Many of my students have started using their iPhones and other such smartphones to study English. I have made a little worksheet attatched below that gives step by step instructions on how to download a free Pronunciation Power App from the iTunes store. I've recommended it to many of my students who have been struggling with particular sounds in English and it seems to be a fun, easy way to focus on improving pronunciation in these areas. Enjoy!
Pronunciation Power App for iPhone
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
25 Best YA Fantasy
This is a test to see if I can upload useful teaching pdfs to this blog. Wish me luck!
This is a test to see if I can upload useful teaching pdfs to this blog. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Max Wears A Wolf Costume
My second graders are working very hard on their summarizing skills. We've been reading "Where The Wild Things Are" in an effort to strengthen our summing up abilities before moving on to more difficult non-fiction summarization.
Based on an end of class writing assessment, I've noticed something interesting. Despite the fact that we modeled the summary process multiple times, many students still couldn't help themselves from retelling their favorite detail in the story. "Max wears a wolf costume" was commonly included in student's writing.
I used the info I gathered form this assessment and planned a lesson that asks students to distinguish between the main ideas and details of the story. As I showed students pictures that detail the main events of the story, students wrote down a few details and the main idea or the "big idea" or the "most important thing happening" in a graphic organizer.
Students were quick to point out details such as "Max has a hammer." And "the moon is in the window." After a little support, students were able to focus on the main idea and were writing something like "Max made mischief and was sent to his room."
This experience has helped me to realize the importance of assessment as a tool for meeting students’ diverse needs. And it reminded me of how full of wonder kids are. Even though it isn’t a main idea, Max wearing his wolf costume is one of my favorite parts of the book, too.
Based on an end of class writing assessment, I've noticed something interesting. Despite the fact that we modeled the summary process multiple times, many students still couldn't help themselves from retelling their favorite detail in the story. "Max wears a wolf costume" was commonly included in student's writing.
I used the info I gathered form this assessment and planned a lesson that asks students to distinguish between the main ideas and details of the story. As I showed students pictures that detail the main events of the story, students wrote down a few details and the main idea or the "big idea" or the "most important thing happening" in a graphic organizer.
Students were quick to point out details such as "Max has a hammer." And "the moon is in the window." After a little support, students were able to focus on the main idea and were writing something like "Max made mischief and was sent to his room."
This experience has helped me to realize the importance of assessment as a tool for meeting students’ diverse needs. And it reminded me of how full of wonder kids are. Even though it isn’t a main idea, Max wearing his wolf costume is one of my favorite parts of the book, too.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Including Content
I'm now in my sixth week of student teaching. I feel like I've learned a lot. My cooperating teacher is very good at giving me feedback and helping me to find ways in which I can become a better teacher. I know there will always be room for improvement. In my mind, you've got to be completely open to feedback and re-visioning your teaching throughout your career.
I'm really excited about an ESL Library Night that I'm putting together for our students. It will be in a little over a month. It will be held at the neighborhood library. Students and parents will get the opportunity to discover what the library has to offer and to get set up with a library card if they don't already have one. I think it will be a good opportunity for our youngsters.
My goal for the past couple of weeks has been to conference more often with the regular classroom teachers to find out what each ESL student need more help with and to find out what content they might be struggling with. All of the teachers have been very helpful in this regard. In particular, they've directed me toward some great resources that match up with students' needs. At times, it has been difficult to balance between content and language objectives, but I think I'm learning how to blend the dual aims in an effective way.
The elementary students I work with inspire me every day. They always surprise me. They've got a wonderful perspective on the world. They're curiosity and positive nature are certainly contagious. When I started this assignment, I wasn't so sure I would be interested in teaching at the elementary level. However, because of this experience, I've become enthused about the possibility of working with elementary folks. In preparation for working with these students, I read a book by Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld called "Celebrating Young Children and Their Teachers." This book not only prepared me for teaching the younger grades, it really opened my eyes to the wonders of teaching young people. I've applied a few of the books' pieces of advice already and the students have responded extremely positively!
I'm really excited about an ESL Library Night that I'm putting together for our students. It will be in a little over a month. It will be held at the neighborhood library. Students and parents will get the opportunity to discover what the library has to offer and to get set up with a library card if they don't already have one. I think it will be a good opportunity for our youngsters.
My goal for the past couple of weeks has been to conference more often with the regular classroom teachers to find out what each ESL student need more help with and to find out what content they might be struggling with. All of the teachers have been very helpful in this regard. In particular, they've directed me toward some great resources that match up with students' needs. At times, it has been difficult to balance between content and language objectives, but I think I'm learning how to blend the dual aims in an effective way.
The elementary students I work with inspire me every day. They always surprise me. They've got a wonderful perspective on the world. They're curiosity and positive nature are certainly contagious. When I started this assignment, I wasn't so sure I would be interested in teaching at the elementary level. However, because of this experience, I've become enthused about the possibility of working with elementary folks. In preparation for working with these students, I read a book by Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld called "Celebrating Young Children and Their Teachers." This book not only prepared me for teaching the younger grades, it really opened my eyes to the wonders of teaching young people. I've applied a few of the books' pieces of advice already and the students have responded extremely positively!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Observed!
I'm in the middle of my fourth week of student teaching now. Today, my supervisor came in to school and observed me for the first time. I did a lesson for 5th graders on editing their own writing. She had a lot of positive feedback, which I was happy to hear. In particular, she mentioned how I gave good scaffolding support to the students.
She also had some good feedback as to how I could make my lessons better. We utilize the SIOP model for lesson planning at our University, and my supervisor noticed that my content and language objectives were nearly identical. She suggested that my lessons might benefit from including more content-based instruction. I agreed. I noticed that my example sentences in the early part of the lesson were completely without context. Binding these sentences together by relating them to some sort of meaningful context would have made them mor engaging and relevant to the students.
While I have many years of experience teaching adults, I don't have the same breadth of background knowledge in teaching youngsters. I'm really looking forward to the rest of my student teaching as a great opportunity to learn more about teaching young people and to continue to imporve as a teacher.
She also had some good feedback as to how I could make my lessons better. We utilize the SIOP model for lesson planning at our University, and my supervisor noticed that my content and language objectives were nearly identical. She suggested that my lessons might benefit from including more content-based instruction. I agreed. I noticed that my example sentences in the early part of the lesson were completely without context. Binding these sentences together by relating them to some sort of meaningful context would have made them mor engaging and relevant to the students.
While I have many years of experience teaching adults, I don't have the same breadth of background knowledge in teaching youngsters. I'm really looking forward to the rest of my student teaching as a great opportunity to learn more about teaching young people and to continue to imporve as a teacher.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
My first two weeks of student teaching have gone rather well. It's been great getting to know the students, teachers, and staff at the school. My cooperating teacher is really great. I like that she's very calm. Also, we have a very good rapport and we're able to discuss complicated and difficult topics positively, professionally, and effectively. My biggest observation so far has been how my misjudgement of student's ability levels in English. I've been used to working with adults. With them, one can get a general thumbnail sketch of their English proficiency from a brief conversation.
As a borad, general rule, adult students' accent and fluency usually correlates nicely with their ability level. When I started working with younger students, I was impressed with the felicity of expression in their speaking. I assumed their English knowledge was quite high. However, after these two weeks, I've found that not to be the case. Younger students might speak fluently and have virtually no accents, but they seem to have large gaps in knowledge. I'm interested to see how this strand unfolds during the rest of my student teaching.
As a borad, general rule, adult students' accent and fluency usually correlates nicely with their ability level. When I started working with younger students, I was impressed with the felicity of expression in their speaking. I assumed their English knowledge was quite high. However, after these two weeks, I've found that not to be the case. Younger students might speak fluently and have virtually no accents, but they seem to have large gaps in knowledge. I'm interested to see how this strand unfolds during the rest of my student teaching.
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