This process is interesting and exciting. Let students create their own questions.

Good pre-winter day everyone!

Autumn is coming to an end, there is an incomprehensible snowfall outside, and your phone suddenly rings and, having picked up the receiver and getting ready to refuse to take out a loan or do a very necessary procedure in a beauty salon, you hear that someone is eager to learn a language, and certainly under your sensitive leadership.

What to do and where to run?

Let's try to figure out what to talk about on the phone and what to do on first lesson in English.

Phone conversation

I always try to discuss points that concern me over the phone in order to understand whether we can cooperate or not. And the answer will be negative if:
1) does not fit time or place conducting classes;
2) not satisfied price;
3) target the student’s learning does not coincide with my goals in teaching (for me this is when a mother wants me and my child to do homework in English or an adult declares that he will only talk, without tedious rules and memorization of words);
4) at the other end of the line they speak as if I have already done something must to the caller.

If everything suits us, we agree on the place and time of the first lesson. I warn you that the purpose of the first meeting There will be a determination of your language level, it is free and lasts about 40 minutes. You need to take a notepad and pen with you.
I will also learn how a student can determine his own level of knowledge in order to know what level of material to prepare. As a rule, adults assess their capabilities quite adequately, while with schoolchildren one cannot be sure of anything.

It happens that parents say: “We’ve been studying with a tutor for two years, but she can’t study with us anymore, so we turned to you,” I prepare A2 level materials, come to class - and the child can barely read, and say he can’t do almost anything... The student feels embarrassed for not meeting my expectations, his mother sees his discomfort and also begins to worry... It’s a stupid situation, I usually try to encourage him in every possible way to smooth out this moment, otherwise after the first meeting there will be an unpleasant impression.

First meeting

If the first lesson is at a student’s place, I always leave early and try to dress more formally in order to make a good impression, it will determine the opinion of the teacher for a long time. When we get to know each other better, we can wear torn jeans and a T-shirt...

We made an impression, let’s proceed directly to the lesson:

1. We start the meeting with dialogue. I have never seen a single student who cannot speak English at all. Before the conversation, I tell you to speak English as they say, without being afraid of making mistakes. If he doesn’t understand or doesn’t know something, let him speak Russian.
   I ask standard questions: How are you? The name of? Where do you study/work? What does he like to do in his free time? If I see that I am coping well, I ask about the purpose of the study and wishes for conducting classes in English; if not, in Russian. (Accordingly, if there is a schoolchild in front of me, I ask this question to the parents, who always sit next to me during the first lesson).
2. Next I give vocabulary and grammar test(about 20 questions), for about 5 minutes. (If the student is an adult, I can send it by email before the meeting so as not to waste time in class.
   It is better to save the results in a separate folder specifically dedicated to students. For what? If during training the popular phrase “we’ve been studying for six months now, but I don’t feel like I’ve made any progress in learning the language” comes up, show it every time I hear it. This is especially popular among Unified State Examination students; recently one wrote me a sample for 86 points (versus 72 points six months ago), and still the same song: “I know the language worse than before”...
3. While I'm reviewing the test, I give a small text for reading-comprehension, with post-text speaking tasks and ideally with listening tasks, where the ending of the story is written (for example, for adults I like the text about the hotel with a ghost from lesson 6B New English File Elementary).

After all the manipulations, I say what the student’s level is (as a rule, the dialogue-test-text repeats the same thing in unison, but there are also cases when the student understands what he read and writes the test well, but can say almost nothing and understands poorly by ear ), and which textbook and why we will choose. When choosing a textbook, I focus not only on the level of knowledge, but also on the tasks assigned to us.

At the end, I ask you to once again express any wishes for conducting classes and, for my part, I warn you that:

• at cancellation of class(sick, work, urgent matters) must be reported 24 hours in advance. If a lesson is canceled more than three times in six months right before the lesson, I transfer it to prepayment and increase the price. If I cancel a lesson (due to my or a child’s illness), we can reschedule it at the student’s request for the weekend or a window in my schedule;
• at unfinished homework(more than three times in six months) we break up. I don't believe in progress without independent work. I can make an exception for adults, who may not do their homework for one lesson and we chat with them the entire lesson, but for the second they do double the amount;
• raise the price I won’t study for a year (unless, of course, my goal changes - I suddenly want to pass an exam), and if I decide to get a promotion starting from the next academic year, I will inform about it three months in advance;
• if the student has something don't like it during the lesson, you want to focus on some type of activity or any other doubts arise - all complaints are accepted and considered.

Results

It's just great if you have a business card with coordinates. It looks professional and makes it clear that you take your business seriously. I keep wanting to make one for myself, I even came up with a design, but I just can’t get around to it.

Over time, at the first meeting, it becomes clear whether the person is serious. This helps to avoid that feeling when you allocated a place in the schedule, prepared for classes, tried to captivate and entertain... and after a vacation or vacation it disappears irrevocably, leaving an unpleasant aftertaste in your soul.

I don’t want to end the article on a sad note, so I will say that the percentage of students who go nowhere is small - two students left me in a year. When I remember our first meetings, I understand that I wouldn’t waste time now. The first one said bluntly over the phone, “Your place is expensive,” but still started studying, the second one told me every lesson: “I like everything, I’m ready to study and do everything,” and also disappeared after the holidays.
There are much more of those who come by word of mouth, so look at everything philosophically - “when one door closes, another will certainly open.”
Happy New Year everyone and good luck!

P.S. I am writing about the first lesson with those who are going to prepare for the Unified State Exam or Unified State Exam.

Anatole France very accurately noted the importance of an unusual presentation of educational material, saying: “The knowledge that is absorbed with appetite is better absorbed.” Many experienced and novice teachers are wondering how to conduct an interesting lesson? Such that the children would be afraid to be late for it, and after the bell would not rush to leave the class.

How to awaken students’ “appetite” for new knowledge? How to make each lesson interesting and unusual? How to competently use well-known pedagogical techniques and techniques to teach memorable lessons? Our material is devoted to this topic.

Secrets of preparing and conducting an interesting lesson

So, every lesson should arouse the child’s interest. Yes, yes, exactly everyone. A history and English lesson, an open lesson and a traditional one, should be interesting. In this case, the effectiveness of school teaching increases noticeably, and new material is easily absorbed. We will tell you how to prepare and conduct productive and fun lessons.

• Plan a lesson taking into account the age characteristics of the students, their emotional mood, and their inclination to work individually or study in a group. The concept of every interesting activity should have a creative beginning.
• Put yourself in the place of a child, do not limit the flight of your imagination - and non-standard solutions will definitely come up. And impeccable mastery of the material and pedagogical improvisation will allow you to conduct the prepared lesson in an interesting way.
• Always remember that a great start to a lesson is the key to success! Start the lesson actively (maybe with a little surprise!), clearly formulate its objectives, check your homework using.

• An interesting lesson is always divided into clear fragments with logical bridges between them. For example, do not dump a portion of new knowledge on students, but smoothly and logically move from one stage of the lesson to another. Each individual part of the lesson should not be lengthy (on average, up to 12 minutes, with the exception of explanations of new material).
• Use a variety of techniques to create an engaging lesson. Using a computer or electronic projector, you can simply and easily make both open and traditional lessons in any discipline interesting. Thus, presenting a significant event on the big screen or watching military newsreels will help the teacher teach an interesting history lesson.
• Be flexible! Equipment breakdown, student fatigue or unexpected questions are situations from which the teacher must be able to quickly and competently find a way out. For example, in order to relieve tension in the classroom, you need to have simple and fun tasks on the topic (preferably in a playful form).

• How to conduct interesting lessons for high school students? Don't be afraid to break stereotypes! Don't be afraid to experiment and improvise! Avoid templates! After all, the lack of interest in the lesson is most often due to the fact that students know all its stages in advance. This chain, which is pretty boring for the guys, can and should be broken.
• Don't do all the work for students to avoid silence and help them! Encourage constant student activity. Give children simple and logical instructions for completing tasks of any complexity. Make the most of every task.
• Use group work: such activities are not only interesting, but also teach children to make collective decisions and develop a sense of partnership. This form of work is often used to conduct an interesting open lesson.
• To teach interesting lessons, constantly search and find unusual and surprising facts about each topic that are not in the textbook. Surprise your students and never cease to be surprised with them!
• Create and constantly replenish your own methodological collection of the most successful, interesting and exciting tasks and forms of work, use entertaining material in every lesson.
• Thematic games will make lessons interesting in any classroom. The game creates a relaxed and relaxed atmosphere in the lesson, in which new knowledge is well absorbed. For example, by passing a small ball along the rows, you can arrange an active blitz poll. And role-playing games will help you conduct an interesting English lesson.

The focus is on the personality of the teacher

It is no secret that children often develop an interest in a subject thanks to the bright personality of the teacher who teaches it. What does that require?

• Leave your fatigue, worries, and troubles outside the school door! Open up to communication with students! Children really appreciate appropriate and accessible humor in the classroom and dialogue on equal terms.
• Behave outside the box! Go beyond the usual boundaries, because the personality and behavior of the teacher in the classroom are extremely important. Do you traditionally wear a business suit? Wear a bright sweater to your next lesson! Is energy always in full swing? Conduct the lesson in a calm manner. Do you prefer to explain new material while standing at the board? Try talking about a new topic while sitting at the table. As a result, children will follow the teacher with interest, subconsciously expecting something new and unusual from each lesson.
• Give more interesting examples from personal experience, because a teacher, first of all, is a creative person and an extraordinary person. Vivid life examples are remembered much better than fictitious ones.

We hope that our recommendations will help teachers in preparing and conducting new, fun lessons. Remember that the desire for personal and professional self-improvement is the basis of successful and effective teaching activities, the guarantee that each new lesson will be interesting.

How to teach an interesting lesson

You must strive to make lessons interesting. After all, a lesson is a road to the heights of knowledge, a process of improvement and intellectual growth of a student. On each of themthoughts and incredible discoveries that excite the child's consciousness or hopeless boredom and dangerous idleness are born. How valuable and interesting the seconds, minutes, hours and years spent at a school desk will be depends on the efforts of the teacher.

Anatole France very subtly noticed the importance of an extraordinary presentation of educational material, saying: “The knowledge that is absorbed with appetite is better absorbed.” Many experienced and novice teachers are wondering how to conduct an interesting lesson? Such that the children would be afraid to be late for it, and after the bell would not rush to leave the class.

Secrets of preparing and conducting an interesting lesson

So, every lesson should arouse interest in the child. Yes, yes, exactly everyone. In this case, the effectiveness of school education increases, and new material is easily absorbed. I will try to tell you how to prepare and conduct productive and enjoyable lessons.

It is necessary to plan a lesson taking into account the age characteristics of the students, their emotional state, and their inclination to work individually or to study in a group. The concept of every interesting activity should have a creative beginning.

Put yourself in the place of a child, do not limit the flight of your imagination - and non-standard solutions will definitely be found. And impeccable mastery of the material and pedagogical improvisation will allow you to conduct the prepared lesson in an interesting way. You should always remember that a great start to a lesson is the key to success! You should start the lesson actively (maybe with a small surprise), clearly formulate the tasks, check your homework using non-standard forms of work.

An interesting lesson is always divided into clear fragments with logical bridges between them. For example, you should not dump a portion of new knowledge on students, but move smoothly and logically from one stage of the lesson to another. Each individual part of the lesson should not be lengthy (on average up to 12 minutes, with the exception of explanations of new material).

Use a variety of techniques to create a fun lesson. Using a computer or electronic projector, you can simply and easily make both an open and traditional lesson in any discipline interesting.

You should be flexible in the classroom! Equipment breakdown, student fatigue or unexpected questions are situations from which the teacher must quickly and competently find a way out. For example, in order to relieve tension in the classroom, you need to have simple and fun tasks (preferably in a playful form).

How to conduct interesting lessons for high school students? It’s very simple - don’t be afraid to break stereotypes. Not doing work for students to “help” them. Stimulate constant activity of schoolchildren. Give simple and logical instructions for completing tasks of any complexity. Make the most of every activity. I like to use such a technique as working in groups: such activities are not only interesting, but also teach children to make collective decisions and develop a sense of partnership. I often use this form of work to conduct open lessons.

To teach interesting lessons, I constantly search and find unusual and surprising facts on each topic that are not in the textbook. I surprise my students and never cease to amaze them together!

I have created and am constantly replenishing my own methodological piggy bank, where the most successful, interesting and exciting forms of work accumulate.

Thematic games will make lessons interesting in any classroom. The game creates a relaxed and relaxed atmosphere in the lesson, in which new knowledge is well absorbed.

The focus is on the personality of the teacher

It is no secret that children often develop an interest in a subject thanks to the bright personality of the teacher who teaches it. What does that require?

Fatigue, troubles, worries should be left outside the school door! It is necessary to open up to communicate with students! Children really appreciate appropriate and accessible humor in the classroom and dialogue on equal terms. You should behave unconventionally, sometimes going beyond the usual boundaries, because the personality of the teacher and his behavior are extremely important. I try to give more examples from personal experience, because a teacher is a creative person and an extraordinary person, and children remember vivid life examples much better than fictitious ones.

I hope that these recommendations will help teachers in preparing and conducting new, non-boring lessons. Remember that the desire for personal and professional improvement is the basis of successful teaching activities, the guarantee that each new lesson will be interesting.

We are used to thinking about how to make a lesson useful: how to plan it so that everything is done in time? How to clearly explain a new topic? How to work it out effectively? But no less attention should be paid to making the lesson interesting. No matter how much useful material we prepare, the student will learn it much faster and better if he is involved.
Here are some strategies you can use to make any lesson and any topic interesting.

1) Warm-up

The beginning usually sets the tone for the entire lesson. So if you want your lesson to immediately engage your student, start with an interesting warm-up, such as a game.

2) Games

This is the most effective way to interest the student, and at the same time practice new material. Games on any lexical or grammatical topic can be found on ESL sites and in various collections, such as Grammar Games and Activities And Vocabulary games and activities. By the way, adult students love games no less than children.
A practical and interesting task that does not require additional materials - role-playing game. This task is more complex than just discussing the topic. It requires active participation, acting and creativity from the student, and therefore full attention.

3) Songs

Music is great for language learning. Words set to a rhythm are remembered faster. In addition, the song usually uses the same grammatical tense. Find out from the student what musical styles and groups he likes. By singing phrases from his favorite songs, he will quietly learn new vocabulary and master the necessary grammatical forms.

4) Stories

Present new grammar or vocabulary to the student in story form. For example, if you are studying the topic “Past Continuous/Past Simple”, you could start: “Yesterday, while I was going to work by the underground, a man came into the carriage and sat down opposite me. He had a monkey in his lap. The monkey was wearing jeans and a yellow jacket”(by the way, this is a true story). Such a presentation of the topic will be much more interesting for the student than: “Right, today we are going to study the difference between Past Continuous and Past Simple.”

5) Communication

In any task, include an element of Speaking, because for most students this is the most interesting aspect of learning a language. Even if you need to do an exercise like fill in the gaps, discuss with the student the photo that goes with the exercise or the most interesting sentence in it. Any task can always be “diluted” with the help of communication.

6) Changing tasks

Never turn a lesson into a lecture. Even students with good concentration will find it difficult to listen to a monologue in a foreign language for 20 minutes. In addition, modern students are accustomed to quickly changing from one type of activity to another and to an interactive form of learning. Therefore, to keep it interesting, alternate the type and duration of tasks. Also, always prepare tasks that involve communication and active participation of the student. It is better to leave written exercises for homework.

7) Creative homework

By the way, about homework. Of course, it also has to be “useful,” but that doesn’t stop it from being interesting. Give your student creative homework assignments that he or she will want to do. For example, if you are studying the past simple, ask him to prepare a summary of an episode of his favorite TV series. If you are studying the topic “Food”, ask him to create a menu for his own restaurant. Creative and interesting homework can be created for any grammar or vocabulary topic.

8) Flexible lesson plan

A plan is a necessary part of the lesson, and structure is the key to good results in your studies. At the same time, the lesson is much more interesting if the teacher knows how to adapt the plan to its course. Sometimes there comes a time when you need to deviate from the plan, for example, if a student has asked a really interesting question about grammar or the text you are working with has affected him and requires discussion.

9) Personalization

Any topic can be made interesting if you connect to it the student’s personal experience, opinion or preferences. For example, if you are studying the Present Perfect topic, ask the student about his or her travel or work experience (e.g. Which cities have you visited? Where have you worked?). The same can be done with any lexical topic.

10) Update

At this point we will talk about how to make the lesson interesting for the teacher. Your lesson can only be interesting for your student if it is interesting for you yourself. With the help of new activities, strategies and methods, the same topic can be taught differently each time.

Interesting lesson = full attention of your student = quick and effective learning of the material = progress and pleasure from learning the language.

Good luck and interesting lessons!