Teaching Beginner's Method in EFL class

[DeeDubb]

I'm an American working in South Korea as an English teacher. I teach in a rural area at many small schools. Some of my schools only have around 15-20 students in the entire school! At one of the elementary schools, I teach a bonus after-school class to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders (about 10 students total). I was thinking it would be really fun to dedicate the next few months to teaching them the beginner's method for solving a Rubik's Cube. So I went in Lightake and bought two six-packs for YJ Su Longs. This seems like an awesome price-to-quality ratio for cubes. I only teach these kids once a week, and the after school class is only an hour, so I'll probably spend a few months building up. Here's the lesson plan:

Week 1 (actually, before the cubes arrive):

Teach them the English for "Up, Down, Back, Front, Left, Right" (most will already be familiar with this, but just to reinforce.
Introduce Cube notation. R vs R'
Do some drills with the students individually with my cube, see if they can start to figure it out.

Week 2: (Cubes will hopefully be here):

Set some ground rules that they should only touch the cubes when I give them permission (kids will just go crazy and not listen to me if I don't enforce some rules).

take some pieces out of a cube to show them that they need to think about an edge as two colors and a corner as three colors.

Start drilling (R’ D’ R D) Try to get them to do that accurately. I will probably name that move "Batman", so later I can just say "Batman x 6, go!"
Have them scramble, and then work on their cross.

Depending on time, try to get some corners too.

Collect cubes at end of class (teacher gets the fun of solving all 10 cubes )

Week 3

Drill more "Batman"

scramble and work on the cross. Once all students have their cross, we will start to work on corners. I will show them the three orientations for the bottom, and probably just have them use Batman either once or twice to fix the bad corners (later, they will intuitively figure out they can skip a couple moves on the Batman x 2, but it's easiest to teach that way). Once they get all corners, scramble and do it again. This will probably be the longest free solving session so far.

Teacher collects cubes and solves.

Week 4

Drill "Batman" for a bit.

Add "Pikachu" (U R U' R') and "Eevee" (U' F' U F) Spend a long time drilling two.

Scramble and work on first side. Once everyone is done with first side, show them how to use "Pikachu -> Eevee" to fix one type of edge and "Eevee -> Pikachu" to solve the other edge. See how many students can grasp this concept. I'm guessing many will have trouble.

Week 5 (Review week)

Drill "Batman" "Pikachu" and "Eevee" for a bit.

Students scramble and try to solve. If they get F2L, then scramble and do it again. This will be another long day of practicing. Hopefully by the end of today, they can all finish F2L

Week 6

Drill "Batman" "Pikachu" and "Eevee" for a bit

Can't use the word "sexy move", so hmm. Maybe I'll use "Elsa" (from Frozen, these kids love that movie). Drill "Elsa" (R U R' U') for a bit.

Scramble and solve F2L (hopefully will only take about 5 minutes for everyone to get F2L). Show them the next goal is the top cross. Teach them how to use "F-Elsa-F' " or "F-Elsa-elsa-F' " to get the top cross (unless they have only the center, then "F-Elsa-Elsa-F' -> U2 F-Elsa-F' " Practice this for the rest of class. Students who understand this will scramble, solve to F2L+top cross.

Week 7

Drill "Batman" "Pikachu" "Eevee" and "Elsa" for a bit.

Add "R U R’ U R U U R’ U"... need a name for this one. Maybe some Disney villain that they know. maybe "Hans" from Frozen? This one is kinda rough, so it'll take a bit of practice.

Scramble and solve F2L+top cross. Then explain how to use "Hans" to change the edges. Keep practicing this.

Week 9

Drill "Batman" "Pikachu" "Eevee" "Elsa" and "Hans" for a bit

Add our final Algorithm, which I'll call "Mew" (U R U’ L’ U R’ U’ L)

Scramble and Solve F2L+complete top cross! Show them how to look for bad corners and good corners, and use "mew" to fix the corners. When students achieve this, show them how to use Batman to finish the cube!

Week 10

I'm going to make a pocketmod booklet thing with all of our algorithms. Print out one for each, and teach them how to put the booklet together.

No more drilling! Just give them the cube and let them have at it. The whole class. Hopefully, all the students can eventually solve the cube once. (Algorithms will be on the projector). At the end of class, tell them to put the cube and booklet in their pocket. It's a gift to them. Now there's 10 more kids who can speak English a little better, and can solve a Rubik's Cube.


I expect a few speed bumps, but hopefully it will take 12 weeks at most. Tell me what you guys think of the lesson plan, any suggestions for algorithm names would be awesome. Also, if you think any portion drags too much or I should have extra practice weeks inserted somewhere. These are pretty young kids (though some on this forum are around the same age), and they have a language barrier to overcome, so I need to take it pretty slow.

 

[DeeDubb]

Ugh. I made this thread ages ago... 3 months+. I'm still teaching. It's taken longer than I expected, but about half my class is up to the LLEO and working on LLEP.... I have 2 more weeks with them before the school vacation starts, and I'm hoping at least that half with finish the cube. I'm having those ones who can do it teach it to the others. It's been really fun and exciting, and I can't wait to give them the cubes as a gift when they finish.

 

[WhatIsRubiks]

This seems like a good idea, but is it the language barrier that is causing the problems?. I mean I think I learned to solve a cube in about half an hour. I then carried a small book of beginner algs that I wrote down myself.

 

[DeeDubb]

This seems like a good idea, but is it the language barrier that is causing the problems?. I mean I think I learned to solve a cube in about half an hour. I then carried a small book of beginner algs that I wrote down myself.

The language barrier and their age is a huge issue. The older ones are 12 years old, so they are ready, but the 10 year olds still aren't very mature, and it's hard to keep them on task.

It's hard for me to explain things like "look around the cube without spinning it around" or "look for the corner that is in the right place even if it is not spun correctly." Also, I only teach them once a week for an hour, so I teach them, then they get to forget all week because they don't play with cubes anywhere, and then I have to refresh them and try to build on it. It's a little tricky, but they're getting it.

BTW, half an hour is crazy. It took me probably about 6-8 hours with the pamphlet working on it on and off.

 

[WhatIsRubiks]

Well, I used a youtube video that had all the decent beginner algs and methods. It took me half an hour to solve it the first time, while watching the video. I then wrote down all the algs and memorized them, and used the book when I forgot.

I think seeing someone do it and explain why it is doing that is better for learning the algs than looking at a pamphlet that comes with cubes. Besides, the rubik's brand cube I got didn't come with one of those. ha

 

[DeeDubb]

So yesterday I finished my Rubik's Cube class with my EFL students in Korea. I made a pocketmod with the beginner method, and I gave them the YJ Sulongs they had been using as a final gift. They were all so excited. I came to school this morning and a few of the girls were playing with their cubes, it was so rewarding to see them doing it on their own. Even if it's still difficult for them to solve, they have the passion for it, which is the most important thing. It really was a fun experience.

 

[David10000]

Successfully teaching someone how to solve the cube is always rewarding (for me at least).