5 Ways to Keep a Personal Connection to Students Online

As many schools and institutions gear up to return to instruction for the new academic year, teachers all over the world are preparing to continue with the online teaching formats they transitioned to in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. What many teachers miss the most is building relationships with their students and getting to know them on an individual basis.

In this blog, I discuss simple ways that I have maintained a personal connection with my graduate English-language students in my online listening and speaking course. These ideas are applicable in either synchronous or asynchronous instructional settings, and they can be adapted for varying English language proficiency levels.

1. Break the Ice With Introductory Videos

Creating a short video is a fun and engaging way for students to introduce themselves to their peers at the beginning of the semester. They could be prompted to answer questions (e.g., discuss your hometown, hobbies, and goals for the semester), or they could choose their own topics.

There are different options for sharing these informative videos. First, students could post their videos in a discussion board forum, which is a common feature of most learning management systems. Another site that can be used for this activity is Padlet, which is a web-based bulletin board that allows users to create short posts that can include text, images, videos, and audio files, among others. You can customize the layout of the board by arranging how students’ input is arranged (e.g., in a top to bottom feed), and there is an option for students to comment on each other’s posts. Most important, I participate in these icebreakers by creating my own introductory video so students get to know a little more about my own interests and see a sample video.

2. Give Weekly Updates

At the beginning of each week, I share a short video (i.e., 1–2 minutes) with students in which I provide a recap of the previous week and discuss what we will cover in the current week. To create videos, I often use Screencast-O-Matic, which allows users to record up to 15 minutes of video for free. Options for recording include only webcam, webcam and screen, or only screen with an audio voiceover. In these videos, I

• highlight the strengths of the class from the week before,
• identify areas that students need to continue working on,
• discuss the learning objectives for the week, and
• remind students about upcoming deadlines.

I upload this video in the week’s content folder in our learning management system and ask students to watch it before beginning any other assignments.

3. Take the Temperature of the Class Each Week

At the start of each week, I ask students to fill out a Google form that includes two to three short questions. These questions may vary week to week, but they often focus on students’ reflections on their learning, any challenges they have faced, and how I can better help them. Here are some example questions:

• Take a look at your recent assignment grade and my feedback. If you could do this assignment again, how would you do it differently?
• What did you learn last week about academic presentations that you didn’t know before?
• Use one adjective to describe how you are feeling today. In 2–3 sentences, please explain why you chose this adjective.
• Do you have everything you need to complete your work? Why or why not?
• Feel free to use this blank space to leave any questions or comments for me.

With Google Forms, it is possible to include a range of question types (e.g., short answer or multiple-choice), shuffle questions, limit responses to one person, make answers on particular questions mandatory, and customize color themes. I post the form’s link in our learning management system, but the link could also be emailed to students. Their responses provide valuable feedback that I use for planning instruction and making adjustments to the course if needed.

4. Create Your Own Content

In my listening and speaking course, content primarily includes listening skills (e.g., identifying signposts), academic presentation skills (e.g., creating effective slides), and pronunciation skills (e.g., vowels, consonants, and prosody). Many teaching materials on these topics already exist, but I prefer creating my own video lectures when possible so I can customize the content to students’ language levels and make the learning experience more personal.

For instance, I recently created a video to demonstrate how English consonants are pronounced and included multiple-choice quizzes and listen-then-repeat exercises for students to do as they watch. I also included a short preview of a speaking assignment due that week to model what students needed to do. I ensure that the video length is no longer than 10 minutes so students remain engaged, and I discuss one major topic in each video.

5. Connect With Students Individually

I hold virtual conferences after providing feedback on assignment drafts so I can meet with students individually, ensuring that they have enough time to review my comments and bring any questions to the conference. At the beginning of the semester, I also let students know how long it will typically take me to reply and how best to reach me (e.g., availability during holidays and weekends, how to reach me outside of office hours). Finally, I try to turn assignments around quickly so students can maintain momentum in the course, and, when possible, I provide audio feedback on their work so they can hear my voice.

---

When teaching online, there are many things that we can do to be present and show students that we remain active participants in the course and in their learning. If you have found other ways to stay connected to your students, please share them in the comments below.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/5-ways-to-keep-a-personal-connection-to-students-online/

300 TESOL Advocates Attend First Ever Virtual Advocacy and Policy Summit

This past June, TESOL International Association held its first ever TESOL Virtual Advocacy & Policy Summit. Over 3 days, more than 300 TESOL professionals from all over the world came together to learn, network, and take action on a number of critical policy issues. This year’s summit was supported in part by TESOL’s strategic partner, the American Federation of Teachers.

With the goal of equipping TESOL professionals with the knowledge to become influential advocates on behalf of English learners (ELs), the summit saw attendees spend the first 2 days learning from policy experts, networking with other TESOL professionals, and understanding effective advocacy techniques and strategies. The summit concluded with an online day of action where TESOL advocates sent more than 2,000 messages and social media posts to members of the U.S. Congress.

Additionally, advocates had the opportunity to submit the new TESOL Advocacy Policy Interest Survey, where they submitted information to TESOL about local policy issues impacting their work. TESOL aims to expand its local and international advocacy efforts with the information gleaned from this survey.

Day 1: Policy Primer

Following opening remarks from TESOL International Association President Deborah Short and interim Executive Director Rosa Aronson, both of whom discussed the importance of everyday advocacy and collective action, the summit began with a detailed legislative update from TESOL’s David Cutler, Director of Advocacy and Outreach. From the very start, attendees were provided with a wealth of policy information focusing on significant issues facing all ELs. Cutler detailed the proposed FY 2021 federal budget for major education programs, such as the Every Student Succeeds Act and the Workforce Improvement and Opportunity Act; spoke about the numerous bills in Congress that aim to address undocumented students, such as the American Dream and Promise Act; and also spent time addressing TESOL’s primary policy focus during the summit: passing the Reaching English Learners Act.

Following this in-depth update, participants gathered for a session led by Roger Rosenthal of the Migrant Legal Action Program, who discussed the rights of immigrant children and ELs in public schools. Following Rosenthal’s session, Supreet Anand from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) highlighted the various initiatives that OELA is undertaking. Her session also offered a glimpse into the data that the office has collected on EL performance at the K–12 level. Additional organizations that presented sessions on the first day included the American Federation of Teachers, National Immigration Law Center, and National Coalition for Literacy.

The TESOL Advocacy Action Center

During the policy update session, participants were also given a firsthand look at the TESOL Advocacy Action Center. Launched last year, the TESOL Advocacy Action Center is a free resource for all advocates, TESOL members and nonmembers alike, to find and contact their members of Congress. In the action center, advocates will find calls to action from TESOL, where they can send prewritten messages to their members of Congress on important issues TESOL is tracking, such as the Reaching English Learners Act and HEROES Act.

Day 2: Policy Sessions With a Global Audience

Daryl Streat from TESOLANZ presents during an affiliate advocacy panel.

The Summit opened its second day on Tuesday with a morning panel with representatives from several TESOL Affiliate Network members from around the world. The panel members detailed the advocacy issues they were focusing on in their respective countries. Following this informative panel, the global theme continued with a presentation by author and expert TESOL trainer Evan Frendo, who highlighted the need for English language skills in international business. Other speakers on the second day included Chris Coro, Deputy Director of the Office of Career, Adult, and Technical Education, who provided helpful information on his office’s current initiatives and the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act across the United States, as well as speakers from the Migration Policy Institute, Alabama-Mississippi TESOL, EnglishUSA, and UCIEP.

Day 3: TESOL Day of Action

On Wednesday, summit participants and other advocates from the United States and around the world participated in the first-ever online TESOL Day of Action. Over the course of 24 hours, advocates sent more than 2,000 messages in support of various TESOL policy issues impacting ELs and TESOL professionals. Advocates sent emails and social media posts to their members of Congress asking that they pass the HEROES Act, Reaching English Learners Act, Supporting Providers of English Language Learners Act, and more!

---

Stay tuned to the TESOL website and social media channels for the latest updates on TESOL’s advocacy efforts. Information on the 2021 TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit will be announced in early 2021!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/300-tesol-advocates-attend-first-ever-virtual-advocacy-and-policy-summit/

5 Helpful Apps for Remote ELT Collaboration

Collaboration is vital to teaching and learning. Before COVID-19, collaboration might have happened at the copy machine, in the hallway, or in department meetings. Things changed last spring with the onset and spread of COVID-19. During this time, we had to respond and act quickly.

Now, we all face uncertainty with our back-to-school plans for the fall. It is more important than ever that we find new (and sustainable) ways to help facilitate our collaboration with each other regardless of whether we are online, remote, in-person, or using a unique hybrid. This is our time to move from the defensive of managing a crisis to the offensive!

This blog provides five apps that can help you collaborate with other teachers, colleagues, community members, and even parents during the fall semester and beyond. Whether you are working remotely or teaching in-person, these are helpful tools that can keep your lessons, projects, and priorities moving in a positive and sustainable direction.

Though many people and schools use the Microsoft or Google suites for communication and information storage, there are many other apps available that can take your planning and collaboration to the next level. These tools can be used with others for collaboration or purely for self-planning.

1. Appointment Tracking and Planning: Calendly

Are you managing a team and need a way to connect with colleagues regarding their tasks? Are you looking for a simple way for families or colleagues to schedule a time to meet with you without sending a million emails? Are you a college advisor who is holding appointments online?

Calendly is a great tool to schedule one-on-one meetings with colleagues, committee members, and even parents. You are able to list different times when you are available to meet. Then, the guest is able to go in, select a time that works for them, and receive an email with information for the meeting. You can even sync this to your online calendars where you and the guest get a reminder about the appointment. There is a free version of Calendly, but iff you find it helpful, there are additional options available for a monthly fee. This product is similar to using the appointment book feature in GoogleCalendar.

ELT Example: Imagine that you are the director of an EL program. Because your program will now be offered remotely for the fall, you want to check in with all of the educators in your program to see how they are doing and if they need anything while they plan their courses. Calendly could be a helpful tool that would allow you to painlessly schedule meetings with these educators.

2. Project Management and Collaboration: Trello & Slack 

Are you currently working on a project in your department? Are you reorganizing how you do student intake and education planning? Are you going to coteach with someone this year and need a place to store curriculum and lesson ideas? Do you want to track all of the steps within a given project?

Trello and Slack are great Apps that allow you to manage projects, tasks, and information. These programs allow you to collaborate with others, share information easily, and make sure that all elements of a project are completed. Trello can also be used as a personal planning tool. If you are sick of writing to-do lists over and over, you might use Trello to create running lists of tasks that need to be completed through organized categories. Regardless of what your project is or the type of collaboration you are participating in, both of these products allows you to move information, tasks, and updates outside of your email.

ELT Example: Imagine that you are coteaching a class this year with a content teacher. Right now, you do not know if you will be remote or in-person for the fall semester. However, you are looking for a place online to store your conversations, planning, and curriculum ideas. You have found that things are getting lost in your email and Google Docs do not seem to be organized enough. Trello or Slack would be a helpful tool for you to store this information, keep the conversations running, and keep the information stored in an accessible way.

3. Note-Taking and Information Sharing: Evernote & Dropbox

Are you in charge of helping a new colleague get situated for the semester? Do you want to share your course planning or department documents with others? Are you on a committee where you have to take constant notes and store information? Are you looking for options other than Google?

Evernote is an app that allows you to take and store notes quickly, manage projects, and stay on task. It also provides options that allow you to share your notes and information with others on your team or in your department. This can be especially helpful if you are organizing a large project but want to avoid using the traditional GoogleDrive options.

In addition, if you have a lot of documents, sound files or photos, you can store and share them using Dropbox. This can be especially helpful if you want to share a lot of data quickly. Whether you are working remotely or in-person, it is helpful if you can store and share information easily with others on your team.

ELT Example: Imagine that you are teaching an English pronunciation course for the first time. You are trying to organize your plans and materials for the course. You have been able to talk with the previous teacher who taught this course. They are collaborating with you as you plan your course. They have offered to share multiple audio and video recordings that would be perfect for your class. Instead of emailing them all or putting them in Gmail, you could share this information using DropBox.

As we start to transition into the fall semester, there are many unknowns. We do not necessarily know what our classes will look like or how we will continue to function in remote and hybrid learning situations. However, one thing is certain: Collaboration and communication are key. Consider using some or all of these apps to help you and your ELT team connect and thrive in the semester and year ahead.

Do you have other go-to apps for collaboration? Please share in the comments below!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/5-helpful-apps-for-remote-elt-collaboration/

☝Distant Learning Tip

☝Distant Learning Tip ☝

Provide each family with a list of basic virtual classroom etiquette for your online classes.  Include in your lists things such as, muting microphones, using sidebar chats (if you provide them), adding classes to a google calendar or family calendars.  Don’t forget to teach students how to create or use non-distracting backgrounds. Remind them this is both visual and audio distractions.  Non-distracting backgrounds can be as simple as a blank wall. Ask students to leave their device on a table and not to hold or move it around.  Mention to students that the TV and music should be turned off,  pets are out of the room, and there are no distractions in the background (clothes and brothers and sisters). 

Happy Teaching!
Lori

Click here for our FREE Curriculum Map

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/07/distant-learning-tip.html

3 Online Whiteboard Speaking Games

Many of us are now teaching online, and it can be challenging to find ways to engage students who are sitting in front of a computer all day. How can we get students talking with the enthusiasm they have in the physical classroom?

One solution is to take advantage of virtual whiteboards for fun, descriptive activities that help students improve their speaking skills. This post explains technical requirements and provides instructions for three whiteboard games: 1) Moving Pictures (beginner), 2) What’s the Difference? (intermediate) and 3) Picture This! (advanced).

What You Need

1. A whiteboard that student “artists” can share with the class. Popular video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Webex have these features built in. However, if your video platform does not include a whiteboard, you’re in luck! Google Jamboard is a free online whiteboard. It offers fewer features than those on Zoom and Webex. However, for students with lower bandwidth, it has a major advantage. Google Jamboard files can be shared with a link and viewed locally by all students rather than by screen sharing.
2. A way to communicate with individual students so that you can send secret images and messages. This can be done in the chat feature of most video conference platforms, but email will also work. Keeping track of who has received the secret image is the most complicated task for the teacher, so you may want have a printed list of students to check off. You can also simplify things by preassigning the breakout rooms and sending the secret images to students in advance—or do all activities with the whole class.
3. A method to prepare the secret images. I have used screenshots of virtual whiteboards to create the ones in this post.

How to Prepare

1. Before class, familiarize yourself with the whiteboard and practice sending private chat messages and images with friends or colleagues.
2. In class, share your whiteboard and let students try it out. Ask them to draw and erase objects, write their names, change colors and use stamps. Explore the possibilities for a few minutes. Then ask students to try sharing their own whiteboards.
3. Once everyone is comfortable with the technology, have students send each other private messages to get the hang of it.
4. Before each game, you should model the activity as the artist, and to reduce student stress, be sure to set the bar low for artistic skill. Students should be able to succeed with stick figures and simple shapes, so if you are skilled at drawing, try to hide it!

Games

1. Moving Pictures

In this game for beginners, students explain how to rearrange objects to practice using prepositions. This game works best for whiteboards that allow you to create and move shapes. (Note: In Google Jamboard, students can create movable sticky notes in different colors.)

Prerequisites: Students should know the names of simple shapes (square, circle, star) and prepositions of place (over, between, inside).

Procedure

1. The teacher sends a list of items to place on the whiteboard—for example, a line, ten check marks, a rectangle, an oval, an X, and a circle—to ALL the students and a secret image of the items in a specific arrangement to all the students EXCEPT the “artist.”
2. The artist shares their whiteboard with the class and adds the list items.
3. The other students take turns explaining how the objects should be rearranged based on the secret image from the instructor.
4. Once the target arrangement is achieved, a new artist takes over and the instructor sends a new secret image of a new arrangement to all the students EXCEPT the artist. Repeat as desired.

Left: List items placed on the whiteboard. Right: A secret image of the target arrangement.

Example

Student 1: Put the line below the circle.

Student 2: Put the rectangle on top of the line, but on the left side of the circle.

Student 3: Move the check marks so they are around the rectangle.

This can be done as a whole class activity, or pairs can work in breakout rooms. While this second option allows for more practice, it also limits the instructor’s ability to observe and correct.

2. What’s the Difference?

In this game, high-beginner to intermediate students practice the comparative by giving step-by-step instructions on how to change an image.

Prerequisites: Students should be familiar with the comparative and should know simple adjectives to describe the shape of an object (e.g., tall/short, wide/narrow, high/low).

Procedure

1. For this activity, instead of a secret picture, the instructor distributes a handout with labeled images of a dozen four-legged animals with different shapes (e.g., kangaroo, hippo, rat, camel) to ALL students. You can find an “animal chart” by searching Google, or you can make your own.
2. After modeling the activity, the instructor sends students to breakout rooms in groups of three to four.
3. The artist shares their screen or, if using Google Jamboard, sends a page link to their partners, so everyone can watch the progress.
4. Using chat or email, the other students choose an animal from the handout to describe—in this example, a tyrannosaurus rex.
5. The artist begins by drawing a stick figure of a generic animal with four legs and a tail, then asks their partners, “How does the secret animal look different from mine?”
6. Other students take turns telling the artist how to change the drawing one body part at a time—erasing and redrawing parts. Partners may only describe the animal’s shape. They may not tell the artist the name of the animal or describe any characteristics of the animal except its appearance.
7. The game ends when the artist guesses the name of the animal.
8. Students take turns until everyone has played the artist role.

Secret animal and first stages of the game. Photo credit: Tyrannosaurus by Zachi Evenor CC BY-2.0

Example

Artist: How does my animal look different from the secret animal?

Student: Its neck is longer.

Student: Its neck is thicker.

Student: Its mouth is bigger. It has teeth.

Adjusting for level: Difficulty can be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number and type of animals.

3. Picture This!

In this speaking game, advanced students work to accurately describe an image made up of geometric shapes. However, the students giving the instructions can’t see the artist’s picture as it develops, necessitating the use of clarifications and tag questions.

Prerequisites: Students should have a knowledge of geometry terms (e.g., parallel lines, right angle, oval), tag questions (e.g., “Didn’t you?”) and clarification questions (e.g., “Do you mean X or Y?”) before playing the game.

Procedure

1. This activity uses the whiteboard in Google Jamboard. After the activity is modeled, pairs work together in breakout rooms. The instructor sends a secret image of geometric shapes to one student in each pair.
2. The artist starts with a blank canvas and does not share their whiteboard with their partner (the “explainer”).
3. Step-by-step, the explainer gives the artist directions on how to duplicate the secret image. The artist may ask questions to clarify the directions. After each item, the explainer should check for understanding.
4. When the description is finished, partners share and compare their images.
5. Students change places and the artist becomes the explainer. A new secret image is sent.

Examples of simple and complicated secret images.

Example

Explainer: Draw another circle under the diagonal line.

Artist: How big is it?

Explainer: It’s about one half the size of the first one.

Artist: Okay.

Explainer: So, you drew a large circle and a small one inside it, didn’t you?

Artist: Oh! No, I drew them beside each other.

Adjusting for level: Both time and level can be controlled by the complexity of the shapes and their relationships. This game can also be made competitive—the team that first completes an accurate copy of the secret image is the winner.

---

I hope this post gives you some ideas for adding fun to your online speaking classes and inspiration for other whiteboard activities of your own! If you have any whiteboard speaking activities you like to use, please share them in the comments, below.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/3-online-whiteboard-speaking-games/

💚 Fun To Teach Back to School SALE at TPT💚

Hello teachers!

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

I hope you and your families are doing great and staying safe!  Summer for me and my family includes a lot of hanging at home and in the garden.  The heat of summer just started for us this week…which is very late for us.  The heat has kept us indoors during the afternoons so I decided to throw a sale!  Here you go and happy shopping!

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

Back to School

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

//downloads.mailchimp.com/js/signup-forms/popup/unique-methods/embed.jswindow.dojoRequire([“mojo/signup-forms/Loader”], function(L) { L.start({“baseUrl”:”mc.us2.list-manage.com”,”uuid”:”cbf24935a27cb5f458ad62415″,”lid”:”418f1f8b09″,”uniqueMethods”:true}) })
from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/07/fun-to-teach-back-to-school-sale-at-tpt.html

Online Teacher Education Resources in ELT: Blogs, Vlogs, and Podcasts

In this second part of our blog series on virtual teacher education, we discuss how to help teacher candidates vicariously experience classroom life when limited to online sources. When teaching our teacher candidates face to face, we like to lift up practitioner voices by having ESL teachers and administrators visit our classes as guest speakers and by having teacher candidates observe and teach in classrooms with multilingual students.

What do we do when we can’t be physically in the same space with teachers, observing and discussing effective practices for multilingual learners?

Teachers hold knowledge, experience, and expertise—and, in our experience as teacher educators, teacher candidates deeply appreciate learning directly from practitioners. Hearing directly from practicing teachers in the field is important for teacher candidates to be able to make connections between the theories and strategies they learn in our classes and the realities of everyday classroom life. However, when this is not possible, we can still incorporate practicing teachers’ voices into our instruction via blogs, vlogs, and podcasts.

Learning About Current Issues in Teachingusing blogs

Posts, videos, and podcasts created by teachers are a great way for us as teacher educators to show our teacher candidates that the strategies we teach in our courses are not theoretical or impractical—both criticisms that we’re sure other teacher educators receive as well. For example, take the blog series titled Inspiring English Language Learners, which is written by Emily Francis, a high school ESL teacher in Concord, North Carolina, USA. She blogs several times a month about topics ranging from multicultural book talks to parent meetings to strategies for newcomers. Emily also blogs in Spanish, and shares video clips of both her classroom strategies and her various speaking engagements.

The Boosting Achievement ESL Podcast by Carla Salva features ESL teachers discussing work they are currently doing in their classrooms; for example, in one episode, teachers discuss strategies for welcoming a newcomer who joins in the middle of the school year. The Boosting Achievement ESL Podcast also engages directly with listeners on current events: A more recent episode featured Carla and Dorina Sackman-Ebuwa taking live calls to discuss the role of educators in addressing racial equity.

Started by a former middle school language arts teacher Jennifer Gonzalez, the Cult of Pedagogy website features posts by Jennifer and other creators. Most of the posts provide useful tips for teaching in general, but some are specific to teaching multilingual learners. We especially like to include this blog post that breaks down the WIDA Can Do descriptors as required reading when learning about language objectives.

We also recommend a blog called Elementary English Language Learners, written by Valentina Gonzalez, a professional development specialist for the Katy Independent School District in Texas. We especially like Valentina’s infographics, which summarize many of the topics in her blog in a colorful and succinct manner. In our teacher education classrooms, we might have teacher candidates create similar infographics to summarize their learning.

A YouTuber known as the Language Lady discusses many relevant and current topics—including, most recently, how to teach multilingual students online. Besides offering a concrete look at how a strategy might work in a classroom, resources like these also allow us to offer our teacher candidates multimodal and even multilingual ways of learning—thereby modeling what they should in turn be doing in their future classrooms.

Visualizing Classrooms

Teacher blogs and especially vlogs are also useful for illustrating what actual classroom environments for multilingual students can and should look like. For example, a blog post on interactive word walls written by Valentina for the Unstoppable EL Teacher blog on the middle-school focused website MiddleWeb discusses how word walls function as tools for building content vocabulary, prewriting, and differentiation. The post also features several photos of word walls. Using Valentina’s post as a model, teacher candidates can draw a design for a word wall and come up with a strategy for using it in instruction.

The YouTuber Everything AJA has a channel where she shares a video of her elementary school classroom, talking through her classroom library, which she has organized by reading level and topic, and how she has labeled items around the room. When watching a vlog like this with our teacher candidates, we might ask them to pay attention to the features of the classroom that are beneficial to multilingual students and think about what could be improved. For example, we might discuss how AJA’s classroom labels and well-organized library promote students’ engagement with literacy, but also point out how multilingual labels and books might be added to create a more linguistically responsive classroom environment.

¡Colorín Colorado!, a great resource in general for ESL and bilingual education instruction, has a classroom video library that features practicing teachers discussing and implementing standards-based lessons for multilingual learners. Each lesson also includes access to the lesson materials. These resources could be used to introduce teacher candidates to teaching strategies in action and lessons that are designed specifically with multilingual learners in mind.

Finally, for keeping up to date on current events and policies impacting multilingual learners in the United States, we recommend subscribing to the New America’s English Learner Program.

Learning More About Multilingual Students

In our last post, we discussed using online language portraits of multilingual learners to show our teacher candidates the variety that exist in this student population. It is also useful to have teacher candidates hear how practitioners and researchers discuss students and their varied backgrounds and abilities. For example, The ELLevation EL Community’s Highest Aspirations podcast series includes episodes that feature multilingual education scholars discussing research in an approachable way, such as an episode with Dr. Kelli Sandman-Hurley, which discusses English learners with dyslexia.

Similarly, the International Consortium for Multilingual Excellence in Education hosts a podcast, ¡Hablamos!, where a teacher candidate interviews multilingual education educators and researchers. The Codeswitch podcast is a great resource for critical and up-to-date discussions on current events particularly as they relate to historically marginalized communities. In a 2017 episode, In Search of Puerto Rican Identity in Small-Town America, teacher candidates who work with Puerto Rican students and families can learn more about the Puerto Rican diaspora and experience. This is especially useful in our context in Massachusetts, where there is a particularly large number of families with Puerto Rican heritage in the western part of the state. Teacher candidates in other states might benefit from following the Reading in the Borderlands blog, which discusses students in the Rio Grande Valley area, or reading Sirad Shirdon’s blog post that describes culturally-responsive approaches for working with Somali children.

Integrating Blogs, Vlogs, and Podcasts Into Teacher Education

In our courses, we integrate these contemporary resources in a variety of ways. Blog posts and podcast episodes are often paired with a textbook passage and/or peer-reviewed journal article about the same topic or strategy for required reading before a class session. In addition to showing video clips in class, we can also use vlogs for asynchronous activities in courses that are delivered entirely online or remotely.

The use of audio and visual media in our courses is an engaging and interactive way to both bring teacher voice into our courses and also invite teacher candidates into practicing teachers’ classrooms.

What blogs, vlogs, and podcasts do you follow and why? Please share in the comments below.

---

In our next post, we will discuss how to cultivate positive and asset-based dispositions in teacher candidates by using multimodal resources.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/online-teacher-education-resources-in-elt-blogs-vlogs-and-podcasts/

⏰ English Learners and Specific Learning Disability

English Learners and Specific Learning Disability

As ESL ELD teachers we are always worried about misidentification of English learners.  Specific Learning Disability (SLD) is a language and literacy-related disability referring to a psychological processing disorder.  If focuses on understanding or using spoken or written language.   Determining whether an ELL’s learning difficulties are from language or something else is a tangled web. 

Like many ELD teachers, I am often asked questions from teams of teachers and specialists that seek clarification and guidance on deciding how to untangle this web.  This is a recent question/inquiry I received:

“For this little person, since you see other students with ELD needs, would you say her challenges are based on ELD needs or that it’s likely she has a learning disability? Any guidance or advice you could offer in this case would be greatly appreciated.”

As teams of educators ponder how to work best with English Learners they can reflect on a many different approaches.  Here is a preliminary list of considerations I offer our staff:

·      What different types of interventions has she had and what were the outcomes?

·      What kind of differentiation has been used in the classroom?
·      Has she been in classrooms with a teacher who has been trained in SIOP?
·   Consider whether the learning environment appropriately supports or has supported the student and her/his language needs.

·      Use the data supplied here to examine student language development and performance.

·      Conference with parents to see what THEY are noticing about their child.  Ask questions about the child’s language abilities in both English and and the native language.  This is important because students who do not have a solid foundation in their first language struggle much more when learning English.  Does the student have a strong native language?

·      Analyze student data to compare student progress in relation to peers who are making typical progress over time.

·      Where are the gaps?  If a phonics assessment has been made look for sounds/letter combinations that were incorrect.  Are those errors that are sounds or combinations that are different or nonexistent in the native language?

Click here if you would like to download this quick guideline to for your staff.

I would love to hear what considerations you offer your school teams when working with ELLs.

Happy Teaching!

   

//downloads.mailchimp.com/js/signup-forms/popup/unique-methods/embed.jswindow.dojoRequire([“mojo/signup-forms/Loader”], function(L) { L.start({“baseUrl”:”mc.us2.list-manage.com”,”uuid”:”cbf24935a27cb5f458ad62415″,”lid”:”418f1f8b09″,”uniqueMethods”:true}) })

  

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/07/english-learners-and-specific-learning.html

Dungeons & Dragons: Gaming Role-Playing for ELT

Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest TESOL games and education blog! In this month’s post, we’ll explore the vast and imaginative world of Dungeons & Dragons!

First created in 1974, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has seen epic growth in recent years with double digital sales for the game as older players openly embrace updates to the game and new players are introduced to the game through live plays, such as Critical Role, and podcasts, such as The Adventure Zone. Included in this growth has been extensive interest in using D&D in the classroom to foster communication, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary learning.

What Is D&D?

D&D is a tabletop role-playing game—although recently it has made the switch to video conferencing quite well. In this genre of games, players create a character and then act out the character’s actions alongside fellow players. The overall direction of the game is guided by a dungeon master, or DM. This DM creates the general story for the players to follow and role-plays all the various characters, monsters, and enemies that players may encounter during their adventure. Critically, D&D has no clear win or loss as with a typical board or video game. Instead, the goal of the game is to craft a shared story through the actions and dialogue the players create.

D&D is often referred to as “theater of the mind” as players are strongly encouraged to act out their characters and describe their actions to the other players. Players create characters with specific attributes and abilities, which come with a numerical score. Players complete most in-game actions by rolling dice with the resulting dice score influenced by the players attributes. The game begins with players filling out their character sheets  (see Figure 1). Each area has a numerical score that influences what players can accomplish.

Figure 1. Character sheet. 

How Do I Use D&D in the Language Classroom?

Figure 2: Dice, paper, and rule book are all that are needed to get started with D&D (Copyright CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wiki Commons)

EFL instructor Stephanie Smith makes the case for D&D in the language classroom by using the game to introduce a rich array of vocabulary to students. The game also provides students a space for communication that does not focus on themselves, which can be beneficial to students who are shy or reluctant to talk about themselves.

The open-ended nature of D&D also lends itself well to language classroom role-play where students are encouraged to make decisions and alter the path of the conversation (Di Pietro, 1982). Role-playing games have also been suggested as viable ways for students to explore moral practices and communicate their thoughts on moral decision-making (Wright, Weissglass, & Casey, 2020).

D&D can also be used as a context for student writing assignments where they document the events of a play session, or short essays where they develop a backstory for their character. The open nature of tabletop role-playing games is only limited by the imagination of the players and how much story they want to tell.

For more on getting started with D&D, check out the game’s Getting Started pages.

Until next month, play more games!

References 

Di Pietro, R. J. (1982). The open-ended scenario: A new approach to conversation. TESOL Quarterly, 16, 15–20.

Wright, J. C., Weissglass, D. E., & Casey, V. (2020). Imaginative role-playing as a medium for moral development: Dungeons & Dragons provides moral training. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 60(1), 99–129.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/dungeons-and-dragons-gaming-role-playing-for-elt/

🌻 Masking Techniques 🌻

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

🌻 Masking Techniques 🌻

Hello Teacher World,

Recently a classroom teacher asked me about tips or suggestions I had for English Language Learners that have developed masking techniques to cover their lack of oral language understanding during lessons.  Do you have students that use masking techniques when they do not understanding something?  Students often use words like ‘got it’, ‘right’, or ‘okay’ to exemplify their quick attempt to show they understand )whether or not they truly do.)

  

The avoidance of class work typically goes hand in hand with not understanding exactly what they are to do.

 

Here are my suggestions:

• 🌻     Keep instructions to one or two step directions
• 🌻     Have students repeat to you what they are supposed to do
•  🌻  Pre-teach when possible 
•  🌻  Make assignments and instructions as visual as possible
•  🌻    Build in group work when possible
•  🌻   Scaffold
•   🌻  Use sentence frames
•   🌻  Look at the language in the assignments and check for the language that confuses second language learners:

                   💥  Idioms – a frog in my throat

                 💥  Prepositional phrases – Common prepositional phrase            examples include about, after, at, before, behind, by, during, for, from, in, of, over, past, to, under, up, and with… examples:    Check in, check out, check over, check out, etc.

    ↓↓↓↓

↓↓↓↓↓

Click here to see our Fun To Teach resources!

Happy Teaching,

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/07/masking-techniques.html