Teachers' Tips:

Introduction

Welcome to We are Busy Beavers Textbook 2!

These “Teachers’ Tips” contain all of the necessary teaching instructions for We are Busy Beavers Textbook 2 and the corresponding Online Resources.

The first thing that any teacher about to begin teaching the We are Busy Beavers series should know is that this is a unique system founded on several key principles. Songs, images, questions, answers, sentence structure, repetition and review are the fundamental elements of this teaching method.

The 5 Component Teaching Method

Every Section of the Online Resources can be explored through 5 different components. These are 5 different ways the material can be approached to help students grasp what they are learning. The 5 Components are – Songs, Interactive Video / Audio Files, Textbook Activities, Classroom Activities and Work Sheets.

A Typical Class Using the We are Busy Beavers Method

Any experienced teacher knows that students’ minds move very fast and they become bored very quickly. A great teacher changes the rhythm of a class often to keep learning exciting and fresh. The We are Busy Beavers “5 Component Teaching Method” offers suggestions for teachers to control the energy of the classroom by switching from one component to the next about every 5 minutes.

For example, a typical 30 - 45 minute English lesson could flow something like this.

• Begin with the whole class singing along to a Song by playing a Video or Audio File.
• Next the teacher could use Flash Cards to review material from the previous lesson.
• Students could perform a role playing activity to demonstrate their mastery of the old material.
• The teacher could introduce a new concept with an Interactive Video File.
• Students could then pair up and use the textbook to practice asking and answering questions with each.
• One or two Work Sheets can be completed in class to practice reading and writing or assigned as homework.
• The entire class can join in a Bingo Game using the new vocabulary taught in today’s lesson
• Lastly, the entire class can sing or chant along once more with an Audio or Video File.

What Will Students Know by the End of Book 2?

Book 2 focuses on common everyday English. It contains so many fun songs and great conversation topics that there is just too much to sum up briefly.

The main things that students should have mastered by the end of Book 2 are - the days of the week, feelings, the weather, how to write a diary, positive and negative answers to “Do you like…?” and “Do you have…?” 12 new verbs, 18 new places in the neighborhood and over 90 food & drink names. Actually Book 2 teaches a lot more than that even, but you’ll have to explore it yourself and find out!

Like in Book 1 there are Review Tests at the end of Book 2 to check that students have retained what they have learned. If they cannot answer the questions in the tests nearly perfectly then more review is needed.

Each new section of the Online Resources contains “Teachers’ Tips” about how to explore and practice the new material using the 5 Components. Are you ready? Let’s begin Section 1.

The 5 Components

1. Song – The easy "chant-style" melody for the How Are You? (Song) is used later in The Food Song and again in The Weather Song. Every line in these songs is repeated with an "echo" to make it easier for students to sing along with.

Try separating the class into 2 groups - boys and girls, left and right sides of the classroom or beginner students and more advanced. One group sings the first line and the second group sings the "echo". Then have the groups switch singing parts. You can award prizes for the clearest, loudest group.

2. Interactive Video / Audio File – There is no Interactive Video / Audio File in this section. The Video / Audio file in the next section (Section 2) teaches the days of the week.

3. Textbook Activities – Play the Audio File for this song and have students sing along and point at the corresponding pictures in the textbook.

Once the students can sing this song very well you can play the Audio File without vocals (Track 5 on the CD in the back of the textbook). Students will have to do all the singing themselves. Try dividing the class into two groups with one group singing the first line and the other group singing the "echo".

4. Classroom Activities – Write the words on the board and have students copy them into their notebook.

Use your imagination to come up with fun ways to help students learn the words to this song.

5. Work Sheets – The Work Sheet for this section is a Vocabulary Page that teaches the names of the days of the week. There are a lot of Vocabulary Pages in Book 2. Students should keep these Vocabulary Pages in a separate binder.

When students complete one of the Vocabulary pages have them place it into their own "Vocabulary Picture Dictionary" binder. Then they can review these words as often as they need too. They will be tested on them all at the end of the book.

Korean Version

Teachers' Tips:

Welcome to We are Busy Beavers Book 2!

아래의 내용들은 교재 2권과 함께 공부할 수 있는 온라인 자료입니다.

교재 1권에 소개된 많은 멜로디와 형식 그리고 개념 등이 2권에서도 계속해서 확장되어 학습됩니다. 

그림중심의 학습법은 계속됩니다. 학생들은 먼저 사진을 보고 완전한 문장으로 묻고 답하는 법을 배웁니다. 음악은 공통된 구문들의 기억을 돕는데 좋은 도우미가 됩니다. 교재 1권과 같이 새로운 개념과 단어들은 학생들이 완전히 익힐 때까지 반복해서 등장합니다.

온라인 자료의 각 섹션들은 5가지 요소로 구성되어 있으며 학생들의 학습을 지도하는데 5가지의 접근법이 사용될 수 있습니다.

5단계 학습구성

1. 노래 - ‘How Are You?’ (Song)에 사용된 "챈트 스타일"의 쉬운 멜로디가 ‘The Food Song’과  ‘The Weather Song’에서도 반복됩니다. 이런 노래들에는 에코가 들어있어 학생들이 따라 부르기 편합니다.   

학생들을 성별 또는 실력에 따라 반을 두 개의 그룹으로 나누세요. 한 그룹이 소절을 부르고 다른 그룹은 에코 파트를 부르게 한뒤 두 그룹의 노래 부분을 바꿔서도 실시해 봅니다. 그런 다음 더 정확하고 큰 소리로 부른 그룹에 상을 줍니다. 

2. 비디오 / 오디오 상호 학습 – 본 섹션에는 상호학습을 위한 비디오/오디오 파일이 없습니다. 섹션2부터 나오는 비디오/오디오 파일은 요일의 이름들을 가르치기 위한 것입니다.

3. 교재 활동 –오디오 파일을 재생하여 학생들이 교재에 나오는 그림을 가르켜가며 노래를 따라 부르도록 지도합니다.

일단 학생들이 오디오 파일을 듣고 완벽하게 따라 부를 정도의 실력이 되면 보컬없이 음악만이 나오는 파일을 재생하여 학생들이 노래를 직접 부르게 합니다. (교재 뒤CD의 5번 트랙) 이번에도 반을 두 개의 그룹으로 나눠 한 그룹은 첫 소절을 나머지 한 그룹은 에코 파트를 부르도록 합니다.

4. 교실 활동 – 교재에 나오는 단어들을 칠판에 적고 학생들이 노트에 따라 쓸수 있도록 합니다.

선생님의 상상력을 동원해서 학생들이 노래를 통해 단어들을 익힐 수 있도록 도와줍니다.

5. 워크북 학습 – 본 섹션의 연습문제는 일주일의 각 요일 이름을 확인하는 Vocabulary Page로 이루어져 있습니다. 교재 1권과 마찬가지로 2권에서도 Vocabulary Page가 많이 수록되어 있습니다. 학생들은 파일을 따로 만들어 새로운 Vocabulary Sheet이 나올 때마다 Vocabulary Page를 파일에 추가하도록 합니다.