Group items tagged

Great blog and ideas for language teachers who want to ditch grammar and run a communicative language program.

This blog post by @sraspanglish (aka Laura Sexton) describes how she uses Google Form to create a standards-based objectives template for her courses. Even though this focuses on languages and North Carolina standards, this can be modified for any content area and once you have done the hard work of creating the template, you can reuse it again and again!

The first source I found appears to be useful for educators who may not be certified in ESOL, but have ELL students. It breaks down the different types of ELL learners and this could be important when planning and implementing activities. It also helps the teacher get to know the student better and show empathy and compassion. This article is related to "older" ELL students and our data is from a high school class, so therefore some of the solutions for success offered could help these students if implemented. I also like that it emphasizes teaching language through content. This is important because students might understand the general idea, but cannot make certain connections due to language barriers. Therefore, breaking through those barriers might be all the student need to make the connection desired. I also like that it provides questions with answers! This could be very helpful for our group!

Week 8- Fifteen years later, this article investigates recommendations provided by the National Research Council's seminal report:Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. The article discusses which of these recommendations have been implemented in U.S classrooms over the past 15 years and which strategies have been avoided. The authors then share more recent research studies sharing strategies that may help teachers improve primary-grade reading. Authors: Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block

The article provides valuable insight into the impact that vocabulary instruction can have on reading comprehension. It is also noted that because reading instructional has changed over the years this too has contributed to comprehension and vocabulary development. It appears that the approach to reading instruction needs to be revisited to determine which strategies works the most effectively.

I loved this article. My school is currently focusing on Academic Language in our School Improvement Plan, we are also an IB school where students are to use Academic Language more often. I'm glad to see that many of our commonly used words are included in this list. I also love how they go through the examples of how to teach a new word. In middle school I feel these higher level vocabulary words are used more often than in primary ages.

"a simple and fun way for all students to get a chance to move, think, talk, and learn from others. The teacher first has students model: stand back-to-back with a partner, listen to the question and think, turn face-to-face, taking turns speaking and listening, then turning back-to-back"

This video shows individuals how to use a technique called back to back and face to face. I could use this technique in my classroom for my SMART goals. This would give me a better understanding of my student's ability to hear the sounds of letters. For example, I can say a word like "cat"; then, they can use the back to back and face to face technique to tell each other the first sound they hear in "cat". This would also be a wonderful tool to use for reading comprehension and answering questions during a story.

My SMART goal is by the end of Marking Period 3, English Language Learner (ELL) students identified will be able to explain how to solve for an unknown number in an equation with at least 80% accuracy. The back-to-back and face-to-face strategy is an excellent method for allowing students appropriate wait time to think through their responses, as well as an opportunity to hear model responses from their peers. This might help students develop language skills needed for their mathematical explanations. This could be used during a lesson to have students explain how they would solve an equation with a missing number. Using the planning protocol rubric, this is an effective strategy to increase student engagement during a lesson. I would rate this strategy a four on the rubric because it consists of high engagement for most students. All students have an opportunity to share their thoughts and hear a response from a peer. Rather than calling on one or two students to respond, this is an equitable strategy which involves all learners in the classroom.

("Week 8" Group Members: Beth and Ruchel) The article explores a study conducted to see the patterns of within-group variability in the emergent literacy skills of preschoolers who are at risk for academic difficulties. The study can be used as a helpful resource to determine the relationships between early patterns of literacy performance and later reading achievement.

Week 7: The site provides a colorful, engaging environment for mastering math skills. You can sign up for an account or 30 day trail. Educators can sign up for full account benefits with (e.g. student progress tracking and reports; and an awards system for learners for completing certain goals). *Very good site for remedial students learning math and language arts. This site also includes a page in Language arts for 2nd to 10th graders.Practice math online with IXL. The site offers thousands of online math practice skills covering pre-K to high school, with questions that adapt to a student's individual proficiency.

I used to use IXL with my students for reinforcement, the only problem I had when using it was it locks students out after a specific number of questions. There was only so much practice for allotted topics which sometimes was not enough extra practice.

Free users I believe get 10 questions a day, but what I like most about this is that when a student gets a question wrong, it provides a pretty in depth explanation. Great resource.

Vocabulary instruction is essential to effective math instruction. Not only does it include teaching math-specific terms such as "percent" or "decimal," but it also includes understanding the difference between the mathematical definition of a word and other definitions of that word...

In this blog, veteran Spanish teacher Mike Peto focuses on teaching Spanish to heritage speakers. Topics include how to break language shyness, games to encourage speaking in the classroom, and readings for heritage speakers. Mr. Peto insists that spelling and grammar improve through reading.

Posted by Katie, Malkie and Bonnie. This article addresses the debate between teaching systematic phonics and teaching phonics as part of a whole language approach. It mainly deals with the flaws in the research on this debate and not so much with ultimate conclusions on the matter, however, it is stated that a whole language approach to reading instruction is always beneficial.

Our data group for EDTC 615 is focusing on developing better speaking skills in the Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom. This article describes a structured process for reviewing textbooks to ensure that they provide explicit strategy instruction for listening and speaking. Using this method my group could review the explicit instruction that is currently in use in our classroom and decide if any modifications need to be made to improve student learning.

This article describes an innovative technique for teaching foreign language teaching skills. The researchers used interactive videos and webcams to capture their students responding to video prompts and capturing their responses for future review. The method also allows students to review their responses and create a digital portfolio of their speaking skills.

Show translation:[ None] [ Modern Chinese] [English] 学而: 子贡曰："贫而无谄，富而无骄，何如？"子曰："可也。未若贫而乐 1，富而好礼者也。"子贡曰："《 诗》云：' 如切如磋，如琢如磨。 '其斯之谓与？"子曰："赐也，始可与言诗已矣！告诸往而知来者。" Xue Er: Zi Gong said, "What do you pronounce concerning the poor man who yet does not flatter, and the rich man who is not proud?" When teaching and learning Chinese languages and cultures, It is usually hard to find a good classic literature especially about Confucius. Confucius dialogue with his students are the heart of Chinese classic literatures and Chinese and Asian cultures. This website will give people a len to look into classic Chinese literature with rich resources.

This study investigated the effects of input- and output-based instruction on the development of L2 knowledge of 129 third-semester college students learning English in Iran. I found this to be an interesting study because it addressed both kinds of instruction and acknowledged the ongoing debate about the importance of each method and its role in student learning of a second language. The study recognizes that input-based instruction needs to be more than exposure alone and include instructional intervention in order to be effective, and that output-based instruction involve meaningful output practice activities supported with feedback. Although the study does not claim that output in and of itself leads to L2 development due to the need for teacher feedback, it does suggest that output-based instruction is as effective as or can be even more effective than input-based instruction.

This site supported by the American Federation of Teachers and TES offers free preK-12 lesson plans and resources for many subjects, including physical education and world languages. Resources are rated by teachers and you can search by content area, most popular and more. Teachers can add this to their arsenal of teaching activities and lessons when work on improving their curriculum, particularly those using a data action plan model, such as in our EDTC 615 course.

This free resource has lesson plans and professional development articles. I found the article on differentiating addition and subtraction lessons using technology very helpful. This resource has many activities and lessons that will assist with improving curriculum.

Slideshows teaching these skills with built in activities for students. Slideshows are in English, but students will need to understand the skill first before they can transfer it to the target language. Teachers can provide French examples to supplement the slideshows.

Lesson plan for studying Victor Hugo's Les Misérables with students using novel and character summaries in the target language. While the multiple choice questions in the lesson are mere comprehension questions, some of the discussion questions address main idea and supporting details. Teachers could also develop their own multiple choice questions for the passages to address main idea and supporting details.

The article from Response To Intervention (RTI) focuses on ELLs and how we can support them with learning a new language. Some key points highlighted in the article that align to our teams EQ and would support ELL learners include: monitoring student progress 3 or more times a year, review a 3 tier system RTI outlines, and encourage general educators to participate in ESL/ESOL professional developments focused on meeting the needs of the ELLs in their classroom.