A couple of weeks ago my cousin passed away, and I traveled to Georgia to be with my family for the funeral. My cousin’s death was published in the local and state news papers and online. I was previously aware of the interactive side of news (being able to comment on an article) but had never commented on any articles or been on the receiving end of those comments. People who new my cousin or our family left notes of sympathy, love, and encouragement after the obituary. I thought this was a wonderful use of the interactive web. However, there were also comments left from readers of the news story (separate from the obituary). Some of the comments and opinions left were uncensored as far as how they may impact and affect the family of the deceased. I saw this as the less attractive side of the interactive web.
Since then, I have been pondering how to blog about my new experience with the interactive web and what I learned from it. First, I think the ability to comment on the news can be thought provoking and beneficial. The comments of sympathy, love, and encouragement were overwhelming and brought joy and warmth to our family. However, I don’t think that it is a place where the random reader should write whatever they want just because they can. Maybe this falls under web etiquette.
So, why did I blog about this and what does it have to do with English language learners? I think that this is another form of authentic writing that can be used with our students. Standard 2 of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards for the 21st-Century Learner states that “Learners use skills, resources, and tools to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.” As members of a democratic society, it is essential that our students know how to think critically and make informed decisions. It is also important to teach them how to participate ethnically and productively (AASL standard 3). The interactive news websites can be a tool we use to facilitate the teaching of these skills.
As part of my continuing attempt to create authentic writing experiences for my students, I had my students write a holiday letter and mail it to a person of their choice. There were many benefits and lessons to be learned here – friendly-letter format, summarization (milestones of their year), what a full address is, addressing an envelope, and the purpose of a holiday letter.
Here is what I discovered. Even though my students are in middle school, most of them don’t know what constitutes a full address, they don’t know how to address an envelope, they have difficulties coming up with things to write about, and they were completely amazed that I was going to mail their letters.
We started by creating a foldable for friendly letters. They needed to know the format before they could write an appropriate letter. I created a powerpoint that broke the letter into three parts. You can view and download the powerpoint here: http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/36868/Friendly-Letter
This is what their foldable looked like:
Outside of foldable
Inside the foldable
We stapled these into their spirals so that they could reference them, both for the holiday letter and their epals e-mails.
After they made their foldable, we started talking specifically about holiday letters and their purpose. I brought several examples for them to peruse. I prepared a powerpoint that shared topics, mood, and overall purpose for the letter. This seemed to help several of my students decide on topics and the type of letter that they wanted to write. You can view and download the powerpoint here: http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/36907/Holiday-Letter
They finally started writing their letters. I created a basic letter format that they would copy their final draft onto. It had some generic pictures and text boxes on it. It wasn’t that big, so they didn’t have to write a lot of information. This was actually a good thing, because some of them really struggled with things to write about.
Here is what I would change next time: I would give them more time to work on the project. Some students struggled getting all of their information written, edited, and their envelop addressed. I also need to work further on editing skills. It is something that they are not proficient at. I do feel, however, that this was a very worthwhile project and will probably expand it a little and repeat it next year.
I have been working with a teacher who has an 8th grade Language Arts class that has quite a few ELL and SPED students. She is struggling to find a way to meet the diverse needs in the class, work with students in small groups, and maintain classroom management. I talked to this teacher about coming in and co-teaching with her.
I met with the teacher to plan out the lesson and decide what she wanted the focus to be. She has been working on determining the subject and predicate in sentences and is moving into the different types of sentences. She also wanted to be able to meet with a small group of kids. We decided to set up stations. She would create groups based on some classroom data. That way when a group came to her, she would be able work on specific skills that that group was missing. The four stations that we decided on were: teacher station, creating sentences finding the subject and predicate, types of sentences foldable, and a parts of speech bingo. I would create the foldable, provide the game, and an introduction to types of sentences. She would create the stations, the subject and predicate station, and her teacher station materials.
Before class began, we arranged the desks in the class and put the materials at the appropriate stations. When the students came in, we told them the station that they needed to sit at. We did this because we knew that this group would struggle with movement after the instructions. We started the lesson with an introduction to types of sentences. I created a powerpoint (you can view or download it at this address: http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/32470/Types-of-Sentences ). to introduce the topic and explain the foldable.
After the introduction, we explained the task at each station. At the subject/predicate station, students had to write one sentence based on a picture and then highlight the subject and predicate in each sentence. This sheet would be used as a pre-assessment for the teacher at her station (the one right after the subject/predicate station).
Subject/Predicate Station
We got some good data from this station. One entire group neglected to add a subject to any sentence. This allowed the teacher to know exactly where she needed to begin her instruction – even further back than she had anticipated.
At the foldable station, students made a hotdog fold and cut out four sections. Each section would be used to describe one of the types of sentences. They would write a definition, a sample sentence, and a picture illustrating that picture. They will use this foldable as a study guide for future assignments.
Types of Sentence Foldable
Inside of foldable.
With our short classes (only 45 minutes), we ran out of time very quickly. Students did not get to finish the foldable. We decided to create an overhead and have them finish it as a warm-up. We would provide the definition and they would add the sample question and picture. This would provide a quick assessment for the teacher to see if they comprehended the various types at a very simple level.
Students working in stations.
At our debriefing, we talked about how great a job the students did, how surprised she was that a group of students didn’t add subjects to any of their sentences, how she adjusted her instruction to that, the fact that students were upset when they couldn’t finish their foldable (how many students do you know who complain when they can’t finish their work?!?), and how to build in the time to finish the foldable during a later class.
All in all, the kids did a great job. I think that this might be a strategy that will be successful with this class.
On a different note, the more foldables that I make, the more excited I am about this strategy and using it with students.
I had the opportunity to team teach a lesson in a 6th grade Social Studies class today. The teacher and I decided to use stations for the structure. The material was not new (ancient Egypt) so we didn’t have to worry about presenting new information. We wanted to give the students the opportunity to “play” with the content and review what they knew.
We developed three different station activities with four actual stations. One of the activities was longer and needed a little more time to complete.
The activities were a 9 square game, decoding hieroglyphs, and creating a foldable using Egyptian cartoons. Each group would have about 11 minutes to complete a station based on the amount of time in the class.
9 square answer key and student copy
Student attempt at answering 9 square puzzle.
Decoding Hieroglyphs
Creating foldable for Egyptian cartoons.
When the students came into the classroom, I had four steps written on the board. The teacher wanted them to copy down the lesson objective and I wanted them to get out a blank sheet of paper. I learned a couple of new brain based strategies at the NMSA conference this past week. One of them that struck me was that we can hold about 10 things in our short term memory at a time. The speaker (Dr. Kagan) suggested that instead of a warm-up we have students write down everything that is going on in their brain when they first come into class (all the things that are bothering them, what they just learned, what they need to do after school, what they need to remember, ect). Sort of clear out the short term memory. I explained to the students why we were doing this and how I would not want the paper. I gave them one minute to write, but had to extend it as they kept making their list for over two minutes. I was amazed about how serious they took this activity. When they finished, I began explaining the stations and they seemed more focused. I will definitely use this activity again. I am thinking about having my students do this every day before class.
I then began explaining the various stations. When I am explaining various activities, I explicitly state what they will and will not do. I show them the actual materials that they will use to complete the activities. I make sure that I have an example for them to follow at each station. I then took them out to their table in the pod area.
Pod area set up for stations
They immediately began working. We made sure that we checked in with each station at the beginning of each rotation to make sure that they understood exactly what they needed to do. The level of engaged conversation was really incredible. The 9 square game was by far the most difficult activity, but students also had to work hard to find the information from the cartoons and decode the hieroglyphs. Out of two classes and almost 50 students, I had one student in one class that was not engaged. It turned out he just didn’t understand exactly what he needed to do and hadn’t asked another group member or a teacher.
Students working in stations.
Another view
At the end of the class period, I had students return to the classroom and write one thing they learned and one question that they still had on the back of their foldable and turn it in. This was an exit card and a way for us to assess what they knew and what they were still struggling with. The foldable can also be used as a review for an assessment.
As an additional exit ticket, I asked each student as they left to tell me one thing they learned.
Overall, we were really pleased with the activity. The students were engaged in meaningful dialog about the topic and were focused for the entire 45 minutes. This activity just reminded me how much I like stations. There is a lot of prep work, but when that is finished, you just facilitate during class periods. It is a great way to teach.
I recently stayed at a Double Tree Hotel that provided a copy of the U.S.A. Today every morning to guests. I had previously read this newspaper, but it had been several years since I had seen a copy. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing. I immediately had so many ideas for skills that I could use the newspaper to teach my classes.
I began on Wednesday. I got four copies of the same newspaper (back issues) and separated them into the four sections (news, sports, life, and money).
Newspaper Sections
Newspapers setup and ready to be used.
I decided that my students needed basic exposure to the newspaper and the structure used to convey the information. I decided that a great place to start was text features. This is such an important concept to help students find information in non-fiction text, and they don’t always get explicit instruction in it, and I know that they need it.
I decided that I would first start with a “brain dump”.
Instructions students had to follow.
I had them write “text features” at the top of a blank page. I then asked them to write everything they knew about text features on that page. I walked around the classroom while students were working. I noticed that no one had any information written down. I realized that they probably did know something about text features, but that they weren’t aware of what they were. I then picked up a text book and visually showed them some of the text features. As soon as I did that, I got a couple of “Ah’s” from various students. I then asked them what some of the text features I had shown them were. They started listing some and explained how they could be used. After that, I asked them again to write down everything that they knew and the pencils started flying.
Text Features
After a couple of minutes, I asked for them to share additional information that they had written. I then asked about other places that text features are used, and several students did say a newspaper. I showed them the newspaper that we were going to use to look for text features. I knew that my 6th grade students had been studying frequency charts, so I decided that we would create a frequency chart for text features. I gave each of them a small piece of paper and had them copy down various text features and the four sections of the newspaper.
Text Features Frequency Chart
After they finished making the chart, they were told which section to begin working on.
Students working on charts.
They had approximately seven minutes to find as many of the text features as they could in that section. They used tallies to record their information.
Searching for text features
If they had questions, they could ask other members of their group. If their group members didn’t know, they could ask me. It went really well and I was able to explain so many different types of text features and how they were used in real life.
My next activity will be to have them return to their original “brain dump” and write all of the new information that they learned about text features. They will then analyze the data that they collected- looking for trends, explanations in the numbers, and commonalities that they see across sections.
Before working with students whose first language is not English, it is important to learn the academic characteristics associated with the students. This brief video explains the differences between non-English proficient, limited-English proficient, and fluent-English proficient English language learners in your classroom.
