Back in August 2009, MaryAnn Florez, Betsy Parrish, and I came together to begin work on the Adult ESL Training Video Project. We came up with an outline for a series of videos to train ESL teachers. The videos would consist of two types: 8 Core Lesson Videos and 7 Themed Videos (derived from the raw footage we took in filming the 8 core lessons). This outline is tentative, not set in stone. The topics may shift a bit as our thinking develops through the course of producing the videos. And of course the topics we cover will depend in part on the expertise and availability of teachers and programs who are willing to participate. Below is the outline we came up with.
Core Lesson Videos
These videos will be complete lessons, each an average of 30 minutes total taken from 2 hours of classroom footage and a later interview with the teacher. As we put the list of topics and classes together, we’ll also be trying to represent a range of proficiency levels, from literacy level to high intermediate.
- Lesson planning: life skills theme (COMPLETED)
- Multi-level: teaching students at differing levels
- Low literacy: Employing top-down/bottom-up strategies; supporting print visually; drawing on learners’ prior skill and knowledge (COMPLETED)
- Reading: Using narrative texts; pre-, during, and post-reading tasks; developing reading skills (skimming, scanning, inferring meaning, reading for detail, etc.)
- Listening: Using authentic listening texts (e.g., interview or short video clip); pre-, during, and post-listening tasks; developing listening skills (gist, specific info, inferring meaning)
- Contextualized language lesson I: Grammar
- Contextualized language lesson II: Vocabulary, eg. jobs
- Writing for a purpose: Stages, process vs. product. (Could also use footage from other lessons)
Themed Videos/ Derived from core lessons
These videos will be drawn from the raw footage generated from the above classroom video sessions. Each themed video will contain footage from several of the core lessons, edited together after the core lesson videos are completed. This list is tentative, depending on what themes are best illustrated in the core lessons. We will tell the teachers of the core lessons what themes we want to illustrate, so they will keep them in mind as they construct their lessons.
- Developing oral skills, also pronunciation
- Activity types—accuracy-based to fluency-based
- Developing learning strategies
- Checking and assessing learning, giving feedback
- Classroom interactions: e.g., roles, grouping of learners for activities, minimizing teacher talk, giving directions
- Practicing higher order thinking/critical thinking: e.g., how to give tasks, how to ask questions, how to use graphic organizers, listening and note-taking, academic readiness/transitions to higher education
- Community building: e.g., ways to create an accepting environment, cultural sensitivity
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Hello Everyone,
I teach this pre and emergent level literacy and have done so for nearly 10 years now. It is a challenge, to say the least! Kudos to you for making this instructional video. I wanted to share my thoughts with all of you, as I can truly relate to this challenging sort of teaching.
My ESL students are exactly like the population I saw in the video. In viewing your video I really like what you are doing particularly using a real life experience to create a story. That was great. How meaningful this is to the students. However, I was wondering why didn’t you have those articles you purchased, (mouse traps, bed bug spray etc. in the classroom to use as realia and hold up?) The photos are nice, but nothing beats the real thing. Or did you?
The video is of the oral reading truly well done… excellent. I loved the choral reading and echo reading, and the integration of both top down and bottom up approach to teaching literacy. I also like the phonemic awareness component, too. I think that’s important, particularly when the sounds don’t exist in the L1.
Overall, I would strongly also advocate much more visual scaffolding while talking. Holding the object, more gesturing and using many more pictures reflecting the meaning of each vocabulary word would be nice. Referencing irrelevance, should be avoided: e.g. the word “witch” is meaningless and was out of context within a thematic unit such as the demo one on hardware store and without picture support, could be confusing. I feel that if any new word or connection to a past lesson is mentioned, it should have a visual support until all students have mastery of the vocabulary.
One thing I noticed. [ch] should be pronounced simply as [ch] a plosive without a post-vocalic sound of [a] . I heard the pronunciation as [cha] which is not correct. Lots of people add short vowel sounds to the ends of consonants and consonant blends when teaching phonics and this isn’t correct.
I have a few other suggestions I found work for me when teaching reading:
After choral reading, I make the students go back and circle phrases or meaning chunks.
For example:
“Yesterday, we went on the bus to the hardware store.”
Teacher: “Circle: ‘yesterday’. ” Repeat: “Yesterday.”
Teacher: “Circle: ‘we went on the bus’ ” Repeat: “we went on the bus”
Teacher: “to the hardware store.” Repeat: “to the hardware store.”
I find that the students like doing this and it helps them understand and remember, too.
For my lowest readers, I find it helpful transition them to normal text. But first, I have found it helpful to number each line of the narrative. (Check out the book “Sam and Pat” and you will see what I mean. ) Numbering the lines helps the students tract, I think.
Lastly, I never keep my oral communication exclusively in the Simple Present. “Yesterday I go to the hardware store” is not correct grammatically speaking and when students eventually hear the word “went” or “drove” or “taught” the students are confused. So start from the beginning and use authentic English. I see you are teaching Hmong. Since Hmong speakers don’t have verb tenses, irregular simple past tense is tough to master anyway. So I feel at least the students are being sensitized to the different tenses we have in English, from the start.
Well, good going! I think this is a great project.
Denise Gallope
M.Ed. and MA English TESOL
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Denise,
Thanks so much for your very substantive comments on the Building Literacy video. It’s great to have feedback from someone so familiar with this type of class. We value your insights, please keep them up!
Barbara
I was delighted to find this video, and want to say how much I appreciated it. I think it will be a great teacher education tool, and it is certainly one I plan to make good use of in future PD sessions. One of the issues of concern when I visit ESL literacy programs is the tendency of some teachers to rely heavily on commercial textbooks, which to my mind are often of doubtful relevance to the needs and interests of their particular students. To see the teacher begin not merely with a context embedded activity, but one that is of direct interest and benefit to the learners was wonderful. The range of activities that she introduced, both top down and bottom up was a terrific excellent demonstration of how one can use such a story to generate many other activities of all kinds, all of which rework related language. The variation in skill areas, grouping patterns, and degree of physical involvement all served to maintain interest and work toward a well rounded learning experience. It was interesting to notice too the prior activities signaled via the material pinned on the wall – the pie charts on pest problems that support numeracy for example.
I thought the teacher did a wonderful job, and the video is beautifully produced, to highlight the key areas of interest. Many thanks for this great teaching tool. I look forward to seeing the others in the series.
Jill Bell
I found out about this great resource at a workshop Betsy and Kimberly Johnson gave at TESOL 2009 on peer mentoring. It was a great session and as with all good things, led to more good things – I found out about this series. We just used the “Emerging Readers” video at a training session for experienced instructors, many of whom had never taught ESL literacy. ” Don’t just tell, show” is a great principle but it’s easier said than done in teacher training. This resource is invaluable in that regard. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.