Asking the Right Questions: WHAT are you learning?

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Best Practices, Goal Setting, Learning Styles, Low-level ESOL, Self-directed Learning

How can we get students to develop independence in their learning?  Look no further than the questions we ask. 

What is the difference between asking students “What are you doing?” and “What are you learning?”  The difference is in the answer. 

 

 

“What are you doing?”

 Teacher:  What are you doing? 

 Student: “I’m filling in the blanks. “

 Teacher:  What are you doing?”

Student:   “I’m answering the reading comprehension exercises.”

 

What are you learning? 

Teacher:  “What are you learning?”

Student: “I’m learning how to write these verbs in the simple past.”

 

Teacher:  “What are you learning?”

Student:  “I’m learning about the weather and temperatures.”

 

 This observation was inspired by an article by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher  called Purpose: The Foundation for High-Quality Teaching.  When classroom observers ask K-12 students What are you doing? they put the focus on the tasks students are asked to complete. When they ask, What are you learning? students focus on the deeper purpose and the enduring understandings of the lesson.  (Link:  http://www.principals.org/Content.aspx?topic=Purpose_The_Foundation_for_High_Quality_Teaching) 

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Making Connections in Reading

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Low-level ESOL

Researchers have long said that effective readers make connections.  Good readers connect what they are reading to their own lives, to the world, and to other texts.

 

Many  ESOL teachers might think this is fine principle, but too abstract to use with low-level students.  Not so!  The questions can be simple and making connections is something the human mind does naturally all the time. 

Here are some examples of texts I have used in my low-level classes. 

 

Text Type:  Driver’s Application

Connecting to Self

Do you have a driver’s license?  Does anyone in your family have one?Have you ever seen this form before?  Where?

Connecting to Other Texts

Does this form look like other forms?What other forms ask for your name and address?What other forms ask for your social security number?

Connecting to the World

Where can you get a driver’s license application?  Where do you send it?Is there an office of the Registry of Motor Vehicles near here?  How much does it cost to apply for a license in our state?

 

 

Text Type:  Narrative Description of a Neighborhood

Connecting to Self

Compare your neighborhood to the one in the text:What is the same?  What is different?

Connecting to Other Texts

Does the neighborhood in the text remind you of a neighborhood around here?Which one?  Why?

Connecting to the World

Read two classmates’ paragraphs about their neighborhoods.  Compare your neighborhoods.  What is the same?  What is different?Find words that you all use to describe your neighborhood:  for example quiet or safe.

Making Connections: Brain Research and ESOL

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Learning Styles, Low-level ESOL, Study Skills

Last week-end I attended the Illinois TESOL Bilingual Education Convention (IBTE). There were lots of great ideas direct from the classroom and research.  The most inspiring session I attended was Dr. Janet Zandina’s  plenary How Language Learning Changes the Brain.

Here’s my take-away.

1. Fire to wire. Every time we learn something new our neurons fire, our dentrites (nerves) grow, and we create new neurological connections in our brains.  (Isn’t that amazing?)  The more often these neurons fire, the stronger their connections become.   Eventually they become neural pathways and require little brain effort (think about learning to drive a car).

2.  Use it or lose it.  The brain is plastic in both directions.  You can grow new neural pathways, but you can also lose them.  If you don’t practice your new learning,  those little dentrites get reabsorbed in the brain tissue.

3.  Learning English requires effort.  Every language has its own cognitive map.  As our adult students learn English, they are pushing their brains into terra incognita.  It requires effort, but with practice it becomes easier; strong neural pathways can carry the cognitive load.

4.  Cyclical Learning.  This science is not telling us to drill till we kill.  Dr Zandina says in order for those neurons to strengthen they need to re-encounter the learning material in different ways.  She tells us we need a rich variety of listening practice with variation in accents and lots of motor practice producing the language.

In the future  I want to talk to my students about this process and see how it affects their attitude toward language learning.  Perhaps this knowledge will carry them through those moments of mental exhaustion.

Spelling and Visualization

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Spelling, Study Skills

Spelling those sight words in English is a challenge for us all, but it’s a particular challenge for our low-level literacy students.  This is a technique I  learned from a Special Education teacher.   It really works!

1.  Sound:  I say the word aloud and students repeat it.  We do this several times. I ask:  How many syllables does the word have?

2.  Print:  I write the word in large letters on the board as each student writes the word in large letters on a blank page.

3.  Kinesthetics:  I trace the shape of each letter in the word with my index finger as I say its name.  Students repeat with me.  Then they do this on their own.  Sometime they “sky-write” using their whole arm to trace the letters in the air.

4.  Spelling:  Students close their eyes and look at the word in their mind’s eye.  I ask visualization questions like,

• How many letters does the word have? 
• What is the first letter?
• What is the last letter? 
• How many vowels does the letter have? 

5.  Writing:  Students open their eyes, flip over the page and write the word on their own.

What do YOU do to help students spell sight words?

Getting that New Vocabulary to Stick

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Study Skills

 

Research says that to learn a new word a person needs to encounter it at least six times, and up to as many as 20.  Students need to encounter a new word in multiple contexts.  They also need to attend to how the word sounds, how it is written, its usage, and what it means to own the word.  This means we teachers need to present and recycle new vocabulary in a variety of meaningful and distinctive ways.

Here are some of the activities I do to present and recycle vocabulary:

 Vocabulary Corner

Students need to dedicate a place to record new words. This can be a small spiral notebook or a page in their binder.  They should review their lists regularly.

 Teachers also need a place to record the class’s new vocabulary.  I dedicate one area of the board to new words.  At the end of each class, the class and I go over the words, pronouncing them, and then selecting 5 to 7 salient words for our vocabulary lists.  We all record these words in our notes.

Dictation

At the beginning or end of class, I take five minutes to dictate short sentences with the new vocabulary. 

Flash Cards

I encourage students to write up flash cards them and keep handy a zip-lock.  They write a new word on one side of a small card and its translation or definition on the other side.  they can clip the bag to their binder or

 Question Cards

As a warm up, I often distribute questions on cards to pairs of students.  These questions incorporate or review recently learned vocabulary.  In pairs, students take turns asking and answering the questions; for example:  How many nieces do you have?  (niece is new word)  or How many parts of car can you name? 

 Class Vocabulary Cards

I also write all the new vocabulary from the class on cards.  I write each word or phrase in large print on a 3 x 5 card.  Every few months I start a new collection of cards.   We use these cards in the following activities.

 Sorting

I hand ten random cards to each pair of students and tell them to sort the words in any of the following categories:

• parts of speech (verbs, nouns, adjectives) 
• one, two, three, or four syllable words
• alphabetical order

 Classifying

I call out a category and have students look through their words to find ones that fit.  For example, I tell the class:  

• Find all the verbs. 
• Find all the words that describe a person.
• Find all the words you use at work.
• Find all the words that are about food.

 Personalizing

I hand one or two cards to each student.  Students write a true sentence using the word on their card.  When the student is finished writing, I check the sentence.  If the usage is correct, I hand the student a new card.

 What activites do YOU use to make words stick?

Fostering Learner Independence

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Learning Styles, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

Telling and Retelling: Practice Makes Perfect

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Study Skills

Of course, we are not aiming for perfection.  We’re aiming for mastery, and practice is the road to mastery. So why don’t we give our students lots of opportunities to practice?  We have pressure on our class time.  Also, as a colleague once wisely said, “Students love to practice.  It’s the teacher who gets bored.” 

Here are two activities that give students that essential chance to practice the material, yet again.   

Conversation Cards

In every unit, students learn to ask and answer questions.  Many of these are good conversation questions.  For example, in a unit on clothes, some conversation questions may be What is your favorite color?  Where do you shop for clothes?  In a unit on weather, some good conversation questions are:  What’s the weather like in your home country?  Which season do you like best?  Why?  Do you like winter?  Why or why not?

1.  At the end of each class, I write down any new conversation questions on file cards. 

2.  At the beginning of the next class, I give student a few randomly selected conversation cards.   They sit with another student and ask and answer the questions.  As the semester moves forward, we collect more and more Conversation Cards which we recycle every class. 

Hot Seat Monologues

Here is a great activity from my colleague, ELEANOR STAFFORD.   It gives students ample opportunity to practice their speaking and listening skills.  Eleanor does this activity in her low level ESOL class but it works for all levels. 

1.  The teacher assigns students a topic, oftentimes from a book of simple surveys for English Language Learners.   Students write complete narratives, or words/phrases for homework.  Alternatively, students may suggest a topic they’d like to explore.  In the following few classes, each student goes to the front of the class and sits in the “hot seat”–without his/her text.

 2.  Once in the hot seat, the student volunteer gives a monologue on the topic for 1-3 minutes, depending on the level of the class. (The length of the monologues usually increases over the year.)  The other students must listen only, without writing. They do not ask questions. 

 3.  At the end of the allotted time period, a timekeeper says “Stop!” and the speaker must stop wherever s/he is. Having a finite period of time in which to speak gives students a goal to reach for, as well as a feeling of safety that they will not be expected to speak indefinitely.

 4.  Once the student has completed his/her hot seat monologue, the other students and the teacher write down everything they remember on a piece of lined paper.

 5.  The teacher gives a one-two paragraph write-up to the student, which serves to validate that the student communicated effectively.

 6.  The teacher collects the other students’ write-ups and writes comments on them–supplying missinmg  information and correcting inaccuracies–but more importantly, validating that they comprehended much of what was said and were able to record it in English.  The teacher does not correct grammar or spelling in these write-ups, as the Hot Seat Monologue is primarily a speaking and listening exercise.  Some students may write only lists of words or phrases while others may write complete narratives.

 Just a portion of each class is devoted to the Hot Seat Monologue. With a class of 12 students, all students are able to deliver their monologues in 3-4 classes.

What activities do YOU use for speaking practice?