Grade 3 EAL In Class Support
This week my Grade 3 colleagues and I practiced writing explanations with our students. Using ideas from the Writing Fun site I have prepared an explanation text jigsaw. Our students were organized into groups and had to read and reconstruct the text. We had a meaningful discussion about the parts and features of explanation texts and our students had to give reasons for their viewpoints.
At the end of the class the students were offered several texts of various genres such as a report, a narrative and an explanation. Students were familiar with the report and narrative genres, as we practiced writing those text types earlier this semester. The task was to determine the type of text that they were working with. This activity also led to an interesting discussion where the children shared their ideas and reasons.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Grade 2 New Vocabulary in Class Support
This past week the Grade 2 classroom teachers and I collaboratively continued to introduce our students to new vocabulary of our unit about the urban environment and ways of modifying it. We also worked on unpacking the central idea with our children and on paraphrasing the challenging lexical features.
One of the successful vocabulary engagements was when our students had to mind map all the targeted vocabulary (and also just the words that they knew about the city environment). After that, they had to sort all the words from their mind maps into six categories - Infrastructure, recreational, services, cultural, religious, transportation. In some classes, the students worked with their mind maps, and in others, cards with the words were on the carpet for them to pick up and write them out under the correct category heading.
This past week the Grade 2 classroom teachers and I collaboratively continued to introduce our students to new vocabulary of our unit about the urban environment and ways of modifying it. We also worked on unpacking the central idea with our children and on paraphrasing the challenging lexical features.
One of the successful vocabulary engagements was when our students had to mind map all the targeted vocabulary (and also just the words that they knew about the city environment). After that, they had to sort all the words from their mind maps into six categories - Infrastructure, recreational, services, cultural, religious, transportation. In some classes, the students worked with their mind maps, and in others, cards with the words were on the carpet for them to pick up and write them out under the correct category heading.
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| Sorriaj is busy sorting out his words. |
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| Kim Veng is consulting with one of his friends. |
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Grade 2 - Urban Environment Vs. Rural Environment
My Grade 2 EAL students began to work on their new unit about understanding urban environment and ways to improve it. I decided to start by supporting my students in constructing their own understanding of the new vocabulary. To introduce the concept of URBAN and RURAL in a fun way we watched a cartoon about the City Mouse and the Country Mouse and then had a "contrast and compare" group discussion. We also watched a video Urban Vs. Rural and once again discussed the differences of the city and the country lifestyles. After exposing my students to the new vocabulary and concepts I engaged them in their first practice of the new words. My grade 2 EAL students had to work with preselected images of urban and rural environments and cards with words. In small groups of three or four students they had to sort out the images and the words, create posters and collectively present their new understandings.
Most of my students completed all the tasks successfully and shared their presentations with the rest of the class. However, some of my kids were still not confident in their knowledge and failed to explain the difference between URBAN and RURAL. My plan is to play language games and memory games during my EFL classes next week. Hopefully the games will give the students that were confused one more opportunity to listen to their peers explaining the meaning of the new words and have yet another chance to practice explaining it on their own.
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| Maly, Visal and Samir exchanged their ideas during the discussion and easily created a poster. Great team work! |
Most of my students completed all the tasks successfully and shared their presentations with the rest of the class. However, some of my kids were still not confident in their knowledge and failed to explain the difference between URBAN and RURAL. My plan is to play language games and memory games during my EFL classes next week. Hopefully the games will give the students that were confused one more opportunity to listen to their peers explaining the meaning of the new words and have yet another chance to practice explaining it on their own.
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| Alicia, Jennifer and KimVeng are discussing and sorting out the images and cards with words for the poster. |
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| Jennifer, Alicia and Kim Veng are sharing their understanding of the new words with the rest of the class. |
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| Mollymoon, Sorriaj and Sak presenting their poster. |
Vocabulary Activities in Grade 3
Recently my Grade 3 EAL students began to learn about waterways and were exposed to many new words. In order to help my students to construct their own understanding of the different parts of the river I decided to prepare cards with the words and their definitions and engage my students in small group discussions. Each group of three or four students discussed the words and then had to match the word cards with their definitions. Each group chose a reporter who had to share the group thinking and findings with the rest of the class. During this part of the session my students received guidance and corrected their mistakes. Finally all the students continued to work in groups and collaboratively created posters with words and drawings and successfully presented them to the rest of the class.
Recently my Grade 3 EAL students began to learn about waterways and were exposed to many new words. In order to help my students to construct their own understanding of the different parts of the river I decided to prepare cards with the words and their definitions and engage my students in small group discussions. Each group of three or four students discussed the words and then had to match the word cards with their definitions. Each group chose a reporter who had to share the group thinking and findings with the rest of the class. During this part of the session my students received guidance and corrected their mistakes. Finally all the students continued to work in groups and collaboratively created posters with words and drawings and successfully presented them to the rest of the class.
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| Thomas, Yubin and Sofia discussing the words, sharing the tasks and creating the poster. |
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| Thomas, Sofia and Yubin are proud presenters and Minato is being a bit shy. |
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| Jade, Dyna and Jan were creative, confident and a great team. Their presentation showed their deep understanding. |
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Grade 2 English as a Foreign Language Class
Today during our EFL class my Grade 2 students were discussing various art forms and how people express their perspectives through them.
To begin with we all revised various art forms. Next we worked in 3 groups of 3 students. In each group students received cards with the art form names and their definitions. The students enthusiastically discussed the art forms sharing their own understandings of each one and matched the words and definitions. During the last unit of inquiry all second graders became more knowledgeable about how and why people create art and as a result they could confidently share their ideas and opinions. At the end of the discussion and sharing session I asked each student to draw a sketch about the art form that they worked with. Finally I chose a random student from each group of three to present their understanding of the art form to the rest of the class. For support the three presenters used their cards with words and definitions as well as their sketches while presenting.
It was challenging for some students to remain focused and listen to their peers during the sharing sessions. They enjoyed more when it was their turn to speak. With this in mind, for future activities I will have to give the students more opportunities to report what the others have said to encourage active listening. This can be done after watching videos, listening to songs or during pair share sessions.
We had a successful learning experience and an exciting class with my Grade 2 EAL learners! All of them were involved in meaningful dialogues, practiced their speaking, listening, thinking and social skills. The children asked questions, revised unit vocabulary and even had a mini presentation to finish with. All of it during one class of 45 minutes! Keep up the hard work Grade 2!
Today during our EFL class my Grade 2 students were discussing various art forms and how people express their perspectives through them.
To begin with we all revised various art forms. Next we worked in 3 groups of 3 students. In each group students received cards with the art form names and their definitions. The students enthusiastically discussed the art forms sharing their own understandings of each one and matched the words and definitions. During the last unit of inquiry all second graders became more knowledgeable about how and why people create art and as a result they could confidently share their ideas and opinions. At the end of the discussion and sharing session I asked each student to draw a sketch about the art form that they worked with. Finally I chose a random student from each group of three to present their understanding of the art form to the rest of the class. For support the three presenters used their cards with words and definitions as well as their sketches while presenting.
It was challenging for some students to remain focused and listen to their peers during the sharing sessions. They enjoyed more when it was their turn to speak. With this in mind, for future activities I will have to give the students more opportunities to report what the others have said to encourage active listening. This can be done after watching videos, listening to songs or during pair share sessions.
We had a successful learning experience and an exciting class with my Grade 2 EAL learners! All of them were involved in meaningful dialogues, practiced their speaking, listening, thinking and social skills. The children asked questions, revised unit vocabulary and even had a mini presentation to finish with. All of it during one class of 45 minutes! Keep up the hard work Grade 2!
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| Mollymoon, Samir and Sak are in the middle of the sharing session. |
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| Mally is matching her cards. She spoke about dancing. |
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| Jennifer is presenting. She spoke about writing stories. |
Grade 3 Summative Assessment.
My Grade 3 students finished learning about the solar system and how our planet's place in it affects our life.
One of my students, Minato, worked on making a model of the Earth and the Moon orbiting it. He wrote down facts that he learned about the Moon and the Earth and made cards that helped him to remember what he had to say when he presented these facts to us. This scaffold helped Minato present with greater confidence. Minato practiced speaking loudly and clearly. Being a full support EAL student, Minato managed to work on the same assessment as the rest of the class. Well done Minato!
My Grade 3 students finished learning about the solar system and how our planet's place in it affects our life.
One of my students, Minato, worked on making a model of the Earth and the Moon orbiting it. He wrote down facts that he learned about the Moon and the Earth and made cards that helped him to remember what he had to say when he presented these facts to us. This scaffold helped Minato present with greater confidence. Minato practiced speaking loudly and clearly. Being a full support EAL student, Minato managed to work on the same assessment as the rest of the class. Well done Minato!
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