Most teachers do their efforts to keep children quiet in the classroom. Nevertheless, we must remember that children do learn by talking, both to the teacher and to each other. When our students talk about their ideas, they clarify their thinking and develop their reasoning skills. Such skills are required for the analysis of data, interpretation of results and conceptual development. Unfortunately, this type of talk is frequently absent in lessons and time is limited for discussions. Various reasons may account for the lack of time devoted to our students talking, including our limited knowledge of appropriate teaching methods. So, how can we bring reticent and shy students out of their shells? Actually, there are many ways to do that but Dr. Scott Stevens suggests using PUPPETS in EFL classrooms to reach yhis objective.
For Dr. Scott Stevens, the PUPPETS Project has been set up to help teachers develop teaching methods that generate learning conversations amongst students. He says that he uses puppets a great deal in his drama classes as they help his students become more expressive.
Students who are afraid to speak or act in front of the class will often enthusiastically emote in the character of a puppet. When a student operates a puppet, the focus is on the puppet, rather than on the puppeteer, and the student forgets to be self conscious. If you watch a student operating a puppet, you see that every emotion and every movement of the puppet is mirrored in the puppeteer. The student really is "acting." The puppet simply provides a safety net--an extra level of reality between the performer and the audience. Even the shyest students will perform loudly and boldly when using puppets. We can get puppets from a variety of sources, toy stores, book stores. However, often the best puppet experiences come when students make their own puppets. That way the puppet characters are personal to their operators, and the sense of ownership that comes from making the puppets invests their manipulation with added importance. Plus, by introducing "arts and crafts" into the drama classroom the teacher begin to explore the connected nature of all the arts, and he gives his students another way to excel. Sometimes the most creative puppet comes from a surprising source--that student we have been worried about all semester, who seems so unsure. Puppets in the classroom are a great way to boost self esteem and to bring the class to a better sense of unity and cooperation.
2 comments:
I use sock puppets all the time when I taught elementary school in Thailand and Korea. Asian kids are very shy and sock puppets are cheap and easy to use. Each class would have up to 40 students, but can be easily broken down into smaller groups. At the end of the unit the students would use a smaller white board as a stage and perform role plays. Making the sock puppet is also interesting for the students, a good method to teach to teach body parts.
www.esldaily.org
Using puppets in EFL classrooms seems a great technique, but surely not in many areas wherein students are like old pieces of furniture in the ruins of an old school!!!
Post a Comment