Welcome to Week 8: Civics
This week we'll focus on suggestions for websites and apps.
Susan Bradley from Staten Island has shared a great video to use when you need material about the U.S. Flag from the website Have Fun With History
Story of Our Flag - (1917) 6 min
An early silent rendition of the traditional Betsy Ross story - George Washington commissions Miss Ross to construct a flag from his design.
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Marika Martin (one of our Upper Manhattan teachers) suggested this website:
www.gcflearnfree.org
Marika mentioned (and we confirm this) that learning how to navigate this website takes some getting used to, but the site has really useful tools for ESOL and literacy students:Example: Practice Reading (Launch Activity)
Symbols under the circle give you choices: "letters", "words", "texts", "videos", "activities"
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/reading/practicereading/play
Click on the "White House"/government symbol (click the top right arrow until you see it)
Click "activities"
Choose one ("sound match", "fill ins", "word sound", "blast off")
It's a great website to introduce in class, so that students can practice more at home, on their own. Activities range from video game style activities to gap fills, reading and more, for a large variety of topics. Computer skills involve moving arrows, typing, drag and drop and more.
Here are some site snapshots:
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| In this activity ("Blast Off), students have to move the little figure to the correct answer, using the direction arrows. |
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| Here, you hover over the three tapes to listen to three different words, and then drag the correct tape into the boombox. |
Here's another great website to explore: http://www.englishcentral.com
There are over 10,000 video excerpts for different levels, with interactive exercises - movie trailers and scenes, commercials and more. Use of the videos and activities is free (for $12.00/month students can sign up for sessions with a live tutor)
There are also great videos that focus on pronunciation for different levels. The woman in the pronunciation videos is Pamela Prather, a voice coach Elke knows personally, she is great.
Try giving your students audio feedback for homework, instead of written comments (using a voice recorder on your smart phone and emailing it to students, or by uploading it to a class wiki).
Or, here's a tip from Elizabeth:
Create your OWN recordings and use them in the classroom:
Three Uses for Student Audio Recordings
TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
I myself attended this lecture at the New School University. It was very useful. She suggests, "suggests practical solutions and outline seven concepts in teaching pronunciation." Yes, the video is over one hour in length, but believe me when I tell you it's worth it.
There are also some great hand-outs that go with this lecture and Ms. Gilbert's work in general. Click here for Teaching Pronunciation Using the Prosody Pyramid for a free 50-page downloadable booklet. It's on the TESOL.org site, and it, "...explains the background for decisions about priorities in teaching pronunciation, and gives specific suggestions for teaching the crucial elements, as well as two rules for guessing how a spelling should be pronounced."
Or, if you need something smaller in length, click here for a 5-page booklet: Six Pronunciation Priorities for the Beginning Student
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Three more:
1. Our program wikihttp://abcwrite.wikispaces.com/practice+with+videos
has some pronunciation videos based on the Reading Reform professional development,made by Danica and Elke (more to come).
2. www.allaboutlearningpress.com
has a great app Upper Manhattan lead instructor Yolanda Rodriguez has used with her students (for smartphones)
3. StoryCorps
is a wonderful documentary project (they also interviewed NYPL students and tutors a while back).Students can watch and listen to many different stories (and there's a Storycorps app for them to record)
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THANKSGIVING RESOURCES
The First Thanksgiving- Although these are lessons and activities for elementary school students, we can adapt them to our low-level classrooms.
ESL Holiday Lessons- Thanksgiving This site has a nice set of free worksheets and activities for every holiday. (Even some audio!)
Everything ESL Thanksgiving LP - An entire lesson plan with links to texts.
Boggle's World- Thanksgiving- a bunch of activities- word searches, cloze, etc.
Check out the cute "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" clip below with your class:
Below is a transcript and gapfill for the clip:
-Download a word doc or PDF for your class on the "traditions" program wiki:
http://alc-traditions.wikispaces.com/Thanksgiving
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FROM MEXICO TESOL -
The MEXTESOL Conference was great with a lot of really interesting workshops (very few were in Spanish :)
We will have more information in coming blogposts.
UPCOMING EVENTS
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
NJ TESOL Convention, June 1-3, 2016. Held in New Brunswick, NJ, this is a great conference and easy to get to. Information about submitting a proposal is here: NJ TESOL Call for Proposals. The deadline is November 29- so don't delay.
Elizabeth:
"Not sure what to do or where to start? Start with a Poster Presentation. It could focus on a project you did in class, or focus on a teaching theme (like pronunciation, for example). For poster presentations, you stand with the other presenters with your work on display. You bring handouts, and conference attendees will be glad to take your handouts and talk to you about your subject.
For example, I just made a poster presentation on "The Do's and Don'ts of an ESL Instructor's resume." I made a handout for attendees to take with them that had suggestions about what to include (or NOT include) on a resume. I stood with my poster and answered many questions. It's that simple!"
We'd appreciate feedback and blog comments :)
Have a great week!
Elizabeth & Elke
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