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16 Responses to “Home Page”

1. on 18 Apr 2008 at 8:51 am1    Mary Polychrome

   Regarding the discussion of fittng in curriculum, casas and el civics, it seems to me in the workshops and research I’ve read on the basic skills project that the issue is more about teaching style than curriculum. It’s not that we add more material to learn but that we change how we transmit the material. The 26 best practices recommend a more student initiated, collaborative style of teaching which may be a difficult change for teachers who have a different style of teaching. I guess that is what the blog is for. To begin to self-teach ourselves what it is we need to do to change our teaching style to a more effective and efficient style. We will learn that in a collaborative and communicative way by talking about it on the Blog. I think the change is exciting and interesting. It will mean more work, not to squish in more content but to expand and freshen our teaching styles.

   
   
2. on 18 Apr 2008 at 9:28 am2    Joyce Basch

   The Basic Skills Initiative provides our students many opportunities to expand their learning experience and prepare for higher education. We’re lucky to be able to offer our students so many avenues for learning.

   
   
3. on 19 Apr 2008 at 7:59 am3    Greg (0mer) Whitman

   A long time ago, and in my case a very long time ago, I was a reading teacher for a private school. This school had developed a system whereby we would teach the students combinations of vowel sounds and have them repeat those sounds over and over. This would prepare them to say those combinations more easily when they encountered them in words. I think it would be good to develop some lessons around this concept. Greg Whitman - CEC - Interm. 1

   
   
4. on 21 Apr 2008 at 7:34 am4    Dorothy Hoyt

   Phonics is an important element in the teaching of reading. Eighty-five percent of the English words can be decoded by using the phonetic approach. I feel it is a necessary tool to teach our students this word attack skills and the ” interior vowel” sounds.

   
   
5. on 22 Apr 2008 at 2:59 pm5    Karen Martin

   I’m interested in brain research and it was interesting at our Basic Skills Workshop to learn things like standing up brings more oxygen to your brain which encourages more learning; and that flourescent lights inhibit learning.

   
   
6. on 24 Apr 2008 at 2:52 pm6    Tim Vo

   For both of my Beg 2 and Beg 1 classes, I always try to reserve about 15 minutes at the end of class for spelling and dictation. After the dictation, we look at the sentence structure and grammar to familiarize the students with writing concepts and make them feel more comfortable with writing. As the semester progresses, I give them longer and more complicated sentences. The students enjoy this activity and it’s also a good way to keep some of them in the classroom till the end who would otherwise leave early.

   
   
7. on 27 Apr 2008 at 11:39 am7    Rita Seretti

   Karen Dennis gave a great overview of the Basic Skills project. I can now see the whole picture. Having taught at the community college level, Basic Skills proficiency is lacking across the county in all ethnic groups in both English only language speakers and second language speakers. I am so happy to be involved in this project.
   I see writing is lacking in all classes that I have subbed in and my own class. I like the idea of Read, Discuss, Write for each theme taught. I’m teaching both ESL 2 and 3 right now. I am teaching them to write 5 sentences for ESL 2 and a paragraph for ESL 3 in this way. I title the writing, My Health, My Neighborhood, My Family, etc. I’m surprised how they do like to write about themselves. We also flip to pictures so they can also practice third person as needed in the testing.
   There is much anxiety in writing. I acknowledge their feelings and compare it to oral communication. When they make a mistake when speaking, it is corrected and gone. In writing it is always there in their notebook. I’m trying to show them how to proof and to see writing as a process. I never use a red pen when correcting their work. In fact I don’t use a pen at all. I use a pencil. I then tell them to rewrite with the corrections.

   
   
8. on 28 Apr 2008 at 10:33 am8    Malena Copeland

   Here are a few things that I felt particularly inspired by:
   1. All of the articles on brain research, that talk about how we learn. I will definitely incorporate more physical activity into my lessons, and make my lectures much shorter. I will also incorporate more group activities.
   2. I will find more ways to incorporate math into my lessons. Thomas Gault’s article, They Need Math too! was particularly informative.
   3. I will create more lesson plans that focus on writing. In Citizenship there are many opportunities to incorporate writing into the curriculum. I learned a lot about creating these opportunities at multiple levels, and got some great ideas from Jayshree Lederman and Rita Serretti about this.
   4. I will incorporate goal setting into the core curriculum. I was first motivated by Tim Vo’s interview with Rob Jenkins about this, and then later pushed by Claudia Lamb’s Basic Skills Workshop and some of the writings by Carlos Perez.

   I would love to know about the things that you are have learned, how you have been inspired and what changes you intend to make because of this project.

   
   
9. on 28 Apr 2008 at 8:31 pm9    J. Mendoza

   I think the most sucessful activity I have seen, is the one where students are assigned to talk in small groups. The key is to separate them for nationalities, having at least a foreign language as Vietnamese in a group of three or two Spanish speakers; and to place them in some way that friends-classmates do not sit one beside other, so they are forced to practice English and get to know their classmates.

   
   
10. on 29 Apr 2008 at 2:47 pm10    Denise Dowling

    J.,
    I agree. I think this also opens the door for students of other cultures to get to know each other, as sometimes students shy away from making the first move to talk to someone of a different culture. In a class I taught last semester at my other campus, half the students were Latino and the other half Vietnamese. I don’t think they noticed it or that it was intentional, but on the first day they seated themselves by culture . . . Vietnamese on the left and Latino on the right. When it was time for partner work, I told them to partner with someone on the opposite side of the room. They were happy to do it, and their curiosity about each other’s country, language etc is a great conversation avenue. And yes, if possible I try to have a mix of cultures in group work. It challenges students for sure, drives them to speak English, breaks down stereo types some students carry, and makes the classroom environment more relaxed.

    
    
11. on 29 Apr 2008 at 11:04 pm11    Malena Copeland

    J.,
    I agree with everything you said except for the part about dividing up students who are friends. When students develop friendships, it keeps them coming back to class, and helps them to have a positive emotional association with the class, content and everything linked with their friendship. I strive to help students build strong friendships. I like to think of my class as a room full of friends. Of course, they sometimes start speaking in their native language with their friends, but I just walk up to them and encourage them to return to speaking English. They always do. Then, they forget the next time, so I repeatedly remind them. That’s alright, because they are enjoying themselves and learning a lot in my class, regardless of the fact that they throw in a Spanish word here and there. I was never absent to classes that were filled with my good friends. Were you? Who did you like to sit by?

    
    
12. on 30 Apr 2008 at 9:16 pm12    Malena Copeland

    Thach,
    I have really enjoyed reading all of your entries, and though your last entry was provacative, it was a perfectly valid comment and did not hurt anyone, because it was just your opinion. A blog is a place for free expresson. I want everyone to feel free to express themselves. We, as teachers should try to promote as much freedom of thought as possible. So please keep contributing, and know that what you say has value and should certainly be heard, even if people don’t always agree (which I did not). P.S. You can keep the gas card, if you win it.

    
    
13. on 01 May 2008 at 4:56 pm13    Jayshree Lederman

    This is a very good activity, because the students love it. I don’t necessarily call it the best activity, but I find it very rewarding, as it covers a broad spectrum of learning.
    The series ‘Very Easy True Stories’ is good material for overall comprenhsion - Reading, Writing and speaking.
    The objective of the story is to enhance vocabulary, by creating a story from the picture given as a pre-reading exercise. The students work in a group for a few minutes and give their version of what the story is about. Vocabulary words pertinent to the story are written on the board. As this turns out to be individual creation, there is lot of enthusiasm about the story. Next, the acutal story in picture form with short easy sentences written under each picture is read. At this point, since they are aware of most of the vocabulary words, reading is easy. Ease of comprenhension makes it fun reading.
    Question answer session follows the reading. This is one activity. Another could be some grammar components of the story that they have studied that week or recently. Also, there are good activities at the end of the story.
    One form of assessment is, they are required to write their opinions about some aspect of the story. As beginning students, this is for expression of ideas and opinions. Grammar, spellings are not stressed here. The results are very good. One gets the idea about the individual student/group from this writing. By the way, the students are very happy when reading these stories, as they know they are true.

    
    
14. on 05 May 2008 at 3:14 pm14    Thach Pham

    Talking about math, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a separate Math course. May be I am wrong, but I guess math lessons should be incorporated into the curriculum.

    The problem is we must have a new text book with math in the lessons. Hopefully, some day some instructors can compile new text books (and work books, too) .

    I am confident that new lessons with real life math will be very interesting, and our students will enjoy it. I used to have some math lessons for my students. For example:
    MONEY MONEY MONEY
    Jose makes $10 per hour. He works full time. This week he works 4 hours overtime. How much does he get this week?

    Then, I change it, and make it harder. Like Jose gets his paycheck every two weeks. This week, he has 6 hours overtime. He pays 10 percent for Federal and State taxes. What is his net pay?
    They can practice reading; then, compare the results with their classmates.
    Thach

    
    
15. on 05 May 2008 at 11:51 pm15    Michael Ha

    Math is a basic skill for ESL students. As we all know, math can be use in our daily lives. Students can use math skills to get most of their shopping dollars. Students definitely need to use math skills when they go to a bank or a restaurant. Math is useful for a lot more than balancing their checkbooks. It is necessary for ESL students to learn math lessons since they start learning ESL. A purpose of education is to prepare students for employment. There are many different kinds of jobs that require some basic knowledge of math. People use math skills at restaurants, banks, shopping malls, and working places all the times. Students need to have some basic knowledge of math to obtain and maintain their jobs. It is a good idea for ESL students to learn math skills in the ESL classes.

    
    
16. on 10 May 2008 at 10:53 am16    I.V

    The President’s Panel Urges More for Math
    Brown, Alan
    Mechanical Engineering; May2008, Vol. 130 Issue 5, p9-10, 2p
    http://libnet1.sac.edu:2142/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=13&sid=39b67b5d-7f19-464b-be97-91df17816953%40sessionmgr3

    In regards to the math topic, I found this article and I thought this helps. The article, The President’s Panel Urges More for Math reports a study on math subject. After two years of study, the panel found that students at an early age should focus on a fewer topics of math and learn them very well in a great length before they move on to the next ones. They also found that students must learn to do fraction well because it is a foundation to do math.
    Hope you enjoy this article!

    
    

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