Beginning a new school year: some tips

Going back to teaching – let alone studying—can be an unsettling or even traumatic (!) experience. As teachers, we sometimes feel that there is so much we can do to acclimatize our students to classes again.

No need to despair. We can still go on in our own familiar way while giving our lessons a fresh edge. Besides there are things that your students hardly ever get bored with despite the frequency of their occurrence.

Let me provide an example of how we can present new material and at the same time sneak in some revision.

I am aware of the fact that my advanced students are keen on science; therefore, they are prepared to read up or do their own research online – if asked – on condition that the topic is science-related.

My point is:

·       Pick a text your students will appreciate.

·       Select some lexical items from this text which you have taught but suspect your students might not remember.

·       Make three columns next to the one of the selected words.

·       Name the columns: I remember well, I vaguely remember, I forget.

·       Ask the students to indicate how well they know the words by marking the right column.

WORD	I remember	I vaguely remember	I forget
unveil		+
mould			+
dub	+
eliminate	+

This is a preliminary activity which will be supplemented by a follow-up vocabulary exercise to boost your students’ memory of already taught words.

On a small scale (words used in the table above) this is how it would go:

Fill the gaps with the right form of the words provided in the table. You may have to use some words more than once:

Plans were ………………………. for a new food store and 13 shopping units in the town.

The media ……………………. anorexia ‘the slimming disease.

Security agents have started a campaign to ………………………….. some of the government's opponents.

Silicone rubber is easily ……………………………., serving as a replacement for body parts.

If we could ………………………… stress, would we …………………………………. a lot of disease?

It is also the duty of educational institutions to …………………………..  the personality of students.

Perhaps for the first few classes of the year it would be wise to focus on practising words which have been presented once or twice but not anchored, as I have explained in a previous post.

It is important for teachers to be flexible and decide at each stage how much to teach, how much to practise and test and what to earmark for later practice. And this is something no device can do for you. Being aware of our students’ progress is something we save in our memory rather than on a device in the form of corrected tests. The overall performance of each student is, thankfully, resilient to classification.