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Kanta was a 6 year old who was not quite the best student among my little kids. Even at the age of 5, kids at the English Academy I worked at in Japan had to learn the materials in their level before they were able to progress to the next level. Kanta and his classmate Yuki were so behind that they had to repeat their level, something very rare for the Academy. I remembered the notes their previous teacher left me "These kids struggle with basic 'listen & repeat'." Yuki just showed a general disinterest in class, while Kanta, tiny and rather timid, enjoyed class time, yet struggled remembering the vocabulary. It also didn't help that his mother was the only parent I had who absolutely refused to have her kid listen to the homework, so Kanta could never do well on the homework checks and get a gold star.
When teaching kids, it's often encouraged to reinforce lessons with games. As a new teacher, I struggled to think of games especially appropriate for small children who couldn't read or write. I asked my boss about that, and she taught me a game "What's Missing" which she encouraged me to try with the little kids.
We used tons of flashcards while teaching different topics. Each class level had several sets of flashcards to learn by the end of the year. They had a picture of the word on the front and the word written on the back (mostly for the teacher). Kanta's class had a flashcard set of fruits and vegetables to learn by the end of the year so I decided to try it out with his class one day. I ran through the flashcards with the class before I laid out 4 cards, an orange, a watermelon, lettuce, and pumpkin . I had the class identify the cards, then I shuffled them behind my back and put three of them back in front.
"What's missing?" I asked.
"Pumpkin!" Kanta said, immediately.
"Good job, Kanta!" I praised, and handed him the card.
I tried this formula another couple times before I made it more challenging by using five cards with two missing.
"Apple!" Kanta exclaimed.
I handed him the apple card. "Aaaand?"
"Cabbage," Sae chimed in after a few seconds.
At the end, Kanta managed to rack up the most amount of cards. "You are very good at 'What's Missing!'" I praised. I was impressed with Kanta for doing so well. My boss, who had observed the lesson was impressed too and praised him heartily. He was not quite aggressive enough for "Karuta", the game where the kids have to slap the right card when I call it out, but he was a pro at "What's Missing" and it was probably the only game he could regularly win. It also proved to me that he did know his vocabulary. It also helped him gain confidence to be more assertive and successful in class.
When teaching kids, it's often encouraged to reinforce lessons with games. As a new teacher, I struggled to think of games especially appropriate for small children who couldn't read or write. I asked my boss about that, and she taught me a game "What's Missing" which she encouraged me to try with the little kids.
We used tons of flashcards while teaching different topics. Each class level had several sets of flashcards to learn by the end of the year. They had a picture of the word on the front and the word written on the back (mostly for the teacher). Kanta's class had a flashcard set of fruits and vegetables to learn by the end of the year so I decided to try it out with his class one day. I ran through the flashcards with the class before I laid out 4 cards, an orange, a watermelon, lettuce, and pumpkin . I had the class identify the cards, then I shuffled them behind my back and put three of them back in front.
"What's missing?" I asked.
"Pumpkin!" Kanta said, immediately.
"Good job, Kanta!" I praised, and handed him the card.
I tried this formula another couple times before I made it more challenging by using five cards with two missing.
"Apple!" Kanta exclaimed.
I handed him the apple card. "Aaaand?"
"Cabbage," Sae chimed in after a few seconds.
At the end, Kanta managed to rack up the most amount of cards. "You are very good at 'What's Missing!'" I praised. I was impressed with Kanta for doing so well. My boss, who had observed the lesson was impressed too and praised him heartily. He was not quite aggressive enough for "Karuta", the game where the kids have to slap the right card when I call it out, but he was a pro at "What's Missing" and it was probably the only game he could regularly win. It also proved to me that he did know his vocabulary. It also helped him gain confidence to be more assertive and successful in class.
