By Sophie Danielson | Teacher
The students at the ULC had a busy month filled with visitors from all over the world. FED welcomed volunteer groups from the States, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. A group from the University of Bangkok also came down for a couple days to teach English.
This was a great opportunity for students to practice their conversational English skills. For each volunteer group, the ULC students wrote out a set of questions to ask the English speakers. They each interviewed several volunteers, asking about their families, backgrounds, hobbies, and interests. The students were challenged by the different accents of the volunteers and had to learn how to adapt to these changes. They also practiced answering questions about themselves to the volunteers. During their free time, the students spent time with the volunteers, finding every opportunity to interact and practice their English.
After each volunteer group left, the students presented the information about their new English-speaking friends in class. Students compared and contrasted the volunteers’ interests with their own. They learned a lot about the different nationalities of the volunteers and realized that even though they live on the other side of the world, they still have a lot in common.
Grade 4 started a new unit about where questions. They received new vocabulary about locations and practiced identifying and spelling them correctly. The students answered the question, “Where is Sophie?” and identified her location according to the pictures.
They also started learning about daily routines. They learned how to identify when they do certain routines. For example, I get dressed in the morning. I come home in the afternoon. I eat dinner in the evening.
The students had fun creating conversations with partners and performing in front of the class. Their favorite part was creating certain actions for each daily routine. Grade 4 has been broken into 3 separate teams. Each team is awarded according to their performance in English class. This has become a great motivation for the students to spend time outside of class studying English.
Grade 5 started a unit on past, present, and future tense verbs. They were given a set of verbs each week, made flashcards, and memorized the past, present, and future tenses. Afterwards, they wrote out sentences with the verbs and performed the sentences in front of the class.
They also had a mini-unit on locations, learning to ask and answer questions, such as, “Where are they? Where is she? Where are you?”
The students will continue to learn more verbs throughout the year and will be asked to memorize the past, present, and futures tenses of each word.
Grade 6 started reading the story of Cinderella. With the help of a narrator and several enthusiastic actors, the students performed the story in class. They practiced their past tense writing by answering questions about what happened in the story. This month, they spent a lot of time with grammar exercises, learning how to ask and answer questions about if and when.
They also continued their unit on The World. They learned to compare and contrast cities, countries, and continents. They identified which cities are in which countries, which countries are in which continents, etc. They also compared the sizes of different countries with each other and identified them on a map.
They started a small unit about global problems, specifically natural disasters. The students were very interested in discussing the current issue of the Myanmar flood. They identified the location of the flood on a map and talked about the issues surrounding the flood. They brainstormed ways they could help the people who were affected by the flood. FED received donations from the students, teachers, staff members, and people of the community for the flood in Myanmar.
The English department received a donation of textbooks from a past English volunteer in Switzerland. The new English textbook, English Vocabulary in Use has been an exceptionally useful teaching tool for the older students in grades 7 to 8. The students enjoy the interactive lessons that come with challenging worksheets and weekly quizzes. The English curriculum will now incorporate more lessons from this new textbook donation.
Grade 7 continued their unit on The World and explored a new chapter about global problems. They compared and contrasted natural disasters vs. man-made problems. They discussed the issues surrounding these problems and how they can reach solutions. With the new vocabulary in the unit, they had enough material to partake in daily classroom discussions.
They discussed the problems that Thailand and Myanmar are currently struggling. During this unit, the students were actually able to spend a lot of time talking about the flood in Myanmar. Students discussed the dangers of flooding and the threats of disease, homelessness, and many other issues. The unit on global problems was primarily discussion-based, which the students enjoyed.
Grade 8 also began using the English Vocabulary in Use as a primary resource for their new unit. Every student has enjoyed learning from this textbook, including those who tend to struggle with focusing in class. It has been an exceptionally useful addition to the class. More copies of this textbook will be requested.
Grade 8 continued the same unit on The World as Grade 7. They also started learning about and discussing current global problems. Similar to grade 7, they were enthusiastic to use this chapter as an opportunity to discuss current problems in the world. They brainstormed solutions to the man-made problems (pollution, homelessness, unemployment, etc). They also spent a lot of time discussing the flood in Myanmar. At the end of the unit, the students were asked to write a list of problems Thailand is facing and how they would find a solution to each one.
The students will write their final unit exam on The World in August, where they will answer questions about global problems and write short answers about solutions.
Rohingya Class
Thanks to the help of two Canadian volunteers, Kieran and Hannah, who arrived in mid-June, Rohingya class has continued to run smoothly. We welcome Rohingya students of all English levels. It is a highly interactive classroom as the levels of English vary tremendously. Kieran and Hannah have helped with lesson planning and carrying out the activities in class.
A highlight of the month was bringing the Rohingya students out on a special excursion to the beach. The students had a great time playing games, singing songs, and swimming together. It was a special time for these students to spend time with their English teachers outside of school.
The Rohingya students have been improving tremendously. Their conversation skills are picking up quickly and they are starting to write on their own. The younger ones have memorized the alphabet and can write their numbers from 1 to 10. Some of the older ones have learned to speak and write out simple sentences. It is encouraging to see this new group of students take on the English language in such an enthusiastic manner. There has been great feedback on this additional English class provided for the Rohingya students. We hope the children will stay in Thailand long enough to equip them with enough basic English training.
By Sandra Randon | Project Leader
By Sandra Arboleda | Project Leader
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