and a relaxing weekend ahead.
Georgeta