Reading Weather Maps

With hurricane Sandy upon us, I've been checking the weather incessantly and I realize that a current event such as this can be an excellent opportunity for teaching and learning. For elementary students with intermediate level English language proficiency, we could start class by brainstorming around the question, What is weather? The teacher would elicit vocabulary such as temperature, precipitation, pressure, humidity, wind, etc. The teacher would explain that meteorologists use different types of maps  to show the weather. Students would then be told to form groups. Each group would randomly be assigned one type of map (satellite, radar, precipitation, temperature, wind speed, or front) to research. They would be provided links to appropriate websites and relevant questions to focus on. They would then present a map, whichever type they were assigned, of hurricane Sandy and give a weather report to the class based on what they learned. Through this assignment, students use technology, they engage and interact with their groups, and they further practice their listening and speaking skills through giving their weather reports.

More Educational Sites for Kids

I just discovered an awesome educational site for kids called funbrain.com.  It has math and reading sections in addition to a few others. Kids can practice their math skills through playing fun games and the reading section has entire books, comics, and word and grammar games. You can even search the games by grade level. While looking at the Just for Fun section, I noticed that they have Poptropica on this site. Poptropica is a very popular educational game created by Pearson, the company I work for, particularly for the Brazilian market. It has been hugely successful. I've worked with it before but had no idea that it was available online for free! Kids can customize their own character and then explore by engaging in quests, stories, and games. Kids "use gaming literacy to enjoy a narrative that is often rooted in factual history. Problem-solving skills are honed as kids discover and solve mysteries unique to each Island." I believe in the power of this sort of fun educational technology in motivating kids to learn. It almost tricks them into learning. And I have to admit, even I get into it!

pbs.org

pbs.org is an excellent resource for parents, teachers, and kids. It is full of educational games such as those in the Sid the Science Kid (pictured here) section. Here kids can engage in activities that range from practicing counting to learning about marine biology. All of the games on pbs.org are helpful for developing vocabulary as well as listening and comprehension skills. The fact that the audio is spoken slowly and clearly helps make this site accessible and appropriate for ELLs. The site also contains educational videos. Both the games and videos use characters from pbs programs that kids might be familiar with and that are very inviting. I think that pbs.org could be a useful tool in the K-4 classroom as it is fun and friendly and would certainly motivate students. And because the games and videos touch upon a range of topics, they provide many options for teachers to choose from and to incorporate into their classrooms as supplemental activities either in class or at home.

Demo Lesson Plan

Believe it or not, this is my first experience writing a lesson plan. I had the option of putting together a unit for another class, Adolescent Learners in Urban Contexts, but I decided to choose a different format for my final project because I've always found putting together lesson plans very intimidating. However, the fact that our latest assignment was to simply create one lesson plan, I was able to nearly painlessly take on the task and complete the assignment successfully. Once I got past my initial resistance and intimidation, I was able to think clearly about how to put the lesson plan together rather than getting overwhelmed by the scope of the task at hand. And I as I am an animal lover, I enjoyed working out a plan on endangered animals. I can now see that it's not as hard or intimidating as I thought and I'm grateful for the experience. Although I don't plan on becoming a teacher in the near future, I recognize that this is a great skill to have--a tool for my toolbox.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning can help to motivate students. It pushes them to engage cognitively and metacognitively and results in deeper understanding while giving them a hand in their own learning. Having the opportunity to solve real problems helps to contextualize learning and makes the subject matter more relevant for students. This type of hands-on learning is specifically beneficial for ESL students because it pushes them to interact and practice their communication skills of listening and speaking. I think that WebQuest is an excellent example of effective project-based learning. Going through a quick WebQuest in class the other day really helped to clarify how beneficial this type of learning can be. The particular WebQuest that we did required students to read and research then participate in a role-play which requires them to practice their listening and speaking skills. At the same time, the fact that the activity is done in a group motivates by pushing them to pull their weight so as not to let their group members down. The critical thinking needed for this type of activity helps students to retain information. From personal experience I can say that whenever I've been engaged in learning through doing I internalize information on a much deeper level.

NY Public Library's "On-Lion"

The NY Public Library "On-Lion" site is great! I'm glad to know about it. There are many wonderful resources for kids and even though they aren't directly geared towards ELLs, I think that the appeal and interactiveness of the stories and games is enough to keep a kid exploring (even if he/she knows no English at all). It's amazing how kids take to technology and how quickly they learn just by exploring. This site would allow a kid, no matter what their English language proficiency, to have fun and take an active role in their own learning. I don't have a NY Public Library card so I couldn't access Tumble Books, but I thought the one we looked at in class was engaging. However, the narration was a bit fast. Even though the audio can be paused and rewinded, I think that, at least that particular story, might be a bit too hard. I wish that I had a card so that I could explore more stories! I did find all sorts of excellent activities in the games section though. There are activities for all four skills--reading, writing, listening, and speaking. I would definitely use this site with young English language learners.

Speech to Text/Text to Speech Technology

I'm not so sure about these technologies. All this change makes me uncomfortable. In fact, there's a big part of me that's resistant to change. I like things that are more tangible, like printed books, magazines, and newspapers, and I like keyboards! I don't want to see them disappear. However, I can see how speech to text technology can be useful for students learning another language--it forces them to work on their pronunciation by speaking clearly. And text to speech technology allows students to hear correct pronunciation. I can see that this would be very useful if a student was preparing for a presentation or putting together a photo story. A teacher could also give an assignment for the student to read a short text and turn their best version in or put together a dialogue with a classmate and turn that in. There are certainly many possibilities for using these technologies in the ESL classroom, but I think I will personally resist them as long as I can.