practicum
Hello all,
I really enjoyed hearing about the different methods and practices being used in our schools today. I remembered a few things that I forgot to mention. At my school, there is ESL 1 and ESL 2, but instead of ESL 3 and 4, there's Transitional English Junior and Senior. Transitional English Junior follows the grade eight and nine English curriculums and Transitional Senior follows the grade ten English curriculum. The school also offers ESL Socials 1 and 2. Transitional Junior and Senior Social Studies offer the same texts as Socials 9 and 10. ELC (English Learning Centre) 1 and 2 are supplementary courses which are designed to assist ESL students who have completed the ESL program. Primary resources for ELC are the workbook Wordly Wise 3000 (levels 2-4) and selected worksheets from TOEFL and LPI preparation books. Of the workbooks that I saw, I thought that Wordly Wise 3000 was one of the better series. It teaches vocabulary in a format that includes a variety of activities and reading comprehension. The students seemed to especially enjoy using this particular workbook.
Another thing I observed was ESL placement testing. ESL testing takes place two or three times a week because students seem to still be registering at the school and quite often students are shuffling from different levels. The standardized testing consists of a timed reading comprehension test and a timed written composition. Each student is given thirty minutes for each test.
A resource that I would like to look into further is the Rosetta Stone Language Lab CD-ROM. Did anyone see this in their schools? It was being tested by one of my teachers just as I ended my two weeks, and I'm really looking forward to finding out how that program worked with the students. If it was successful, it was going to be installed on all of the computers in the library and in the computer labs so that all ESL students could access it. A computer-based language lab would be an excellent opportunity for ESL students to have additional practice outside the classroom.
I really enjoyed hearing about the different methods and practices being used in our schools today. I remembered a few things that I forgot to mention. At my school, there is ESL 1 and ESL 2, but instead of ESL 3 and 4, there's Transitional English Junior and Senior. Transitional English Junior follows the grade eight and nine English curriculums and Transitional Senior follows the grade ten English curriculum. The school also offers ESL Socials 1 and 2. Transitional Junior and Senior Social Studies offer the same texts as Socials 9 and 10. ELC (English Learning Centre) 1 and 2 are supplementary courses which are designed to assist ESL students who have completed the ESL program. Primary resources for ELC are the workbook Wordly Wise 3000 (levels 2-4) and selected worksheets from TOEFL and LPI preparation books. Of the workbooks that I saw, I thought that Wordly Wise 3000 was one of the better series. It teaches vocabulary in a format that includes a variety of activities and reading comprehension. The students seemed to especially enjoy using this particular workbook.
Another thing I observed was ESL placement testing. ESL testing takes place two or three times a week because students seem to still be registering at the school and quite often students are shuffling from different levels. The standardized testing consists of a timed reading comprehension test and a timed written composition. Each student is given thirty minutes for each test.
A resource that I would like to look into further is the Rosetta Stone Language Lab CD-ROM. Did anyone see this in their schools? It was being tested by one of my teachers just as I ended my two weeks, and I'm really looking forward to finding out how that program worked with the students. If it was successful, it was going to be installed on all of the computers in the library and in the computer labs so that all ESL students could access it. A computer-based language lab would be an excellent opportunity for ESL students to have additional practice outside the classroom.
posted by Jillian at 8:57 PM
1 Comments:
pretty exciting comments, Jillian
I used the Wordly Wise beginning level texts for my basic literacy class last year and found it to be really quite good;
and Rosetta Stone is my favorite language learning program (it is very expensive, however). I'll try to bring a demo that I have on Wednesday.
Best,
Doug
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