Dear colleagues,My name is Sarangerel and my family name is Dorj. I am a Russian and English teacher and I work at International School #19 in Darkhan. I have been working as a teacher for 16 years. The last eight years I’ve been teaching English. Actually, I learned English by myself so I’m always trying to improve my English and teaching skills. From 2000 to 2002 I worked with VSO volunteers and learned a lot.
There is a Swiss Language Project in Mongolia. They help many Mongolian schools and colleges. The leader of the Swiss Program for Language Instruction and Teacher Training is Ms. Anita Fahrni-Minear, member of Cantonal Parliament of Thurgau. She works very sincerely to help Mongolian schools and students. Many nice and well-supplied libraries, full of useful books, were created at schools in Darkhan, Erdenet, Choibalsan, Khovd, and UB by the Swiss Language Project. Also Ms. Fahrni-Minear sends many Swiss teachers to the above-mentioned schools and we work together, making a good team, sharing and learning from each other. Additionally, she organizes student exchange programs and teacher internships. Through the exchange program Batchuluun, who studies German at International School # 19 in Darkhan, studied in Switzerland in the 2006-2007 school year.
In August 2007, Ms. Fahrni-Minear invited the first two Mongolian English teachers to Switzerland. I was one of them, and the other was T. Enkh-Oyun, from Khovd University. We had the opportunity to visit the International School of Berne in Gümligen, Switzerland for three months. Also seven German-language students and one German teacher are now studying at different high schools and college in Switzerland. During my visit at the International School of Berne we learned a lot and had such a great experience. In my opinion, it is an efficient project which helps Mongolian students through their teachers.
When I was in Switzerland I noticed that Swiss people and students read a lot. From this I got ideas to organize a “Reading Club” at school here in Mongolia, to use literature books in teaching, and to choose suitable books for my students’ language level. My students are reading many books and I have found that if we encourage them, they will love books. At first there were problems of how teachers should check their students’ reading comprehension, and how students should work on their books. Thus, I created this table, and made copies, and gave them to my students. We found that it was useful and much easier for teachers and students, so I wanted to share it with my colleagues and all English teachers.
After reading the book my students fill out the sheet of questions below and then give a five minute mini-talk about their book to their classmates. While one student is giving their mini-talk the other students listen carefully. Then, they have to ask questions. It helps to develop their listening skills as well.
I hope this will be useful to you and your students. Read books with your students and enjoy!
Cell-phone: 99753233
sarangerel69@yahoo.com
Student/reader’s Commentary
Student’s name: _______ The name of the book: ________
Write about the book. What is it about? Why did you enjoy it?
What is the story about?
The story is about…
Which person (character) in the story did you like most? Why?
Did you enjoy it?
New words.
Which words in this book are new to you? Write them here.
English Mongolian An example sentence
noble язгууртан A group of Scottish nobles rode towards the farm.
Choose 10 sentences and translate into Mongolian.
English Mongolian