Pioneers and First Nations

This summer I was very fortunate to teach a group of almost 60 ESL students a hands-on discovery unit that included elements of Social Studies, Math, Visual Art, Drama and Language. The unit was structured so as to follow a historic route of white settlers to Oregon territory; while traveling, they discovered new lands, plants, Native American tribes and their culture. We used as many real documents and photos as we could find; we read a fiction book "Off to Oregon" (grade 2 difficulty). Students experienced situations and wrote about them. We went on field trips to study local flora. We went to Daybreak Star, Native American Cultural Center. Students researched the art of the native tribes and created blankets based on the symbolic elements used in the North West. The culmination of the project was a presentation on stage for as many as 200 people... we did well... kids loved it!

Reading Rods

These brightl attachable blocks are a great way to teach reading. Parts of speech are color-coded.

Teaching Phonics is useful - at the initial stages

http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/does_decoding_contribute/index.html
eight:bold;">Stephen D. Krashen
Does Intensive Decoding Instruction Contribute to Reading Comprehension?
Result, not Cause
This conclusion is consistent with the views of Frank Smith (2004) and Kenneth Goodman (see Flurkey and Xu, 2003) who have maintained that our ability to decode complex words is the result of reading, not the cause.
This position does not exclude the teaching of "basic" phonics (Krashen, 2004; Garan, 2004). A small amount of consciously learned knowledge of the rules of phonics can help in the beginning stages to make texts comprehensible, but there are severe limits on how much phonics can be learned and applied because of the complexity of many of the rules (Smith, 2004).
The Reading First Final Report thus confirms the common-sense view that the path to reading proficiency is not through worksheets but through books and stories.

Please, read "The 88 Generalizations about Free Voluntary Reading" by Steven D. Krashen

http://www.sdkrashen.com/handouts/88Generalizations/index.html

Here are some of the most remarkable scientific findings:
More reading means:

better TOEFL performance
(Constantino, S.Y. Lee, K.S. Cho; Gradman and Hanania)
less writing apprehension (S.Y.Lee)
less memory loss
more hobbies
better sleep

Also: eminent people nearly all are voracious readers (Simonton)
More access to books – more reading
Comfort and quiet – more reading
One positive experience can create a reader
more reading takes place if books available (Von Sprecken)
supplementation that makes reading more comprehensible, interesting can help
(Shin, Manning)
more reading takes place if the teacher reads (Von Sprecken, Wheldall and Entwhistle)

The Taming of the Shrew for English learners

January 25, 26, 27 were the culmination of our 3 month marathon: staging The Taming of the Shrew with the students of the Secondary BOC. Among the actors - kids from Congo and benin, Russia, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, Vietnam and Ethiopia... Just as at our school kids come from all over the world and make their first unsure steps in language acquisition, the actors in my drama class learn first things about stage - the pain and the joy of it, the necessity to work as a group, to speak in a loud, sure voice in front of the complete strangers...
Nothing builds up a young person's confidence as much as a public performance, but to bring him/her there!!! Oh, that is my job

My semester is 18 weeks. We begin with fun and games, learning about each other, learning to trust each other and our bodies. From "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?", from "Zip-zap" and other theater games we slowly move into something more serious - improvisations: mirror, imaginary qualities of things, a chance meeting, etc.
I teach them to breathe, to fall, to laugh, to fight...
We even stage 3-4 little plays they write themselves.
Then comes the script and cold reading.
I have learned the hard way to always, always have understudies!
We read for a week, talking about each episode - it is not easy, because many of my students have very limited English. I explain difficult words, jokes, customs, show pictures of where the play takes place...
Then - the drill of memorizing lines. Again, most of my students have never learned a poem in their lives. I teach them how to memorize through repetition, how to use movement and action while memorizing...
This semester I was extremely fortunate - I had a whole class of wonderful seniors from The Bush School, who diligently came every Thursday, grabbed a kid each and drilled, cajoled, demonstrated, and helped.
My sister-in-law, a dancer, choreographer and Pilates instructor happened to be visiting from Prague. I involved her! never let a resourse go unused! She contributed to the tarantella!
We built our sets during winter break, and in January we were ready to rehearse on stage.
I promised myself that next time I must have a prop manager... Hopefully... It was tough to run the show all alone.
But - the show was great! Good job, my wonderful students!


In January