TESOL Teaching Tip #37 - Use the Media to Teach Vocabulary

As a teacher at the International School of Morocco, many of my students are English Language Learners. Even my native English speakers are living in a non-English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here is this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #37: Use the Media

Do movies, television shows, video games and popular music have a place in the classroom, or do students already use too much of them at home?  I personally have trouble with this question from time to time, but with my English Language Learners especially, I have found many good ways to use the media in my instruction.  For English Language Learners, any additional sources of English language are important to their development, because in the course of your day there is now way for you to introduce them to every word in the English language!  Plus, students learn more from what they enjoy, and they enjoy the media.  There are valid English words to be learned from all of those media sources.  Here are some ways to use these media sources in your classroom so that your students get the most of them:

- Give students a purpose.  Rather than having them watch a movie or tv show mindlessly, give them something to be watching or listening for – the answer to a question, the meaning of a vocabulary word, or simply a reaction of some sort like one reason you would recommend this to a friend.  This helps students focus, makes sure they are playing closer attention, and allows English Language Learners to learn to filter out non-important information, which is a hard skill for all students, but even harder when you don’t understand all of the words.  (I have a 3 sheet pack at my TPT store that you can help you with this – it is only $2.00, and a best seller.)

- When you are teaching vocabulary, take into mind words that may be familiar to them based on media they use at home.  Words like: pause, continue, mute, channel, record, score, champion etc. are often a part of video games and students know to click on them, or use them to function in the game, without knowing their meanings.  Teaching students to understand those words not only increases their understanding in video games, but also in other places they may use these words, including stories and text books.

- Know the important songs right now and see if there is vocabulary you can teach through them.  Students will generally know all of the words to songs like these, but often don’t know what the words mean.  Take a minute to help them know what they are singing about and build vocabulary at the same time.

-  Encourage parents to expose students to quality English media at home.  Parents, especially those who don’t speak English, may see all media as equal.  By suggesting quality media sources (PBS Kids, Discovery Channel, Radio Disney), parents have a way to encourage quality English learning at home.
How do you use the media in your classroom?

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!

Spotlight Blogger Pinterest Contest Winners

The results are in!  The Pinterest Spotlight Blogger winners are as follows:

 

Spotlight Blogger with the most pins – Sally De Cost from Elementary Matters

 

Commenter chosen by Random.org – Jan from Thinking Out Loud

 

Both winners have been sent a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate.  Thank you to all who participated!  The number of pins was outstanding! 

In case you missed it, here is a list of the Spotlight Bloggers, their posts, and where they normally post:

Spotlight Blogger #1: Stephanie Moorman from Teaching in Room 6 – Making Me Boxes

Spotlight Blogger #2:Michelle Griffo from Apples & ABC’s - Organizing Your Classroom Library

Spotlight Blogger #3:Michelle Lundy from Making it as a Middle School Teacher - Using QR Codes to Teach Vocabulary

Spotlight Blogger #4:Sally DeCost from Elementary Matters - Using Card Games to Teach Fast Facts

Spotlight Blogger #5:Heidi Befort from Globicate - Intentional Writing

Spotlight Blogger #6:Heidi Samuelson from Swamp Frog First Graders - A Bit About Birthdays

Spotlight Blogger #7:Christina Bainbridge from Bunting, Books & Bainbridge - Spelling Ideas

Spotlight Blogger #8:Barbara Gruener from the Corner on Character - Making Friendship Kits

Build Literacy Skills with Connect 4

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.

 

Connect 4 - Part 2 (Literacy)

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 letter (you may want to make duplicates of common letters and leave letters like Q and X out) on each of the yellow and red checkers.  If you used my Math Suggestions for Connect 4, you could easily have numbers on one side and letters on the other – just remind kids to look before they drop in their checkers!

1. Alphabet Chains – Let students copy down the letters from each row and column and then draw a line on their page, starting from A to B, and then to each additional letter of the alphabet - making an Alphabet Chain. Grab this free sheet from Google Docs to help your students with it.

2.Connected Words - Let students copy down the letters from each row and column and then color in connected letters in that makes words.  Grab this free sheet from Google Docs to help your students with it.

 

3. Alphabetical Order Words - Let students copy down the letters from each row and column and then color in connected letters in that makes words.  Then, let students take those words and put them in alphabetical order. Grab this free sheet from Google Docs to help your students with it.

4. Silly Sentences – Let students copy down the letters from each row and column and then color in connected letters in that makes words. Then, let students take those words and use them to make a silly sentence.  Grab this free sheet from Google Docs to help your students with it.

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.

Create an Interactive Board on Your IPad

I am super excited to have access to an IPad in my classroom this year.  There are so many aps that can be used as instructional tools and I want to explore them all.  So, each week, I will be spotlighting one ap that can be used in the classroom to enhance your learning.  Here is this week’s Learning Ap of the Week:

One Ap that I intend to use in my classroom is called Educreations.  It is very simple and easy to use, and it basically turns your IPad into an Interactive White Board.  You can insert pictures, write on the pictures, move pictures around, just like you would on your white board.  In addition, you can record your lessons.  When you press record, it records everything you say and do on your screen, building a video of your lesson.  These videos can be saved to show students later, or they can be embedded into your blog or website to show parents or absent students.  Here are some ways that I want to use this ap this year:

1.)  Work on the process of writing – I plan to insert a picture or a variety of pictures ahead of time, and then write a story about the picture(s) with my students.  We will record our brainstorming, drafting, editing, and revising together, saving each one separate.  Then, I will post those videos onto our class blog, so that students can go back and re-visit these concepts later.

2.)  Model homework and project expectations – Before assigning homework or projects, I plan to create a short video explaining the expectations (using screen shots of the pages needed).  I will then post these videos on our class blog so when students are at home, they will still have access to an explanation of the directions.

3.)  Give students a chance to explain their thinking – My class consists of mainly English Language Learners, who may have difficulty explaining their thinking.  I hope to use this program to let students walk through a math problem, recording their thinking out loud and writing on the problem at the same time.  Then, I plan to re-visit the recordings with the students, going over their thinking and filling in any needed vocabulary.

4.)  Build an interactive notebook – Rather than hanging anchor charts around my room, I plan to help my students build interactive notebooks with the information we build together as a class.  I plan to draw out anchor charts and graphic organizers on the IPad, using this ap and fill in the pieces with my class.  Then, we will print out the image we have created and glue them into the students’ notebooks for future reference.

I hope some of these ideas will help you use this Ap in your classroom.  Please stop by next week for more Learning Aps to use in your classroom.

Are Your Students Aware of Current Events?

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.

I love finding websites that have so much to them that they feel like they should be 2 or 3 website suggestions!  Recently I “re-stumbled” on a site that’s exactly that.  (I actually used this a while back and forgot about it!)  This week’s site is: Time for Kids.

Time for Kids has so much to it.  There are 8 tabs along the top, and each one could almost be it’s own separate website suggestion!  I’ll keep it to a minimum and just outline my favorite parts of this site, but seriously, take a few minutes and scope it out, there are so many ways to use this in social studies, reading, writing etc.

1.  Kid Reporters – There are tons and tons of articles written BY kids, FOR kids.  All of the Kid reporters are under the age of 12, and write great articles that are on just the right level for kids.  It’s a super easy way to incorporate current events, while providing your students with good writing role models.  If you have any super star writers in your class - there’s also a contest each year to find new Kid Reporters.

2.  Photos & Videos – There are up to date photos and videos of events currently in the news (the Olympics and the Presidential Election are currently high on the list).  These are a great way to inform students about current events, or even get them writing about it.  Put up the pictures and the headlines, and let them write the story!

3.  Homework Helper – This area gives kids access to flash cards, grammar tips and other helpful hints they can use in or out of class.  This section would be great to give to parents at the beginning of the year, as a way for parents to help students at home.

4.  Around the World – This is my FAVORITE section of this site for many reasons.  It includes links to places all around the world and gives videos and important information about each place.  It would be great for research reports and digging deeper into Geography.

5.  A Day in the Life - The best part of the Around the World section, is called A Day in the Life.  If you choose a country from the Around the World section, there is a menu that allows you to choose different options about that country, one being A Day in the Life.  When you choose this option, you are given a sneak peek into a day in the life of a child in that country.  What a wonderful way for students to look at the world – through the eyes of another kid their age!  I completely plan to use this section this year as my class explores what is the SAME about people all around the world.

6.  Mini Sites – In this section, there are links to different topics, which may interest your students, including: Harry Potter News, Holidays Around the World, Hispanic Heritage Month and a Summer Movie Guide.  This is a great way to include student’s real interests into your language arts program, as they read news articles about topics of interest.

 

TESOL Teaching Tip #36 - Were You Able to Understand What You Heard?

As a teacher at an International School, many of my students are English Language Learners.  Even my native English speakers are living in a non-English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here is this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #36: Understand how they listen
 How much are your English Language Learners understanding of what you are saying?  In the beginning, about 20%, if not less.  Students often only get one in 5 words that you say.  It takes time to learn to listen in a new language.  Try this quick listening activity from TV5, a television channel out of France, and see how hard it is to understand and focus when listening to another language.

Now, that entire listening piece was only 30 seconds long, and it was a song, which is more entertaining than most.  However, I be anything you started to tune out by about 20 or 25 seconds, less if you’ve never heard French before.  This is how our English Language Learners are.  They listen in the beginning, and then they get frustrated and start to tune out.  So, how do we keep them listening?  Here are some suggestions:

- Break it up – never talk for longer than a few minutes without giving students a chance to stop, process, and re-focus.  You can make this easier on yourself and your students by:

     - Adding in videos, demonstrations and pictures

     - Making your discussions interactive, with students 
     contributing as much as possible

     - Giving students a graphic organizer or a an outline with 
     blanks, to fill out as you go.  (Be sure to guide students as to 
     when to write – especially in the beginning!) 

     - Giving students a chance to talk – they learn more by using     
    the language than by listening to us anyways, so give them a 
    chance to talk about a topic, rather than always listening

     - Catch their interest, students will listen longer if it is a topic or 
     media that interests them, this is the time to use those cartoons 
     and t.v. shows!

     - Re-cap the information you are presenting every so often, and 
     reiterate it multiple times at the end, this repetition helps 
     students pick out those key words and build understanding.

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!

A Big Announcement & A Big Freebie

It’s official – Summer Vacation is over.  We returned from Agadir, Morocco on Friday and I was hit over the head with that big stone – reality, in the form of: laundry, dishes, and preparations for the new school year.  Yikes!

Anyhooo – once I get through the chaos, I come to the new school year, which I am super excited about.  I recently accepted a new teaching position at the International School of Morocco, a small, new, amazing school here in Casablanca.  I will be teaching a multi-age class of students in 3rd and 4th grade – or year 4 and year 5 if you are going by the UK system.  The International School of Morocco uses a combination of UK standards and AERO standards, and I am super excited to learn and teach this set of standards.  Like last year, my class will consist mainly of English Language Learners, although at much different levels.  These two facts have triggered me to begin two brand new projects: Problem Solving Path and Differentiated Vocabulary Packets – both are works in progress. 

Problem Solving Path is going to be my big, math bulletin board.  I have been warned that my students are not all accustomed to the more strenuous UK math standards, so I am developing an ongoing, real life, problem solving program for my students.  I am also incorporating QR codes into this bulletin board, since my new classroom comes fully equipped with an IPAD!!!!!  Here’s a sneak peek at the program, with more details coming soon.

My new students are a combination of new English Language Learners, English Language Learners who already have some language base, and native English speakers who are living in a non-English speaking country.  All of these students are in need of vocabulary lessons, so I am developing weekly Differentiated Vocabulary Packets to give them that assistance.  The first week of school, we are going to focus on back to school vocabulary (school supply names for my newer English learners, school personal names for my intermediate students and course names for my more advanced students).  Grab yourself a FREE copy of this HUGE packet at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Each week, my class will focus on a different topic for our vocabulary, and I will post these packets on TPT, in case you want to use them with your class.  If your class is needing a particular type of vocabulary, please leave me a comment, because I am sure that my students will need that vocab too!

Okay, that’s it for today – a big announcement and a big freebie.  Check back this week – I start pre-planning on Thursday, and I promise classroom pictures soon!

Pin Your Favorite Spotlight Blogger

 

I am back!!!  My family and I had a relaxing two weeks in the south of Morocco – stop by my personal blog, Journey to Morocco, to see some of the pictures from our trip.  It was a great way to recharge my batteries and prepare for the coming school year. 

 

While I was gone, I was lucky enough to have 8 Amazing Spotlight Bloggers write posts for your enjoyment.  In case you don’t know, I am running a Pinterest contest for these amazing bloggers.  The Spotlight Blogger who has the most pins on her post by August 27th will win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate (One of the bloggers already has over 900 pins on her post). 

In addition, I will be sending out a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate to one of you on the same day.  Here’s how it simple it is to win:

1.  Go through the Spotlight posts, pin your favorite post to one of your boards.

2.  Leave a comment here telling us which post was your favorite and giving me an e-mail address to send your gift certificate to should you win.

That’s it – easy, right?  On the 27th, I’ll send out the Gift Certificates – using Random.org to select the comment winner. 

 

Here is a list of the Spotlight Bloggers, their posts, and where they normally post:

 

Spotlight Blogger #1:  Stephanie Moorman from Teaching in Room 6 – Making Me Boxes

 

Spotlight Blogger #2:Michelle Griffo from Apples & ABC’s - Organizing Your Classroom Library

 

Spotlight Blogger #3:Michelle Lundy from Making it as a Middle School Teacher  - Using QR Codes to Teach Vocabulary

 

Spotlight Blogger #4:Sally DeCost from Elementary Matters  - Using Card Games to Teach Fast Facts

 

Spotlight Blogger #5:Heidi Befort from Globicate  - Intentional Writing

 

Spotlight Blogger #6:Heidi Samuelson from Swamp Frog First Graders  - A Bit About Birthdays

 

Spotlight Blogger #7:Christina Bainbridge from Bunting, Books & Bainbridge  - Spelling Ideas

 

Spotlight Blogger #8:Barbara Gruener from the Corner on Character  - Making Friendship Kits

 

You can also find all of these posts on my Stuff for My Classroom Pinterest board.  Happy Pinning!

Making Friends with Spotlight Blogger–Barbara Gruener from The Corner on Character

 

Welcome back to Raki's Rad Resources for our latest Spotlight Blogger.  My family and I are camping right now, and we are taking a break from all screens in an effort to recharge our batteries and get ready for the new school year.  While we are gone, I hope you are enjoying the spotlight bloggers who have agreed to guest blog for me.  Be sure to pin the posts you like, as the spotlight blogger with the most pins on their post will win a special prize!  And then, please stop by their blogs and see all the awesome things they have to offer you.

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings from The Corner on Character. Thanks, Heidi, for inviting me to stop by and talk about one of my favorite topics - FRIENDS.

 

 

As school inches nearer, I'm excited about another chance to facilitate those budding friendships in the upcoming school year. An important focus as you grow your class families is helping your kids connect with one another and build relationships. To make the abstract concept of friendship a bit more tangible, consider making a Friendship Kit with your little learners. Prior to the lesson, put the items below (and a list of what each represents) into a clear sandwich baggie. Before showing students the items in the Kit, ask them what they might put into a Friendship Kit if they were making one and why. 

After they share their ideas, show them your pre-fab Kit but don't tell them what each item represents yet. Instead, pull out the items one by one and ask how that particular item might represent friendship. Stress that there are no right and wrong answers so that students will feel free to share what comes to mind. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the interesting and insightful answers that you get. One third-grade answer amazed me: “Just like a button holds a shirt together and makes it whole, your friend completes you." After you’ve gone through all of the items, share this list and see how closely they came to what the item represents.

 

*A Button: Friends "button up" and keep one another's secrets, unless it's a hurtful secret. This is a great time to talk about the kinds of secrets friends don't keep!

*A Rock: Friends are a strong and rock-solid support.

*A Penny:  Friends are honest like Abe, the President on the coin.

*A Cotton Ball: Friends cushion the rough road.

*A Rubber Band: Friends sometimes stretch us.

*Sweet & Sour Tarts: Friends appreciate the differences in others.

*A Smiley Face Sticker: Friends stick together.

*A Bandage: Friends can help heal hurts.

*A Paper Clip: Friends help keep everything together.

*A Flashlight Keychain: Friends are key and add light to our world.

If you have a budget, you can actually purchase the items in bulk and let the students make a Friendship Kit for themselves. When I did this, it cost about 10 cents per kit.

A book to complement this activity is Our Friendship Rules by Peggy Moss and Dee Dee Tardif.

It's kind of a guidebook for relationships. I've used it in my counseling office when mediating those triangle friendships, when two pair off and one feels left out. As a follow-up exercise, ask students to write a paragraph or talk about these words of wisdom:

 

 

"To have a friend, you've got to be a friend."

 

 

Click {here} for a Friendship Treasure Hunt and {here} for a freebie download about Trustworthiness, our Friendship Pillar. What’s your favorite Friendship book and activity?

Spelling Ideas–Spotlight Blogger–Christina from Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge

Welcome back to Raki's Rad Resources for our latest Spotlight Blogger.  My family and I are camping right now, and we are taking a break from all screens in an effort to recharge our batteries and get ready for the new school year.  While we are gone, I hope you are enjoying the spotlight bloggers who have agreed to guest blog for me.  Be sure to pin the posts you like, as the spotlight blogger with the most pins on their post will win a special prize!  And then, please stop by their blogs and see all the awesome things they have to offer you.

 

 

 

It's me- Christina- from Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge and I'm so excited to be guest blogging over here today while Heidi is off enjoying some vacay! 

If you have seen my blog lately, you know that I'm moving from a 1st/2nd split class to a new position teaching 3rd grade ELA in a new district. It's been an exciting summer for me as I'm setting up my room and thinking about how I'm going to teach reading & language arts to 120 3rd graders all throughout the day.

Our blocks of class time are going to be about 50 minutes long, so I've been thinking about how I'm going to fit it all in... especially spelling.  I didn't do enough with spelling when I had a 100-minute block with my little people... so thinking about quick, meaningful practice that I can only budget a few minutes for is tough!  But I've come up with a few ideas (and some good oldies too!) that I wanted to share with you.

*First up is your generic old "quiz each other". In true old school style, pairs would take turns quizzing each other on their words. This would be fun for them to do every once in a while... but I like things a little more fun and exciting!

*Who doesn't love Play Dough?!  My first and second graders always loved making their words with that gooey stuff! This little guy just spelled "complete" with his Play Dough!

*Do you have desks with shiny surfaces? Did you know that dry erase markers will erase off of them quickly and easily? I thought about putting five minutes on a timer and having my kiddos write their words on their desk tops!  I know they would love it!

*This one is one of my favorites and my kiddos LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I have my kiddos fold a piece of paper in half and then into thirds so they have six sections.  They number each section and choose one spelling word that is tricky for themselves and write that word once in each section. So, the kiddos get to differentiate this activity for themselves! Give each kiddo a dice and have them roll it.  Whatever number comes up, they'd have to write that word in the "sixth" on their paper.  Do this for about 5 minutes and they LOVE to see which number "wins"!

*One more... this is a whole class spelling game.  I know there are lots of people who play "Sparkle" and lots of ways to play, but this is how I play... the kiddos sit on their desks and you start at one side of the room. Announce a word. The first student gives the first letter, next student gives the second letter, and so on. When the last letter is given, the next student says "Sparkle" and has to sit down- they are out. This is a good game to help students practice paying attention since you have to know what letter was just said and what the word is! It's fun, but does take more than just five minutes.
So, there you have it! A couple quick spelling activities to jazz up your spelling routines!

*Sometimes my kiddos also do a quick independent handwriting practice by choosing 8 of their words and writing each word in their best handwriting, then choosing one or two to use in a sentence.
I'd love to share that freebie with you!  Just click the picture to download it in Google Docs! I included primary lines and something more intermediate!

I'm also going to link my blog button below to all of my spelling posts on my blog... from there you can even snag my monthly "Speller's Choice" packet for free!
Thanks, Heidi, for having me!
:)
Christina

Spin & Spell Website

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.

Do your kids misspell common words?  Want a fun way for them to work on those words?  This week’s Wednesday Website Suggestion is called Spin and Spell.  It has collections of pictures in categories like: What We Wear, The Animal Kingdom and What We Eat.  When students click on the picture, the computer says the word.  Then, students get a chance to spell the words by using the spinner. 

This game is especially good for my English Language Learners who may not know some of these common words.  Also, if students really struggle with spelling, they have an opportunity to click “Show Me The Word” and get the spelling.  This is an easy, independent computer center for the beginning of the year.