3 Innovative Ways to Use Breakout Rooms in ELT

In the age of remote and online teaching, it is more important than ever that we find ways to encourage group work in our lessons. While we can no longer rearrange desks in a circle or send groups of students into different classroom spaces, we need to find ways to create these similar collaborative and horizontal learning experiences for our English learners (ELs).

As more and more educators rely on video conferencing to host their online, synchronous courses, now is the time to think creatively and strategically about how we will encourage student discussion and small group work. One beneficial function to many video conferencing programs is the option to create a breakout room. This enables educators to divide their course into smaller groups, for example completing “get to know you” activities in small groups or discussing a chapter in a novel with guided discussion questions. More and more, the breakout room is becoming staple of the online, synchronous classroom. However, there less traditional ways that we can take advantage of this useful online teaching tool, and this blog aims to draw attention to three innovative ways that you can embed breakout rooms in your online teaching.

Idea #1: Jigsaw Skits

Jigsaw activities are great to do with students; however, with the transition to online teaching, creating a jigsaw might be the last thing on your mind. A jigsaw is when you are able to separate a text into smaller parts. Students are able to become experts in their part of the story before they hear the other parts or the text as a whole. Then, students are able to uncover the story, meaning, and order together. This activity helps to outline how you could create a jigsaw skit activity using breakout rooms.  

Step 1: Select a classroom reading that is new to the students. Divide that reading into different parts. For example, you might create four parts of a short story. Create a Google Docs for each part of the story. If you have four parts, you will create four separate Google Docs.

Step 2: Divide your class roster by the number of parts in your story. Keep in mind, you will not want your groups to be too large. You might have to adjust how you have grouped students or how you have divided the reading.

Step 3: Have students get into their breakout groups. Provide each breakout group with access to their Google Doc for their specific part of the reading/text. You can provide this to students in an email or in the chat feature within the video conferencing software.

Step 4: Give students time to read their part of the story. (Alternatively, assign the reading in advance.) They will have missing information as they will only have access to their specific part of the story. Then, students will need to create a skit to represent their part of the story.

When presenting skits, students within groups can each perform their part in front of the whole class using gallery view. Here are three ways students can share their skit with the class as part of the jigsaw activity:

Option A: Each group creates a skit based on their section of the reading. Randomly call on different groups to perform their skit to the rest of the class. Between each skit, the class can then decide what the order is of the skit in the full story. In the end, each group can do their skit again in the correct order.

Option B: Each group has to create a skit that can be done individually and replicated by everyone in the group. Give the groups time to practice so that each individual feels comfortable with their part of the skit. Then, randomly group students (like speed dating) within the video conferencing software. Students would share their performance with one student at a time. Then, after everyone has rotated multiple times, everyone can come back together to discuss the correct order.

Option C: Have groups create skits that are silent. Their silent performance will be shown to the rest of the class. Groups can do this live while in class or choose to record their own video performance. Then, after each performance, the class has to take note of what happened in the skit.  A shared Google Doc would be screenshared so that everyone can add their ideas to a note-chart.

Step 5: Once everyone has performed in whatever way you have decided, take the time to review (1) the content of the story, (2) the order of the story, and (3) the skit performance. Additional grammar and language components can also be tacked on to this activity.

Step 6: After the work is done, have students return to their breakout room with their group. Send each group a Google Form to complete with reflective questions about their experience in the skit. Students can screenshare the Google Form with the rest of the group and type the answers, and only one person per group would submit the group’s answers. Then, all of the answers could be viewed together as a whole class.

Idea #2: Virtual Running Dictations

A running dictation is a fun way to engage students and help them use multiple English skills at once. Information (text or audio) is broken down into smaller parts. Students work in teams to gather the information, share the information with their group, and document it correctly. 

Step 1: Find a text that you would like to use for a running dictation. Think about what is within the text and not necessarily how long the text is. Break this text into smaller parts. This might be by sentence or phrase. Decide what is best for your students. For example, you might have 10 sections of your text.

Step 2: Divide your class into small groups (three to four students each) for breakout. Make sure that each student is using a device that will allow them to easily join and leave a breakout group.

Step 3: You will be the keeper of the running dictation text. Students will bounce in and out of their breakout room. Only one person from each group can leave their breakout group at a time. You might code the students so that you can keep track of who is in which group. For example, if you have four groups, you might write a number 2 next to a student and a number 4 next to someone else. People can freely leave a breakout room. However, you might have to send them back in once they are ready.

Step 4: Have each group create a Google Doc or piece of paper numbered with as many pieces of text as you’re using. For example, if your text is broken into 10 parts, they should number their page from 1 to 10. Decide how you want to present the running dictation information. You might focus on reading and writing, speaking and listening, or a combination.

Here are two ways students can engage in this running dictation:

Option A: Create a short slideshow presentation. Each part of the text will need its own slide. As a representative from each group comes out of the breakout room, you can show them one slide. Once they have the information (without writing anything), they will go back to their breakout room, share the information with others in the team, and someone else will write the information. Then, a new member will leave the breakout room, and so on.

Option B: As representatives from each breakout room come back to the larger group, you will not show them anything. Instead, you will read part of the text out loud. You can say it a few times. Then, the representative goes back to their group, repeats that information, and someone else writes it down.

Step 5: Once each group feels that they have all of the pieces of the puzzle, ask them to discuss in their small groups to verify if the order of the information is correct.

Step 6: When a group is done, check their work for both order and accuracy. Check the information from each group to determine how everyone did. Then, together, have a larger discussion about the text, the meaning within it, grammar points, and/or any other language element pertaining to your course.

Idea #3: Concentric Circle/Speed Dating

A concentric circle is when you have two groups (A and B). Group A would form a circle facing in. Group B would form a circle inside the larger circle and face out. Students would rotate so that they are able to talk to everyone from the opposite group. Concentric circles might feel like something that can only happen in a physical classroom; however, there are ways that we can do a similar activity using breakout rooms. To modify it for a synchronous experience, it takes on a similar look to speed dating.

Step 1: Create the task that you want students to complete during this activity. For example, you might use an information gap assignment, discussion questions, or give every student a single line from a paragraph. (Together, they can document the new sentences that they hear and try to decide the correct order.) Consider activities in which students need to question multiple others in order to formulate a response or solution.

Here are two activity options:

Option A: Give each student in the class a different clue about a murder mystery. Make sure that each clue is numbered. You might email the clue to students before class or send them to students individually in the chat. Have students meet one-on-one with each other in the breakout rooms to determine the solution to the crime.

Option B: Provide a real-world case study for something that the students might experience, something general or, for example, a specific career path. For each round of the breakout room rotation, you can broadcast a new question (or send a chat message) to all small groups to discuss. At the end, they should have processed the case study and come up with some possible solutions and/or reflections.

Step 2: Put students in breakout rooms. Most video conferencing software allows you to group and regroup participants so that they are able to constantly meet and talk with new people for reach round. You can decide how many times they meet with people and for how long.

Step 3: At the end, you can have everyone come back to the group and share their work. Depending on the task that students were completing, this might take more or less time. It is always a good idea to ask students to reflect on their experience in the assignment as well.

Tips and Considerations

• If you are grouping students specifically, you might have students change their name within the online video platform. For example (First & Last Name, Group A). This way, you can see who is in each group in the participant view of the meeting.
• In video conferencing software, typically, you can choose whether you want it to automatically group students or if you want to manually do this. Take time to consider what is best for your specific task and class.
• As students work together on a document in their groups, you might have them use a Google Doc. This way, they can all see what is being written by the scribe. This will also make it easier for them to share group work with you to be reviewed and graded. Google Docs also provides a good opportunity for students to practice using keyboard shortcuts and typing skills as they shift and move information.

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Breakout rooms are one of the best tools that we have when we are teaching and facilitating learning online. These rooms can be used for smaller worksheet-type activities or larger, more interactive learning experiences. Though we may face some limitations when teaching online, we have more flexibility than we know if we are willing to think innovatively about the tools available to us for collaborative learning.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/3-innovative-ways-to-use-breakout-rooms-in-elt/

3 Speaking Skills for the First Day of Class: Hit the Ground Running

For many of us, the first day of school is fast approaching. The first class is crucial because it sets the tone for the rest of the semester. Therefore, we focus on creating a friendly, low-stress environment, setting clear expectations, and building community through introduction activities.

One thing we don’t always do is teach new skills on the first day. However, doing so can add another dimension to the class and give students a feeling of accomplishment right off the bat.

Following are three examples of how speaking skills can be built into introduction activities that you may already be doing: The Name Game (vocabulary), Twist and Shout (tag questions), and In Common (question intonation).

Students meeting on the first day. Photo credit: Ram Joshi (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

1. The Name Game

Procedure

In this typical introduction game, students sitting in a circle take turns saying their names. In the second round, each student repeats the previous student’s name before their own (“He’s Tim; I’m Jorge”). In some versions, more information is added (“My name is Guolong, and I love pizza”) and in others, each student repeats the names of ALL the students who spoke before them.

Add a Speaking Skill

Find or create a handout of interesting adjectives about people that might be new to the students in your class, along with their definitions. An example list of “Positive Adjectives to Describe People” with definitions can be found on Vocabulary.com. You should have at least one and a half times the number of adjectives as students to give them some choices. First, go over the pronunciation of the words. Then, each student gives their name and adjective, plus an explanation for why they chose it.

Example

Tim: I’m Tim and I’m gregarious. I really like to make friends.
Jorge: He’s Tim and he’s gregarious. He likes to make friends. I’m Jorge and I’m agile. I can do gymnastics.

Online Tips

Online, the “circle” can be made by assigning each student a number (starting with 1) and asking them to replace their display name with it. Each round proceeds from Student 1 to Student 2 and so on. Alternately, students can call out numbers in Round 2 rather than go in order (Jorge: “I’m Jorge and I’m agile. I can do gymnastics. Number 13!”)

2. Twist and Shout

Student making a peace sign. Photo credit: Stephen Barringer (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Procedure

A lively twist on the Name Game is to use gestures rather than adjectives. For example, as Ana shouts, “I’m Ana!” she flaps her arms like a bird. The rest of the class repeats, “She’s Ana!”, while making the same gesture. In the second round, the game can proceed in a circle, with each student giving the name and gesture of the previous speaker before their own, or one student can point to another to be “next.” In a face-to-face class, gestures can be big, like yoga postures or dances. Online, the space will be smaller, but there are still plenty of possibilities, such as tilting the head, snapping the fingers, shrugging the shoulders, or tracing a shape with both hands.

Add a Speaking Skill

Twist and Shout lends itself to adding tag questions. Before the game, introduce or review tag questions and their intonation. Then, after each student gives another’s name and gesture, they add a tag question. The previous student—or the class—should answer the question.

Example

Panpan: You’re Ana [flutters her hands like a butterfly], aren’t you?
Ana: No. I’m Ana [flaps her arms like a bird].
Panpan: Oh! You’re Ana [flaps her arms like a bird]. I’m Panpan [makes a peace sign].
Tomas: She’s Panpan [makes a peace sign], isn’t she?
Class: Yes, she is.

Online Tips

As in the Name Game, students should replace their display names with numbers. Play can go in numerical order, or students can choose who’s “next” by number.

3. In Common

Procedure

In this community-building activity, the instructor writes categories in which students might find commonalities, such as past travels and experiences, abilities, favorite books and movies, clubs, interests, hobbies, sports, and life goals on the board. The teacher then gives some examples of specific things they might have in common (both are middle children, both have seen a shark in the ocean, both can do the same TikTok dance). The teacher also explains what they CAN’T claim on their “in common” list. These may include that they go to the same school, have a similar appearance, or share common characteristics with all human beings (breathing, having a head). The teacher then models the activity with a student, starting with a general question and becoming more specific. The specificity of the examples modeled will signal how unique the commonalities should be.

After modeling, students are divided into pairs. Each pair has 5 minutes to discover five unusual things they have in common.

Example

Fumito: Sara, do you play sports?
Sara: I swim and I play tennis.
Fumito: I swim, too. Can you do the butterfly?
Sara: No, I can’t. But I can hold my breath underwater for 2 ½ minutes.
Fumito: Me too! That’s one thing.

Once the 5 minutes is up, each pair tells the class what they have in common. If there is time, pairs can then be combined into groups of four to find five new things they all have in common.

Add a Speaking Skill

As with many first-day activities, questions are central to this game. Therefore, question intonation can be a part of “In Common.” Before the game, introduce or review question intonation rules, such as upward intonation for yes/no questions and downward intonation for wh– questions. Students then practice with a list of interview questions to make sure they understand the rules.

Online Tips

For this game, students should display their names. The category list can be posted on the virtual whiteboard or on a shared Google Doc. Use breakout rooms to divide the students. Only check in briefly with pairs to make sure they understand and are following the instructions. Students can become shy with online interruptions, especially on the first day.

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These are just a few examples of ways teachers can incorporate lessons into introduction activities. You could add transitions to a short self-introduction, tenses to a “Find someone who…” game or /th/ pronunciation practice to “Two truths and a lie.” Whatever you choose, students will start the term knowing that in your class, learning is fun!

Do you have any other engaging first-day speaking activities that will work well online? Please share in the comments, below.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/3-speaking-skills-for-the-first-day-of-class/

Online Teacher Education Resources in ELT: Cultivating Positive Dispositions With Multimodal Resources

In this third part of our blog series on virtual teacher education, we discuss how to help teacher candidates develop asset-oriented dispositions for teaching multilingual students. All teacher candidates have preconceived beliefs, and there are a number of assumptions about English learners and myths about bilingualism that may negatively impact teacher practice with multilingual learners. Teacher candidates may have had limited opportunities to interact with multilingual learners, and many do not share the backgrounds or experiences of their students. Moreover, though teacher candidates may think of themselves as allies to diverse students, they may struggle to put these stances into action through antiracist education. In this post, we explore the following question:

How can we use resources available online to help teacher candidates recognize their implicit biases and develop more asset-based perspectives?

Teacher Education for Justice and Equity

Our work as teacher educators is grounded in humanizing pedagogies, culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, and antiracist education. These resource pedagogies aim to help schools combat the inequities often present in the education of multilingual learners. The online resources we share in this post

• help teacher candidates reflect on their own biases,
• critically analyze how multilingual and immigrant students are presented in the media, and
• approach multilingualism as a strength and a norm.

The activities we share are all designed to be accomplishable in remote instruction.

Reflecting on Identity

We encourage our students to make sense of their own identities and their positionalities with regard to multilingual learners and often begin our courses with such identity-exploring activities. One we call Cultural and Linguistic Autobiography can take the form of a written essay, a Prezi; or a digital story. In this assignment, teacher candidates explore their family history, cultural upbringing, education, and linguistic development, and reflect on how these impact them as future teachers of multilingual learners. The autobiographies can also be shared online with classmates, which promotes discussion about diversity, privilege, and bias.

Another stepping stone to such discussions is the diversity wheel, for example this one attributed to the Johns Hopkins University as well as this Social Identity Wheel by the University of Michigan. The wheel can be used to start a conversation about what it means to have certain visible or invisible, privileged or oppressed identities. Remote teaching tools can be used to ease students into this discussion, which can sometimes be met with resistance. For example, students can be placed in breakout rooms to discuss in smaller groups or they can post their thoughts anonymously using a tool such as Padlet.

Learning From Current Events

We also find it helpful for teacher candidates to have the opportunity to see how biases against multilingual learners play out in everyday life. One way to do this is to examine incidents reported in the news, such as when a Duke University professor asked students not to speak Chinese or a radio host attacked a landscaping crew in a blatantly racist and anti-immigrant manner. Examining such events helps teacher candidates understand the types of negative experiences their multilingual students may be subjected to simply because of their language or skin tone.

In our courses, we use news stories like these in an assignment we call Bilingualism Through the Public Eye. Teacher candidates take turns selecting and leading a discussion on a news story pertaining to multilingual students, thereby gaining an often newly found perspective on linguicism, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiments as frequent rather than aberrant parts of life in America. This activity has translated well into the online space, where we have students engage in small groups through Blackboard discussion boards.

Voices of Multilingual Learners

It’s also important to expose teacher candidates to the idea that multilingual learners in their classrooms are not a monolith, even when they may all speak the same language. In our first post, we discussed using language portraits of multilingual learners. A similar resource is the I Learn America Human Library, which features narrative writing by immigrant students. We also like to use podcasts such as Points in Between, which interviews immigrant students to discover more about how they “experience America through its schools.” The University of Minnesota has a digital archive of Immigrant Stories, which includes a curriculum for colleges and asks the fundamental question, “What changes when immigrants and refugees are given the opportunity to tell their own stories?”

These portraits can be paired with an anticipation guide, in which teacher candidates evaluate their agreement with statements such as “Immigrants come to the United States with little education” both before and after being exposed to the portraits. Reading and listening to the voices of multilingual learners and having thoughtful discussions about the diversity of their experiences can help teacher candidates better understand the students that they will be working with in the future.

Normalizing Multilingualism

Multilingual learners are often “othered,” and one way we try to help combat this is to treat multilingualism as an asset. One way is to highlight the already present multilingualism in the United States (and the world). This map by Business Insider, for example, shows the most common language spoken in each state after English and Spanish, allowing teacher candidates to visualize multilingualism in our country. There are also a number of TED Talks about bilingualism, such as “The Revolutionary Power of Bilingualism,” by Karina Chapa, and “Embracing Multilingualism and Eradicating Linguistic Bias,” by Karen Leung.

It is also important for teacher candidates to understand that a multilingual individual’s languages are not separated into different silos. Rather, multilingual students will often make sense of their world using translingual practices or translanguaging, in which they leverage all of their language assets for learning new content. We like to expose teacher candidates to activities such as having to make sense of a text in another language with a partner without being allowed to use English, which can help combat monolingual, antihome language stances many teacher candidates may initially hold.

Classroom Examples

Teacher candidates may find it challenging to apply these ideas to actual instructional practices in the classroom, especially in a remote or hybrid setting with limited opportunities for field-based experiences. We like activities where teacher candidates review actual lesson plans that are developed with an antiracist framework. Teacher candidates can review the content and instructional ideas as well as discuss ways to scaffold the lesson so it is accessible to multilingual learners.

Some useful resources for lesson plans and content include

• the Anti-Defamation League,
• Colorín Colorado,
• Teaching Tolerance, and
• Re-Imagining Migration.

Additionally, teacher candidates might also find the idea of incorporating multilingual approaches into their pedagogy daunting when they themselves identify as monolingual and/or are in the process of learning a new language. The CUNY-NYSIEB addresses this in a series of videos about working with bilingual students, when you don’t share the students’ language. CUNY-NYSIEB has also released a series of translanguaging guides that include sample curricula, lessons, and corresponding videos with actionable ideas for translingualism in the classroom.

We also recommend the Massachusetts ESL Model Curriculum Units which include unit plans, instructional materials, and corresponding videos of model lessons.

We want to close this blog post by acknowledging and naming some of the scholars who inform our perspectives and approaches to teacher education, including Lilia Bartolomé, Dorinda Carter Andrews, Suresh Canagarajah, Lisa Delpit, Ofelia García, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Tamara Lucas, Suhanthie Motha, Sonia Nieto, Django Paris, and Ana María Villegas. For those interested in reading more, we recommend the following books:

• Critical Pedagogy Reader (Darder, Baltodano, & Torres, 2017)
• Everyday Antiracism (Pollock, 2008)
• Language, Culture, and Teaching Series (Valdiviezo & Nieto, series editors)
• Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching: Creating Responsible and Ethical Anti-Racist Practice (Motha, 2014)

What ideas do you have for addressing implicit bias and developing asset-based perspectives with teacher candidates? Please share with us in the comment section below.

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In our next post, we will introduce online resources for addressing content-area language demands.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/online-teacher-education-resources-in-elt-cultivating-positive-dispositions-with-multimodal-resources/

💕Time for TPT’s Back to School BONUS 🚌 Sale!💕

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Happy August! 

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AUGUST IS HERE AND TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS (TPT) IS HAVING THEIR ANNUAL BACK TO SCHOOL BONUS SALE! YOU CAN SAVE UP TO 25% FOR ALL THOSE RESOURCES YOU NEED, BUT ONLY FOR ONE DAY

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The 26 resources in this K-5 bundle will take you through the school year assured that you are teaching the essential foundation of English grammar and vocabulary to your intermediate second language learners. 

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from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/08/time-for-tpts-back-to-school-bonus-sale.html

5 Things You’ve Gotta Do Before School Starts!

Hello everyone,

August has arrived and one way or another we will be in school!  Here are 5 things you gotta do before school starts!

1. )  Take a look
at your pacing guide for the year and gather the supplies, resources and materials you will be needing for at least the first month.  Organize your files and your grade book so you have a clear path forward.

Whether in the classroom or distance learning it is time to think about classroom rules and consequences.  

2.)  Make and share the rules you come up with and post them for all to see.  Once you have created your classroom rules and consequences make sure you are consistent with them.  Think about the consequences and make sure they are something you can live with!

3.)  Assemble your substitute plans.  It is not too early.  Once you have your sub plans created you won’t have to think twice about them until an unless you need them.

4.)  Get your grade book ready.  Don’t wait, this is one of those overlooked things.  Then when you are ready to record your  first assignments it becomes a big chore.  Do it now and you will be grateful later.

5.) Get a letter ready for parents and students.  Make sure that your families know what to expect.  Welcome them to school and talk about your routines and procedures.  Ask for their volunteer help and create a ‘team’ attitude right from the start of the year.

These 5 things will give you a head start to the school year!

Happy Teaching,

Need an ELD pacing guide?

This one is free!

As many of you know, I am a k-5 ELD teacher in Ashland, Oregon.  For many years I did workshops throughout my state for ELD teachers.  Many ELD teachers asked me for a pacing guide so I made this. 

 

Each month has a combination of ELD units and/or grammar components essential for English learners. Again choose some or all of what I have here. Feel free to mix it up to suit you!

 

♥If I have a product that contains all or parts of the language I teach during that month I have listed it. All resource images are click-able links for your convenience. Just click on the image you want to see and it will take you to my TPT store.♥  I use these products according to language level more than grade level.  Each column represents a language level.  The column has language grammar, forms and functions I teach for that level.  Under the column heading I list products I use to teach those language components.  Some of the products may have a grade level on it, but I have used it at that language level based on the language I am teaching students at that level.

 

Every classroom is different!
 Every teacher teaches differently, and I tried to create this year curriculum map with many different types of classrooms and teachers in mind. I know you may need to tweak this to the needs of your students, classroom, and district . DO IT! Make it work for you. For example, March is testing month for me. If you need to switch months around to meet your testing time, that is just fine. Do what is best for your students in your classroom.

The whole year is planned out for you!

 

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/07/5-things-you-gotta-do-before-school.html

Trace Effects: A Game for Language Learning and Teaching

Welcome to another edition of the TESOL Games and Learning Blog! I hope many of you were able to attend TESOL’s Virtual Convention last month. During the Convention, TESOL President Deborah Healey delivered the fantastic keynote “Teaching With Play: Games, Game-Based Learning, and Gamification.”

This month’s post highlights a game referred to several times in Deborah’s talk: Trace Effects. Released in 2013 by the U.S. Department of State, Trace Effects is a free game developed specifically for the English language learning classroom. Deborah and I had active roles in the development of Trace Effects and have worked with students and teachers around the world on integrating the game into classroom practice.

Trace Effects centers on Trace, a time-traveler from the year 2045. Trace ventures back to the present day after accidentally triggering an experimental time machine. Trace is now tasked with completing the mission of the time machine by finding six individuals scattered across the United States and influencing their lives for the better. Each of Trace’s chapters highlights different parts of the United States and different social issues, such as the environment, science and technology, and conflict resolution.

Core Mechanics

Players use two core mechanics to complete their missions: conversations and sentence construction.

Trace can interact with nonplayable characters.

Conversations

In the dialogues, Trace can interact with nonplayable characters (NPCs). Over the course of a conversation, players choose from dialogue options to move the conversation forward. Dialogue options are scored according to their level of appropriateness in the conversation. This point system gives the students clear and immediate feedback to their performance and allows them to use that feedback to try again.

Trace can combine the words show or give with sandwich.

Sentence Construction

The second mechanic players can utilize is the sentence construction mechanic. Over the course of the game, players can collect verbs and objects scattered across the level and combine them to make sentences.

For example, in Chapter 1, Trace can combine the words show or give with sandwich.

NPCs will respond differently to each sentence construction, providing feedback to students on their performance.

Other Benefits

When players complete a chapter, they are rewarded with a comic book version of the chapter and can compare their play through with what is presented in the comic book version of the chapter.

When players complete a chapter, they are rewarded with a comic book version of the chapter.

Trace Effects was designed for language learners to practice and improve their English but is also a useful tool for introducing teachers to video games for learning. The game comes with a robust Teacher’s Manual that can guide educators through the game and provide classroom activities that can be used before or after segments of gameplay.

Finally, learning to work with Trace Effects in the classroom can equip educators with many of the skills and techniques they need to meet the TESOL Technology Standards. The game also presents an opportunity for teachers who are new to games to improve their games literacy by practicing how to play and interact with games in a low-stake, inviting format.

You can find more about Trace Effects at Deborah Healey’s website.

Until next month, play more games!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/trace-effects-a-game-for-language-learning-and-teaching/

7 Virtual and Face-to-Face Activities for the First Week of School

As we go back to school this fall, many teachers are faced with changing school policies because of the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts that originally planned to go back full time to their brick-and-mortar buildings may have to change their plans at the last minute depending on the COVID-19 statistics in their state. Many teachers are planning for both face-to-face and virtual classrooms because their districts are implementing a hybrid model.

I think teaching during a pandemic is the biggest challenge modern teachers have ever faced. Many teachers will be meeting their students for the first time in a virtual classroom. Getting to know students is a necessary step for all teachers in setting up a safe and caring environment, whether it is virtual or face-to-face.

On the first day of school, before teachers begin to teach their academic content, they will need to attend to the trauma their students may be feeling. Social-emotional learning is crucial. During the first week of school, introduce activities that will help you get to know your English learners (ELs). It is especially important to devise activities that ELs can complete either virtually or face-to-face with their classmates.

Here are some of the ideas I have gathered to help K–8 teachers learn more about their students from the first day of school. These activities can be modified for the grade level you are teaching.

1. Design a Virtual Locker

Virtual lockers allow students to display their ideas, preferences, and thoughts.To see examples and instructions, see GoTeachTheWorld.com’s tutorial at “Starting the School Year [Virtually!]” and this YouTube example, where students can actually design their locker on YouTube. You can also download a free virtual locker template to get started on your own. (Just copy the template into your own Google Slideshow and add text and images.)

Virtual locker from GoTeachTheWorld.com.

Teachers can compile a list of ideas for ELs. Customize your list so that it is appropriate for younger students of different ages or English-language acquisition levels. This locker could also be a paper-and-pencil activity in a face-to-face classroom. Here are sample types of topics that will help teachers learn more about their students:

• Pictures of family/friends/pets
• 3 words that describe you
• Name of your school
• Languages you speak
• Where you were born
• Favorites
  • Movie or TV show
  • Song/singer
  • Sport and/or team
  • Food
  • Subject in school
• What you like to do for fun
• Something you did over the summer

A variation of this activity that is suitable of elementary age students is “design your own virtual cubby.” There are also ways to create virtual classrooms that you can share with students online to provide your students with a “visual” virtual classroom space.

2. Ask the Right Questions: What Students Wish Their Teacher Knew About Them

Teachers need to build a supportive environment for ELs coping with adversity. Kyle Schwartz, a Colorado teacher who wrote the book, I Wish My Teacher Knew, suggests that schools have “grief and loss” inventories for students who have gone through a crisis, with input from families so that the child’s future teachers know what that student is dealing with. You can read some of the amazing examples that her students wrote by following the book link. You can also read more about her experiences in this New York Times article.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many ELs were not able to attend virtual instruction. They may not have had devices or Wi-Fi connections. Their families may have faced loss of employment, food insecurity, and poverty. All of this is traumatic for children. Asking students to write or draw what they wish their teacher knew about them is an excellent way to learn what your students have been dealing with during the pandemic. This can be done virtually or in a face-to-face classroom. Here are some easy questions you can ask to help you learn more about your students:

• What is your favorite school subject?
• What worries you about starting school?
• What are you looking forward to this year?
• What is your best school subject?
• If you had a superpower, what would it be?

3. Using Flipgrid: Introduce Your Family

Flipgrid is a free online app that allows students to record quick online videos. These videos can be made as a response to a teacher question. At the beginning of the school year, ask ELs to respond to a prompt, such as “Draw a picture and introduce me to your family.” The capacity for ELs to make videos will greatly enhance their engagement in the classroom.

It is really worth the the time spent teaching ELs to use Flipgrid. It will also provide many opportunities for them to participate in classroom discussions. Teachers have told me they have used this with students ask young as third grade. This could also be a paper-and-pencil assignment with students presenting their drawings either virtually or face-to-face.

4. Post a Video: “What Are You Good At?”

Ask student to post a short video that demonstrates something they are good at. Brainstorm ideas with students and post the suggestions so that ELs have a starting place. Examples of a recently brainstormed list with elementary-age students included

• playing a video game,
• dancing,
• cooking a recipe,
• dribbling a soccer ball, and
• drawing a picture.

Ask students to plan a script before filming and to choose what props they may want to use. Teachers can help students make this video on iMovie or on a cell phone. If you have access to breakout rooms on a virtual platform, students could do this project in groups. Students could also plan this activity and present it in person in their classroom.

5. Using Storyboards: “What Is Your Favorite TV Show or Movie?”

Storyboards can be a means for students to show a reflection of self. They can be made individually using technology or can be done with paper and pencil in the classroom. Try Padlet to have students create a storyboard during the first days of school. Brainstorm with students their favorite TV show or movie. They can have virtual classroom discussion in small groups, write reviews,or design a storyboard display of their choice.

6. Virtual Scavenger Hunts

Seesaw can be used as a place where teachers can post a scavenger hunt for students to do remotely or face-to-face in school. Hunts can be planned so that older students take a picture of what they found, and they can be based on colors, numbers, shapes, food, and so on (e.g., Find three things that are red). Here is a sample from which you can create your own hunt, and here is a TESOL Blog post on scavenger hunts that can be easily adapted to remote learning. I suggest that you make your items something that will help you get to know your ELs, such as favorite food from your kitchen or favorite toy, book, or game.

7. Create a Podcast: “What Did You Do Over the Summer?”

WeVideo podcasts is a good way to introduce your ELs to podcasting. This can be taught virtually or in your classroom. Design a question that you want students to answer about themselves. For example, “Tell us what you did over the summer break. ” Teachers should brainstorm the question with students or make a sample podcast to show them what they did over the summer.

An example is important here because very few students have been able to visit friends; go swimming; travel; or go to movies, concerts, or camps. Podcasting can give students a way to be more creative and communicate effectively. You want to encourage our students to share their ideas, feelings, and stories with you.

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If you have other ideas and want to share back-to-school activities, please write in the comments section below.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/7-virtual-and-face-to-face-activities-for-the-first-week-of-school/

🙌 Math Vocabulary Cards 🙌 Spanish Freebie

Hello Teachers,

Let’s 🙌 celebrate 🙌  August with  a Spanish Math Vocabulary freebie. 

These Spanish Geometría vocabulary cards are great hands-on Math games and activities for second, third and fourth grades.

They are easy to use in every situation including  math stations, centers, rotations, review, test prep, early or fast finisher activities and more. 

Use these fun and engaging activities with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade elementary students. 

Click here for your free Geometría

With easy differentiated options, they fit a variety of learners. 

The critical thinking work for enrichment, GATE, or worksheet alternatives for individual kids, small groups or partners. 

Great for ELD and ESL

Grab yours today! 

Happy Teaching!

(Year 2, 3, 4). #EarlyElementary#MathGames#Geometry #Geometría#Spanish

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from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/08/math-vocabulary-cards-spanish-freebie.html

Making Discussion Boards More Engaging

With the world’s education systems shifting to online instruction as the COVID-19 pandemic continues into a new academic year, teachers need to think carefully about how we can maintain the interactive features we value in face-to-face classes without endangering our students’ health. Most learning management systems (LMSs) have some form of discussion board tool that allows students to post something they have written and reply to their classmates’ posts. Depending on the LMS, these may be simple text boxes where students can only write words, or they may have more functionality and allow students to share links and images as well.

Discussion boards are useful because they make it possible to have asynchronous interaction in an online format. Students can work on their own time but also see their classmates’ ideas and collaborate. With social distancing required in classrooms, this format can be more personal than sitting 6 feet away and shouting through masks during an attempt at face-to-face discussion. Students can also make use of internet resources to support their writing.

What’s Wrong With Discussion Boards?

If discussion boards offer so much value, why do so many students (and many teachers as well) dread discussion assignments?

They Can Be Unlike Real-World Discussions

In a highly engaging webinar hosted by IALLT (Henshaw, 2020), Florencia Henshaw of the University of Illinois pointed out that most discussion board assignments do not actually promote the features that make real-world discussions engaging. Effective discussions should continually advance a conversation, building new ideas; when responding to a classmate, students may acknowledge what was said, add or counter an idea, or ask questions. When we create discussion assignments that require students to write a specific number of words or respond to a certain number of classmates, students often do so because they want credit, Henshaw suggests, not because they actually find the discussion interesting.

They Can Be Tedious and Disconnected

In addition, discussion assignments can become tedious for both students and teachers if the same task is used repeatedly (for example, summarize or quote from an assigned reading and respond in 250 words, then comment on at least two classmates’ posts). Students often wait until the last minute before a post is due, leaving them little time to respond to their classmates’ posts and creating an imbalance in which posts receive replies. Students may not see the connection between what they are writing in the discussion board with other class learning, especially in multiskill classes where the topics of writing are disconnected from the other content.

They Can Be Intimidating

Finally, especially in classes of students with a wide language proficiency or experience range, some students may find discussion board tasks intimidating. I used to use discussion boards in my graduate course about second language writing, a course that included both MA and PhD students, many of whom were nonnative English speakers in their first semester of graduate study. In assigning discussion posts about the readings, I thought the nonnative-English-speaking students would value having time to think and compose their ideas, but when I surveyed students, I found quite the opposite. The word cloud below highlights their feelings about the discussion board assignments. Many said that they felt like each post required them to write a rigorous academic essay, and they felt like they were competing with their classmates over who could write the most insightful post. They didn’t always think they had anything to add in response, either. I dropped the assignment when I taught the class last year.

Word cloud of graduate students’ feelings about discussion board assignments.

How to Make Discussion Boards More Engaging and Useful

Tips for Making Discussion Boards Better

Rather than cut out discussion board assignments entirely, I encourage you to think about ways to make discussions work better for your students. In online classes, discussion boards can give students a chance to share more of their personalities with classmates, and they can support students to interact even when they are not together at the same time. I’ve found several helpful sources that offer suggestions; check them out for more ideas.

• Use Strong Prompts: Create discussion prompts that give students a clear reason to respond and that encourage discovery and creativity rather than summarizing a common text (Faye, 2020; Henshaw, 2020). Henshaw points out that initial posts do not have to be longer than the responses; in some of her examples, the initial post is just a photo and the response is much more lengthy.
• Scaffold: Scaffold the task (Henshaw, 2020) and the response (Lieberman, 2019) so students know what to do in their writing.
• Be Clear About Expectations: Set realistic expectations (Henshaw, 2020) and establish discussion board norms (Faye, 2020). You may need to retrain students away from old habits if they have taken previous classes where discussion boards were used in less engaging ways (Henshaw, 2020).
• Simulate Small-Group Discussion: If you have a large class, create smaller groups (4–6 students per group) so that the students can read all the posts and respond carefully (Faye, 2020). This can also encourage greater interaction among group members on the discussion board, building a real back and forth conversation rather than just a set of isolated responses to a post.
• Be Present and Responsive: As the instructor, be present throughout the task. You do not need to respond in detail to all students’ posts, but do show students you are reading what they write by responding to a few posts each week; you could also bring up a few insightful comments during class to show students how their posts are part of the class content (Faye, 2020). Send private messages to encourage students if it seems like they are feeling intimidated or otherwise not participating as much (Lieberman, 2019).

Great Discussion Board Activities

Here are a few writing-related tasks that offer students a chance to use language and have a bit of fun at the same time:

• Describe and Guess: Each post describes a fictional family, place, work of art, or travel destination without naming it. Responses guess the name and justify that choice (Henshaw, 2020).
• Classified Ads or Job Announcements: The initial posts describe a product, service, or job, and the responses are applications or requests for that product (Henshaw, 2020).
• Shark Tank: Each initial post proposes an innovative business or product, and the responses are reviews of the proposal (Henshaw, 2020). This assignment could also push students into a longer string of exchanges in the response, where the readers ask probing questions of the initial poster, who must defend their product.
• Video Discussions: Video discussions can be valuable even in a writing class, allowing students to talk through ideas or share their research before they commit to paper. VoiceThread and Flipgrid both support threaded video discussion where students can also share images or slides (Lieberman, 2019).
• Creative Getting-to-Know-You Prompts: Discussion prompts can also be used for students to get to know each other better, not just at the beginning of a course but throughout the term. I’m taking a great professional development course on online language teaching right now from Michigan State University, and one of the example tasks was to post a photo of the inside of your refrigerator. The initial post should describe what is inside the fridge, and the responses should then speculate about the personality of the original poster, grounded in evidence from the picture. What do you think about me, based on what’s in my fridge?

What can you say about my personality based on what I have inside my refrigerator?

This is just a small sampling of the ideas that were presented in Henshaw’s (2020) webinar and the other articles. I encourage you to watch the webinar recording to learn more.

Share your own examples in the comments section: What other ways can we make discussion boards more engaging for our students?

References

Faye, S. (2020, July 31). Making the most of discussion boards. Online Writing Instruction. https://owi.ucdavis.edu/news/making-most-discussion-boards

Henshaw, F. (2020, June 24). Are discussion forums really interactive? Ideas for purposeful asynchronous communication [webinar]. International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT). https://fltmag.com/webinar-discussion-boards/

Lieberman, M. (2019, March 27). Discussion boards: Valuable? Overused? Discuss. Inside Higher Education. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/03/27/new-approaches-discussion-boards-aim-dynamic-online-learning

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/making-discussion-boards-more-engaging/

BIG BACK TO SCHOOL SALE AT TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all happy and healthy as we start off August.  I have been enjoying summer outside and right now my garden is showing it!

Today is the day! You can save up to 25% at Teachers pay Teachers August 4th and 5th.  

Look for my Digital Activities to get you going on Distance Learning!

Check out my new products!

5th Grade Academic Vocabulary ✅ Distant Learning – Digital Activities ✅

Here is how to build academic vocabulary with your 5th graders. Look no further because this IS the vocabulary resource you need to teach vocabulary knowledge.This year long 5th grade vocabulary program includes academic words, word journal pages, vocabulary games, activities, vocabulary tests and assessments…everything you need to raise vocabulary acquisition.

Don’t wait…click on over to Fun To Teach’s TPT store and start shopping today.

Happy Teaching and shopping!

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from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2020/08/big-back-to-school-sale-at-teachers-pay.html