Teaching ESL at a Toronto Senior Home

Teaching has always been my passion! I enjoy teaching tremendously. When I was a school administrator, this was the part I missed the most.

Therefore when a senior home in Toronto invited me to teach the English class at their place, I gladly accepted.  It started with a few seniors and we met weekly for an hour and half. Instead of following any textbook to teach basic English, this time I threw the text book out of the window and tried a different way of teaching.

Very often, English as a second language teachers follow a certain pattern of teaching. They are very concerned about building the students' vocabulary and their lessons are heavily based on learning new words.

Seniors learning English at a senior home

I am trying a different approach this time. My lessons are based mainly on teaching my senior students how to make friendly day to day conversations with their English speaking neighbhours.

 In each lesson, I design a series of questions and answers based on a practical situation or current event. I teach and use the 5 W's words often - Who, What, Where, When, How.  From these five W words, my students learn how to ask questions and respond to them based on the material provided from the exercises I have prepared with their interest and abilities in mind.

Seniors enjoy practicing what they learn with each other

At the beginning of each lesson, I review the material from the previous session. After the review, we discuss the latest current event or a topic relating to their everyday living which draws their attention. From there, I go over the questions and answers with them, explaining each word and the sound.

After this high interest group lesson, students would practise with each other in pairs. I am often delighted with the enthusiasm and the energy of my senior students, most of whom are in their 80's!

The best part is watching my senior students making new friends, exchanging phone numbers with each other and having a good time! This makes me very happy and I thank God for the opportunity to serve the seniors in my community.

R.T.
St. Paul's Senior Home
Scarborough, Ontario