We bought our Smith’s franchise in December 2007. When i did training at Kyobashi, Gavin told me “The Morning Routine is a great routine” (not an exact quote), and i thought “yeah, whatever” (exact quote). Anyway, after teaching “The Morning Routine” a few times, i realised that it IS a great lesson. After teaching it a half dozen times, i thought “The Morning Routine isn’t just a great routine, its a foundation on which students can build their language skills and develop confidence in their speaking. When i realised this, i called Gavin and had a very animated discussion about “The Morning Routine” (i think i was raving, talking a mile a minute, jumping up and down). Anyway, i felt like i had struck gold. “The Morning Routine” was like a beginner’s dream come true, and for a teacher and coach, a means to an end. Using “The Morning Routine”, i could turn a beginner into a confident speaker with quite a good range and huge potential for growth within 3 lessons.
Why do i love “The Morning Routine”? Let me explain how i stretch “The Morning Routine” into a foundation for learning, confidence and growth.
Lesson 1: Start with the demo lesson version, sentences 1-7 (up to “dry”) and questions 1, 2 and 5.
Lesson 2: Review 1-7, teach questions 3, 4 and 6. At this point, i summarize how to “stretch” the basic 7 sentences using {in, at, on, with, for, and because}, then practice Q and A with the 6 questions. Sometimes spending a few minutes to look at structures for answering “Why?” questions (Q.4), eg {because i like____, because i am____, because it’s____}
Lesson 3: Review 1-7, introduce 8-14 (up to “put on clothes”), then teach questions 7, 8, 9 and 10. Review 1-14 and practice Q’s. Now i like to introduce conjunctions (setsuzokushi), usually i teach {and, then, after that, next, and *finally}. Explain to the student(s) that using “and” repeatedly is boring (you can perform the morning, emphasizing “and” between every sentence, to illustrate how boring it is). Demonstrate how to use these conjunctions, then have the student practice. Students really enjoy learning ways to sound natural, and usually they respond to this mini conjunction lesson.
Ok. So 3 lessons (give or take, depending on students level), and you’ve done ,most of the morning part 1. Obvously you can continue to introduce more parts, all the way up to the end of part 3. But this is only the beginning. Here are some more ways i like to stretch the morning.
1. After a few weeks of “The Morning Routine”, or after a few weeks AWAY from “The Morning Routine”, i like to suddenly write on the board “The Evening Routine” and underneath start a hint bar with {eat my dinner}. At this point the students are confortable enought with the morning routine, they can make their own “Evening Routine” with little or no prompting. If they do need help, i like to just reverse “The Morning Routine”, eg {wash my face/dry/brush/take off my clothes/put on my pyjamas/go to bed}.
2. I/You/We. Explain these 3 concepts. Then have the student review “The Morning Routine” using {You/Your}. Do the same for {We/Our} and so on. Mistakes happen, but things like “YOU prepare MY breakfast” followed by a “Thank you” are good mistakes, because students realise they have the power to make jokes in english. WOW. My favourite to date has been “I put on YOUR clothes”, at which point i drew a picture of a stickwoman wearing my pants, shirt and baseball cap. Laughter. Try it….it works!
3. Question 3 “Where?” This is a great question to lead from “The Morning Routine” into Prepostions 1 and 2. Like i said, i like “The Morning Routine” as a foundation for learning, and i find it easy to expand from “The Morning Routine” into item lessons, always coming back to “The Morning Routine” after the item and showing how they can use “The Morning Routine” to develop their skills.
4. Question 1 “What time do you….”. For very pink students, it’s obviously very easy to lead into the “time” item.
5. Question 10 “What kind of…..”. (I like pink pyjamas, i like Uniqlo pyjamas, i like silk pyjamas)… leads into “adjectives 1” item.
6. For fun, i like to act oiut the actions while the student is going through “The Morning Routine”. Mistakes are easily corrected without any TTT. For example, when a student says “I sit on the table”, sit on the table!, or when they say “I brush my face”, act like you are brushing your face! and so on….
So in summary, i love “The Morning Routine”, and i use it with almost all new students, especially low levels and beginners. In january and February i did 7 demo lessons, for 4 of them i did “The Morning Routine”. All 7 students have signed up.
“The Morning Routine”…. just do it. It’s good for everyone. And doing the actions while your student reviews is fun too.
Good luck.
Edward
PS- I just did another trial lesson, used “The morning” again, and am now 8 for 8 with 5 of them “Morning routine” trials! Slamdunk! “The morning” is a winner!
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