EAL Beginners

In January we welcomed several new students to ISPP and once again started making our first steps in developing their English language skills. Our new Grade 2 student from Korea, Hailey, receives in class support during unit time. Miss Courtney and I try to help Hailey in constructing her understanding of the unit concepts and building up her academic language of the unit. I often use brief one on one sessions for meeting Hailey's individual language needs. I provide an opportunity for students like Hailey to begin speaking English in context. However, it is important that the context is within the zone of my student's proximal development.

In this video Hailey practices speaking about her family.

Another one of my beginner students in Grade 3 is also from Korea. Yubin has been learning English since last year. Yubin likes to read in English and enjoys participating in our Home Reading Program. Yubin takes books home and after reading the story answers questions to show her comprehension and make connections.

In the video Yubin shares her thinking about the book that she liked.

Grade 2 and 3 In Class Support

During this week I was supporting my G3 ELLs in creating their stories. Our students had to choose a fairytale and change the characters, setting or even the plot.  My classroom colleagues chose the "easy reader" books for our full support EAL students.  I read it with my students checking their comprehension along the way.

We briefly revised the story structure, talking about what makes the beginning, middle and end of a story.

After the draft was ready we began to write.  The EAL students used their editing cards and iPads to check their spelling.  When the draft was ready we reread it to make sure all parts were there and everything made sense. 

Finally the EAL students were ready to begin the publishing process.

Yubin was proud of her story about the 3 little pigs and the tiger.

I suggested to my G2 colleagues to practice a visible thinking routine called the Explanation Game. Several artifacts were placed on the tables and all the children had to work in groups discussing the objects, sharing their thinking about what they were and what they were used for. All the students had an opportunity to talk to their peers. It was a great learning experience for ELLs as they had a chance to participate in meaningful discussions with their peers of various language ability and knowledge. It was interesting to observe the exchanges of knowledge between the kids during this activity. All students benefited from it as it was yet another practice of the academic language of the unit.

Jennifer and Sak shared their thinking about an ancient necklace.

Alicia and others listened enthusiastically to George as he was explaining why he thought his artifact was from Mexico.

EFL Time

After a brief idea exchange with the Grade 2 teachers I decided to work more on the concepts of the unit to provide more time for my students to construct their understanding of the new vocabulary and to have an opportunity to apply it.

The story about Maria Martinez (Maria Montoya Martinez was a Native American artist who created internationally known pottery. She examined traditional Pueblo pottery styles.)

triggered my students’ interest, and watching a video allowed the children to see Maria making pottery. After learning about pueblo artifacts and ancient traditions we talked about who taught Maria to make pottery. The students had to think about what they learned from their families.

In Class Support Grade 2

During this week my homeroom colleagues and I continued to focus on the concepts of our new unit of inquiry “Clues from the Past”.

To trigger the discussion of memories and to support our students in a challenging process of constructing their understanding, I suggested to use the famous story by Mem Fox “Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge”. In some classes I led the activity and in others we chose the parallel teaching model.

We listened to the story and had a discussion of what a memory is. After the discussion our students had to think and explain in writing what memories are for them.

I was supporting Alicia and Hailey in Ms.Courtney class during this activity.

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

It was great to see all my students happy and relaxed after the holidays.

During our EFL classes this week my Grade 2 students began to think and discuss the concept of change. To support them during this process I prepared pictures of various phones - from the very first ones up to the smartphones.  The task was to look at the pictures in groups. After a meaningful discussion my students had to paste pictures of the phones in the correct order from the oldest to  the most modern ones. Then each group had to choose a presenter and share their thinking with the rest of the class providing reasons for their opinions.

After the heated discussions I was surprised to see that only  one group managed to complete the task without mistakes.

The other two groups were guided by their peers during the presentations and corrected their mistakes.

In the end we all talked about change again and made personal connections. It was a fun activity to do and it was not as easy as I thought it would be.

Samir is presenting the result of his group work.

During our EFL classes this week with the Grade 3 students we discussed the concept of needs and wants. All the students had to discuss what makes them healthy and happy and then draw as many of those things/places/people as possible. The next step for us was to stick the cards with needs on one poster and the cards with wants – on the other.  My students felt very enthusiastic about the activity and shared their explanations and reasons with their peers.  We had to agree about each item before sticking it on the poster.

I was surprised to see that mostly students drew food. It seemed to be challenging for some students to apply critical thinking skills and compare, categorize and rank independently.

Jade, Sofia, Thida and Mahin worked enthusiastically drawing their needs and wants

Boys also tried hard and Miss Kim was supporting Minato and Thomas.