I just want to thank all of you as my classmates for this summer's ESL class. I learned so much and I thank each of you for that since you are the ones who taught me. I do plan to use the mini grammar lessons in my classroom to help strengthen my students academic English skills. Thank you again and I wish each of you a GREAT school year!
~Your appreciative classmate
Elizabeth
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Wiki Assignment (Unit 12)
I didn't realize we only needed 5 entries. For some reason I thought we needed more. I discovered it was only five after I entered all the information into the table. So I decided to send it all. I hope you are able to use some of them for your future ESL classrooms!
| Topic | Name | Website or Activity | Description | How this supports Language Acquisition |
| Phonemics: | Elizabeth Moore | | Children learn to count the sounds in a word by stretching out the sounds with a large rubber band. . For example Can you count the syllables or the word pats in MMMMMAAAAAAANNN Then say it fast man | This helps the students learn about word parts and sounds. |
| Phonemics | Elizabeth Moore | Manipulate phonemes in words It has 6 lessons to teach phonemics and has lessons from easy to harder. Also gives you a cute shark concept to think about beginning middle and end sounds. | This shows students how sounds in words are the same and how if you know the sound in some words you can figure out an unknown word by breaking it down. | |
| Morphology | Elizabeth Moore | The activities on this website are designed to assist the instructor in meeting the following learning objects 1. Increase knowledge of base words and deviational suffixes 2. Increase reading comprehension abilities through the application of morphological analysis strategies | This helps students understand about base words and how adding certain meanings or prefixes change the words meanings. | |
| Morphology | Elizabeth Moore | I liked this site because it had a paragraph about how morphology impact ESL learners. | Lets the students know the structure and form of words. | |
| Semantics and Morphology | Elizabeth Moore | This website has 8 hands on activates for the students t learn about semantics and morphology. Each activity has the activity title, cognitive element, activity and notes, reader type, language, and the source. | This lets the learner understand language by completing a hands on activities | |
| Semantic | Elizabeth Moore | Guided Comprehension: Knowing how words work using semantic features analysis. It is for grade 3 through 6. It has worksheets and taking information from folktales, myths and fables. | This helps the learner with reading comprehension. | |
| Sociolinguistics | Elizabeth Moore | An interesting two-minute video that shows you the new and modern way people are communicating with each other. This might be a nice video to open a lesson to or to end one. | This lets the learner see different ways to express thoughts. | |
| Sociolinguistics | Elizabeth Moore | | Understanding the basic structure of the English language including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Also has a section for second language learners. | This website helps the child understand all the rules of the language. |
| Socio-linguistics | Elizabeth Moore | Several ideas to use in the classroom to teach sociolinguistics. It talks about using the PBS special called American Tongues or Do you Speak American? To bring up African American English and how it all impacts your life. | This uses video media to talk about how different types of language affect our language. | |
| Pragmatics | Elizabeth Moore | This is an actual lesson plan for the beginner to intermediate Spanish speaker learner to work on their pragmatics. The learner should have a good vocabulary. | This introduces or reviews the different styles of English and how it is used | |
| Pragmatics | Elizabeth Moore | | A website with a lesson plan to focus on teaching compliments to the ESL students. The goal of the lesson is to raise the learner’s awareness about pragmatic rules, observe native English speakers behavior, and help the learner in the speech acts. | This introduces or reviews the different styles of English and how it is used |
| Pragmatics | Elizabeth Moore | | A website with many materials to use for communication lesson plans | This introduces or reviews the different styles of English and how it is used |
| Semantics | Elizabeth Moore | This provides the student with a concrete way to learn vocabulary. It develops definitional and contextual for words | This broadens the students’ vocabulary. | |
| Phonics | Elizabeth Moore | Students will listen to a story while learning about another cultural and studying the short u sound. | The student will learn about short vowel sounds. | |
| Phonics | Elizabeth Moore | Students will be aware of rhymes and other visual similarities in words. | The student realizes words can be similar in sounds and spellings. | |
| Syntax | Elizabeth Moore | Students will use twenty words or less in a sentence to describe a picture. Then they will analyzes a one-sentence poem and discuss what makes it a poem. | This allows students to dissect poems and figure out the genre of poetry. | |
| Syntax | Elizabeth Moore | This lesson uses poetry to encourage critical thinking and reading. The students analyze the differences in poems structures. | This allows students to look at poetry closer and realize all the English structures in it. |
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Language Comparison (Unit 11)
Please copy and paste the link below to see my language comparison between English and Spanish! I hope you enjoy it!
http://www.slideshare.net/Elmteach1027/moore-language-comparison-esl-502
http://www.slideshare.net/Elmteach1027/moore-language-comparison-esl-502
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Unit 10 Topics
Activity Topic 1
Activity 1: Language Variation in the US
I was curious to hear the different accents for the different states and even within the same state. I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia until I was almost 5. Then my mother and I moved to the Pittburgh, Pa area. Both areas have distent accents and I feel I have inherited a little from each place. The reason I bring this up is because I find accents so interesting and I also think since I had trouble with sounds in the early part of my life I wonder if some of my difficultly is because of the different accents I was exposed to a child.
I really enjoyed playing the game can you guess where my accent is from. I realized early on in the game that I could not tell from the sentence they were reading but more from when they asked the question, “Where is my accent from?” I think that is because that sentence came natural to them where the other was being read.
Activity Topic 2
Activity 1: What would you do?
I am disgusted with how people treat people who are different then them. Being a special education teacher I have been advocating for my children for a long time and will continue to advocate for all children. I think it is important to remember and to remind my co-workers that even if they would like to discuss issues with the parents. (Which I would tell them is wrong and to take it up with the law makers not the people trying to do better for their families) that the children didn’t ask to be here in the USA and we have a right to those children to educate them!
Another important thing to remember is as an ESL teacher to not favor a certain nationality when working with many other students. I am thinking that an ESL teacher in our district was teasing but it still made me feel uncomfortable when we were drawing names out to win prizes and they were saying yes another Hispanic name. So as much as we stand up for our students make sure we are standing up for all of our students!
Activity 2: Do you speak American?
Sociolinguistics is an interesting topic too. I think it is amazing how certain words, slang, and fads are picked up. I mentioned in my other post about texting and how that language is because very popular and how people are responding to that fad as well. I think we will continue to see changes in sociolinguistics over time.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Unit 9 Topic 1 Information
Topic 1:
Original Story:
John is a fisherman. He hasn’t had much luck catching fish in the past few weeks. He is hoping to catch more fish tomorrow, but he doesn’t know if it will be any better. He has never been a very successful fisherman; even though it is the only job he’s ever had. If he is able to catch two nets full of fish, he will be able to pay off his debt; however, this hasn’t happened in the past four years.
John would have become a farmer if he could have, but he has never had the money to buy land.
His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves fishing, but longs to be more successful. When he was feeling down, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, “You’re always fishing for compliments.”
If John had had more energy, he might have argued with his brother, but instead, he began making more nets, with the hopes of increasing his catch the next day.
1. Re-written part:
John’s brother purchased land last winter but sold it to the neighbors when he didn’t have enough money to pay his bills. John wants to be successfully at fishing since he loves to fish. When John was feeling sad, he painted his boat blue and made it look like new. His boats name is “Troubled Waters”. John asked his brother if he liked the boat’s new look. John’s brother laughed at John and said, “You are always wanting people to say nice things to you especially about the boat.”
If John was feeling better he might have said something back to his brother. Instead, John focus on positive thoughts and starts making more nets in hopes of increasing the amount of fish he will catch when he goes fishing the next day.
2. Some of the areas I focused on switching were:
One of the first things I changed was saying John’s brother instead of his brother. Since you are starting a paragraph off you need to make sure the reader is aware of who his is. In this story it represents John but you need to make sure that is clear. Another area I focus on to change was economy crashed. Although we know this means that money is low, some ESL students might not be able to figure out this figurative language and to decrease confusion I just said he didn’t have enough money to pay the bills. I am sure ESL students have heard their parents speak of paying the bills. Another area I focused on was about him loving to fish and wanting to be successful at it. I just felt that in the original story it was choppy. I switched the words around to help it flow more smoothly. The next area I thought that might be confusing for an ESL learner was the comment about fishing for a compliment. Although I love that pun on the fishing story I think it might be hard for an ESL student to understand and they would be confused since the story is actually about fishing. I changed it to wanting people to say nice things to you especially about the boat. Another word I switched was argued. I am not sure an ESL student would know the meaning of that word so I would introduce it to them as we read the story but switched the story to say something back. I like to remain positive and I feel John is trying to be positive at the end of the story so I added the word positive to help the reader understand that John is trying to feel better and be happy and look forward to the future.
Unit 9 Topic 2 Information
Topic 2
3. Timelines:
1. John is a fisherman. (Simple Present)
I_______________X______________________I
Past Now Future
2. His brother brought land last winter…… (Simple past)
I________X________I______________________I
Past Now Future
3. …….with hopes of increasing his catch the next day (Simple future)
I_________________________I______________X___________I
Past Now Future
4. Thoughts of the TESOL Grammar Video
I guess it would be safe to say before I viewed the video I thought we could acquire grammar from those around us. Not saying I thought the grammar would be perfect but I figured it would be acceptable. After listening to Betty, Keith and Michael I would have to say I totally disagree and think grammar needs to be taught to L1 and L2 students. I think my thought about it being acquired is due to what is happening at my school. We do not teach grammar. We touch on it throughout lessons but we don’t teach it. The reading teachers have expressed their concern but we are told there is not time and we need to focus on reading and math. I guess now after the video I feel a way to strengthen their reading is to help them understand the grammar that goes with the language. I liked Betty’s comment about the two being a hybrid that works. I think it is very 21st century and a great way to look at it. We need both to make it work. I also liked how she said grammar can be integrated but we need to do that to help them be fluent in grammar. I also liked how she said she doesn’t have all the answers and students won’t have grammar mastered after our classes but more of an understanding. I think that is another important piece you don’ t to teach them every piece of grammar but some will eventually lead to more. Keith’s statement about being able to do something with the grammar we learn and not just saying we covered it made me think. I remember learning grammar pieces in school but I still struggle with certain grammar rules and theory. I might have covered it but being able to use it would be much more beneficial for me. I also really liked that he said to have multiply ways to teach grammar in case the students needs it presented in another forum. I think that is important….not everyone learns the same way. Which brings me to Michael’s comments about we should be focus on what our students need and how we will reach each of them. I think it is important to know that each student is different and may required different levels of grammar to be focused on for them to be a better student. In closing, I will quote Michael and say we need to be realistic and know that our students need to be taught grammar and although some people might thing there are 3 golden rules to grammar they are not being realistic and they need to regroup and focus on what the students needs. Second language learners will not just inherit grammar skills. Grammar needs to be taught!
Moore Mini Grammar Lesson in pieces.....but posted :)
After calling friends and searching for answers on the computer I can finally say I have decided to post my slideshow in the News forum. I was not able to post it all at once due to the size so you will see four part there. Sorry, but I am so excited I figured out how to get the sound included.
Have a great day!
Have a great day!
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