June 1st is International Children’s Day. Is there any better way to celebrate the future than give them a space to learn and grow? A child might suggest that chocolate would be a better idea. We don’t have any chocolate but we do have a few ideas to celebrate all the students in the classroom.
Children of All Ages
When people speak about Children’s Day the immediate thought goes to primary aged kids running around in the playground, scraping their knees and bouncing straight back up again. When we’re looking to future generations it’s important we include everyone. In today’s post we’d like to take a closer look at celebrating secondary aged children and giving each one the best chance to succeed in the world. We need to remember that their world’s don’t simply revolve around iPhones and Tik Tok, and we need to tap into how best to help them learn.
Engagement
As with any age the key first step to learning is engagement and interest. Wider World Second Edition inspires learners to enthusiastically engage with English in authentic contexts using humorous situations, interviews with real people, videos from the BBC, and issues high on the agenda of our to Gen Z and Alpha students.
One such issue being that of the Climate Crisis. It’s almost certain the majority of your students will be aware of the issues at hand, but how are they engaging in the topic. Unit two of the level 4 book is dedicated to solutions that can be implemented by our students. Looking not only at CO2 emissions but also at food waste and rubbish being left in the countryside.
The writing section then helps consolidate learning and allows students to focus on and engage with others on what can be done to be more environmentally friendly.
There are also a wide range of high quality BBC videos to keep students engaged in the work at hand. One of our favourites takes a look at Indian food in Liverpool. Which celebrates the international cuisine on a local level. 
Diversity
Once we’ve got our students ready to learn, we need to make sure they stay motivated. In a class of 20-40 students it’s impossible to ensure equity in terms of learning resources across such a broad range of personalities and development. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try our best. As teachers our lives are always much easier when our materials aid us in our quest to inspire and motivate as many of our students as possible. Wider World offers enhanced support for personalising learning for mixed ability and neurodivergent learners, including resources and tips for teachers.
Throughout the teachers book you are provided with activities to cater to students of all abilities. For those that need a little extra support there are materials with adapted tasks to enable students to reach the same end goal, but with tasks to suit their needs. There is also plenty of advice to guide teachers along the way.
There is then the opposite end of the spectrum, those students who don’t struggle and the issue is often that they finish long before their peers Wider World. as a teacher it can be a bit of a nightmare trying to keep the rest of the class on task. Wider World provides teachers with advice and materials to keep your students focused and helps them push themselves a little further.
There are also ample opportunities for students to work independently and with their peers with clear instructions to help teacher get the most out of the time they have in class.
Growth
Children grow, eventually they become adults, but before they do that they need our help and guidance as teachers so they can become the best versions of them selves possible.
When students are engaged and supported it allows them to flourish. At which point our classrooms become far more than simply a place for language lesson. The four walls of the English classroom can be much more than simply the home of grammar and vocabulary. They become a safe haven for growth. Looking beyond the language students need to develop a whole raft of skills to prepare them for “the real world”.
Wider World series builds learners’ transferable skills for future successes outside the classroom with a new edition to the series call Set for Life, a unique future skill development program.
Every other unit contains a Set for Life section which help with things like developing a growth mindset, social responsibility, communication, leadership and critical thinking.
In this example we can see how students can work on their self-management and how to stay calm when things go wrong.
This one section is a simple set of steps to stay cool when things heat up around us.
It is also vital that as teachers we let our students know that we don’t always need to be positive and it’s ok to not be ok. It’s our job to make sure they know that the classroom is always a safe place to be and if they ever need someone to speak to our door and our heart is always open.
So stop for a moment this children’s day and think what we can do to make our students feel more included, more energised and better prepared to face the world.
How are you going to celebrate Children’s day?
