TESOL Teaching Tip #33 - Did They Forget Their English?

My class this year consisted of 20 students, of which only 1 spoke English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 spoke at least one, if not two other languages in their homes, and go to school in English, although they don’t live in an English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #33: Allow Transition Time After Breaks

After 2 1/2 months of hearing no, or limited English, your English Language Learners are going to walk back into school – the land of English.  They will walk into your classroom, unfamiliar with your way of speaking, your accent etc. and will most likely enter into a repeat version of the silent period.  Luckily, it will not take as long for most students to come out of this silent period, but be sure that it will take a minute for most students to be comfortable working and thinking in English again.  This type of silent period is normal for English Language Learners after any school break, but of course it will be the hardest for students after the long, summer vacation.  Once students get their comfort level back in English, you will see that they have retained most of the English they learned in previous school years. 
Here are some tips to help your English Language Learners do their best during these transition times:

- Delay any assessments that are scheduled for the week(s) directly following any school break.

- Pair your English Language Learners up with strong, or native speakers and work on speaking/listening activities during the week directly following any school break.

- Pull out games and other cooperative learning activities for the week directly following any school break.

- Send home website and/or video suggestions during any school break, to promote listening to/ and using English during breaks.

How do you help your students maintain and enhance their English during and after school breaks?

Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Would you like to view an hour long presentation on this topic? I recently presented on Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo. Now you can grab the presentation for just $3.95 from Teacher’s Notebook.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!

Educational Connect 4 Games

I LOVE to play board games at home, but I also enjoying using them in my classroom. In addition to encouraging cooperation, turn taking and a variety of other social skills, I find I can often use the games to work on math and literacy skills. So, every Friday, I am going to post a Friday Game Night post, giving tips on how to use a particular board game in your classroom.

 

****  It’s been WAY too long since I got to a Game Night post.  I’m so sorry guys – between the move and Ramadan, I’ve been asleep too early most Friday nights to get these posts written. (Aren’t I just a party animal?)  Anyways, I know it’s Sunday, but there is this week’s Friday Game Night Post.   ****

Connect 4 - Part 1 (Math)

Connect 4 is one of my kids favorite games.  It’s a great strategy game, but here are some suggestions on some ways to make it educational. For each of these variations, use a permanent marker to write a single digit number (0-9) on each of the yellow and red checkers.

 

1. How Many Points Can You Get Before You Win? – Here’s an easy, fast paced way for kids to work on mental math.  Each checker they use gives them the number of points listed on it.  However, kids have to add as they are playing.  As soon as someone gets a line of 4, students write down the number of points they think they have.  Then, students write down their numbers and check their mental math.  If there mental math was correct – they get 5 extra points.  If they got a line of 4 – they get 5 extra points.

2. Fill ‘Em Up & Add ‘Em Up – Let kids play until someone wins.  Then, once someone wins, they will record all of the piece played on a piece of paper and add each column and row. Grab this free recording sheet from Google Docs.

3. Create Fractions – Let kids play until someone wins. Then, have them create fractions based on the game board. For example, they may create a fraction of the number of red pieces used, out of the total pieces used – or the number of red pieces used, out of the total number of red pieces.  They may also use the numbers of the checker pieces – for example, how many even numbers were used, out of the total pieces used.

4.  Find a Humongous Number - Let kids play until someone wins. Then, once someone wins, they will record all of the piece played on a piece of paper.  Next, students can find and compare numbers made in the columns and rows.  Grab this free recording sheet from Google Docs.

 

I hope some of the ideas will help you use Connect 4 in a new, different way. Find more ways to use board games in your room by clicking HERE. Keep playing games and watching your students learn.

Global School Tour Linky Party

Okay, I am lucky enough to have another month off before school starts, but I know that many of you are getting ready to head back in to those classrooms.  If you are, please take some pictures and post them on your blog (teacher blog or classroom blog – either works fine!)  Then, stop by Global Teacher Connect and link up to our Global School Tour.  We’d love to see what schools and classrooms look like around the world – including all 50 states in the United States, so please help us meet this goal!

In addition, all of the authors from Global Teacher Connect will be sharing their posts about their classrooms right there on Global Teacher Connect on their first day of school – so after you link up, please check back at Global Teacher Connect for a peek into classrooms from Morocco to China to Canada to South Africa coming soon!
If you’re lucky like me, and you are still soaking up your summer vacation – don’t worry, there is plenty of time to link up, as the linky party is open all year!

Using Art in the Classroom

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

 

The school I taught at in Georgia was an Artful Learning school, which helped me focus on all the ways we can use art to connect with our curriculum.  We can use famous pieces of art as a hook to draw students in.  We can use art to talk about good writing characteristics, like using voice and descriptive language.  We can use art to talk about making inferences when reading, as we look at all the details inside a piece of art.  We can use art to connect properties of science, like characteristics of things in nature (animals, rocks, landscapes, etc.).  We can look at art created during different time periods and discuss what the author was going through at the time.  There are so many ways to connect art to the learning that is going on in the classroom. 

Here is a website to help students look at and create artwork in your classroom.  It is called The Art Zone and it is sponsored by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  While on this website, students have a chance to create portraits, still life pictures, collages, 3-dimensional pieces and more.  They can work on texture, color, brush types, etc.  It’s a great way to get kids working with art – with a whole lot less mess and set-up!  When students are done, they can print their work and take it home, without every having to wait for the paint to dry!  

How do you use art in your classroom?

TESOL Teaching Tip #32 - What do you Already Know About…..

My class this year consisted of 20 students, of which only 1 spoke English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 spoke at least one, if not two other languages in their homes, and go to school in English, although they don’t live in an English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #32: Graph Out Background Knowledge

All students come to your class with background knowledge.  They may not come to you with the background knowledge that you desire, but they come full of background knowledge none the less.  All students do better if they can connect what you are teaching to something that is familiar to them.  However, for Language Learners, it may be the difference between if they remember a word for future use or not.  Most times, it takes students 30 – 50 times of hearing a word before they begin to internalize it.  However, if we connect the word to something in their background knowledge, they are able to internalize it faster.  Some students are able to make their own connections with their own background knowledge.  However, many students, especially at the elementary level, do not have this kind of meta-cogntion skill mastered.  So, here are some ways to help your students connect what they are learning to what they already know:

1.)  Allow students to complete a graphic organizer with “Stuff I Already Know” about a new topic.  (Grab my graphic organizer for FREE from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.)  Have students leave these graphic organizers on their desks, and while you are having class discussions or small group learning stations, take a moment to make a connection for each of your English Language Learners.  For example:  “Mya, I see you knew that princess wear crowns.  Did you see the page in this book where it talks about what crowns are made of?  That metal is called gold.”  I know this seems like a lot of work, but if you do this a lot in the beginning of the year, students will begin to do it for themselves – and for each other, as the year progress.

2.)  Model making connections with a text or topic.  Say things like “This story happens at a farm, and it makes me think of when I went to a farm to pick strawberries.”  Then, give students a sheet to write down their own connections as you move through a topic.  Again, this is one that is more work in the beginning of the year, but when students get a hang of it, it gets easier.  (Be careful to allow students to come up with their own connections, as it is easy to depend on our own background knowledge and forget to zone in on what the KIDS know.)

3.)  Let kids tell their own stories.  Set aside some time periodically to let your kids tell you about their lives.  The more you know about your children, the more you will be able to help guide them to their own connections.  Also, during these conversations – see if you can bring them to connect what they are talking about, to something you worked on in class. 

Does anyone else have a great way to connect between current knowledge and background knowledge? 

Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Would you like to view an hour long presentation on this topic? I recently presented on Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo. Now you can grab the presentation for just $3.95 from Teacher’s Notebook.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!

Making Words Center Video

This summer, my son Zaiyd has been working on word families and learning phonics skills like blends and digraphs.  To help him, I used the same Making Words Centers that I used in my classroom last year.  He has had so much fun with it, that he agreed to help me make a video to show you how it’s done.  Here’s the video:

 

 

 

You can grab the ACK Family Making Words Center for FREE at my Teachers Pay Teacher Store.  The other 40 Word Family Making Words Centers are $0.99 each, or you can get all 41 for just $12.00.  I hope these will help your students learn those word family patterns, while connecting meaning to the words they create.

Top 10 Math Websites for Elementary Students

There are so many great websites out there for Elementary students that I decided to put together some Top 10 Lists for websites to use in the upcoming school year.  For the next few weeks, I’ll be posting lists of sites to use for various subjects.  Be sure to see the post I wrote about organizing websites, if you need a way to keep track of all of these.  And feel free to leave a comment with any additional sites that might help everyone with this week’s subject – Math.




















10.  TVOKids:  The math and science games on this site are wonderful for working on many different math concepts, including counting coins, addition and telling time.  In addition, there are great videos that demonstrate various math concepts (click on Watch to view videos).


 














9 .  ICTGames:  This great site has tons of math games, that are nicely aligned to the UK standards.  The games are sorted by math concepts, and use great techniques like number lines and abacuses.  




















8.  Math-a-Rama:  This site is more than just games, it also includes manipulatives, brain teasers, an e-glossary, and a place to work on a data survey.  Supported by Houghton Mifflin, this website is sorted by grade level, and is a wonderful resource for your classroom. 


















7.  Erich’s Puzzle Place:  Critical thinking and solving puzzles are such helpful skills in math.  This site has almost every puzzle imaginable, from sudoku, to arithmetic puzzles, to rebus puzzles to mazes.












6.  Math Playground:  This site has tons and tons of really great games for tons of different math concepts.  In addition, there are video tutorials that walk kids through many different math concepts.  But, one of my favorite features is the interactive word problems.  Students can do a series of word problems, and the site will keep track of their right and wrong answers.  I love to use it as an easy problem solving center.
















5.  HSP Math: This site was developed by Harcourt School Publishers, so if you have a Harcourt math series at your school, it will align very well with your texts. However, no matter what your math adoption, the lessons and games are amazing reinforcements for the kids. My kids this year particularly loved the 
measurement games.














4.  PBS Kids – Cyberchase:  Although there are many great shows on PBS Kids, Cyberchase focuses in on many different math and problem solving concepts.  At the PBS website, there are games and video clips that you can use in your classroom to help your students work on math concepts and problem solving.



















3.  Oswego Math Games:  Some of the best math games I’ve ever found have come from this website.  It was designed by teachers for students in their school district, so the activities are generally so much better than others I find out there.  Some of my favorites are Mathmatician (for math facts) and Find the Dog’s Bone (for working on 100’s chart).















2.  Cool Math: This site has so many games, it’s crazy. While not every game is completely educational, most are at least logic building games. The best games for the classroom are the number games and the logic games. Many of these games start out in my classroom as a teaching game, and then the kids like them so much, that they become a reward for completing quality work early or having a great behavior day.


















1. Virtual Manipulatives: Every math manipulative that you have (or should have) in the math manipulative kit that comes with your math series can be found in virtual form on this website. In addition, there are new, different ways to manipulate these manipulatives that I have found only here. For example, this site allows you to subtract with base ten blocks, and the blocks that are “taken away” truly go away. In addition to base ten blocks, there are also number lines, clocks, money, tangrams, pattern blocks and more. It works fabulously with a projector and an interactive board, but is just as much fun at a single computer during centers.

For more resources to integrate technology into your classroom, check out my Technology Integration Kit.  You can also check out these blog posts:

Top 10 Reading Websites
Top 10 Writing Websites
Top 10 Science Websites
Top 10 Social Studies Websites
Websites to Teach Typing Skills
Websites to Create Videos

Do You Watch PBS Kids?

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

Today, I was creating a list of suggestions for a parent who wanted to work with her children at home. As I bounced around different links I had bookmarked, I realized that many of these games and videos came back to one common site, so I eventually just decided to recommend the whole site to her, because there was so much she could use there with her children. So, what site got this glowing recommendation from me? www.pbskids.org is the site, and it’s also this week’s Wednesday Website suggestion.

This site has games, activities and videos (short clips and full length videos) for each of it’s regular shows. (Unfortunately, the video clips do not work outside of the US, which is something I was disappointed to find out when I moved to Morocco – my kids and I miss those videos!) If you aren’t familiar with the shows on PBS Kids, you will find shows like: Clifford, Curious George, Sid the Science Kid, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman and Martha Speaks. While some shows are better for small children, many of these shows cover concepts that are the appropriate level for older students as well. For example, many Cyberchase activities work on problem solving within math concepts like area and perimeter, multiplication, and numerical patterns. Martha Speaks works on great vocabulary and Fetch with Ruff Ruffman covers lots of science and social studies topics.

As a parent of small children, I spend a lot of time watching these shows. However, whether you watch these shows or not, they cover great concepts that you can use in your classroom. The games connected with each show allow kids to be interactive with the characters, while still working educational topics.

Do you have a favorite PBS Kids show?

TESOL Teaching Tip #31 - Uno + Dos = 3

My class this year consisted of 20 students, of which only 1 spoke English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 spoke at least one, if not two other languages in their homes, and go to school in English, although they don’t live in an English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #31: Let Them Count in Their Home Language

In addition to teaching English Language Learners, I also live with an English Language Learner.  English is my husband’s fifth language.  He speaks: Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian and English – in that order.  He can read, write, count, and do math in all of his languages.  He spends 90% of his day in English, thinks and dreams in English.  But, hand him a stack of papers and ask him to count and tell you how many papers there are and he will count the papers in Arabic every time.  Now, after he’s done counting in Arabic, he will tell me the total in English, but his brain automatically counts in Arabic.  He says by counting in Arabic he doesn’t have to think about the numbers and worry about the possibility of miscounting.

Many of our English Language Learners are like my husband.  They learned basic concepts like counting and understanding numbers in their home language before they learned English.  Depending on when they started learning English, they may also have learned basic operations and other math skills in their home language.  Asking students to convert all of their math skills into English is time consuming for you and them, and it increases the possibility of errors.  For this reason, I allow and encourage my students to count, add, subtract, and any do any other math operations they learned in their home language in their home language.  However there are a few things in Math that I ask them to do in English:

1.) Give the answer (first by writing, and eventually orally)

2.)  Read and understand what the problem is asking for

3.)  Explain their thinking

If my students can do these three things in English, I don’t feel that saying “eight x four = thirty two” is more important than saying “ocho veces quatro es igual a treinta y dos”.  In fact, by allowing them to do the work in their home language, students are often able to better understand the vocabulary and concepts that make math in English hard for them.
Do you let your students count in their home language?

Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Would you like to view an hour long presentation on this topic? I recently presented on Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo. Now you can grab the presentation for just $3.95 from Teacher’s Notebook.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!

Neighbourhood Walk Around the World

Jo Ebisjum of JoJebi Designs is doing a “neighbourhood walk around the world”.  When I first heard about this, I thought – “Wow, what a great way to help kids kids understand that all areas are alike and different at the same time.  Many kids do not get the opportunity to travel the world, but with a project like this, they can virtually travel all around the world. 

You can check out my neighborhood here in Casablanca, Morocco at my personal blog – Journey to Morocco.  And if you head over to JoJebi Designs, you can find links to all the other neighborhoods around the world, including places like Japan, Greece and Australia. 

How can you use this project with your kids?

Re-Create the Tortoise and the Hare

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

After almost 2 weeks with almost no internet, I finally have reliable internet!!  Yeah!!  Since I have had no internet access, I took a little time to get ready for the summer camp program I am teaching in next week.  We will have students with very limited English and we will be using the story of the Tortoise and the Hare to catch their attention and work on reading, writing, and vocabulary.  I put together this cute 20 page packet that we are going to work through a little at a time, which you can grab FREE at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

In addition to working on our packet, we will also be creating Animoto videos to re-tell the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.  So, this week’s Website Suggestion of the week is Animoto.  It’s a great, easy way for kids to create video type slide shows with images, text, videos and music.  If you stick with the 30 second or less videos – it’s completely free, and it’s a great way to get kids actively involved in the re-telling process or in the presentation process on any variety of topics.

How could you use Animoto in your classroom?