Attention: Middle School Teachers!

[eggplant_tyrant]

We're all gearing up for a new year and coming up with learning goals, things to improve upon, etc. For those of you who teach middle school, you're about to get all of our old sixth graders. It's too late to do anything about this group, but for next year, what do you wish your new first graders came in knowing? What are their most common gaps and weaknesses? How can we better prepare the kids for middle school, and in the process, make your lives easier?

I'm especially interested because the elementary students will have three classes each week instead of two, and we have to do something useful to fill that time. :)

[Rowanteacher]

The alphabet? The difference between fun and funny? Replies to "How are you?" other than "So so". Not to say "Nice to meet you." everytime you see someone?

[Cranberryopah]

When to use:
I
you
he / she
we
they 


my
our

Hey, thank you for asking.

[katrine]

My 1st years last year were HORRIBLY shy. 90% of them knew the alphabet, and they could all have a decent enough conversation, but it took a good 6 months work to get them to speak to me with more than one word. I'd just love for them to have a little more confidence in themselves.

[DMZ]

I'd like mine to not be terrified when they speak to me and to know some basic English classroom instructions.

[amn34]

The alphabet? The difference between fun and funny? Replies to "How are you?" other than "So so". Not to say "Nice to meet you." everytime you see someone?

As a whole, I've found that my 1st graders are fare better students than my 3rd.  Higher comprehension, and more willing to contribute in class.  That said I do NOT understand the excessive use of the word "funny."  It's not just that a couple misuse it, it's all my students use it all the time.  It's their go to adjective.  My classes are funny, Busan is funny, basically anything other than jokes and other humorous things, are funny.

[eggplant_tyrant]

Replies to "How are you?" other than "So so".

I think this one might be an age thing -- as the kids progress through fifth and sixth grade, I see them getting less and less creative with their answers to this question. At the beginning of fifth grade, they're "great, wonderful, terrific, fantastic, terrible!" By the end of sixth, they're "bad, so-so, tired." Ah, teenagers!

Seriously, though, thanks for the responses. Keep them coming!

[Darkeru]

1) Confidence in speaking English to the teachers.

2) Asking simple classroom questions ('What is ______?', 'May I go to the bathroom/get a drink of water', 'How do you say this/that word).

3) When to use nice to meet you! Also alternate phrases for meetings after.

[sheedi]

I agree wtih when to say nice to meet you. After we have met, it should be nice to see you or glad to see you again. Also past tense of verbs.

[GregSandford]

I wish to understand Korean culture and the language more so I can be able to read what my students are saying. This will help me developing more support for the students. For example, it became so much easier to teach sentence structure when I understood Korean sentence structure so I could review the structures with them before doing a speaking activity.

[twitch]

thank you sooooooo much for asking....
the basic classroom sentences that will help everyone have an easier time of it would be great:
may i go to the washroom?
i'll be right back.
i forgot my book.
be quiet please.
sit down
stand up
what time is it?
etc etc etc....

[Yu_Bumsuk]

We're all gearing up for a new year and coming up with learning goals, things to improve upon, etc. For those of you who teach middle school, you're about to get all of our old sixth graders. It's too late to do anything about this group, but for next year, what do you wish your new first graders came in knowing? What are their most common gaps and weaknesses? How can we better prepare the kids for middle school, and in the process, make your lives easier?

I'm especially interested because the elementary students will have three classes each week instead of two, and we have to do something useful to fill that time. :)

Great question and thanks for asking. Apart from understanding basic classroom commands (open your book to page ___, write this down, etc.) I'd like students to have a better grasp of:

- most common verb tenses in the active voice - simple past, present, and future, and present and past progressive.
- most common irregular verbs.
- numbers (they get taught this in ES and then it's not reinforced in the MS curriculum).
- parts of speech.
- personal pronouns.
- forming sentences in subject-verb-object format.
- for more advanced students, writing in paragraphs and not starting each sentence on a new line.

In terms of student-teacher interaction, I'd like student to think of NETs as just a normal teacher and not an entertainer, human tape-recorder, game show host, or candy dispenser.