About Activity
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Overview These instructions offer suggestions and advice on how to effectively communicate classroom rules and expectations for positive participation beginning with just 9 vocabulary words. This system will allow you to communicate a wide-range of classroom expectations, in English, even to students who have no previous experience in the language. The following system has been tested extensively in real classrooms, with ESL students aged 3-7, and has consistently proven to be highly effective. |
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Important Note The following instructions are not a lesson plan. For students very new to English, it may be a process for them to understand all of the teaching content recommended below. Therefore, it may be necessary to teach each of these steps in numerous lessons before your students understand, absorb, and internalize the intended messages about classroom safety and positive participation. We recommended incorporating the following teaching suggestions INTO your lessons plans. |
Activity Instructions
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Preparation Prepare the necessary vocabulary flashcard for all the vocabulary words listed below. All of the flashcards you need are provided with your membership subscription. |
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| Vocabulary Words Used in Activity | |||||||||
| First Introduced in Step 1 | down, good, no, not, sit, stand, is, this, up, | ||||||||
| First Introduced in Step 2 | a/an, because, chair, classroom, dangerous, desk, have, on, run, safe, scissors, student, table, teacher, walk, why | ||||||||
| First Introduced in Step 3 | loud, quickly, quiet, slowly, yell | ||||||||
| First Introduced in Step 4 | board, book, brush, come, crayon, go, hand, it, marker, pen, pencil, put, question, want, washroom, | ||||||||
Note: The italicized words in the lists above will be need for the suggested sentences below, but there are no flashcards provided for these words, as they are no suitable to be described with images. Instead, students should experience them in the context of authentic communication.
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Step 1 Once your students have been introduced to the words on the list above (for Step 1) using flashcards, begin a conversation about which classroom behaviors and actions are 'good' and 'not good.' Demonstrate some silly behaviors, and then after each demonstration, ask your students if the behavior was 'good or not good.' Use some basic hand-signals to emphasize the words 'good' and 'not.' We recommend a thumbs up for 'good' and a crossed wrists sign for 'not.' Use the sentence, "Is this good?" Teach your students to respond with, "No, this is not good."
Suggested examples:
In addition to these 6 suggested examples, you can add any additional demonstrations of unsafe or inappropriate behaviors that you wish to.
Also demonstrate some polite, positive, and encouraged behaviors. After each demonstration, ask your students if the behavior was 'good or not good.' Again, use the same hand-signals to emphasize the words 'good' and 'not.' Ask your students "Is this good?" Teach your students to respond with, "Yes, this is good."
Suggested examples:
Once again, in addition to these 5 suggested examples, you can add any additional demonstrations of positive behaviors that you wish to.
Finally, you'll want to teach your students how to correctly respond to the instructions 'stand-up' and 'sit-down.' |
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Step 2 Once you feel your students are sufficiently familiar with the necessary vocabulary words (this may require repeating Step 1 in a few lessons, as well as using flashcards to teach them the new words for Step 2), further expand the communication about classroom safety and expectation with your students using the following discussion points. (Some initial coaching will probably be necessary to teach your students how to answer these questions.)
T. Can students use these scissors? (Very sharp scissors) S. No. T. Why? S. Because the scissors are dangerous.
T. Can teachers use these scissors? (Safety scissors for children) S. Yes!
T. Can students run in the classroom? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is dangerous.
T. Can students walk in the classroom? S. Yes! T. Why? S. Because it is safe.
T. Can teachers run in the classroom? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is dangerous.
T. Can students stand on chairs/desks/tables? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is dangerous.
T. Can teachers stand on chairs/desks/tables? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is dangerous.
T. Can students sit on chairs? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is safe.
T. Can students sit on desks/tables? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is not good.
T. Can teachers sit on desks/tables? S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is not good. |
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Once your students have been introduced to the words on all three lists above (for Step 1-3) using flashcards, teach your students about making verbal requests and responding to common verbal classroom instructions.
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Step 4 Once your students have been introduced to the words on all three lists above (for Step 1-4) using flashcards, teach your students to understand and respond to the following questions.
T. Can we use scissors quickly? (Use just your fingers to demonstrate using a pair of scissors at a rapid and dangerous speed) S. No. T. Why? S. Because it is dangerous.
T. Can we use scissors slowly? (Use just your fingers to demonstrate using a pair of scissors at a careful speed) S. Yes. T. Why? S. Because it is safe.
T. If the teacher says "sit down," can we sit down very slowly? S. No!
T. If the teacher says "sit down," can we sit down quickly? S. Yes.
T. If the teacher says "come here," can we come very slowly? S. No!
T. If the teacher says "come here," can we come quickly? S. Yes. |
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Expanded Learning:
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Important Note The above instructions are provided as suggestions for best practices. However, the teacher should always be the ultimate decision-maker about which communication approaches are best suited to a particular student / group of students. |