Winter Salad

Winter time can be a difficult time to find good quality and cheap fresh fruits and vegetables. In my class a few weeks ago, we had some visitors from a local "eat healthy" group demonstrate how to make a delicious salad with us. They brought all the ingredients, and we provided the bowls, forks, and appetites :)

For most guest speakers that come into my classes, I  encourage them to use simplified language and make the presentation very visual and experiential. Following this recipe was a great opportunity to build on these learning styles. We adapted the recipe based on what ingredients we had. This concept was a bit freeing for my learners and they began brainstorming ideas to make the recipe their own.

Our guest speakers brought this recipe. I do not know the source.

Some ingredients:

Great cooking vocabulary!

 Chop

 Slice

Toss

We sat and enjoyed this delicious and nutritious salad together. It was a social event and we talked about the textures, the tastes, and recipe adaptations.

Our final item: compost! In our city we are lucky to have a great municipal composting program. This all got pitched into the "green" bin.

Outcomes: Following instructions, describing personally relevant experiences, working with others, measurement, asking questions

Follow-up: Our community offers a "Good Food Box". This contains many fresh fruits and vegetables at a very low cost. It support local farmers and businesses. Practise reading the program flyer for details about dates, costs, items, and pick-up or delivery locations. Once the food box comes in, talk about the food and share other recipes.

In addition, you could precede or follow up this recipe with studying nutritional facts, reading food labels, and doing a class presentation on a nutrient or mineral.

Needs Assessment Tool: Dotmocracy

Every two months, I like to assess what content and activities my students  want to stop, continue and start. 

One way I do this is a "dotmocracy".

My workplace has suggested a consistent yearly thematic sequence to cover. However, we can adjust this, extend it, and skip themes, etc., to meet the needs of our learners. For the topic dotmocracy, I told the students the themes were Travel and Transportation and Family, and if something else was important, we could add it. I love what they added! 

I gave each student five stickers. They had to choose the five most important things for them right now.

For the classroom activities dotmocracy, I started the list with activities that are regular weekly activities, and asked students to brainstorm what we do in class and other activities they would like to do. I gave each student the same number of stickers as items listed. I asked them to choose either “do” or “stop” for each one. Then, students put up their stickers during break.

From this, my students have essentially designed the curriculum for the next two months. I look at the most important items and our time-line and see what we can cover. We will do it again in two months. If something was missed and is very important, the students have the opportunity to express it and vote on it again. Also, students can see how many of their peers share their same opinion, needs and wants.

Winter Wishes

The end of the year celebration at school usually includes all students at all levels. The teachers tap into their creativity to meet the needs of the learners. This year, our students ranged from Literacy Foundation to CLB 6. To start off our morning, we designed an activity that included some student collaboration, speaking, fine motor skills, following instructions, and writing.

We started by having students put together a puzzle.

I designed the puzzle in Word, saved it in Adobe, and printed it as a poster. I enlarged it to about 375%, so it printed off into sixteen squares. The images I chose were not distinct enough, and we decided to add colours. Students used the colours to determine how the lines matched up. I gave them some clues such as that the puzzle was 4 x 4 squares. I also put up squares six and seven to get them started. Students of all levels participated in this.

This puzzle had the question for our next activity. First, each student expressed their own answers. Some students required a sentence starter, and others said a few sentences.

Then, we moved on to writing our sentences and decorating some winter-themed images.

Teachers and higher level students assisted lower level writers by writing down the learners' sentences or words. Students then copied their message onto the paper.

  

Happy new year to you all! I hope your winter wishes come true too!

On-going project: Binder Organization

For many of my students, binder organization is a big challenge, or quite low on the priority list. I have promised myself that this will be the year that I incorporate binder organization into the daily lesson plan. And actually be consistent with it!

Some things I have observed about student binders and binder organization:
1. Some students have no binder at all.
2. Binders are often a place to place papers, but generally not securely within the rings.
3. Some binders are organized from back to front, not front to back.
4. Some students do not like to carry binders back and forth from school because of the size. (There were three binders left in my class over the summer vacation!)
5. Most papers are not dated.
6. Separating papers from the morning class and afternoon class is challening.
7. It takes some students a long time to find their homework.

Our tools:

My plan:
After a month or so in school, students will have a sense of what being in my class is like - routines, style, approaches, and types of papers I give out. Students will brainstorm and decide upon categories for binder division so that they are in control of it and remember how to organize it. Students write on the labels, and organize all the papers according to section and date.

The results:

Headings chosen by the class.

So tidy!

 

The final test: Hold the binder up and see if any papers fall out.

  

Success!

Routines, Activities and Strategies for Literacy Learners
1. Binder Organization - organize it together and maintain it together
2. Respect learners' knowledge and experiences in having them list and decide on the categories as a group.
3. Provide learning strategy instruction. Now that the binders are labelled, teach them how to use this system. This can help them in class and at home.
4. Play a game. Once the binders are organized and the papers are all dated, have a scanning game. For example, find the grammar handout from September 27. Find the citizenship paper from October 10.

TESL Ontario: I'm Presenting!

I am getting very excited to have the opportunity to do two workshops at the up-coming TESL Ontario Conference. My workshops are on Thursday, October 24. I will be doing one on my own, and another with two of my colleagues.

Here is the link to the conference brochure: http://www.teslontario.net/uploads/conference/conf2013/Brochure%20100713%20Reduced%20Viewing.pdf 

My first independent workshop is called LINCs to Literacy (code TPM). The description is as follows: Do you have literacy students in your LINC 2/3 classes? Not sure how to begin meeting their needs? Join this workshop to understand how the CLB and Literacy Phases align. Look at and apply ways of incorporating literacy outcomes, approaches and activities into your classes using mainstream LINC resources.

My second group workshop is Multilevel Group Activities for Holidays and Special Occasions (code TQP). The description is as follows:This interactive workshop will provide participants with creative activities to teach and celebrate Canadian holidays while incorporating language outcomes.Presenters will share their experiences of combining classes from Literacy to CLB 5 to mark special days and holidays. Participants will take part in adaptable sample activities that are low budget, low prep and can be used across the levels.

A blog by any other name...

... would still be my blog.

As I mentioned in my interview on the ESL Literacy Network's blog, I wanted to keep myself open to adapting my blog any way I see fit to maintain the on-going and changing vision I have of it. As time passes, I meet new students and occasionally get transferred into other classes. Based on where I am now, what I want to do with my learners and my blog for the upcoming year, I have decided to take the word "Projects" out of my title. I have done a few projects with my learners, but many of the features in this blog are not true projects. To read about projects in ESL check out this site: http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/projbase.html. To be more reflective of what I am showing you here, I have changed the word "Projects" to "Activities" in my title.

TESL Ontario ESL Week Contest - Blog Runner Up Winner

My blog has won a runner up prize in the TESL Ontario ESL Week Contest, 2013. I am very excited to have been acknowledged by my peers. Thank you very much!

Click here to see the grand prize winners and other runner up winners: http://www.teslontario.net/esl-week-contest-winners-instructors-activities-0