How To Successfully Teach Comparison To Thai Students....

[lostinisaan]

Making comparisons.

In Heaven:

1. The cooks are French,
2. The policemen are English,
3. The mechanics are German,
4. The lovers are Italian,
5. The bankers are Swiss.

In Hell:

1. The cooks are English,
2. The policemen are German,
3. The mechanics are French,
4. The lovers are Swiss,
5. The bankers are Italian.

A Thai school in heaven

1. All Thai English teachers are fluent in English,

2. No teachers put a hand on students,

3. Students fail, if they’re too lazy, or not good enough,

4. Foreign teachers make more than the director does,

5. The principal is from Germany.

A Thai school in hell

1. The Thai English teachers can’t have a simple conversation with the English devil.

2. Many Thai teachers are so sweating that they've to hit the kids to calm down,

3. Parents have to pay a lot of money to get their kids into a system that should be free,

4. The kids learn English for 15 years, but can’t complain to the devil in English that it’s too hot there,

5. The principal is from a wealthy Chinese family, and no idea what education really is. He “uses” an agency who deliver native backpackers as English teachers from Uzbekistan.

[inutil]

Comparative BETTING!!!

Yeah, everyone will tell you its a terrible thing to teach your kids gambling, but its never failed.

Print out some fake money (or just er, photocopy a stack of real money if youre feeling lazy).

Cut it up into individual bills. Each group gets around 10, you need to cover losses in the game (and losses because kids destroy everything that isnt laminated) so figure out your math. I go with around 100 or so.

Anyways. do what youve got to do in the first 10-15 minutes of class to get them to this one tiny lousy easy as hell grammar point:

"A is [adj]~ER THAN B."

(a cat is faster than a mouse).

Thats literally the only thing your kids need to remember: "...~er than..."

Now break them into groups (assuming of course you can move desks at all and there arent in fact 79 kids in four or five lines in a tiny classroom with no gaps to maneuver - if thats the case, this game aint working... or youre gonna need another way to group them (boys v girls? I dunno).

Now you give each group one piece of A5 paper (at the most). On this paper they draw (or write or whatever), their team name.

You need two free desks at the front. Steal them from the students if you have to. It makes things chirpy.

Label one desk A and one B. This is important. Basically, the kids who think that A is bigger than B put their paper and money on the desk marked A, and the groups who think B is bigger than A put their papers on desk B. Simple right!

Now you do an introduction question. You MUST make this one phenomenally simple. Which is bigger, this school or the earth... i dunno. Your call, The funnier the better.

This is where the students learn that on that piece of paper they need to write down the answer. Dont let them use shorthand. You can be all teachery if you like at this point and punish poor spelling and grammar, but i prefer to keep the rules absolutely simple.

The students from each group then bring the paper to the relevant desk. Check check. Send them back until they get it right. This is just the test case. So youre just making sure they follow the procedure.

Hopefully everyone chose the same answer.

Now reveal the (obvious) answer, and start dishing out money. Give each group that got it right a dollar (or whatever currency youre using). At this point, eyes will light up.

Now get them to collect the papers.

Once collected its time to dish out the cash. Give each group however much you want (obviously you need to prep the stacks beforehand).

And now explain that they have to bet on the answers. Cue MASSIVE surge of excitement. The rule is, if they get it right, they get double their bet. If they get it wrong, you take their cash. So simple! YOU MUST RESTRICT THEIR BETS. Keep them on a super tight leash on how much they can bet. For example, first and second rounds are 1, third is two fourth is three. By the fifth round, youre close to the end anyway. Let them go all in (because its a trick question).

You can find your own comparisons on wikipedia (country sizes, animal speeds, celebrity birthdays, even teacher vs random student birthdays). Anything at all. Or...

Now everyone is primed, its time to kick off.

Q1: Which is faster, a pig or a chicken?

After the easy question, watch the dumbfounded looks. Its a moment to savor

Make sure they all give you 1 of your notes (i usually work in multiples of ten rather than 1s for the dramarama).

A: Pig = 17.6kph ; Chicken = 14.4 kph (use a bit of showmanship to draw it out and build tension).

Q2: Which is bigger, Thailand or (pick random country that everyone is going to assume is bigger than Thailand).

Go wikipedia the hell out of it.

Q3: Pick a random student and ask everyone whose birthday is earlier/later (depending on yours of course - you dont wanna make this easy!).

Q4: Pick a few celebrities. I always go with lady gaga. Who is taller, lady gaga or random normal height Thai soap opera star

Lady gaga is amazingly teensy tiny at 155cm. Just find anyone you like.

Q5: which is newer, the car or the motorbike?

Car 1889 ; Motorbike 1885.

Q6: do a local one. Anything they know about.

Whatevers for any other questions to push time:

But LAST QUESTION regardless of time:

Which is bigger, Bangkok or Washington DC. Play up how easy it is and youre being nice. Throw in that youre comparing one of the worlds biggest countries with Thailand.

Bangkok: 1567 sqkm ; Washington DC: 177 sqkm

Anyways, if you arent mean like me, you can throw in a few easier ones to get a few cheers and not cripple their interest. Think of it like playing pully games with a dog You need to let them win sometimes. Pick something from Thai history and pretend you thought it was reaaaaaallly difficult...

Sorry im not giving you the whole thing. Im not doing the thai research on celebrities and the like. Plus, the more local stuff you can add (particularly school stuff - they LOVE teacher comparisons - "who has been teaching here longer?" for example - if you have a co teacher, its a great way to bring them into the game by putting them on the spot for a random school based question).

Anyways, this game ALWAYS kills! its one of my absolute guarantees! you need to sell it a bit, ham it up a bit, and possibly have a bit of mischief about it. If you want, you can make the students come up with their own questions. Ive tried it though, and it does slow down the pace a bit (from my experience - though im more the showman type, maybe a better teacher-teacher will fit that style more and would rather feel more in control of the material).

Have fun. Hope i havent got you too late

Edited August 22, 2014 by inutil

[inutil]

I may have missed the point! The lesson plan still stands though because its too awesome!

[DogNo1]

Yeah, nice lesson plan!

[lostinisaan]

I may have missed the point! The lesson plan still stands though because its too awesome!

Thanks for your great advice.

[mynameisphil]

I taught my first class yesterday, private, the given material was way too difficult so I reverted to a lesson plan I'd made when studying.

I'm greener than green and nowhere near a great teacher but the plan saved an otherwise disastrous lesson and the students picked up comparisons by the end of the lesson and had fun doing it.

Basically, top trumps.

I introduced spiderman with a pic, asked them to list things like 'he is strong' etc.. Then introduced hulk after. They did the same again, listing similar things, then I introduced 'er. Bit of practice then I whipped out homemade top trump cards.

Superhero on each one, four attributes, speed, strength, intelligence etc.. with number values.

Explained how to play and asked them to state a sentence everytime they put down a card. 'Spiderman is fast' ''Iron Man is faster than Spiderman' etc.. They enjoyed the game, got quite competitive with each other and by the end they had 'er' and 'est' down perfect.

Also midway through the game I gave them a blank card to create their own superhero which was fun and broke it up a bit, then they resumed play with their creation in their deck also.

Edited August 23, 2014 by mynameisphil

[lostinisaan]

I taught my first class yesterday, private, the given material was way too difficult so I reverted to a lesson plan I'd made when studying.

I'm greener than green and nowhere near a great teacher but the plan saved an otherwise disastrous lesson and the students picked up comparisons by the end of the lesson and had fun doing it.

Basically, top trumps.

I introduced spiderman with a pic, asked them to list things like 'he is strong' etc.. Then introduced hulk after. They did the same again, listing similar things, then I introduced 'er. Bit of practice then I whipped out homemade top trump cards.

Superhero on each one, four attributes, speed, strength, intelligence etc.. with number values.

Explained how to play and asked them to state a sentence everytime they put down a card. 'Spiderman is fast' ''Iron Man is faster than Spiderman' etc.. They enjoyed the game, got quite competitive with each other and by the end they had 'er' and 'est' down perfect.

Also midway through the game I gave them a blank card to create their own superhero which was fun and broke it up a bit, then they resumed play with their creation in their deck also.

Life's too short to be too serious. .

[mynameisphil]

Ah, went over my head too, I just skimmed the thread!

Edited August 23, 2014 by mynameisphil

[BruceMangosteen]

Some great ideas. Many thanks. I for one don't do any lesson plans, just take it as it comes in the book or a worksheet I've prepared. If it gets too boring, I just give them free time.