Level 2 Teacher’s Book - Introduction About Smart
Start
Welcome to Smart Start, a three-level English course for children aged between 3 and 5 which offers a fun and smart start for very young learners. The approach and philosophy of Smart Start is to nurture the growth of each individual child in terms of their language development whilst also nurturing their emotional, creative, mathematical and physical development as they move from nursery through kindergarten to the start of primary school. Smart Start is a high-level pre-primary course aimed at schools that teach 5+ hours a week of English. Specially developed to cater for all the different interests and learning styles of young learners, Smart Start aims to inspire children as they take their first steps in English language learning.
Objectives The key objective for a pre-primary course is that children enjoy their first educational experience and keep their natural motivation and enthusiasm for learning. Smart Start has many key features with this very much in mind: • interactive sticker scenes • catchy songs and chants with actions • fun comic-style stories to introduce new language • hands-on experiments and projects • engaging stories • language reviews in real-world settings featuring children from around the globe • many ideas for artistic expression and games • activities for building the Key Competences for lifelong learning
IV
Introduction
Young learners Pre-primary aged children generally learn quickly but often do not always retain what they have learned. New key language is introduced in every unit in lexical sets connected to themes and topics relevant and connected to young learners’ own world and experiences. The topics start close to home and school in Level 1 and gently take the learners into settings and experiences in the wider world around them by the end of Level 3. The words chosen are always high frequency, usually personalised segments of language which fit with the unit topic. The language taught is then recycled in subsequent units through the teaching notes and the language the teacher uses in class. As with all courses, a teacher needs to use a Teacher’s Book to best exploit the materials created in the student components but never more so than with preprimary. The amount of teaching in terms of language used is not expected to equal the amount of language that children produce. For this reason, the teacher is guided as to how to use and recycle language in class. Children in a pre-school class can differ in many ways such as age, energy, size, interests, adaptability, experience and familiarity with the world outside the home, emotional maturity, linguistic aptitude and physical development. It is not possible or realistic to expect the same outcomes for all children who use the course. Some children will learn more English than others; some children will be better at maths. As part of individualising the materials for children, teaching and learning activities are presented in such a way as to cater for different learning styles.
Course Characters
The engaging characters, Tom and Izzy (twin brother and sister), introduce children to the world of English and create a positive learning environment. Their adventures with their friends, family and adorable cat, Coco, contextualise the language in a fun and humorous way.