Working through it

Timeline:
Fall = start of the school year
Spring = middle of the school year
Summer = end of the school year/start of summer school
*repeat*

Where are you right now in the circle of a school year? Here are a few tips to work through these different time periods for educators.

Fall
  • Dedicate class time to teaching students when and how to get to your class
  • Demonstrate and give tutorials on how to access you (the teacher), class meetings, and curriculum
  • Establish clear expectations for students and share what you'll provide in support
Spring
  • Spend time revisiting Fall tips
  • Dive into your learning goals and explore progress students are making
  • Check in with students on how they are managing the new normal
Summer
  • Reflect on student accomplishments and goals met
  • Pose the question: what's next? How will you continue learning outside of your class?
  • Create a follow up plan to hold students accountable for what's next

The First Day

First day activities? If you're meeting live and virtually with your students, here are some ideas:
  • *Get everyone connected: this may take the entire first class meeting
  • Virtual platform meeting basics: spend a class session, or two or three, to share and practice your virtual classroom management with students (do students need to know how to mute? turn on/off video? type messages in the chat?)
  • Walk through virtual class and independent work expectations
  • Will you offer part of your classroom to be office hours/troubleshooting for those digital literacy beginners?
These are just a few ideas to get started!

Moving forward in a pandemic

AUGUST 2020
​
We'll be sharing ideas and strategies to use in virtual, hybrid, and traditional classroom settings.

Planning ahead...

Classroom
Suggestions
Virtual
Online live instruction and/or recorded lessons
  • Priority #1 = Get students connected!  (WhatsApp, Remind, Facebook, other students, administration, etc.).  
  • Lower pressure by making digital literacy the curriculum focus for your first sessions.
  • Consider technology access your students have, and plan accordingly (computers? tablets? smartphones?).
  • Model, model, model for students as much as possible.  Explicitly state what you are doing and how you are navigating your pages while meeting virtually with them (e.g., "I'm going to share my screen now and we will watch a video on ...").
 Hybrid
Partly in-person and partly virtual/remote instruction
  • What did you miss the most when in-person classes stopped Spring 2020?  Was it pair activities, group presentations, small talk?  Whatever that may be, ensure a way to make those missed experiences be the center of your in-person meetings.
  • Try to keep students engaged through online classroom platforms (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard, Google Classroom).
  • Model for students as much as possible during in-person meetings (e.g., how to log into online platform, how to turn in homework).
Traditional
In-person class instruction
  • Continue to use curriculum as it was successful pre-COVID
  • Always have a plan in mind to reach your students and continue instruction as schools may enact abrupt changes

School year starts open holiday discussions

As a new school year begins, it's time to start thinking about all opportunities to share holiday traditions with our English language learners!

A great way to start the discussion on Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Winter Break is through themed BINGO games!

TeachersPayTeachers offers a number of free Bingo sets on themes like Halloween or Holidays!

Don't miss the opportunity to share American holidays with your students, open cultural discussions, and bridge celebrations.

Get talking!

Encourage student participation by passing out regular conversation cards. 

This activity can be as simple as typing up a list of questions related to current topics (1 unique question per student) and handing out slips of paper, or as fancy as questions posted on index cards with space to write a response on the back.  Either way, it's a great go-to!

CONVERSATION ACTIVITY:
  • After each student receives a different question, line up half of the class against a wall. 
  • Line up the second half of the class to be facing the first group (creating pairs of students facing one another)
  • Set a timer for 1 minute, and have one side begin the conversation by asking their question (for example, have all students lined up against the wall begin by asking the partner they are facing their given question)
  • After time is up, have one group of students shift down the line
  • Allow each student to ask their question to each member of the opposite group, or assign a time limit for the activity

This is a great way to get students talking and engaging with one another.  I also suggest taking this activity outside of the classroom; the movement and action of standing and speaking and rotating is complimented by being in a different environment.

ESL Marketplace has a set of fall themed conversation cards, ready to print and use!

Promotional Freebies September 3rd-5th!

We've got a few promotional freebies being offered at ESL Marketplace this week!

Check out our Simple Paragraph Rubric and our Presentation Rubric !

After this week, we'll be adding prices to these products, so download now.

Start with class diagnostics

After reading through the class syllabus, what is there to do in the first days of a new course?  Students, and teachers, are adjusting to new schedules, readying class materials, and getting into a learning mode. 

Consider using one or two class sessions to run a few non-credit diagnostic assessments.  These diagnostics can be as simple as write a paragraph about your family, or as formal as using a term final/midterm exam.  Either way, documenting a start-point with each student establishes a foundation in which to build off of. 

Take a class period to have students produce work that can be used to determine current skill set, as well as, used to present a student start-point.

Need a few diagnostic ideas?

The new school year is coming FREEBIE

The summer is already coming to a close, and to kick off thinking about classroom goals, here's a goal chart graphic organizer to help inspire!

This is a great graphic organizer for all ages and levels, and allows space to clearly identify steps to completion in any given project.

Writing and speaking with story dice

A great way to break away from traditional writing is to bring in picture or alphabet dice.  This is a great easy go-to activity that can be used in a variety of ways.  My go-to are Rory's Story Cubes (pictured to the left, and available here on Amazon).  I've used these story cubes with ESL learners at the middle school, high school, and adult levels. 

The Rory's Story Cube website shares ways to play using the story cubes.  I've used these cubes in both writing and listening/speaking classes.  They can be geared to individual, group, or classroom focus - which is great!  For example, in a small listening/speaking class, students can gather in a circle to tell a story, rolling a die and adding one part each turn.

There are numerous activity templates/directions online, and here are a few *free* story cube writing templates available to download from Teachers Pay Teachers.
Here's also a free Rory's Story Cubes Reflection worksheet from ESL Marketplace!

Check out this freebie!

Download our free Simple 3-Paragraph Essay Rubric for ELLs!  It's a great way to set clear writing expectations, and it uses direct, easy-to-follow language.  Hand out this rubric before a writing assignment so that students feel prepared to turn in their work!  Visit us each week for a new Tips and Freebies post.

Teaching in Summer?

Summer can be a hard time to be in the classroom, and keep your students motivated.  Take the opportunity to learn more about the cultures in your classrooms by organizing a game day! 

Ask students to bring in a game from home (think card games or dice games or even self-made games) with directions written in English.  You can have students work in class on the directions, or have it be a take-home assignment.  Be open to bringing in a few card decks or dice in case students don't have access to these resources. 

After having students participate in the games in small groups, the class can reflect on a number of aspects: how easy or difficult it was to play some of the games based on the directions on hand, what new games did people learn about, and so on.  Plus, the teacher gets a chance to participate and share! 

Here's a quick link to a game board search on TeachersPayTeachers

Here's a quick link to a simple game board template for free download at TimVandevall.com


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