🏃‍♂️🏃🏻‍♀️ “If only I had more time in a school day…” 🏃‍♂️🏃🏻‍♀️

Hello friends,

Have you ever caught yourself uttering this phrase?  

You can easily add those instructional minutes to your day by explicitly planning for your transition times.  Carefully considered transition times offer the key to maintaining an optimal learning environment, minimizes disruptions and behavior problems while maximizing instructional time. 

By providing the structure of predictable routines, procedures, and behavioral expectations, teachers offer their students, including second language learners and those who struggle with poor attention and impulsivity, an avenue to success during transition times. 

Plan for the transition periods in advance.  

Take a few minutes and think about the transition times that occur in your classroom.  

Grab your free planner here!

Common transition times include: 

• entering the classroom first thing in the morning

• changing from one subject to another

• leaving or coming into the room after assemblies

• recesses or lunch, clean up time at the end of the day

The first step in planning for transition times

is selecting a signal that you will use for each transition time.  Be consistent and use the same signal for all transitions.  Make sure it is a visual and auditory signal.  Provide enough “wait time” for students to respond.

Choose a method to instill a “sense of urgency” in the transition

Students respond well to the feeling that their work and time are important.  By giving the situation “a sense of urgency” students respond quickly.  Set a timer, count, or sing a song to give students that “sense of urgency.  Often simply saying, “Class we have 40 seconds to enter the room quietly and slowly, return to our desks/tables safely and begin reading.  Ready go.” is sufficient to instill that sense of urgency.

Always follow the same procedure

During transition times where students leave the room, teach them to put their materials away, stand up, push in their chairs, move slowly and safely to the door.  During transition times to the next activity include an activity that will help children adjust to the change.  Consider adding: 

• a quick opportunity to stretch
• a song that focuses on the new activity or subject
• skip counting
• reciting a poem.  

This gives students a break to readjust and provides slower students a bit more time to complete the transition.  Be deliberate in ending this very short brain break. Go right to work, don’t waste time here.  This creates a “sense of urgency” and shows your students that you value their time and work.

Be consistent 

 

Smooth transitions occur when students know what to do and how to do it.  Adhere to your schedule.  Have work ready for students.  As students enter each morning have a plan for exactly what they will do as they enter.  Look at your morning and plan for success.  Teach students to enter the room and 

• Hang up backpacks, jackets, and coats

• Turn in homework

• Sign up for hot or cold lunch 

• Find their seats

• Begin reading, handwriting, or whichever morning activity you choose

Consider playing music or setting a timer the students can hear for the first minute students are entering the room

 

Be very consistent and choose the same amount of time the music ends or the timer goes off in order to create that “sense of urgency”.  Transition times will be efficient and productive parts of your educational day when you value your students’ time and work. 

Finally, good teaching of any routine and procedure is the key to success

Remember to explain the expected behavior, explicitly model the routine and procedure, practice, practice, practice, and finally provide feedback. 

 Congratulations, you are on your way to smooth, efficient, and safe transition times.

We created a helpful worksheet you can download for free.  

What strategies and activities do you use during transition times?  Please share your ideas with us!

Happy Teaching!

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from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2022/03/if-only-i-had-more-time-in-school-day.html

5 Chrome Extensions for Language Learners

While we as teachers are always looking for ways to help our students, we often forget that there are tons of resources for them to help themselves on their language learning journey. Dedicated students can no doubt share with you a number of great resources that they use to help boost their own English, and it’s always a good idea to check in with them on their recommendations. Still, any language learner is always grateful for some tips and tricks to make things easier, so today we’re going to look at some Chrome extensions that you can share with your students to help them take more control over their learning on their own time.

For the uninitiated, Chrome extensions are like mini-apps that boost the power of the Chrome browser, all of which can be easily installed from the Chrome web store. Extensions have all sorts of uses from useful productivity tools to silly games, to today’s focus: language acquisition. You can quickly install and uninstall them, and they show up to the right of your omnibar. You can also choose to turn them on and off as needed.

 

1. Google Dictionary

There are many dictionaries that learners can choose from, but the Google Dictionary fits in with Google Chrome like butter on toast. It’s easy, nonintrusive, and gets right to the point. A simple double click will bring up a quick definition and the option to hear the pronunciation of a word. One more click will bring users right back to the page they’re reading.

Once students have installed it, they can choose their home language or English as the default language. If they choose their home language, they will get a direct translation, or if they choose English they will get a short dictionary definition. If the quick lookup isn’t enough, there’s a convenient “more” link that will bring them more information about their word choice. Quick and easy, this is a no-brainer for language learners.

2. Vocab Boost

Continuing on with vocabulary, Vocab Boost is a lesser known extension that allows learners to create cloze exercises out of any page they’re reading. Learners can simply highlight a section of reading and right click to activate Vocab Boost. Learners can let the extension choose random words for them, or they can activate the Academic Word List, the New Academic Word List, or the New General Service List. Students can also create their own lists, so if they’re working on particular words in class or struggling with certain words, they can focus on building a customized lexicon.

3. Chrome Notes

If your students are looking for the easiest way to take quick notes while working on projects, Chrome Notes is a great option. There are many full-fledged note-taking apps, but the nice thing about Chrome Notes is that it immediately pops in and out of sight, allowing students to focus on the task at hand. It also remembers your notes, so if you log off or even turn your computer off, the notes will be available to you next time. If the notes are temporary, students can simply clear them out, or if they want to save them, they can export them as a .txt file and use them wherever they please.

4. Read Aloud

Verbal read alongs are a great boon to many learners who can get support processing their reading as the teacher speaks out the words. Unfortunately, many students are unaware that tech can continue to support them even without a teacher there to help them. Read Aloud is a great option that uses text-to-speech technology on pretty much any page you can access. One of the nice features is that it allows users to choose the voice that reads to them, as well as the pitch and the speed. The voices cover a wide range, so if the students are used to a particular accent, they can select from voice types they’re comfortable with.

5. Chrome Audio Capture

There are lots of browser-based services that allow students to talk to each other, but surprisingly few allow recording. Even if students are using popular communication platforms like Discord, they’ll need to find third-party options to record their conversations. Chrome Audio Capture makes it quick and easy to grab conversations (or any other audio playing through the browser) and save it for later. This can be a great option for podcasting, or for listening back to English that was hard to catch the first time around. Users can quickly save the audio as an mp3 and use it as they please.

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There are only a brief view of the potential ways your students can use Chrome to help them develop their language skills. There are tons of apps, and many gems are buried deep under the surface. Take some time to explore and find things that might work for your students. And remember, if you find some good ones, share them here!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/5-chrome-extensions-for-language-learners/

Supporting Muslim Students During Ramadan: 4 Suggestions for Teachers to Consider

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan will be observed in April this year. It is a period of time when Muslims strive for spiritual purification through fasting, self-sacrifice, and increased prayer. In many Muslim-majority countries, working hours and school days are shortened to allow more time for religious observances and festivities.

However, Muslim students in other parts of the world do not enjoy this luxury and have to make adjustments to accommodate the demands of school life during a period where they abstain from all food and drink—including water—from dawn till sunset, and spend long hours in prayer during the night. While it is a month of spirituality and celebration, Ramadan can be quite exhausting for many people, especially for children and young people in school who observe fasting and increased rituals.

Cultural practices such as Ramadan provide excellent opportunities for schools and educational institutions to respect and embrace differences while building understanding and awareness.

Doing so can help to confront and eliminate barriers of prejudice, misinformation, and bias about specific aspects of students’ individual and cultural identities. Teachers who want to provide all their students with a caring and stimulating environment for learning must consider their backgrounds, cultures, and identities, and make accommodations where necessary to promote effective learning. Here are some suggestions for teachers to consider in supporting Muslim students during Ramadan.

1. Educate Yourself About Ramadan and Why It Is Important to Muslims

Although the obvious focus of the month is abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours, it is important to understand that Ramadan is not about being hungry or thirsty or tired. For Muslims, Ramadan is a time to reflect on themselves, gain self-discipline, and build spirituality.

Though the religious requirements are universal, the way in which the month is celebrated may vary across communities, families, and individuals. If you are unaware of the hows and whys of Ramadan, find a reliable source of information to educate yourself. Take the time to find out about how Muslims observe this month and how your Muslim students celebrate it.

Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, the start and end of the month is determined by sighting the moon. Each lunar month is 29–30 days long, depending on the moon cycle. This means that each year the month of Ramadan moves up 10 days in relation to the Gregorian calendar. Find out when Ramadan is expected to begin and end in your locality, but be aware that the day may change, based on moon sighting.

2. Make Accommodations for Fasting Students

Schools can show sensitivity to fasting students by providing alternate locations during lunchtime so that they can be away from the cafeteria. Students may also want to refrain from rigorous activity in their physical education classes or sports training during Ramadan. Teachers may wish to allow fasting students to participate in alternative activities in order to avoid the possibility of dehydration or hypoglycemia resulting from strenuous exercise.

Muslims pray five times a day, with the timing dependent on the position of the sun in the sky. Prayer becomes even more important during Ramadan, and if the school does not normally have a designated prayer space for students, this is something that students and families would appreciate. If this space is outside of the classroom, you can be proactive by asking ahead when students will need to leave to pray, so that when it is time they can step out quietly and not disrupt the classroom environment.

There may be other accommodations that students may appreciate. If you know that a particular student in your class will be fasting, consider asking them “How can I help you be comfortable during Ramadan?”

3. Show Understanding and Empathy

Ramadan is for an entire month; therefore, a student’s energy will fluctuate over the course of that month. The last 10 days of the month are regarded as being more special, and many families will engage in prayer late into the night. Be prepared for students to be tired or for their concentration to be lower than during the rest of the year. If assignments and tests can be delayed, consider doing this. Allowing students to work at their own pace and showing more understanding will help students to feel that they are cared for. Though it is completely acceptable to eat in front of fasting students, it might be helpful (especially for younger students) if you avoided lessons or class activities that revolved around food, eating, or drinking during this time.

Two common comments from non-Muslims during this period are about fasting without water being detrimental to health and fasting for weight-loss purposes. Apart from potentially being offensive, such comments show lack of understanding about the reason why Muslims fast. Though there is nothing stopping a non-Muslim from fasting in solidarity with their Muslim friends, if a person does not engage in the spiritual element of the ritual, simply abstaining from food and drink would not be regarded by a Muslim as a fasting.

It is also important to recognize that although fasting is an obligation, not every Muslim will fast, for various reasons. For example, younger children may only fast a part of the day, or not at all. It is best to refrain from asking students if they are fasting. This is particularly important when some students may not wish to declare their faith openly.

4. Create Awareness About Ramadan Traditions and Islam

You may like to use the opportunity to educate your class about Ramadan, making relevant curricular connections. Different aspects of Ramadan can be focused on through different curriculum areas. Though links to language arts and social studies seem the most obvious, finding ways to link to other areas of the curriculum can help to strengthen multicultural understanding and avoid tokenism.

Here are a few examples of how you can link content and culture. Students could

• locate Muslim-majority countries on a world map,
• learn about the phases of the moon,
• create Islamic arts and crafts to decorate the class,
• learn about symmetry and geometry in Islamic art,
• or work out the duration of fasting hours in different scenarios.

Though a lot of resources are available through different age-appropriate books and other media, it may also be interesting to have a family member of a Muslim student visit and share cultural knowledge with the class.

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A 10-year-old Muslim girl who participated in one of my research studies recently told me that one of the things that she is looking forward to this Ramadan is to share some aspects of her faith and culture with her classmates. Her teacher has already made plans to build the celebration of Ramadan into a unit of study, and has asked her to make a short presentation to the class to explain what a day in Ramadan is like for her family. Integrating one aspect of this girl’s culture into the learning plans of the class has helped her to achieve a sense of belonging to the school in a way she has previously never felt.

What strategies will you use to support Muslim students under your care this Ramadan?

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/supporting-muslim-students-during-ramadan-4-suggestions-for-teachers-to-consider/

Identifying TESOL’s Future Research Priorities

This blog is part of the TESOL Research Professional Council (RPC) Blog series.

The TESOL International Association’s professional councils support the association’s objectives with professional knowledge and advice. One of seven professional councils, the Research Professional Council (RPC) focuses on research by identifying priorities, promoting dialogues, fostering inquiry, and building expertise.

As part of this role, the RPC hosts the TESOL Research Agenda Fair each year during the TESOL International Convention. In 2021, the Research Agenda Fair was held online, and attendees had the opportunity to explore what the field’s research priorities should be over the next few years, with particular attention to bringing together research and classroom practice.

To facilitate the identification of research priorities, attendees worked together in four breakout rooms to reflect on topics in the field of TESOL that would benefit from more research. Two major themes emerged.

Teaching and Learning During and After COVID-19

English language teaching and learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a major theme. In particular, there was a desire for more research related to online learning, blended or hybrid learning, and the ideal balance between web-based and face-to-face classrooms. For example, with regard to balance, participants valued research connected to understanding which language strands (reading, writing, listening, speaking) are most effectively taught online or in the classroom. It was further felt that knowing more about the extent to which students are engaged during online or hybrid classes would be useful.

Also related to teaching and learning was a need for more research related to instructional design, materials development, and student outcomes after their studies. Teacher well-being was another important research topic that was raised, with a focus on emotional support for teachers and the challenges of balancing teaching with government-mandated standards.

Sociocultural Factors in TESOL

The second major theme to emerge was sociocultural factors in TESOL. For example, there was a desire for more studies in the areas of intercultural awareness and cross-cultural understanding in the classroom. Within areas of intercultural and cross-cultural awareness, understanding learners’ contextualized identities and exploring the representation of LGBTQ+ and racialized identities in the field of TESOL were called for. English language teaching as it relates to the global South was another research area that was pointed out, with special attention to whether learners have equitable access to resources.

Finally, there was a sense that more research is needed to understand what might be missing from teacher education programs and what teachers may or may not know on leaving these programs. It was hypothesized that preservice teachers might need more support related to teaching with multiracial and anticolonial perspectives.

Recommendations

Moving forward, the RPC encourages teacher-researchers and scholar-practitioners in the field of TESOL to consider these topics as they look toward their next research project. Better understanding teaching and learning during and after a pandemic and how the teaching and learning process is impacted by a range of sociocultural factors will contribute to building the knowledge base of TESOL and further TESOL’s mission to advance the expertise of professionals in this field while also advancing equity and inclusion. At the 2022 TESOL Research Agenda Fair, the RPC will present new research to address several of the topics that were identified as priorities.

See other posts in the TESOL Research Professional Council (RPC) Blog series.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/identifying-tesols-future-research-priorities/

Checking Reading Comprehension? Ask Better Questions!

“Ms. Gottschalk, don’t you get it?” The young English learner (EL) asking me this question was genuinely concerned. He was perplexed because I kept asking him and his classmates questions about a picture—questions whose answers I obviously already knew. In other words, I was asking students display questions, like:

• “This girl is sitting. What is she doing?”
• “This girl is standing. What is she doing?”
• “Is the balloon on the elephant?”
• “Is the balloon behind the elephant?”

And so on ad nauseam. In the middle of the year, I’d been required to change my sessions with young ELs to use my district’s newly adopted direct instruction intervention program. The highly scripted curriculum had many drawbacks, but my student’s question to me indirectly pointed out one of its biggest—the lack of authentic communication.

It was apparent to this young EL because I had spent the first part of the school year asking many referential questions in class—questions whose answers I didn’t already know. Questions like:

• “Which of these books I’ve read aloud did you like the best? Why?”
• “What was your favorite illustration in this picture book we’ve just read together? Can you describe it clearly enough so I can find it in the book?”
• “I missed meeting with you yesterday because of your field trip. Which animals did you see at the zoo?”

There’s a place for display questions in your teaching toolkit, but asking individual students display questions during a group discussion is an inefficient way to assess reading comprehension. Better to save the display questions for simple online or paper quizzes. You can also give students lists of display questions to ask and answer in pairs or small groups. It’s not authentic communication, but it allows you to check basic comprehension while giving students speaking practice.

What’s more important for you as a reading teacher is to give students opportunities for real communication. That means asking students more referential questions as well as having students ask more referential questions of each other. The following table shows examples of display and referential questions. Notice how referential questions have one main thing in common—the questioner doesn’t know the answer. They also require students to draw on their own opinions or experience.

Display Questions	Referential Questions
“What was the main idea of this passage?”	“What is one thing you remember most from this passage? Why?” (open-ended)
“What does frustrate mean?”	“What is something that frustrates you? Why?” (requires the student to use the target vocabulary word in the open-ended response)
“What is the past tense of catch?”	“When was the last time you caught a cold? How did you catch it?” (puts the vocabulary word into context and follows up by asking for more information)
“Who is the main character in this story?”	“What is one trait you have in common with the main character in this story?” (elicits knowledge of the main character as well as a personal response from the student)
“What is the setting of the story?”	“You said the story was boring. What makes you say that?” (asks for clarification)

Too often, students don’t get a chance to answer thoughtful, referential questions after they’ve read something. Their responses can tell you whether they’ve deeply comprehended what they’ve read. Answering referential questions is also more engaging because students can apply their knowledge and share information about themselves in speaking or writing. These questions are also easy for students to address in small, student-led discussions.

Asking referential questions—teachers and students alike—is an easy way to promote speaking practice as well as more deeply assess reading comprehension.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/checking-reading-comprehension-ask-better-questions/

Using TESOL International Association Resources in Teacher Education

TESOL International Association offers a multitude of resources for classroom teachers and researchers. However, these same resources can also be used in teacher education programs to inspire future teachers and contribute to achieving teacher preparation standards. Here are some ways to use them!

Blogs and Newsletters

First, textbooks can be supplemented with the voices of practitioners in the field by bringing TESOL blogs, articles from interest section newsletters, and content from TESOL Connections into our teacher education courses. For example, I recently taught a graduate course on “Teaching Languages Online,” and in addition to our research-oriented readings, I incorporated a number of articles from the Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section newsletter, On CALL, into our curriculum. Students appreciated having some assigned readings that were shorter, more conversational in tone, and offered a teacher’s perspective on the topics presented in our course.

Webinars

TESOL’s communities of practice further offer webinars on an extensive number of subjects. These webinars are recorded and freely available on TESOL’s YouTube channel.  Teacher education students may watch these webinars as part of a lesson or as an enrichment activity. They can respond to the content of the webinars in face-to-face or online discussions or via written reflections.

I commonly ask students in my course “Teaching Pronunciation” to watch recorded webinars from the Speech, Pronunciation, and Listening Interest Section, and students in my course “Language and Culture” to watch webinars from the Intercultural Communication Interest Section. I also inform my students when TESOL webinars are being presented so that they can participate in the live sessions. In this way, students not only learn from experts but also begin engaging in our professional community.

The TESOL Resource Center

TESOL’s Resource Center contains class activities, lesson plans, and assessments, among other materials submitted by members. A teacher educator can utilize these materials as the basis for a wide range of tasks. For instance, teacher education students may evaluate how they could adapt an activity from the Resource Center for their own teaching context. In my own course on language teaching methods, which is online and asynchronous, I have given students the following discussion task during our unit on lesson planning:

Choose a lesson plan from the TESOL International Association’s TESOL Resource Center to analyze. Provide a link to the plan you have chosen to discuss. Imagine that you are a substitute teacher, and you have been given this plan to use in class. You have little time for additional preparation.  Critique the plan in terms of its organization and completeness.

• How clear is the plan to you? (I.e., would you be able to implement it as written?)
• Does the plan provide a variety of learning activities?
• Are the activities logically sequenced?
• What kind of information do you think should be added to or deleted from the plan to make it more useful for the teacher who will implement it?

Advocacy Resources

Teacher education courses that are focused on policy or advocacy can explore TESOL’s advocacy resources.  Students in my course “Teaching ESL/EFL to Adult Learners” have found TESOL’s resources on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to be very helpful for understanding how this act affects funding, admissions, curriculum, materials, and assessment within adult English as a second language programs.

Issues and Research

TESOL Letters and Alerts express the association’s position on issues affecting our field. Teacher educators wishing to introduce issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and the impact of governmental policies on education can use these documents to stimulate discussion and help students formulate their own positions on the issues as future professionals in the field.

Additionally, if you teach a course on research methods or work with doctoral students, TESOL’s Research Agenda can serve as inspiration for potential researchers to help them develop research questions to investigate their own classrooms, their communities, or society at large.

Career Resources

For students who are graduating, becoming familiar with TESOL’s Career Center can benefit them in their future job searches. By exploring job advertisements, students can learn about the types of jobs that are available, where these jobs are located, and the types of materials required to apply. Students can see how projects commonly assigned in teacher education courses, projects like writing a philosophy of teaching statement, giving a teaching demonstration, or developing a portfolio of materials, have a real-life purpose and will come in handy when applying for jobs.

The Career Center also has a section on career advice that offers articles related to career advancement and teaching advice, among other tips.

Resources for Teacher Educators

Finally, TESOL offers resources for teacher educators themselves. TESOL’s Standards for Initial TESOL Pre-K-12 Teacher Preparation Programs outline the content, pedagogical knowledge, and teaching skills required by English language teachers and can inform the design of teacher education programs.

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To conclude, TESOL International Associations offers all of these materials free of charge, even to nonmembers. By using TESOL resources in your teacher education program, students can engage with the same materials, ideas, and concerns as teachers practicing in the field and begin to envision themselves as English language professionals.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/using-tesol-international-association-resources-in-teacher-education/

What to Do When They are New: Language Support for ESL Newcomers

Hello teachers ~

Now that you know what to expect when your ESL newcomer initially arrives, let’s talk about how you can support their language development. 💪

Quick tips for supporting your English newcomer in the classroom:

        💧Allow students to use their first language to aid their comprehension

        💧Give students a buddy that speaks their language, if you have one

        💧Use pictures or gestures to help students with routines and directions

        💧Include your newcomer in your lessons, even if you don’t think they will understand the content.

        💧Have targeted work that students can do with you or a buddy during

           independent time

Now that you have a few quick tips to support your English newcomer, let’s talk about different activities that you can do to help your ESL newcomer learn English!

☝ Teach survival vocabulary:

Survival vocabulary terms are phrases and questions that students need to “survive” and function in school.  Think about some of the most common phrases and questions students ask daily. Such as:

        💧May I go to the bathroom?

        💧May I get a tissue?

        💧I need a pencil.

        💧I feel sick.

        💧I don’t understand.

        💧I don’t know.

        💧What do I do?

        💧Where do I go?

These are phrases and questions that your newcomer students want the answer to also! They just may not be able to voice those concerns in English, yet. Explicitly teaching students these survival words and phrases can help them feel comfortable in your classroom while also helping them learn some basic English.

✌ Teach basic classroom nouns and verbs:

Think about the basic people, places, things, and actions students need to be aware of to be able to follow directions and understand your schedule. By explicitly teaching your students common classroom words and verbs, you can ease their anxiety by helping them know what to do and expect. Some example terms are:

        💧bus

        💧playground

        💧water

        💧hungry

        💧walk

       💧listen

Teach students these words using word cards and then showcase them in a place where students can see and practice them. You could build a word wall for students or have them create their own science board where they can review and practice them on their own. Review and practice are key to language acquisition. 

☝✌Provide sentence starters:

One way to help newcomers feel successful with English is to provide them with sentence starters. This minimizes the amount of English that students must produce while also helping build their confidence in what they need to write about. Some example sentence starters are:

        💧My name is _______.

        💧I am ______.

        💧I am from ______.

Using sentence starters like the ones listed above can help students feel success with writing in English.

Teaching newcomers and creating resources for them doesn’t have to be overwhelming! If you are looking to implement some of the suggestions mentioned above but don’t have the time to make them yourself, check out these products in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

 

Stay tuned for the next post in the series which features a sample lesson plan from my ELL Newcomers Bundle!

Happy Teaching! 💜

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2022/03/what-to-do-when-they-are-new-language.html

Scaffolding PD in Uzbekistan: Contextualizing Course Design

This is the first post in a series that highlights TESOL’s participation in the English Speaking Nation Secondary Teacher Training Program, where we designed blended learning opportunities for secondary public school English language teachers from several regions of Uzbekistan (read more here). Following are some ways we adapted the design and delivery of our blended TESOL Core Certificate Program^TM courses.

Contextual Considerations

We adjusted our content and delivery to consider diverse English and digital proficiencies, access to resources, and local teachers’ varied experiences with active and communicative language teaching pedagogies.

Communicating Virtually

Email was not as central to communication as texting for many teachers in the regions, some of whom created email accounts just to join our course while others used family members’ emails to log in. Email addresses were changed regularly as passwords were lost or forgotten or accounts stopped working. As teachers regularly interacted across multiple languages, different spellings of their names were used interchangeably. This created some barriers in the registration process, teacher access to digital platforms, and our ability to communicate and provide technical assistance when our systems connected everything to an email and a particular spelling of a name.

• Telegram Messaging App: We enrolled everyone in a Telegram channel for sending group announcements and a Telegram group for course discussions, voice messages, and file sharing. Telegram is used widely in Uzbekistan and connected to teachers’ phone numbers, so we could reach them easily there. This created opportunities for authentic interaction in English and a digital community that lasted well beyond the course where content could be shared quickly and easily without taking up space on teachers’ phones. We used Telegram as a bridge into the online platform by communicating initial course information and technical assistance and starting each module with an informal discussion there before formal course assignments were due.
• Synchronous Orientation: We met on Zoom the week before the online course began to demonstrate how to use the course platform, introduce the team, and answer questions.

Supporting Access to Content and Enhancing English

Internet access and data were unreliable and expensive, and Microsoft office and other digital tools were not always available. Low bandwidth increased the time needed to download course materials. Our existing online courses relied heavily on academic readings to teach theoretical foundations of TESOL, and course modules were asynchronous for independent learning with limited opportunity for speaking practice. We supported digital skill building, access to materials, and increased opportunities for language enhancement in the following ways:

• Google Classroom: Delivering the course on Google Classroom allowed everyone access to slideshows and documents without Microsoft Office and provided virtual storage so content didn’t need to be downloaded. It is also free, so teachers gained experience with an online platform they could use later.
• Synchronous Interaction: We added weekly Zoom sessions to provide opportunities to model course activities and maximize speaking and listening practice. Zoom sessions were recorded for anyone who couldn’t join or who wanted to rewatch later.
• Language Support: Summarizing key content from academic readings into narrated PowerPoint video presentations reduced language demand and provided listening opportunities with a variety of English speakers that could be accessed multiple times and paused throughout for reflection and processing. Digital flashcard activities and games on Quizlet provided opportunities to practice new vocabulary. Course materials were redeveloped at an intermediate level (B1 on CEFR).
• Scaffolded Course Assignments: Some assignments required teachers to produce original content in formats that were sometimes unfamiliar. We created assignment templates and examples to model the format, and instructors facilitated collaborative practice assignments in small groups in Zoom so teachers could practice with new formats.

Bringing New Teaching Practices to Life

Many teachers were used to traditional teaching models focused on grammar. Learner-centered communicative activities were often unfamiliar and hard to imagine.  We used in-person classes to model and engage teachers in learning through best practices.

• Experiential instruction: Teachers learned course content as participants in communicative activities that modeled routines they could use with their own students, including lineups, pair and small groupwork, and jigsaw activities. They experienced classroom management, monitoring, and comprehension checking techniques. Our assessments were authentic. Teachers engaged in reflective discussions in small groups on how and why the activities were used and how they supported language practice and acquisition, and how they could be adapted in their context.
• Building on existing resources: We incorporated local textbook materials into assignments that engaged teachers in building communicative activities and assessments that extended from lessons they use every day. New content was developed to include teaching English with limited resources, and both high- and low-tech options were modeled.
• Team microteaching: We added a collaborative microteaching component to support the planning and teaching of a scaffolded communicative lesson. Teachers engaged in providing peer feedback following the lesson to prepare them for the practicum.

Supporting the Teaching Practicum

Teachers had to negotiate translating new methodologies from the course to classroom practice while balancing local expectations that often called for quiet students and textbook compliance. We scaffolded the 20-hour teaching practicum by providing coaching and collaborative opportunities for reflecting on the observation and teaching process. Read more in our next post, in April.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/scaffolding-pd-in-uzbekistan-contextualizing-course-design/

💫St Patrick’s Day Idioms💫

💫💫St Patrick’s Day is right around the corner!  

  I love using this holiday to teach about idioms!
💫St Patrick’s Day Idioms💫

What is an idiom?

Idioms are words that don’t mean what they say!  They are usually a group of words, well known and used by native speakers of a language, that can’t be understood by the individual meaning of the words.

 Click here to go to my TPT store for this fun St Patrick’s activity!

Why teach idioms?

Students develop a clear understanding of idioms with direct instruction, read-alouds, teacher modeling, and student-centered activities.  According to readwritethink teaching idioms offers students the ability to further comprehend texts that contain metaphorical and lexical meanings beyond the basic word level.

Here is one way to teach idioms:

 

·      When presenting idioms to students, introduce a group of 4 to 5 idioms together.   It is best to group the idioms into a category, for  example; before St. Patrick’s Day teach idioms that use green in them!

·      Always use stories or relate personal conversations to introduce each idiom in context.

·      Use an Idiom Journal to record the idiom and the meaning.  Don’t forget a picture.

·      Practice by offering students a student-centered activity.

Now you are on your way to teaching idioms!

Click here to go to my TPT store for this fun St Patrick’s activity!

I like these idioms for green!

·      Get or give someone the green light

·      Green with envy

·      Grass is always greener on the other side

·      To be green

·      Green thumb

·      Green around the gills

Here are some fun sites for idioms!

·      Eye on Idioms–THE IDIOM CONNECTION

·      My English Teacher

·      Learn English

What are some of your favorite idiom activities!  I would love to hear about them.

Happy Teaching,

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from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2022/03/St. Patricks Day – idioms.html

Assessing Writing

I am  collaborating with a Japanese colleague to revise a rating scale for the undergraduate English for Academic Purposes program at her university. She had noticed that even though the program had developed an analytic rubric, some high scoring essays didn’t actually seem to be very good, and conversely, some low scoring essays actually seemed much better than their scores reflected.

Talking about this dilemma, we realized that the missing piece in the analytic rubric was something like “sophistication” or “insight.” Reading students’ essays, we could sense the writing was sophisticated or the writer had insight into the topic, but these qualities were not reflected in their numerical scores on the analytic rubric. In order to add an element to the rubric for sophistication, we had to figure out how to explain to the dozens of lecturers using that rubric what we meant by sophistication.

On the advice of another colleague, we read a recent article by assessment experts Knoch,  Deygers, and Khamboonruang (2021) and followed their guidelines to operationalize the construct of sophistication. Two key processes Knoch and colleagues identified for developing rubrics were reviews of performance samples and documentation of rater cognition. My Japanese colleague and I took printed copies of her students’ writing (these are performance samples) and independently sorted them into piles based on our perceptions of their relative sophistication and insight. We then discussed each text, explaining to each other why we had placed it in a particular pile and what it showed about the writer’s ability to demonstrate sophistication and insight (this is rater cognition).

Having sorted and discussed a subset of the texts, we are now creating a four-level rubric reflecting our description of what insight is. The next step will be to try out our rubric with other writing teachers to see if they understand sophistication and insight in the same way we do and if they can use the rubric to evaluate student writing in the same way we did. We may need to revise our rubric if they do not.

You may be thinking that this sounds like a rather onerous process. Do you really need to go to this much effort just to evaluate your students’ writing in your classroom? The answer is no, but in this blog post I provide a few pointers for making sure that your classroom writing assessment practices give you and your students useful information about their writing abilities.

Developing a Classroom Writing Assessment Process

1. What Are You Really Assessing?

The first step in any assessment process is to clearly describe what you are assessing so you don’t unintentionally assess other things at the same time. Consider a test that requires students to first read a passage and then write a summary of the text. While this is a writing assessment—the student must write a summary in complete sentences, following appropriate grammar rules and norms for the genre—it is just as much a test of reading ability. Students who did not understand the reading passage will not be able to write a summary of it no matter how well they can write summaries of texts they understand. If, however, your teaching has also covered reading comprehension, and students have learned how to read the type of text used on the assessment, then you can use the task as long as you keep in mind that you are testing both reading and writing.

2. What Aspects of Writing Are You Assessing?

I often ask teachers to answer the question “What is writing?” Their answers usually include the following:

• Spelling
• Correct grammar
• Varied sentence structure
• Creativity
• Original ideas
• Organization
• Support for a thesis
• Genre

This list covers a broad range of points, from the formation of letters to drafting multipage essays. None of these answers is wrong, and a writing assessment task will challenge students to do many of these actions. The imperative for us as writing teachers, however, is to decide what aspects of writing we want to assess and make sure that we keep the focus on those aspects in our evaluation.

3. How Will You Assess Your Students’ Writing?

In theory, if we believe that writing can easily be broken into discrete pieces (grammatical structures, word choice, or style rules, for example), we can assess it with a multiple choice test where each piece is an item. You may have taken standardized tests that include sections like this. For each item, there is one correct answer. The idea is that a student who can correctly answer all of these questions knows the rules for writing and can therefore write well.

Most of us now feel that a more appropriate way to assess writing is by asking our students to write. Depending on their language proficiency, we may ask them to write separate sentences or a paragraph or essay. They may have to write in response to a prompt or use certain language structures in their texts. As long as they are putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), they are writing. In developing a performance assessment for writing, we need to choose the appropriate text type for our students in the given moment.

4. What Will Students Write?

In their classic article about writing assessment, Reid and Kroll (1995) provide guidelines for designing writing tasks that allow students to effectively demonstrate their learning. Teachers should consider the following:

• Context: how the task fits with the course and with real-world writing that students need to do. They need to know why they are writing.
• Content: students should know what they are writing about and have some choice in topics. Unless the task is also a test of their content knowledge, the focus should be on whether they can write, not what they know.
• Language: The assignment should be easy for students to understand. It should not be a test of whether they understand the prompt, but rather how well they can write in response to it.
• Tasks: what should be done and what process should be followed. If the task is written in stages following a process, clearly state what those are and when each part is due.
• Rhetorical Specifications: what genre and what audience are expected.
• Evaluation: how you will assess the students’ accomplishment of the task. Let students know if there is a rubric and what aspects of writing will be graded.

5. How Will You Evaluate Your Students’ Writing?

With respect to the final item in the list above, try to develop the rubric at the same time as you are developing the assignment task. Do not wait until after students have turned in their final essays! Share the rubric with your students so they know what matters in their writing; if part of the writing process includes peer response, students can give each other feedback with reference to the rubric as well. When developing your rubric, focus on the learning objectives for the course and module.

6. What Will You and Your Students Do With the Results?

Writing assessment should provide you (the teacher) and your students with useful information that can lead to further learning. As the teacher, you may see that your students are doing better than you had expected, so you can skip ahead to other goals. On the other hand, you may realize that they have not progressed as far as you had hoped, so you need to reinforce and revisit certain topics. Students benefit from getting individualized feedback on their writing that shows them what they can do and what they are still developing. Teach students to understand the feedback and rubric rather than assuming that they will know what it means and how to apply it in their future writing.

Conclusion

Writing assessment is important for us and for our students, but it is often an overlooked practice in second language teaching. While it does take a bit more time to think through the above steps and to develop a strong assessment task and rubric, doing so will allow for much more meaningful and useful evaluation of your students’ progress in writing.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/assessing-writing/