Time management on English lessons

Time management in ELT

What is “time-management”?

• Different ways and methods arranging your time to make it work for you.

Time – management consists of several significant points

• Setting Clear Goals for Each Lesson
• Time Arrangement
• Be simple and economical, verbally
• Time Spending review
• Taking the time under control
• Setting Priority
• Skip Unnecessary Content

Time-management’s main principle – SETTING your goals appropriately .

There are useful ways how to make it real:

• decide what exactly you want to do;
• don’t forget to write them down on a piece of paper;
• make a deadline for your aims to work more efficiently;
• arrange your aims from higher-priority to lower priority;
• every day do something that makes you closer to your goal, even something tiny, because even something tiny might be very important.

Lesson planning

Use your time efficiently

• Organization period: ( 3 mins )

• greetings
• finding out who is absent

• begin most lessons with an activity that grab students’ attention. You can hold up an interesting object or photo or direct their attention to your board or display. There can be included warm-up exercises (different kinds of exercises to cheer up students: vocabulary games, working in pairs etc.)

Checking homework ( 8 mins )

• There are several ways not loosing much of your time for checking homework

• Check homework as a class
• Check only difficult moments
• Check every student individually

If three or more students have common mistakes, we should explain it at board.

Lead-in ( 3 mins )

• Before we start explaining a new theme and before setting the aims of the lesson, students should try making a guess what the lesson is about
• We can give them hints writing the words, the questions or find mini-quizzes, somehow connected with the theme.
• Only after they have made all guesses, they can open their books and see what they are going to learn about

Heroes

• Churchill
• Elizabeth I
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Nelson Mandela
• Newton
• Prince Diana
• Shakespeare

Introduction of a new theme (15 mins)

• If it is grammar sometimes it can take more than 15 minutes
• Listening can take a lot of time, that’s why in order to save it we should pause after each speaker and let the students answer. In a case more than half of the class can’t, we need to play this part again, but not more than two times.
• There is also a good way to save your time when students have to read and match the headings (let them read only first and last sentences of the each paragraph and then they should find the correct heading)

• Drilling and actuation the new knowledge that students have gained (12 mins)
• Sum up lesson
• Giving homework (3-4 mins)

Time must be fixed

• students should know how much time they have to finish their task faster and save time
• It would be better if they could see the time

There are some advices how to save your time during the lesson

• Be firm in the beginning. One of the easiest way to loose control of a class is to become as someone who is easy to talk or if you allow the things that you hadn’t planned (play games several times or listen to song several times because your students ask you a lot)
• There is a saying “ Be firm at the beginning in the year and you will thank yourself near its end ”

Giving and checking the instructions

• make sure that you can explain something within the limits of the language which the students can understand
• For example , the following instruction would be fine for an intermediate class: You’re going to hear a description of a famous person and you have to guess who it is ; but could be difficult for a group of beginners. For beginners: Listen to my description of a famous person. Who is it? would be far more comprehensible.
• Think about the speed of your speech - slow down slightly if necessary - and insert pauses

• Some exercises don’t require instruction to be explained because it’s obvious what should students do
• If you have a long, complicated, or two part activity, don’t explain everything at once . Explain the first stage, and check that students have understood before you go on to the explanation of the next part
• don’t start the explanation until you have the students full attention

• Even in the first lesson, use English wherever possible . For example the sentence :Get into pairs won’t be understood all the time, but You two, you two and you two plus a gesture in that case they will understand what to do
• Sometimes Russian language can be used but gradually it must be phased out . As soon as possible, give the instructions in English only
• but check understanding by asking the students to repeat them back , don’t ask only the strongest students because they the most likely know what to do

• The question Do you understand? is as good as useless . Students may be too shy to admit that they don’t understand , or may think they understand when they actually don’t . Make sure they demonstrate their understanding. You may use –Wh questions.

• Avoid using the imperative in your instructions. For example: instead of saying “Do exercise number 1” you can say it more politely saying Can you? Could you? It’s better because your students will tell the same in future. Instead of saying “Repeat” students will tell “Could you repeat please?”
• As soon as the students start the activity, go around quickly to each pair or group just to check they are on task.
• Don’t stop to help or monitor one group until you have checked them all. If only one group has not understood, then go back and help.
• If several groups are off track , then stop the activity and explain again , using the students who have understood to demonstrate to the others.

At the end of the presentation I would like to say that each teacher has his own preferences and ways of teaching , but I can ensure you that these advices and hints will be helpful in our difficult job