Level-appropriate songs for beginning adult ELLs

This is the PDF for a presentation on using level-appropriate songs for beginner adult English language learners that I gave at CATESOL's Regional Conference at University of Southern California on March 2, 2013.

Click here to access the file.
For best viewing and navigating results, download the file from Google Docs as a PDF and view with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Tools for developing cross-cultural understanding

Just as English language teachers need to develop cross-cultural skills for themselves, our students may also have this need.  A few tips on teaching cross-cultural skills to English Language learners:

1.  Don't assume that students have cross-cultural skills.  Just because they're from a different culture doesn't mean they have cross-cultural skills.

2.  Introduce recently arrived students to the Stages of Culture Shock.  This will help them understand the process of what they are going through being in a different culture.  Helping them process their adjustment to a new culture will help them see it for what it is.

3.  Be patient with students' perspectives.  Part of cultural adaptation is anger and misunderstanding.  When you see students going through this, be patient with them, allowing them the space to work out their own understanding.  Some people may never fully 'understand' a culture, but they do grow to accept it.

Other Helpful Resources about culture and the ELT classroom

• Thomas Jesus Garza online course on culture in the language classroom provides an in-depth and thorough examination of the theory and thought surrounding this dialog.  
• Language problems. Cultural Opportunities.  Tristan Verboven examines the impact of teachers expecting immigrant students to assimilate rather than integrate.
• Making Peace: A reading/thinking/writing text on global community is a textbook by Elaine Brooks and Len Fox with exercises to help English language learners explore concepts of peace in cultural interactions.    
• National Capital Language Resource Center: Teaching Culture provides an in-depth exploration of how to incorporate teaching culture into the classroom.
• Iceberg Concept of Culture is a great way to help students explore which parts of culture are causing stress in their lives.  It also helps them verbalize and explore how their culture may have unspoken rules that their new culture does not have.

An introduction to writing a rubric for English Language Learners

Education has all sorts of jargon.  For new teachers (especially those teaching English without any previous training), the word 'rubric' might fly right over their heads, leaving them to wonder about this strange-sounding word that so many teachers use.

So, you ask, what's a rubric?  In short, a rubric is a tool teachers use to accurately and objectively measure how much students have learned about a specific topic or skill.  To give you a framework, here are a few samples of  rubrics:  ESL Reading Rubric, ESL Speaking Rubric.

How do I create a rubric?

1. Determine what you want to measure.  Are you grading for specific, detailed accuracy, or overall understanding?  Are you trying to assess listening/speaking skills or reading/writing skills?  If you are primarily checking to see that students understand the vocabulary, you don't want to design a rubric that measures grammar or syntax.  However, if you want to assess a bigger picture of language skills, you might incorporate all of these aspects.  
2. Determine the standards for excellence - inadequacy.  (I know, I know, that's a lot of power in your hands, right!?!?)  Typically, you don't want to measure for more than 4 levels.  I usually use something like this:  (4) exceeds expectations; (3) meets expectations; (2) approaches expectations; (1) does not meet expectations.  These standards are typically listed across the top of the table.  
3. Determine the skills you want to measure.  Choose 3-5 skills you want to assess based on what you are measuring.  For example, if you want to measure speaking ability, you might assess vocabulary use, accuracy, pronunciation, and comprehensibly.  
4. Write measurable descriptions for each skill/standard.  For example, describe what each expectation looks like for each skill.  When you write descriptions, be as specific as measureable as possible.  Instead of writing, "The student uses lots of advanced vocabularly," you might write, "The student uses over 10 advanced vocabularly words accurately in context.  

I like to give the rubric to the student before the assignment so they know how they'll be graded.  I find students appreciate knowing teachers' expectations ahead of time.


Other helpful resources on rubrics:

• The best rubric sites
• Kathy Shrock's Assessment and Rubrics

Designing high quality activities for ESL students

When teaching, it's important that the materials you design not only solid have solid content, but they also need to be graphically designed in a way that facilitates understanding.  Here are some tips on how to create activities with excellent content and visual appeal:

Design

• Use SmartArt to create graphic organizers.  You can also use mindmapping or brainstorming sites like bubbl.us or mindmeister.com to do this as well.
• Leave plenty of white space.  This will help to reduce clutter and let the student see what's most important.
• Make the title is specific and easy to find.  This way a student doesn't spend valuable time trying to understand less important words.
• Use bold, italics, font sizes, etc. to help draw the eye to what’s most important on the page.
• Try to repeat the same design style for the repeating components (like directions).
• If you use graphics, make sure they support the text.

 Content

• Make sure the language AND tasks are written at a level accessible for the intended students.
• Vary the type of exercises you include.  Try to match the difficulty of task to the level of student.
• Make language as simple and straightforward as possible.
• Base your activity only on material the students have learned already.  Including new vocabularly or other unlearned information will only confuse students.  

Best flashcard resources for ESL students

Flashcards are a great tool for language learning, and can be used in far more interactive ways than simply flip and recall.  Why spend money on pre-made flashcards if you have paper and a printer?  There are some GREAT websites that offer free flashcards for English language learners.  Here are a few:

ESLFlashcards.com.  All flashcards are free and come in 3 sizes.  Art looks like clip-art.   The site offers over 2900 flashcards!

ESL Flashcards for Kids.  Flashcards come in different sizes, with and without the word describing the picture.

ESL Kidstuff Flashcards.  Over 1500 flashcards in 80 categories.

Kidsparkz.  Offers photo flashcards too.

Kizclub.  This is my all time FAVORITE printables site.  Their flashcards are no exception!

Creative ways to use flashcards with English language learners

Flashcards can conjure up images of boring, repetitive, kill-and-drill activities.  However, they don't have to be used this way!  Flashcards are a GREAT tool for the esl/efl classroom, and can be used quite effectively cooperative and interactive learning.  Here are some ideas:

• Around the world:  A classic competitive game which keeps students on their toes!  Follow basic directions here for around the world, except substitute vocab for spelling.  Show students flashcards to elicit the word in the target language.
• Conversation starters:  Pass out flashcards and have students discuss the pictures with a partner.  Have them ask and answer questions about the picture.  This could be a timed activity where pictures are rotated and students discuss new pictures as they go around the class.
• Memory: Have students match word to picture.
• Writing prompts:  Give each student a flashcard and have them journal, freewrite, or brainstorm about the picture.

Like these ideas?  Here's a whole HUGE list of more!!!

Why use graphic organizers with English Language Learners

Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in the US has its own unique dynamics with regards to content, standards, and testing.  Given this context, many ESL teachers are teaching far more than just English language – they can play the role of social worker, lawyer, parent (not to mention the never-ending paper-pusher!).  I’ve even known ESL teachers who bring breakfast for their students because they knew no food was available at home.  Kudos to all of you doing this meaningful and needed work!

Here are some excellent resources that will help you do your job even better:

Colorin Colorado

PACKED with information, this bilingual (Spanish) site offers research-based guidance for ESL teachers in the form of webcasts, articles, and materials.  Take a look at some of the topics they address for educators:

And here’s an overview of their research topics:

They also offer an email newsletter.  This is by far the most informative and comprehensive ESL website I’ve seen.

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquistion (NCELA)

Sponsored by the US Department of Education, NCELA provides access to current standards, grants, funding, and opportunities for professional development.  While some may argue that government offices are affected too much by politics and bureaucracy to provide accurate information (and have a darn good point!), it is still a reality that this dictates much of the environment that affects the field of ESL teaching in the US.  Its helpful to understand the system to be able to work most effectively in it.

Teaching Tolerance

In many cases, ESL teachers are often advocates for and defenders of policies, practices, and attitudes that support an environment of mutual respect between cultures.  While I take issue with the word ‘tolerance’ (I would hope for more than just ‘tolerance’ in our schools, but that’s another issue), this site offers a wide variety of lesson plans, articles, and tools for teachers looking to help their schools develop a culturally responsive environment in the classroom.

All I really need to know about teaching I learned from teaching without a light switch

My first experience teaching English was in Burkina Faso – at that time one of the ten poorest countries in the world.  My only resources were a box of chalk, a chalkboard, and a florescent light bulb.  The light bulb turned on (most days) by maneuvering two wires sticking out of the wall precariously to make them spark.  My ride to school on the unpaved roads of Ouagadougou involved dodging livestock, steering around deep ruts in the road, and waving at the bright smiles of barefoot children seeing a nasara for the first time in their lives.  Many of the fundamental tools I still use in teaching, I learned in that sparse classroom.

1. Students who want to learn can accomplish unlimited things. I had one student ride his bike two hours one way to come to my English class because he wanted to practice speaking with a native speaker to improve his English before he went to seminary in English.
2. There are always resources we can’t afford.  Using what is available goes a long way. While we didn’t even have textbooks, we used songs, quotes, and the chalkboard.  We did groupwork, individual work, and pairwork.  We wrote on the chalkboard, used photocopies, and memorized poems.
3. Students are first individuals, students second. Until teachers know what affects students’ realities outside of the classroom, they are limited in their knowledge of how to help them learn inside the classroom.
4. What happens inside my classroom is not the only factor that affects students’ attitudes. The developing world makes it very easy to remember that humans do not completely control what happens around them, and that this sometimes spills over into the classroom.  The donkeys braying outside my classroom every afternoon made this quite clear. On rainy days, my students didn’t come to class because the unpaved roads turned to mud and made travel challenging. 
5. Sometimes the bigger systems keep the little systems from working right. Hungry children do not focus as well as fed children.  Access to money means access to education means access to freedom of choice.  Corrupt governments oppress the poor and enable the wealthy.
6. Being a teacher holds inherent power, whether we recognize it or not. In Burkina Faso, I represented America – as much as I hated to admit – and the power that came with it.  Regardless of where my classroom has been, the position of teacher has given me a platform which affects others.  How it affects them is left to whether I handle my power with humble servanthood or proud dictatorship.
7. A smile goes a long way. Even without the ability to communicate with language, smiles speak a message of their own. 

This isn’t to say that resources are bad – they are, in fact, very helpful.  It’s just that sometimes the most potent realities of teaching don’t have anything to do with resources for teaching is an act that occurs between two human beings, not two computers or two pieces of paper or two textbooks.

Tips for teaching large, multilevel ESL/EFL classes

It is not uncommon for ESL classes around the world to be quite large and contain a wide range of student language levels (see this thread’s comments).  Oftentimes this situation occurs in developing countries with volunteer teachers.  If you are a teacher in this situation, where do you even begin?  Here are some ideas[1]:

1. Assess student needs. Find out what students want/need to learn.
2. Make time to plan.This will take awhile, but the payoff will result in less frustration from you and the students in class because you will be teaching to all levels rather than just the middle.
   1. Create an overall plan. Decide on the big picture of what you’re going to teach.  For ideas of what to teach, peruse ESL texts’ table of contents appropriate to the age level on Amazon See Inside or look on ESL publishers websites (Oxford, Cambridge, Heinle, are among the largest).  This will give you a direction for the class.
   2. Determine a consistent class structure.This will depend on what works for your context, but it should include a consistent approach to each class session that helps facilitate what you’re teaching.  For example, each day, the class period may look something like this:
      1. Song
      2. Daily Quote
      3. Large group work
      4. Small group work
      5. Pair work
      6. Closing game
      7. Use groups. Plan for whole group, small group, and pair work during class.  Make sure to assign roles to group members (especially when working with mixed-ability groups) so that one person doesn’t end up doing all the work.
   3. Create opportunities for independent self-paced work. This may include crossword puzzles, flashcards, board games, magazines, art supplies.  It will take some time to set up and communicate expectations to students, but it also allows students to work at their own level.

Types of Activities

• Whole group activities: daily warm-ups, singing, brainstorming, daily quotes
• Small group activities: activities appropriate for similar skill or interest level
• Pairwork: information gap, interviews, role plays
• Activities appropriate for groups at similar levels: problem solving, writing exercises, grammar work
• Activities appropriate for groups at different levels: board games, art projects,

More Resources

Teaching Large, Multilevel Classes by Natalie Hess.  This book provides useful information on topics such as activities for getting to know students, keeping students motivated, and doing written and group work.  You can view a preview of the text here.

Teaching English as a Foreign Language to large, multilevel classes. This is a guide written for Peace Corp volunteers – although it’s old, it’s thorough and has some excellent information.

Teaching Large, Heterogenous Classrooms. An in-depth power point by leading TESOL scholar Penny Ur.

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[1] Information based on:
Shank, C., & Terrill, L. (1995, May). Teaching multilevel adult esl classes. CAELA, Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/SHANK.html
Bowman, B., Larson, M, Short, D., & McKay, H. (1992). Teaching english as a foreign language to large, multilevel classes. ERIC, Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED358702.pdf doi: ED 358 702

Examples of language focused learning

A language classroom should be filled with many different kinds of opportunities to practice language or deep learning is unlikely to occur.  Here are some practical ways to provide a wide variety of practice for your students:

• Distinguishing minimal pairs
• Focusing on sounds, intonation, and stress
• Learning vocabulary on cards
• Re-arranging words in the right order to make sentences
• Getting feedback on errors
• Sentence combining and transformation
• Guided composition
• Dictation
• Listening for particular words or phrases
• Repetition and substitution drills
• Memorizing dialogues and poems
• Analysing cohesive devices
• Learning to guess from context clues
• Sentence-completion activities

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[1] S., I, & Macalister, J. (2009). Language curriculum design. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Developing curriculum to teaching English without a textbook

Some teachers prefer to ditch the textbook for more ‘creative’ endeavors.  I am personally a fan of textbooks (with appropriate supplements here and there) because they provide an overarching picture of what a student learns.  But what’s a teacher – creative or not - to do when there is no textbook?  In such situations, some teachers may jump from random topic to random topic, frustrating even themselves for lack of clarity and direction.

So where do you start if you’re in the boat without a book?[1]

Student Knowledge

1. What do your students know? Determine an approximate level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
2. What do your students need to know? Pay particular attention to the kind of language skills the have – reading, writing, speaking, listening – over the specific knowledge they possess.
3. Why are your students learning English? What kind of English do they need? Teaching English for university preparation will look very different than teaching conversational English to children.
4. How are students accustomed to learning? Trying to impose a great deal of group work on children more used to rote drills will be challenging.  Make an effort to work within some of the context of the culture you’re teaching in so that the method doesn’t distract the students from the content.

Resources

1. How much time do you have to teach and plan?
2. How many other materials (including copiers, chalkboards, etc.) are available?
3. What kind of training do the teachers around you have?

So now that you know where you are, what do you actually do?

1. Determine the ‘big topics’ of what you will teach of the entire course. Students learn better when topics are loosely associated with each other (for example:  teach transportation modes together, teach food/restaurant vocab at the same time, etc.).  Topics will be influenced heavily by your answers to the questions above regarding student knowledge.  Some of these books may be helpful in the process.
2. Break down the big topics into smaller chunks and determine what type of grammar might pair well with the topics.
3. Focus first on practical language! Teaching obscure vocabulary and minute grammar points (unless it's appropriate for the type of class you're teaching) will only serve to frustrate everyone.  Make an effort to teach language skills – reading, writing, teaching, listening – evenly throughout the class.  Read Examples of language focused learning for some suggestions of activities that help do this.
4. Don’t forget to assess what the students are learning.

Tips on developing culturally responsive teaching

Just because we teach students from other cultures doesn’t mean we necessarily understand or are sensitive to the backgrounds our students come from.  Recognizing differences in food, dance, and dress can create an appreciation for culture, but developing deep cultural sensitivity comes from a different place.  Being a ‘culturally responsive’ teacher involves a deep awareness of how our actions impact our students, and how our students’ worlds are affected by the cultures in which they live.

While this is a lifelong process, the journey begins with a few steps:

• Know yourself. Spend some timereflecting on your own experience.  How does your background affect your perceptions?  What types of experiences do you have with people of different cultural backgrounds?  How might these experiences (or lack of) influence your understanding of your students?
• Believe in your students. Regardless of background, all children have an intelligence in some area. Look for these skills and communicate this to them through your teaching style, the materials you choose, and your responses to them. 
• Be proactive. Look for ways to actively support and advocate for your students.
• Acknowledge difference.  ‘Being colorblind’ means you don’t see a significant part of who a person is.  Listen to Diane Harriford describe how to be ‘color conscious’.

Want to know more?  See Resources on culturally responsive teaching

{Free PDF} Graphic Organizer for Jigsaw Activity / Groupwork

Click here for PDF file

The Jigsaw is one of my favorite activities to use for reading comprehension with English language learners. It allows them to organize information they have read in a visual way, thereby helping them process the material more deeply. (The picture above is a link to a generic graphic organizer for a jigsaw activity.)

Here's an example of how you might direct groupwork using this handout:

Sample topic:  American Revolutionary War

1.  Divide students into 3 groups of 3-5 (depending on class size). Each group should have the same number if possible.  Give these groups a number.

2.  Determine a subtopic to the main topic for the day, and assign to each group.  For example, if you are discussing the American Revolutionary War, the subtopics could be:  1) Causes, 2) Major Events, 3) Results.

3.  Students then discuss their assigned topic to determine 3 main ideas.  Each group member should each record these on the front side of the handout.

4.  Once students complete these steps, they will change groups entirely and form a new group with members from the other 3 groups.  (If you number the groups, you can tell them that there should be one member from groups 1, 2, 3, and 4) in each new group.

5.  In Group #2, students will begin to put together the big picture of the topic.  Each member reports their findings from Group #1 and students in Group #2 take notes on the second part of the graphic organizer.  Students take turns reporting until they are done.

I love jigsaw activities because they are student-centered and combine a variety of speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills.  They also help students identify the most important information and condense it into language they understand.  Make sure to visit http://www.jigsaw.org for more information on jigsaw activities.

Principles for using technology effectively in the classroom

While I am a huge fan of using technology in classroom, one of the trends I see happening is a thoughtless embrace of technology, e.g. “If I use technology in the classroom, I MUST be a good teacher!” and “If it’s technology, it MUST be good for the students.”

In the everyone-needs-to-read book The Shallows:  What the internet is doing to our brains, Nicholas Carr makes a strong case that with the explosion of technology in the past decade, it is controlling us (and reformatting our brains) without our knowledge or consent.

As teachers, it is essential that we use technology purposefully, not as a time-filler or wow-factor.

On top of that, we need to consider the impact it will have on our students.  Here are a few rules of thumb that I follow:

1. Content > Venue.What you teach must always be more important than the venue with which you present it.  Heck, showing students YouTube videos all days is a hoot, but if it doesn’t support the content, it’s worthless.
2. Context > Tool.I love social networking for the ability it gives me to access so much around the world.  However, just because I like twitter, doesn’t mean it’s an appropriate tool for a first grader – kids need to first develop face-to-face relational before they encounter the world of social networking.  In the same vein, language learners need face-to-face practice with language before we set them loose on language learning sites and programs.  Clearly, this doesn’t mean technology is bad for kids (or language learners), just that teachers need to be careful to match the appropriate tool to the needed skill.
3. Familiarity > Variety. When it comes to having students use technology for themselves, I find that just because they can text in their pocket doesn’t mean they know how to effectively use presentation software or great sites like Voicethread, Evernote or Twitter.

All things considered, technology is definitely still a great addition to the classroom.  My new favorite tech site for language teachers? TeacherTrainingVideos by Russell Stannard.

Tips for teaching English in low resource areas

My first English teaching job was in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  I had a box of chalk, a chalkboard, one florescent lightbulb, and two frayed wires sticking out of the wall that I had to (carefully) maneuver to spark so the bulb would flicker on.  That’s not to forget the nosy pigs outside my classroom and the braying donkey across the street.  We had no textbooks, no internet access, and limited copier access.  Surprisingly, it’s been one of my favorite teaching jobs in my life.

Access to funding for resources in English Language Teaching can vary widely depending on region and sponsorship.  Clearly, it’s easier to teach when there is access to resources than when there is not.  However, learning can still occur even without books, computers, and the like.  Here are some tips for those teaching in more limited settings where funds and resources are limited:

1.  Determine an overall direction/curriculum[1]

• Analyze students’ needs
• Analyze the cultural environment
• Set learning goals
• Decide how to assess progress

2.  Gather authentic materials.

• If you have internet access, it’s a great place to find nearly anything you need!
• When travelling, gather any materials in English to use in your classroom – brochures, advertisements, magazines.  They’ll provide great opportunities for students to practice reading authentic English.
• Check libraries (if there are any) for materials in English.
• Sing songs, recite poems.

3.  Get ideas from teacher forums.

• Twitter feeds – use hashmarks (#) to search for terms like #ELT, #ESL, #EFL, #ESOL, #TESOL, #TESL, #TEFL.  Following twitter feeds helps like-minded people to each other.
• LinkedIn groups for English Language Teachers
• Dave’s ESL Cafe Idea Cookbook

Here are some helpful resources for those teaching English in low-resource situations:

ESL Teachers’ Book of Lists.  Filled with lists of anything an English teacher might need, this book provides a great starting point for those without textbooks or curriculum.

Lessons from nothing: Activities for language teaching with limited time and resources by Bruce Marland.

Kizclub.com.  This site is specifically for young English language learners and has TONS of free PDF activities – lots of games, puzzles, and interactive activities.

Flashcard sites. Flashcards go a long way and can be used as far more than just flashcards – games, discussion prompters, partner activities, etc.  Here are a few free ones:

• Free ESL Flashcards
• ESL-Kids
• Teach Children ESL

If you’ve taught in low resource areas, what have you found helpful?

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[1] Richards, J. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.