PODCAST: Fish, Life under the sea.
Intended Students:
This podcast was created to be used with a group of 45 Chilean students, whose first language is Spanish, and who are in 6th grade of middle school. At this level, they have one year of learning English; they are familiarized with the sounds; the spelling ; and some basic vocabulary. These students belong to different social backgrounds, but they share, as most of kids, a clear interest in technology. At this stage of their learning they are ready to work with some grammatical construction, verbs and start to develop some creative writing.
Objectives:
For "The Vertebrates series" the objectives are the following:
Language: Learn comparative structures (as...as, bigger, smalest,etc ), recognize vocabulary related with vertebrates animals ( fur, scales, eggs, cold blood, fins, etc), learn positive and negative structures (Have, Don´t have)
Content: Learn about vertebrates animals, their main characteristics and the differences between different species.
For " Fish: life under the sea" podcast the objectives are the following:
Language: Learn vocabulary related with fish structures ( fins, scales, cold blood, gills), positive and negative structures (have and don´t have)
Content: Become familiar with the diferent parts of fish, discriminate between fish and other species.
This series has taken vertebrate animals as a path to learn language. Mainly because, this topic has a direct relation with contents that the students are revising in other subject, at that level. In this way, this series tries to intergrate contents between different areas of learning.
Elements that make this podcast comprehensible:
This podcast is presented in a multimodality way; attached to the speaking text, are the written words and videos related with them. The series has been thought to be interconnected; vocabulary items are used repeatedly in the different podcast; comparisons between different species relate one with another, and reinforce the contents.
Strategies that based this podcast:
Teaching language through content: This podcast takes the fish as a topic to achieve language learning goals.
Lesson should include the four modes: In the podcast we can experience read and listening. The activities that go next to the podcast; as write sentences; or discuss about the differences between groups of animals, include speaking and writing.
Lessons should have meaning and purpose for learners now: The idea to present a vertebrate animals series is to work with something that is relevant with what the students are doing in other subject, work with something that they know is important for them to learn about.
FisHProyect or My POdCast...
REFLECTION 6: If only she knew...
It has been very difficult for me to find a situation to critizise. Mainly, because I think that Mrs. Rose is doing a great job with the children she teaches, I have seen everyday how she works and how the students have been proggressing in their learning. It is also true, that the situation which she has to face is not very easy; students from differentes cultures, ages and educational levels.
If I had to make any kind of suggestion to this class. I´d say that Mrs. Rose has to pay more attention in the integration of the different groups that exist in this class. In this clasroom is very common to see students get together with the people of their own country, and speak in their L1.
We have learnt that the acquisition of a language happens in social interaction. In this classroom, you can see a lot of division between the students. This can be explained, because the class is new and the students know each other just since September. Maybe, their are just living a proccess of adjustment. Even though, I think that the teacher can develop some activities to promote the cohesion of the group.
For this purpose I have chosen some sites that can help:
http://www.tech4learning.com/frames/integration
http://www.smartthinking.ukideas.com/Microsoft%20Create%20Play%20and%20Learn%20%20%20%20April%202006%20%201.pdf
http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:3VkjHzIAEuAJ:www.trinity.edu/org/sensoryimpairments/HI/SS/HI%2520-%2520Chap%25206%2520-%2520I.doc+social+interaction+activities+in+the+classroom&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=cl
REFLECTION 5; Response to a question about English teaching.
My answer in Judi´s site:
http://www.everythingesl.net/askjudie/index.php?r=10316
I was wondering how I can help the parents of my ELLs to bridge their own fear of learning English? Any suggestions?
Thanks
There´s no doubt that parents are essential in their children development. Because of this, create in them a good disposition to learn and to help their children with their English is important. In order to do this I´d try to create activities in which students ask their parents for information ( ex. family recipes, family trees, stories) To make parents feel part of the proccess of learning their children are living can result as a motivating activity for them, and can trigger their interest for English.
I recommend you this site, in it you can find more tips to involve parents in the learning of English.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/P2000/tips/index.htm
About my answer:
I think that my answer is based on what we saw in classes about the TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork). We´ve learnt that the role of parents is important in children education, and that we ,as teachers, must be willing to create links between the students´homes and the school. We have also learnt ,that it is important to take into account our students´ first culture and first language.
Reflection 4: Podcasting my way to mastery of English
I´ve always believed that a teacher must be someone with some manage of cultural issues a little higher than the common people. We need to be able to talk about almost any topic. I have chosen three topics that are very interesting for me, personally. But I think that the three are related with my students´ interests in Chile. The first is:
http://www.pcworld.com/video
These days, the discussion about technology; the latest gadgets, the fight between the companies for the control of the market and the appearence of new uses for internet has turned into material for daily conversation. Everybody seems interested in this topic. This site provides interesting and updated information about technology.
Some videos to check:
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,938-page,1-bid,0/video.html
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,840-page,1-bid,0/video.html
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,952-page,1-bid,0/video.html
The second site I´ve chosen, is related with one of the topics that I like most; and that kids mostly want to learn about, specially teenagers. Music, I think that this site, is the main source of pop music in the world:
http://www.rollingstone.com/videos
In the videos section, we can find information about what the magazine is publishing every month, in the words of its authors.
Some videos to check:
http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/24280827/cover_video_100_greatest_singers
http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/24414712/new_music_report_guns_n_roses_and_beyonce
Last but not least, there is a site related with my favorite sport: soccer! I have found a great webpage with good videos about soccer. This site contains information about the UEFA tournament which is the most popular soccer competition around the world.
http://www1.uefa.com/magazine/index2.html
Some videos to check:
http://www1.uefa.com/magazine/edition=776484/newsid=776484/videopopup.html
http://www1.uefa.com/podcast/video/videoid=774636/videopopup.html
I´ll check these sites every week, because for me is important to be updated in these topics. I think they can work as a listening practice for me. Anyway, I think that from these pages I can find videos to be used in my teaching. All the pages have great quality in sound and image, and the topics are close to my students interests.
REFLECTION 3: A topic in language education that I want to know more about.
I´d like to know more about substitute teaching, some advices for this work ,and good strategies to work as a subtitute teacher. During these days in the high school, I´ve faced twice the situation of a substitute teacher in the classroom. These two teachers have shown me that trying to fill the space that another teacher has created is very difficult. In just some minutes the teacher has to stablish a good relation with the students.
This situation made me think about it. I´d like to know if there´s any special place or program to train substitutes teachers. This dimension of the teaching job called my attention also because is common in my country that teachers works as substitutes in the begining of their careers.
Talking with Mrs. Right, the ESL teacher in the school, she told me that here in Spokane substitute teachers need to have a teacher certificate, but that´s not true for all the states in the U.S. In other states, this kind of teachers just need to had finished high school. The situation is similar in my country. there´s no special preparation for substitutes.
Here are some sites related with the teaching as a substitute. I´ve learned through this site three things that a substitute teacher needs to have; they have to be creative and be prepared to face any kind of classroom environment, they need information about almost any topic ,and from my search I can say that substitute teachers don´t have any special preparation. They are available just in the case of an emergency, they are not suppouse to be well prepared teachers.
http://www.qnet.com/~rsturgn/
http://www.csrnet.org/csrnet/substitute/
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8020/subtips.html
I think that this kind of teachers need more preparation. The cases I saw here and my experience as a student in Chile tell me that, these characters are just in schools filling the schedule, just keeping the kids in the classroom.
REFLECTION 2: Websites that might help.
A SMART "HOOLIGAN"
“Shevchenko”, is one of the most advanced students in this ESL clasroom. I gave him that name because of the famous Ukranian soccer player. This student is a great fan of soccer as I do but I have to admit, that he knows more about European soccer than I. The other day, we started a conversation about soccer and he was so eager to speak. He shows fluency and accuracy in his words ,but most important he was motivated to speak.
Here in the U.S, soccer is not as important as it is in the rest of the world. Many of the students in ESL classrooms have as their favorite sport soccer. It is something that people from different countries share. I recommend teachers use this sport as a link between cultures.
About this particular student I´d suggested some soccer pages in English.
http://www.uefa.com/
http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html
I think that these sites provide interesting reading for this student. Through this pages he can improve his reading skills. And maybe, he can create a kind of weekly paper to put in the classroom with soccer information. Why not?
REFLECTION 1: A case of effective language learning
With a little help from my friends.
The second hour was about to begin and the room has already some visitors in it. In this ESL classroom the doors are open for anybody who wants to give some help. The students here are from different parts of the world, this is reflected in; different L1, cultural background, ages and English levels. The visitors in this clasroom are some American students from the same high scool.
The class starts, Ms. Ross gives the instructions: Students have to go to the bookcase, pick up a book and begin reading it. The visitors help students; Reading with them, helping them with the pronunciation of some words or just listening to these beginners English learners.
Then, the students have to write about what have they read. The information required was: Name of the book, what it was about, name of the author, what you liked about the book and who you read with.
Analysis.
The effectiveness of the activity was proved when Ms. Ross checked what the students have read. Everybody has something to say about their books.
I think that this activity is learner-centered. Students worked almost by themselves; They chose what to read (content meaningful for them), which is also motivating for them, and later develop the questions about the book. The teacher here is just an observer of what is happening in the classroom.
In this activity, we can also see the importance of social interaction in learning a language. The students have the opportunity to receive feedback from English speakers who were from their same level age, rather than just from the teacher. This activity was very personalized, each student can work with someone individually.
THE CLASROOM STORY.
Strategies.
Text tour: the teacher makes a revision of a text and explains all the steps she follows in order to understand it. She gives advices to the students about going first to the images attached to the text ,and used them to get a general idea.
This strategy show us the "thinking-out-loud model" in which the teacher explains how she performs the activity of reading. without giving order, just suggesting what to do to understand a text.
For me this strategy is useful because is not authoritarian. Moreover, The students are eager to learn what your strategies to learn are. How you do it to learn.
Teacher Stories: The teacher tells an authobiographical story. To catch their students attention she uses pantomime and is very expressive with her words.
I think that tell our students a true story about us is great, because with them we can share with them about us, creating stronger relationships with them. It is also important the way in which we tell the story. We can used several non-verbal aids to make our stories funnier and to catch our students attention.
The last strategy was not so clear for me. But I think that the first two are very good and I would like to used them in my class. I like to tell stories but I am not so good with the non-verbal expression (I will have to work on that). Anyway, I think that both startegies help to create an environment of trust in the classroom.
About my future students
What I would like to know about my future students?
When I start to teach next year. I think that there is some important information, I would like to know about my students. This information can be very useful in the preparation of the material to teach.
I´d like to know:
- What their main interests are. (hobbies, likes and dislikes)
- How worried about their children´s education their parents are.
- What their level of English is.
- How proficent in Spanish they are.
- What kind of resources my students have access to.
- What different groups in the class are.
Run_ons...............My Bad!!
Some of my errors with punctuation....my bad!
Learning a new language can result very difficult because of this I believe that stablish conections between the previous learning of the students and the new language can be help to create comprehensible input and help to reduce the affective filter of our students.
Learning a new language can result very difficult. Because of this, I believe that stablish conections between the previous learning of the students and the new language, can help to create comprehensible input and help to reduce the affective filter of our students.
In order to apply this principle in my classroom I would try to link the information from other subjects with the teaching of language, integrating the disciplines.
In order to apply this principle in my classroom, I would try to link the information from other subjects with the teaching of language; integrating the disciplines.
several times we see in clasrooms lists of grammar exercises, we work in laboratories in wich we listen tapes again and again.
several times we see in clasrooms lists of grammar exercises; we work in laboratories, in which, we listen tapes again and again.
Because of the use that teachers have given to the technological devices. The kind of activities they develop have the same characteristics that the traditional activities have such as teacher-centered activities, students do not move from their seats or silence is the golden rule.
Because of the use that teachers have given to the technological devices. The kind of activities they develop have the same characteristics that the traditional activities have; such as teacher-centered activities, students do not move from their seats or silence is the golden rule.
The proud, the principal and the teachers show about the school was so big that I think that this was a trigger for the motivation of the students and for the success of this school.
The proud, the principal and the teachers show about the school was so big, that I think that, this was a trigger for the motivation of the students.That explains the success of this school.
Blog Reflection "ESL/EFL Teaching. Principles for Success" Chapters 2, 6 and 10
I think is important to put our students in a friendly enviromment when we are going to teach them something that, most of the times, is an unfamiliar for them. Learning a new language can result very difficult because of this I believe that stablish conections between the previous learning of the students and the new language can be help to create comprehensible input and help to reduce the affective filter of our students.
In order to apply this principle in my classroom I would try to link the information from other subjects with the teaching of language, integrating the disciplines. Speaking in english about the topics my students are learning can result in a "win & win" situation, because I as a teacher can introduce language content and I can also make a revision of the students knowledge of the others areas of learning.
Learning takes places in social interaction.
Many times teachers tend to forget that we are teaching a language and do not remember what a language implies. Language is communication, teachers seem to do not have this in mind when they create their activities. Many times the teaching of a language is seen as any other subject, as a science, because several times we see in clasrooms lists of grammar exercises, we work in laboratories in wich we listen tapes again and again.
Social interaction is vital in learning a language in my teaching. I think I will do a lot of group work, pair dialogues and debates. The development of the social skills in our students is one of the most important abilities to develop in the school.
Faith in the learner expands student potential.
I think that this is one of the critical points in the chilean education. I have heard many times that teachers just criticize their students and do not believe in their potential. When I first have a class here in the states I was surprised about the amount of praise the class received during the class, most of the time the teacher is reinforcing the effort of the students with a good comment (well done, good, nice, etc) I think that we have to be more positive in the way we see our students in Chile.
Homework: You can choose one of the following for your homework. Either compose a letter to Alanis explaining what she doesn’t seem to know about irony OR rewrite the song so that it DOES contain instances of irony.
Alanis Morissette - Ironic lyrics
An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's as tasty as a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's just in time as a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic... don't you think?
It's lovely as rain on your wedding day
It's timely as a free ride when you've already paid
It's nice as the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought? It figures!...
CHAPTER 6 Learning take place in social interaction
3. Technology has often led to LESS interaction in language classrooms. Why? How can we "fix" this? Create some activities that demostrates how technology can be used to lead to more interaction.
Because of the use that teachers have given to the technological devices. The kind of activities they develop have the same characteristics that the traditional activities have such as teacher-centered activities, students do not move from their seats or silence is the golden rule.
We can fix this by using the technology as a place to gather, the internet is a source that can enable us to have social connections between our students outside the classroom, this can help to reinforce the social relationships in the school.
Activities:
The creation of blogs to interact outside the classroom.
Make a movie using computer programs (group project)
Collaborative creation of posters (different purposes)
L2 students have to send e-mails to native English speakers (pen pal letters)
Teaching demo: Teaching language through content
Teaching Demo: Teaching language through content
Content focus: The Discovery of the Americas.
Grade level: 2do Medio.
1. Write objectives on the board.
Content objective: History: The discovery of the americas.
Language objective: Listening comprehension, Writting past tenses.
In groups of four people each of them go to de URL and listening for the first time the video, the teacher asks for doubts. Now teacher gives the following questions to each group:
1. How was the skin of the people in the eastern side?
2. How did they think the earth was?
3. How did Colombus think the earth was like?
4. What was the name of the queen who supported Colombus trip?
5. Where did Colombus Wanted to go?
6. What were the name of the three ships Colombus had?
7. When the travel started?
8. How many months lasted the travel?
9. What name Colombus put to the island?
10. Where Colombus really was?
11. How many voyages did Colombus made after his fisrt travel?
In the computer students work freely stoping and rewinding as they wish to find the answers, to complete the questions they will have twenty minutes. To finish the activity, the teacher provides the right answers.
Videos
One day, one of my teachers at the university in Chile told me: " A teacher must have something of an actor, everyday you must entertaint your students in order to caught their attention no matter your mood you must pretend you are fine"
"Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers"
1. Social Dominance. Whose social group is more dominant?
In this case I'd say that there no clear dominance between the groups, Gina knows the work of the teacher. We would work as equals in order to achieve the goals which is learning spanish.
2. Integration Pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
They can integrate the spanish speaking culture in a good way, nowadays spanish speaking culture is everywhere in the U.S. It also depends in the motivation of our students.
3. Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
Learners in this case have a close relation with Spanish speaking culture, U.S.A has a lot of spanish speakers and different parts of the culture are also accesible for learners (Music, Food and traditions) they can find opportunities to use the language in context in many places.
4. Size. How large is the group?
There is no information about the size of the group.
5. Cohesiveness. How much does the group "stick together"?
There is no information.
6. Cultural Congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?
There are similarities and differences but I think that the U.S is living a proccess of multiculturalism in which several cultures are living together so there's no barriers between different languages.
7. Attitude. What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
I think there is a respectful attitude between cultures, understanding differences with tolerance.
8. Intended lenght of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?
No information about this.
Psychological Distance
1. Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?
She is eager to learn the language. Gina is always saying how much she wants to learn spanish. I don't know about the rest.
2. Attitude. How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group?
I think Gina has a positive attitude toward the spanish speaking culture.
3. Culture Shock. Is the learner suffering culture shock
There is no cultural schock for this group, they are all in their country. The relation with the target culture is limited.
Bilingualism....homework
"This school is mainly middle class people oriented, but we have any kind of students, students with parents who are doctors, or lawyers and students who live in poverty. We try to teach anyone the same no matter the social background. In this school in particular, as a religious school all families are well built. Most of parents are involved in their children development and participate in the several activities that the school has"
2) I need a description of a bad english learner or a good english learner (as you want), some ideas of someone you know and the characteristics of this student
"I have a student who is always asking me questions, She always get good grades, She is always trying to get the best marks in the tests. She doesn't have any behaviour problem and participate a lot in class. As far as I know both of her parents are profesionals so she has her parents example. She is the kind of students you say, no matter the method She is going to learn anyway".
Analysis.
I think that the example the teacher gives is a typical situation, always in each room there's a student who is more advanced than others and who is willing to learn. Almost always their parents are people with certain cultural knowledge. This kind of students have been borned surrounded by a stimulating enviroment in their houses. This type of students can be a problem for the rest of the class, because they are always demanding more and have a faster pace than the rest, for us as teacher could result difficult to provide them challenging activities, but I think that we must be able to give our students the activities they need, with differentiated activities we can work with the entire group at different levels.
School visit to Bridgeport and Brewster.
"Really wonderful things are happening here for students achievement". Jim Smith, Superintendent of Bridgeport.
If i have to choose something to talk about this visit, I would talk about Bridgeport school, because I saw there so many interesting and positives things about how a school can improve their students performance. They seem to be worried about every little detail that can helps their kids to learn more.
The proud, the principal and the teachers show about the school was so big that I think that this was a trigger for the motivation of the students and for the success of this school. All this attitudes toward the learning in the school works as a Self-fulfilling prophecy in which students have been seen as capable people.
Questions.
What things that you see in these schools do you think can be implemented in the chilean context?
Mention one clear difference you see in these schools in comparison with the chilean education system
Do you think that it could be posible in our country to have college classes at high school?