Teaching Post 10/23 - 10/25

This week's teaching was solid :-)

Tuesday's lesson plan included finishing the movie and discussing some of the main aspects. The students also chose topics related to the movie to write their persuasive essay. The majority of the students will write something that will try to persuade the reader to watch the movie or not watch the movie (much like a real film review!). After the topics were chosen we started to fill in an introduction outline, but we didn't finish.

In Thursday's class we finished up the entire outline for the essay and I feel pretty good about it. We did some peer reviewing of the outline and I was able to give special attention to some of the students. I was very happy to have the opportunity to help these students, because I don't feel like I am able to give enough of this special attetion due to time constraints. I think we are all on the same track now and I hope I can include more time later to give these students an extra hand.

Well....on Tuesday I look forward to getting the final drafts of the Persuasive Essays and seeing how the students are doing. It's amazing how much my students have improved! I guess they learn regardless of who their teacher is :-) It really has been a lot of fun seeing the improvement of my students as compared to day 1 - it really motivates me and helps me to want to continue to work hard.

We will see what next week brings.

Teaching Post 10/16 - 10/18

On Tuesday of this week I was observed by one of my superiors and by some educators from Thailand who wanted to see how incorporated group work into the classroom.

I'm very happy to say that my observation went very well and that I also received some very good suggestions on my teaching. My supervisor gave me some good ideas involving the students doing group work on the board during the beginning of the class. The class is a writing class and starts at 8am in the morning! Not a good time! Doing more group activities involving all the students right away in the morning might help the students wake up a little bit.

I was also given some good ideas involving time usage - I think I need to start assigning an amount of time to certain activities. Usually I just tell the students/groups what needs to be done and then I circulate through the classroom and make sure that everyone is on task. Some groups finish very quickly, while others can easily work for the majority of the class period. If I only gave the students a fixed amount of time I think they might work a little more effeciently.

We did do a lot of group work in Tuesday's class, so I'm glad the Thai teachers chose that day to come. They were really able to see the students working together and presenting their discoveries.

On Thursday we decided to try something new. I'm using film to introduce a persuasive essay, so we watched part of the movie, "What about Bob?" starring Bill Murrey. We discussed portions of the film while we watched it and discussed different topics in the movie that we could use in the essay. It was a fun class and I'm glad we had the opportunity to change things up a little bit.

Well, it was a good week and I feel very encouraged by it.

Genre number 4 - problem

Well...my survey for genre number four hasn't turned out very well yet.....

I only gave the survey to a small number of people and it really needs to be done on a larger scale. I'm not quite sure what to do, but I think I will just try to survey more people and see what kind of results I get. Right now almost all of my results are the same and I'm wondering if the texts that I have chosen are too easy or if I'm making the survey questions too easy.

Anyway, I will continue to try and apply this type of genre to my project, but if it doesn't work out soon I will have to think of something else.

Genre number 4

An Explanation Using a Graph

Potential voice: Teacher

Potential audience: School administration

Rational: This will be an actual survey done by students after having read two culturally different texts. The survey will be designed to give the audience insights into the reading difficulties of students with different cultural backgrounds.

Genre number 3 - A Letter to a Parent

Dear Mrs. Farid,

Your son Moses has been having trouble comprehending what he is reading in social studies class and I would like you to know that this is normal for students who do not know the the cultural or historical background of the United States. All of our students in the school struggle with the same problems regarding reading comprehension as your son, I assure you that there is no need to be alarmed.

I would just like to inform you of some reading strategies that might help Moses better comprehend his textbooks and give him some historical or cultural knowledge that would assist him in his reading comprehension.

Here are some strategies that you can help your son use in order to better comprehend the information in his textbooks:

- Overview the text

- Look for context clues, such as titles, subheadings and diagrams

- Attempt to relate important points in the text to one another (important points might include highlighted words, titles or subheadings)

- Try to use prior knowledge to interpret the text (prior knowledge would include things talked about in class or movies)

- Attempt to discover the meaning of words, first by context and then by dictionary

- List the main ideas of the text on a piece of paper

- If the textbook is about United States history, often times you can rent a movie that is related to the text and this would be a great way to understand the context of the textbook

Well, these are a few methods that our students have used to successfully understand their textbooks. If you have any questions regarding this letter please feel free to call me or send me an email. I would be happy to meet with you and Moses and talk about some of the things we can do together in order for Moses to continue to be a successful student.

Thank you so much for your time,
Alan I. Clipperton

Reference:
Singhal, M. (1998). A comparison of L1 and L2 reading: Cultural differences and schema. The Internet TESL Journal, 4. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from www.iteslj.org

Genre number 3

Here's what I'm thinking about for genre number 3.

A Letter to a Parent

Voice: Teacher

Audience: Parent of an ESL student

Rationale: This letter will be from a teacher to a parent of an ESL student who is struggling with reading his textbooks. The teacher will give the parent several ideas that might help the student comprehend the information better while he reads. I think that this will be a good way to present some of the strategies that ELLs use when reading material that might be difficult to comprehend based on their cultural knowledge.

Spanish Song Translation into English

Due to popular demand here is the Spanish song turned into English.

Thanks for your feedback!

Jose Doesn’t Understand Books

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

Verse
Jose came to this country of dreams, but he doesn’t have any friends
He doesn’t understand his books and everyone calls him stupid

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

Verse
Jose doesn’t have the same culture, therefore he doesn’t understand the books
He needs the teachers that will teach him culture or he won’t want to study

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

The teachers say that Jose understands, but he doesn’t remember the books
First they should teach him culture, then he will understand the school

Chorus
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books
I don’t understand books
I don’t understand your English books

We should teach American culture!

Teaching Post 10/9 - 10/11

On Tuesday we had a peer review day for the Cause/Effect Essay. I really like these types of activities that get the students together and make them somewhat responsible for their own education. I also revised the peer review worksheet to make it a little more relevant and to look for some of the things that I see the students having problems with in their writing. Overall it was a good class period.

On Thursday I set up a conference so I could speak with each indivdual student about their writing up to this point and what is expected the rest of the way. I really feel like the students enjoyed this conferencing and that they learned a lot from it. I was able to hand back their last essays and really point out some of the major issues and some of the really good things they are doing in their writing. I also thought it was important to let the class know about some of the things to come, because Lightbown and Spada believe that it increases student motivation.

Next week I'm thinking about doing something in my class a little different. I've been reading some articles about using film to assist in argumentative writing and I think I'm going to try to incorperate some of their ideas into my class. I look forward to writing about that in the weeks to come.

Goodbye for now!

Content Based Lesson Plan

Content based instruction is a little bit different than the traditional methods of teaching and education. CBI really takes into the account that students need context in order to comprehend knowledge about the subject being taught. In areas such as social studies where culture and context are already assumed to a large extent by the text book companies, this type of instruction is very important for ELLs who have no context or cultural knowledge to base the text.

This lesson plan is designed to give the ELL a contextual/cultural base before reading the mainstream text on the subject matter. Keep in mind that the only focus is to give the students context - it's not designed to teach grammar, but some vocabulary will be included.

Lesson: The Great Depression
Grade: 10th grade (I believe 10th grade is when the students study the Great Depression here in MN)
English Level: Intermediate

Materials: Stock Market Madness with all of its pieces, different magazines, poster board, glue, scissors, markers, chalk/whiteboard markers, novels/story books about the Great Depression, mainstream text section on the Great Depression, and simplified text section on the Great Depression.

(Before doing a lesson or activity that contains a lot of numbers it's best to do a little warm-up game. I call this Number Writing Races!)

Number Writing Races!

Objective: This activity is to be used as a number listening exercise primarily for listening to dates (2007, 1919, 1929, etc…) and monetary values ($1, $20.75, $11.12, etc…) before talking about numbers in class or having the students do an activity that involves different number values.

Materials: paper, pens or pencils, writing board (white board or blackboard), markers or chalk (depending upon the board), two chairs and students!

Warm-up: Give every student a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. The teacher dictates ten different numbers including both dates and monetary numbers to the students. The students write the number the teacher has stated onto the piece of paper.

Activity:

1. The teacher divides the class into two teams and calls one student from each team to the board to participate in the writing race. Do not allow the students to hold the marker or the chalk.

2. The teacher says a number and the first student to pick up their writing utensil, write the number correctly on the board, place their writing utensil back down on the writing board shelf with cap on (if it’s a marker), sit down in the chair and raise their hand wins.

3. Each pair of students should get three opportunities to write different numbers each time they go to the board. Which ever student wins two out of three writing races earns one point for their team.

4. Continue the above sequence until every student has had a chance to write at least once. If the teacher feels that it is necessary to continue to play the game he or she may do so.

Stock Market Activity - Stock Market Madness!

Objective: To teach the basic workings of the stock market and key terms that relate to the Great Depression.

Materials: white board/blackboard, writing utensils (pens and pencils for the students, chalk or markers for the writing board), Risen and Fallen spinner, Great Depression spinner, play money, money amount deck of cards, share cards, loan application forms, default cards, foreclosure cards, two calculators and individual stock market scripts.

Object: The object of the game is to make more money than everyone else by playing the stock market.

Set-up: Across the top of the writing board write down the names of five potential stock companies (ex. Coke Cola, Walmart, Sony, McDonald's, and Blockbuster) and set up a small table (label the table STOCK MARKET) next to the writing board with both spinners on it. On one side of the room set up a table (label the table BANK) with play money, default cards, foreclosure cards, one calculator, and loan application forms and on the opposite side of the room set up a table (label the table BROKER) with play money, a calculator, money amount deck of cards, and stock share cards.

One student needs to work at the BANK table, one student needs to work at the STOCK MARKET table and one student needs to work at the BROKER table.

The rest of the students start with no money!

In the beginning all stocks cost $2.

ROUND 1

1. The students must take their script, go to the bank, fill-out a loan application form and say, "I would like to take out a loan for _________ dollars please." The bank gives the students the money and may allow the students to borrow as much money as they want, but the student must pay it back every 5th round. The banker must keep track of how much money each student owes.

2. The students must take their script, go to the broker and say, "I would like to purchase____ shares of ______ please." The students are allowed to purchase as many stocks as they have money to purchase and the broker must give each student a share card for each stock share purchased.

3. The stock market spins the Risen and Fallen spinner and reads where the arrow has landed (ex. Risen) and calls out, "The stock market has risen!"

4. The broker draws a card from the money amount deck and calls out each company with the corresponding amount card (ex. The broker draws the first card and says, "The Coke Cola stock has risen 1 dollar." The broker draws the second card and says, "The Walmart stock has risen 3 dollars." Etc....). While the broker is calling out the stock amounts the stock market is writing the total amount of the stocks on the board (ex. Coke Cola started at 2 dollars and has risen 1 dollar, so the stock market draws an up arrow - to indicate that the stock has risen - and writes 3 dollars under the Coke Cola stock on the board).

5. The students now have the option of selling their shares back to the broker for a profit or a loss depending on how their stock did. If the students chose to sell their shares, they must pay back as much money to the bank as they can and say, "I would like to put ________ dollars towards my loan." The banker should adjust the student’s loan application as necessary (ex. After Jim's stocks drop he sells the shares back to the broker and then pays the banker, but since the stocks dropped and Jim only has 15 dollars instead of 20 dollars the banker then writes on Jim's loan application that he only owes 5 dollars).

6. After the students finish selling their shares back to the broker and paying back the bank round 1 is completed.

ROUND 2, ROUND 3 and ROUND 4 - repeat ROUND 1

ROUND 5

1. Same as previous rounds.

2. Same as previous rounds.

3. The stock market spins the Great Depression spinner, which indicates whether the stock market has risen, fallen or crashed. The stock market then calls out the corresponding situation.

4. If the stock market has either risen or fallen, repeat steps 4 through 6 from round one, but everyone must pay back the bank. If the stock market has crashed all the students must give all of their shares back to the broker and proceed to settle accounts with the bank.

5. The students must pay back the bank any money that they have. If the students are unable to pay off their loan they say, "I am not able to pay, I do not have any money," then the banker says, "Your loan is in default, the bank must foreclose on your house." The banker then gives the student a default card and a foreclosure card. The bank must continue to keep track of how much money the students still owe.

6. The student with the most money wins! If all students default, all students loose.

Continue playing as time permits and/or students are having fun.

Poster Activity: Divide the students up into pairs and have them look through magazines to try to find pictures that might reflect the time period of the Great Depression. The students are to glue the pictures they find onto the poster board and when they are finished explain their poster to the class.

Storybook: Read a storybook that deals with the Great Depression or something specific related to the Great Depression in order for the students to receive less formal input that they can remember later.

Simplified/mainstream Text: The students should read the simplified text with the teacher and specific vocabulary from the text should be taught. If the students are able, the mainstream text should be read by the students with the teacher's assistants (if needed), all homework or exercises from the text should be completed with the help of the teachers (if needed).

The first two activites (Number writing races and Stock Market Madness) should fit into about a 1-2 hour time frame (of course I've never actually played Stock Market Madness)and then the other activities would be implemented. Depending on the needs of the students and the teacher, I think that the activities regarding the poster and books could be very short or very long - it just depends on a lot of things.

Note: there are a lot of materials that go with Stock Market Madness! If anyone is at least interested in seeing the supplemental materials I can certainly email them to you or even post them on this blog (with the exception of the money and spinners).

Spanish Song

Alright, here it is. This song is written with the chorus in the first person and the verses telling a story about an ESL student who cannot understand his books because he doesn't have the cultural knowledge to comprehend what he is reading. This is a song to remind teachers of the importance of teaching context and culture in the ESL classroom.

If anyone has any questions please let me know and I would be happy to explain them - Oh, for all of you musicians out there the song is very easy - I just play a few different variations on an A minor jazz chord (I can't remember the exact names) on the guitar and the melody changes between chorus and verse - it's super easy, maybe we can all sing it together sometime :-)

Jose No Comprende Libros

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Estrofa
Vino Jose a éste pais de sueños, pero no tiene amigos
No comprende sus libros y todos dicen estupido

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Estrofa
Jose no tiene la misma cultura, por eso él no comprende los libros
necesita maestros que le enseñen cultura, o él no quiere estudiar

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Estrofa
Los maestros dicen que Jose comprende, pero él no recuerda los libros
primero deben ensenar cultura, entonces el comprenderá la escuela

Coro
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés
No comprendo libros
No comprendo tus libros en inglés

Nosotros Debemos Ensenar Cultura Americana!

Genre number 2

I think my second genre works ok, but I guess I will find out soon enough :-) I decided to write a song related to the subject matter. The song is written in Spanish from the voice of a student who cannot understand his text books because he doesn't have the cultural knowledge necessary.

GENRE:

Song

Potential Voice: Student

Potential Audience: Teacher

Rationale: I believe this song will give the teacher an idea of how the student feels when he cannot understand or fully comprehend his school work because he doesn't have the contextual knowledge necessary.

I will post the song after I get the grammar checked by a native Spanish speaker - so I know it's ok.

Teaching Post 10/2-10-4

On Tuesday we started to learn about the Cause and Effect Essay and I have discovered that the beginnings of each individual essay unit are the most fun to teach. I believe the reason is because we primarily do fluency activities and brainstrom the first day of a new unit. This allows the students to communicate with each other and come up with ideas on their own. They enjoy the interaction and I enjoy helping them come up with topics and organizing their thoughts.

Thursday also went well, but I don't think I explained my expectations well enough. Sometimes I feel like I go over everything too much and other times I don't think I explain it well enough. Anyway, on Tuesdays we started the Cause and Effect Essay and so I decided on Thursday we should finish our group work with that. I broke the students up into their groups again and had each individual in each group write a paragraph that worked with their introductions. I then went from group to group to help the students and when they had finished with their complete essay I sent them to the library to type the essay and put it in the D2L dropbox. Most of the students finished early and some of the others took the entire two hour class period to do their work.

LIke I said earlier I don't think some of the students understood what I expected from them and because of that they got a little frustrated with me. Next time I will certainly make it a little clearer what I expect and perhaps model my exact expectations on the board for them.

As far as relating to the reading is concerned. I have really been thinking about my students and the culture shock that they will be going through very soon and I have shared my own stories with them about language ego, etc... I think I have earned their trust and hopefully I have made the classroom a safe place for them where they can express themselves in English without the fear of being embarressed. We shall see....

Genre number 1

Well... I think I'm getting this project all figured out. Anyway, I think my first genre will be a short lesson plan. But this won't be just any lesson plan, this will be a content based lesson plan for a social studies class. I believe that social studies contain some of the most difficult material for ELLs to learn, because so much of it relies on cultural and historical knowledge. Therefore, my lesson plan will be designed to give the student some context and background knowledge of the subject matter before reading the material from the text book. This should help the student tremendously with the comprehension of the text.

GENRE:

CBI Lesson Plan

Potential Voice: Teacher

Potential Audience: Students

Rationale: This type of lesson would provide students with the context that they need to properly comprehend the reading of a social studies text book. By moving from activities and visuals to build context I will be able to lay a foundation for the students to refer to and build on while reading the required text.