Tips for Managing the Young Learner Classroom

How do you think about your young learners?

First things first, try to get into the mind of a child by imagining yourself when you were six years old. Connect to yourself as a young learner. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and picture yourself when you were six years old.

What was your typical day like? Who did you interact with most often? What activities did you do at home? Outside of home? What was your favourite part of the day? The least favourite part? Why?

Now think about yourself at school. What kind of a student were you? What subjects did you like the most? The least? What class activities did you most enjoy? Least enjoy? Why?

Professional Development Activity

How would you describe Young Learners? Write down in a circle all the adjectives you can think of that describe the characteristics of young learners. Splash the words down in the circle in any order and any direction.

Now read through all the adjectives you wrote down and categorise them into a chart with two columns. On one side list the positive adjectives. On the other side list the negative adjectives.

Have a look at your chart. Would this differ depending on the type of day that you have had? Often the descriptors that are used reflect the same type of characteristics of young learners, with the difference being purely the interpretation (by you, the teacher) of their behaviour. Think about this the next time you seem to be having a bad day!

Class Activity

To review words children have already learned, put an example of one of the items in a bag. For example, if children are learning about toys, you might put a small ball, doll or a toy truck in the bag.

Have a child come to the front and put his/her hand in the bag, feel the item and guess what it is. Then ask them to take it out of the bag and show the class to see if they guessed correctly.

Repeat with a different item (though be careful that the children don’t see you put anything in the bag!). If playing in teams, a correct guess could earn the team a point. 

Top Tip for Young Learner Classrooms

Remember to encourage parents to participate in the class occasionally. Children enjoy seeing their parents in class, and it gives parents an opportunity to find out what their children are learning and feel a part of the class.