Last 12 December 2018 was one of those days when one knows for sure, if ever doubted, that being a teacher is the best job in the world!
After three months learning English, this brilliant group of A1 ESL learners have absolutely left me lost for words, for their effort, their motivation, their active and skilled interactions and the competence to mediate and communicate with their peers, but above all, for their success at discussing books taking into account the little language activities they have accomplished in such short length.
This learning mission started back in October, when they went down to the school library for the first time and picked a book of their choice: 'an easy book, please', I said then. However, they did not hesitate to poke into the library drawers until they found an eye-catching title. And so they began!
Three months later, we have just held our first A1 ESL Book Discussion Club Meetup, where they have shared their achievements, they have discussed their books, they have fostered debate, they have recommended reading books to one another, and last but not least, they have been able to speak, to communicate, to make themselves understood and to understand others.
The work behind the book club meetup we held on Wednesday 12 December 2018 is enormous: lots of prior research before the actual meetup, awesome use of visual thinking as a support means of communication when presenting, worksheets handed out to peers for better understanding, and lots of brilliant highlights collected in the pictures you can view in this post.
But what astonished me most was that my instructions had been as simple as: 'Read your books, enjoy them, and then come and tell the class, with the basic vocabulary and grammar points that you have learned in our lessons during these past weeks.'
It was a brilliant session, greatly moderated by one of themselves, who welcomed the rest, gave out turns of speech, was able to keep questions up and allowed me to sit back, listen to them and enjoy one of the best ESL lessons I have ever had! Believe me when I say that absolute beginners might be one of the least wanted levels to teach by some, but the satisfaction of monitoring and watching the good progress these beginners are able to make in three months is only possible when you teach from scratch; no other level of ESL teaching makes you so proud of being a teacher.
Finally, at the end of the session, we ended where it had all begun: the school library. There we left our reading suggestions for 2019 and contributed to fill in a Christmas tree with good readings and lots of inspiration.
After three months learning English, this brilliant group of A1 ESL learners have absolutely left me lost for words, for their effort, their motivation, their active and skilled interactions and the competence to mediate and communicate with their peers, but above all, for their success at discussing books taking into account the little language activities they have accomplished in such short length.
This learning mission started back in October, when they went down to the school library for the first time and picked a book of their choice: 'an easy book, please', I said then. However, they did not hesitate to poke into the library drawers until they found an eye-catching title. And so they began!
But what astonished me most was that my instructions had been as simple as: 'Read your books, enjoy them, and then come and tell the class, with the basic vocabulary and grammar points that you have learned in our lessons during these past weeks.'
My expectations were not higher than three or four sentences being uttered, if I must tell you the truth. How wrong I was!
Finally, at the end of the session, we ended where it had all begun: the school library. There we left our reading suggestions for 2019 and contributed to fill in a Christmas tree with good readings and lots of inspiration.
Thanks ever so much to my 2018/2019 A1 ESL students for such an awesome session!
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