Pockets FAQ
Click on a link to jump to a topic.
- Are there cross-curricular connections in Pockets?
- How does Pockets address different learning styles?
- Does Pockets teach learning strategies?
- Why are singing and chanting motivators in the EFL classroom?
- Why are games important in the Pockets class?
- How are reading and writing taught in Pockets?
- What is TPR and why does Pockets include it?
- What is dramatic play and why is it important?
- How can Pockets be used for both large and small class sizes?
1. Are there cross-curricular connections in Pockets?
Yes! The themes in Pockets bring in information from a variety of content areas including music, art, science, and language arts. Activities with music, movement, art, and role-playing help children practice the vocabulary and language patterns they are learning in a variety of fun ways and broaden the content of the program. Icons throughout the Teacher's Edition signal the cross-curricular connections.
2. How does Pockets address different learning styles?
Visual learners are supported through a wide range of activities using beautiful and exciting illustrations that help them process information:
3. Does Pockets teach learning strategies?
Yes! The Overview of each unit lists the strategies that children will learn and use in that unit. Such skills and strategies as using prior knowledge, mime and gesture for meaning, chants, games, and songs to learn words and sentences, are just a few of the many learning strategies Pockets will help children make their own. In addition, children will use and develop critical thinking skills, such as classifying, comparing, making inferences, and problem solving. Children also develop the valuable strategy of learning to work with peers, and share and respect materials.
4. Why are singing and chanting motivators in the EFL classroom?
Children love to sing and chant! It is an opportunity to get up and move, and it has the added benefit of helping children relax. It makes the class fun and learner-centered from the start, and also introduces children to some of the new vocabulary in a nonthreatening way — everyone is doing it! — as well as recycling previously learned language.
5. Why are games important in the Pockets class?
Playing is the way children learn. Virtually all of the activities in Pockets engage the children in "play," which is, in many ways, indistinguishable from children's "work." Games are another kind of play and allow the teacher to assess what children have learned. The variety of games in Pockets also helps children learn, practice, and maintain new language.
6. How are reading and writing taught in Pockets?
Reading and writing are both taught in steps, each step building on the one just mastered, making children feel successful and secure. The pedagogy is based on known vocabulary, which children learn through listening and speaking (and singing) activities. In Level 2, reading is introduced with four high frequency letters that children learn, always in the context of words they already know. Children learn the name of the letter, its sound, and the link between a familiar word's first letter and first sound. They learn the other letters of the alphabet in Level 3.
Children's knowledge of the letters is reinforced through a variety of activities — for example, art, music, cut-out activities, games, pair play. The children then learn a few sight words and begin to sound out other words. With these new skills and with picture clues, soon they are reading and understanding!
Writing is introduced using a similar process but incorporating the difficult component of handwriting. They learn this by first tracing, and then writing letters, words, and finally sentences. Here again, only familiar words are used.
7. What is TPR and why does Pockets include it?
TPR stands for Total Physical Response. In TPR activities, children follow instructions without saying anything. The instructions start with simple imperatives and movement. For example, the teacher says "March!" and does a marching action. The children march, first imitating the teacher, then doing the action on their own. The simple commands progress to a set of instructions: "Stand up. Go to the window. Turn around and clap five times." TPR activities offer the young Pockets users an opportunity to move and have fun while they are being successful in the new language!
8. What is dramatic play and why is it important?
Young children learn through playing. Dramatic play allows them to act out a scene or situation, giving them another way of experiencing the language they are learning. It gives them another level of understanding — perhaps a more personal one — of what the teacher has been presenting in posters, picture cards, songs, and chants. It is another "game" through which the children can practice and internalize the vocabulary and patterns they are learning. 9. How can Pockets be used for both large and small class sizes?
All of the activities have been designed to work with small or large groups. Remember with large groups you may want to invite one group to do a TPR activity while the others watch. Be sure that children who are watching are involved by clapping, moving, or saying something, such as "yes." Children should not be waiting for their turns. Or you can have different groups doing different things. For example, if you are acting out animal words, some children can pretend to be lions and others can be monkeys.