Hi out there,



I am currently teaching primary 1 and primary 2 level students in a school in Thailand. To keep the children's attention in a class with usually 45 students is a challenging task.Now I came across wholebrain teaching and am fascinated but also a little skeptical about the implementation with ESL primary students, Maybe somebody could give me some tips.
Looking forward to trying out WBT

Rike

Hi,
My name is Adam. I am teaching EFL in Taiwan.
I have found that students here can be a little shocked by WBT. A good student in Tawian is basically supposed to sit at his desk, listen to the teacher and shut up. Now, we want them to cheer and do all these silly gestures.
Nevertheless, I have enjoyed using WBT techniques in my classes. Once the kids got into the habit of cheering and booing, they really enjoy it. Getting the kids into the habit of gesturing has also been difficult. But, once they start doing it, they really enjoy it. Yesterday I had a student come to me and tell me that she couldn't believe how fast class went by. I took that as a compliment.
Getting the kids to do teach-OK is the most difficult.
BEst of Luck to you,
Adam

Adam and Rike,
I believe you are right that teach/okay is the hardest thing to get kids to do. At first you need to give them exactly what to day and do when they talk to their partner or you will get a lot of pairs just sitting there staring at each other. After a while, they will get use to mimicking or reciting whatever you told them to say. Next, once they get good at that, you can implement opinion based discussion. For example, "tell your partner which character you like best" etc. This will get them comfortable with not just repeating you. Finally, start asking them to come up with their own answers and ideas based on what they already learned from you. Be sure to call on students after to share. If they are wrong, give them "it's cool" (or substitute with a slang used in their culture) and if they are right reward them with a "woo".
Good luck! Keep us all posted. I am always curious to see how WBT works with other cultures and countries.
Angela

Maybe you could give me some advise or point out resourses to me.
I have had some students say that my use of the scoreboard is unfair. STudents that follow the rules are punished along with students that don't. That said, I don't punish very harshly-I might assign a little extra homework. Also, I just try to keep the class fast moving and fun.
Yesterday I had a class and we were doing gestures together and having a lot of fun. But then I put them into partners and gave them a simple assignment. They were supposed to use the following structure:

There is/are (a(n)) (adj.) (noun) in my house.

There was a list of suitable adjectives on the board and we had already practiced gestures for them. I told the ones to talk about 5 things in their house and twos to gesture along so that I could see that they were on task. I partnered myself with one student and we did a pretty good job. The other students were just staring at each other.
I took a point away from the students and tried to just get on with the lesson.