At the end of class on Friday I had one of those magical moments that make teaching about the coolest thing in the world to do for a living. I'm talking about those moments when the light goes on, when a student's eyes get wide and fill with the glean of recognition, when ideas previously separate and isolated are joined in understanding. I'm talking about those so called "Aha!" moments, those thrilling, joyous instants which makes a teacher's life wonderful.
Two things made this "Aha!" moment on Friday extra special. First, it didn't happen to just one student, but to the majority of the students in class all at once. Second, I had worked together with my friend and colleague, Isaac Zawolo, to in a sense plan for it.
Sean, Isaac, Pat and I have a cohort of students. That means we can think creatively about our overall learning objectives for the group, and plan lessons in our respective classrooms that reinforce the learning taking place in our colleague's classrooms. Teaching is often such an isolating experience professionally. Former APS Superintendent Larry Cuban just wrote a blog post on the topic, titled Alone in the Classroom, that describes the problem well. I am in the incredibly fortunate position of being able to escape this problem, since I am working closely with colleagues who stimulate my thinking, challenge my assumptions, expand my horizons, and make me a better teacher for the direct benefit of the students whom I teach.
We are all working together on a big fourth quarter project we are calling The HILT Institute in Our Eyes. The aim of the project is to use our English, mathematics, social studies, and information and communications technology skills to learn more about our own community. In English, the students have been constructing a survey which we will use to gather information about ourselves. In mathematics, students have been learning data analysis skills, including creating pie charts showing distributions of values. In my ICT class, I've been teaching students how to use Google Forms (so they can create the survey) and Google Spreadsheets (so they can collect and analyze the data we gather).
On Friday I was introducing two new spreadsheet functions: UNIQUE(range), which returns an array of unique values from a specified range, and COUNTIF(range, criteria), that returns the number of times a specified value occurs within a specified range of values. For this lesson, students were following along with me step by step, creating their own versions of the spreadsheet I was presenting them. With only five minutes left in class, I told them to stop doing that. I told them I wanted to show them where we were going with this, so they should just watch now and could do it themselves next week. I proceeded to finish this demo. There were about 30 seconds left in class when I clicked the button that made the pie chart appear. That's when it happened - wide eyes and big smiles across the classroom, together with the "Aha!" of understanding. "We've been making those things in Mr. Zawolo's class", they thought, "I understand exactly what it is that the computer just did!"
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Teaching Grammar Using Student-Created Materials
A
perennial problem for English as a second language teachers is finding
compelling ways to teach grammar. Many grammar textbooks are less than
ideal. At best, these books provide a general overview of a language
feature. At worst, their exercises are tedious or culturally biased. All
commercial texts are by their nature disconnected from students' lived
realities. Ask yourself this: Did you ever really care what happened to
Dick and Jane?
It is up to the teacher to make the language come alive for the students. Our online picture dictionary partially solves this problem. The student-created dictionary has evolved into an image bank from which I can mine content for grammar examples. When I want to present a new grammar point (subject pronouns, for instance), my first destination is Our Dictionary. There I retrieve interesting photos of the students and make questions based on the visuals. Usually the pictures are funnier and more original than what appears in any textbook. As you might expect, our students are much more willing to study esoteric syntactic structures if they themselves have crafted the content.
It is up to the teacher to make the language come alive for the students. Our online picture dictionary partially solves this problem. The student-created dictionary has evolved into an image bank from which I can mine content for grammar examples. When I want to present a new grammar point (subject pronouns, for instance), my first destination is Our Dictionary. There I retrieve interesting photos of the students and make questions based on the visuals. Usually the pictures are funnier and more original than what appears in any textbook. As you might expect, our students are much more willing to study esoteric syntactic structures if they themselves have crafted the content.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Google in My classroom: The impact and a look into the Future
Google in My classroom: The impact and a look into the Future
Several years ago, our colleague, Jeffery Elkner, introduced us to the use of “Google-in the Classroom”. Little did we know that soon we would become addicted to not only it but the many educational tools offered by Google. Today, I use Google for word processing, spreadsheets, blogging and more importantly for class organization-Google site and Google form.
Our program serves a small population of immigrant English Language Learners, ELLs. For the most, our students, prior to our school, have had limited, if any, contact with technology and even more so, word processing or publishing software. Getting our students to immerse in technology has often added confusion than salvage the problems of the digital divide. Our students have had gaps in their education and they need a structured and well coordinated approach to harness their interest in unfamiliar ventures, including technology, the benefits of which may not be easily discernible to them. The fact that Google docs are stored in the cloud, provides portability and eliminates the confusion associated with searching for where files were stored or what names were they stored with. Our students can easily find and use their documents at anytime provided there is access to the Internet.
Yet another benefit is the free-web site hosting capability and the ease with which one can create customized websites for their classes. With such, students can easily find course materials, and stay in touch with the class even when they are absent. My class’ website is a “one-stop-shopping” point for my students. The website contains notes, class assignments, daily instructional guides, warm ups and even quizzes. Students, in my class do their quizzes and complete their Warm Ups on Google through “Google Form”. This allows for prompt feedback as well as opportunity for class discussions while viewing each others work. Students appreciate this a lot. They see this as an opportunity to correct their thinking were necessary and enhanced their comprehension.
It is my hope that in the future, my colleagues and I will jointly organize the website so that students can use one site as a source for information appertaining to all of their classes. We look to that day with hope.
Several years ago, our colleague, Jeffery Elkner, introduced us to the use of “Google-in the Classroom”. Little did we know that soon we would become addicted to not only it but the many educational tools offered by Google. Today, I use Google for word processing, spreadsheets, blogging and more importantly for class organization-Google site and Google form.
Our program serves a small population of immigrant English Language Learners, ELLs. For the most, our students, prior to our school, have had limited, if any, contact with technology and even more so, word processing or publishing software. Getting our students to immerse in technology has often added confusion than salvage the problems of the digital divide. Our students have had gaps in their education and they need a structured and well coordinated approach to harness their interest in unfamiliar ventures, including technology, the benefits of which may not be easily discernible to them. The fact that Google docs are stored in the cloud, provides portability and eliminates the confusion associated with searching for where files were stored or what names were they stored with. Our students can easily find and use their documents at anytime provided there is access to the Internet.
Yet another benefit is the free-web site hosting capability and the ease with which one can create customized websites for their classes. With such, students can easily find course materials, and stay in touch with the class even when they are absent. My class’ website is a “one-stop-shopping” point for my students. The website contains notes, class assignments, daily instructional guides, warm ups and even quizzes. Students, in my class do their quizzes and complete their Warm Ups on Google through “Google Form”. This allows for prompt feedback as well as opportunity for class discussions while viewing each others work. Students appreciate this a lot. They see this as an opportunity to correct their thinking were necessary and enhanced their comprehension.
It is my hope that in the future, my colleagues and I will jointly organize the website so that students can use one site as a source for information appertaining to all of their classes. We look to that day with hope.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Single-Sex Education?
Today I separated our cohort of fourteen young people into two groups. The gentlemen accompanied me to Jeff's classroom to present their Our Dictionary entries. The ladies stayed behind in my classroom with a volunteer teacher, Liz.
I separated the students by gender because I wanted all class members to build confidence in public speaking. About three weeks ago I asked the students to make formal presentations, but the atmosphere that day was tense and uncomfortable. The lower proficiency students were embarrassed to speak in front of the group. The more verbally advanced students (who also happen to be male) aggressively questioned the presenters. One of the young ladies refused to present - a first this year.
I have made it a practice since the beginning of the school year to have students present their work formally to their classmates. So far, they have made 27 presentations. At the beginning of the year, most students participated by asking questions of presenters. I was impressed by their poise and confidence.
But as the year progressed and relationships developed among the students, they have been far less willing to contribute to an oral dialogue during class. Aware that many of the young ladies may have been intimidated by the overly exuberant men, I hatched the idea to split the group.
The young men in my group performed as I had expected. They challenged each other with some tough questions. They playfully teased one another about their lack of English skill and poor pronunciation. There were no hurt feelings.
According to Liz's report, the young ladies did a great job with their presentations. When I popped in my room to grab a paper at one point, one female student was asking question after question in English to the presenter. All the girls looked happy and excited.
I want to continue to have the students make presentations to their same-sex peers. I know that we will eventually have to come back together as one cohort for presentations, but for the moment, I want both groups to polish their craft without the judgmental eyes of the opposite sex.
I separated the students by gender because I wanted all class members to build confidence in public speaking. About three weeks ago I asked the students to make formal presentations, but the atmosphere that day was tense and uncomfortable. The lower proficiency students were embarrassed to speak in front of the group. The more verbally advanced students (who also happen to be male) aggressively questioned the presenters. One of the young ladies refused to present - a first this year.
I have made it a practice since the beginning of the school year to have students present their work formally to their classmates. So far, they have made 27 presentations. At the beginning of the year, most students participated by asking questions of presenters. I was impressed by their poise and confidence.
But as the year progressed and relationships developed among the students, they have been far less willing to contribute to an oral dialogue during class. Aware that many of the young ladies may have been intimidated by the overly exuberant men, I hatched the idea to split the group.
The young men in my group performed as I had expected. They challenged each other with some tough questions. They playfully teased one another about their lack of English skill and poor pronunciation. There were no hurt feelings.
According to Liz's report, the young ladies did a great job with their presentations. When I popped in my room to grab a paper at one point, one female student was asking question after question in English to the presenter. All the girls looked happy and excited.
I want to continue to have the students make presentations to their same-sex peers. I know that we will eventually have to come back together as one cohort for presentations, but for the moment, I want both groups to polish their craft without the judgmental eyes of the opposite sex.
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Joy of Integrative- Interdisciplinary Collaboration
The Joy of Integrative- Interdisciplinary Collaboration
One of my best moments in teaching has been the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers-professionals. For the last several years, I have been collaborating with Jeff, the other vertex of this triangle. Working with Jeff I have come to appreciate how our different perspectives of learning and the learners have enriched the learning experiences of our students and met their learning styles. While I appreciate this collaboration with Jeff, the addition of Sean to this team has enhanced the collaboration and broadened the scope of our impact. Two of the benefits of this collaboration that has won my admiration are the “Dictionary Project” and the soon to begin “ The HILT Institute in Numbers and Words”.
Students, especially ELLs, have difficulty in using academic language. By working to create their own dictionary saturated with pictures and images that connect with their life experiences and comprehension, the students, I have noticed, are becoming more comfortable using appropriate terminologies to convey their understanding of mathematics. This has enabled our students to engage more challenging task and the much dreaded “word problems”. This was very conspicuous when we completed the unit on "Business Math". Rather than teaching my students to solve percent problems by exposing them to the "three kinds of percent problems" I provided situations where knowledge of percents and understanding word problems were important. The students met the challenge: they solved the problems with ease and articulated their results using the relevant academic language. I was amazed.
The “HILT Institute in Numbers and Words” is an interdisciplinary collaborative project that the students will work on. The students will collect demographic and other data about the HILT Institute. The data will be tabulated and displayed using graphs and plots. The graphs will be made both by hand and using technology. Additionally students will write about the information collected. They will write about the countries of origin of the students at the HILT Institute, the Institute, Career & Technical Education classes and their progress in learning English To accomplish this we will have the social studies teacher also involved.
Though, yet anecdotal, we are beginning to see positive trends in how our collaboration has impacted student learning. Our students are engaged. They work with joy. The students ask for more work. They are proud of themselves and above all they find school to be fun, engaging and awakening. What more can one ask for?
One of my best moments in teaching has been the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers-professionals. For the last several years, I have been collaborating with Jeff, the other vertex of this triangle. Working with Jeff I have come to appreciate how our different perspectives of learning and the learners have enriched the learning experiences of our students and met their learning styles. While I appreciate this collaboration with Jeff, the addition of Sean to this team has enhanced the collaboration and broadened the scope of our impact. Two of the benefits of this collaboration that has won my admiration are the “Dictionary Project” and the soon to begin “ The HILT Institute in Numbers and Words”.
Students, especially ELLs, have difficulty in using academic language. By working to create their own dictionary saturated with pictures and images that connect with their life experiences and comprehension, the students, I have noticed, are becoming more comfortable using appropriate terminologies to convey their understanding of mathematics. This has enabled our students to engage more challenging task and the much dreaded “word problems”. This was very conspicuous when we completed the unit on "Business Math". Rather than teaching my students to solve percent problems by exposing them to the "three kinds of percent problems" I provided situations where knowledge of percents and understanding word problems were important. The students met the challenge: they solved the problems with ease and articulated their results using the relevant academic language. I was amazed.
The “HILT Institute in Numbers and Words” is an interdisciplinary collaborative project that the students will work on. The students will collect demographic and other data about the HILT Institute. The data will be tabulated and displayed using graphs and plots. The graphs will be made both by hand and using technology. Additionally students will write about the information collected. They will write about the countries of origin of the students at the HILT Institute, the Institute, Career & Technical Education classes and their progress in learning English To accomplish this we will have the social studies teacher also involved.
Though, yet anecdotal, we are beginning to see positive trends in how our collaboration has impacted student learning. Our students are engaged. They work with joy. The students ask for more work. They are proud of themselves and above all they find school to be fun, engaging and awakening. What more can one ask for?
What is the web? Part 2
Demystifying the World Wide Web and the Internet is definitely one of the core goals for student learning this year in the Intro to IT class. Students are now using the web every day in their daily lives, but to many of them the following ideas are not apparent:
There are so many new and unfamiliar notions here that "demystifying the Web" is a year long goal.
Today I plan to have students learn how to use their Google Docs accounts to upload and link a TurtleArt file from a document. The activity they will be completing is here. Uploading and downloading are two very important concepts. To make sense of what is happening, they need to become comfortable with the notion that they have a computer in front of them (the "local" computer) and they can transfer documents and other data to their Google Docs accounts, which are located "out there" somewhere on the Internet.
- Computers can be connected to each other using either wired or wireless (through the air like a radio) connection to share information (data).
- We say the computers are networked when they are thus connected and call all the computers connected together a network.
- The Internet is a global network of networks, allowing computers all over the world to share data with each other.
- The World Wide Web (or simply "the Web") is a collection of programs and data sharing rules that run on top of the Internet.
There are so many new and unfamiliar notions here that "demystifying the Web" is a year long goal.
Today I plan to have students learn how to use their Google Docs accounts to upload and link a TurtleArt file from a document. The activity they will be completing is here. Uploading and downloading are two very important concepts. To make sense of what is happening, they need to become comfortable with the notion that they have a computer in front of them (the "local" computer) and they can transfer documents and other data to their Google Docs accounts, which are located "out there" somewhere on the Internet.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Using Scratch to Promote English Acquisition
Our students are having a great time with Scratch! Jeff has written about the wonderful benefits of Scratch from his perspective. I would like to briefly describe how I think using Scratch helps students acquire essential skills in composition, literary analysis, and critical thinking.
The stories our students are using to work with Scratch are from the True Stories series. These accounts are modified news stories designed to be accessible to beginning language learners. They are brief humorous accounts of unusual situations.
For example, one story is about a Norwegian man from the countryside. He grew weary of rural life and moved to the big city of Oslo. After dumping his belongings in a new apartment, he went for a long walk through the grey streets. But when the poor man decided to return to his new home, he couldn't find it! He looked and looked. It took him three weeks to locate his flat.
There are so many essential language skills that can be achieved by using Scratch in combination with such stories.
By using Scratch, students will be able to:
The stories our students are using to work with Scratch are from the True Stories series. These accounts are modified news stories designed to be accessible to beginning language learners. They are brief humorous accounts of unusual situations.
For example, one story is about a Norwegian man from the countryside. He grew weary of rural life and moved to the big city of Oslo. After dumping his belongings in a new apartment, he went for a long walk through the grey streets. But when the poor man decided to return to his new home, he couldn't find it! He looked and looked. It took him three weeks to locate his flat.
There are so many essential language skills that can be achieved by using Scratch in combination with such stories.
By using Scratch, students will be able to:
- Write in the third person. When writers use Scratch, they need to create lines for characters as if they were composing a play.
- Summarize. Students have to select the most important parts of each story. They have to think critically to prioritize which events and characters to include.
- Understand plot development. Every story, no matter how simple, has an introduction, complications, climax, and resolution.
- Apply vocabulary and grammar from language arts to a new context. Creating in Scratch recycles language forms they learned in English class. Multiple applications of new words and structures promotes retention.
- Collaborate with a partner while using academic vocabulary. Literary terms such as setting, characters, and events naturally bubble up in students' discussions as they draw storyboards, write lines, and prioritize which story elements to include in their Scratch projects.
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