final class tomorrow

tomorrow's class is designed to give you a chance to go over your lesson plans one more time, hand in hard copies, return resources and to have some social time; I'll be there from 10:30;
best,
Doug

class tomorrow? Egg blog.

Hello all,

I am just wondering if there is class tomorrow. I hope so, because I would rather give my project in person than by email, because my email sometimes doesn't send attachments properly...my cheap ass computer!

Anyhew, please someone let me know if class is happening.

Cheers! and Happy Holidays

KEC bookstore and Collins

Hello!

Hope you're all enjoying the snow... Just wanted to say that the trip to the KEC bookstore was really helpful and thanks Doug for organizing that. I know where to go for resources now. Also Marin and I went to the Collins teacher store afterwards and we loved it. Marin found flashcards and we both bought dice for ESL games similar to the ones that Sophie showed us. I definitely recommend going there if you haven't been yet.

see you Wednesday,

Jillian

ubc classes cancelled for today

due to snowfall!
see you (presumably) Wednesday

I will still read and give you feedback on drafts that you email to me!

Best,
Doug

Hmmm... I can't quite remember when was the last time that I wrote a blog, and I don't really have anything to write about, but yet I've managed to write one run-on-sentence (which is still in progress) and I think anyway that it's about time that I write one.

Well, Wednesday we didn't have class, and I had planned on using the time to work on some projects and papers due next week, but instead I worked on a unit plan for February. I got a bit carried away (it was sort of fun), but thankfully Sohpia told me today that it is useless to make up lesson plans more than two weeks in advance. Wise advice which I'm sure I've heard before, but I forgot. *phew...thank you Sophia.

Today's presentation by Jillian was interesting. I thought that she used a good hook and that her discussion topic was well thought out. Good job Jillian!

:) :D X)

Away today

Hey class... sorry I wasn't there today. I'm feeling quite ill. I guess I will see you on Friday (unless we have class on Wednesday now?)

Marin.

fell off the bloggin' wagon ...

Well hello again!

Madalaine, I love your post.

As for the exit slips... I am going to cheat, and agree with everyone else.

Ok, just kidding.

• As for the theory - I think my practicum was a bit different in regards to theory than others' in this class. I found that I didn't know as much about theory as I felt I should have. This is just because my sponsor teacher is very knowledgeable about everything in regards of theory and resources. I don't know that I can change that in this class though, I think it just takes years of experience and reading.
• I am very happy that the lessons are going to be so adaptable. What I mean is that I am happy that we can pick which theory we (think we) like and add or subtract things. Also it's great that we can add some elements of SMART Reading as well. yeehaaaw.
• I am very excited for our feild trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I can't wait to be an ESL teacher!!!!!!!!!!

Okay I better stop before I completely annoy you with my exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!

(ps. I am very tired)

BLARGHHHH!

Does anyone feel like they are a robot standing at an assembly line table just blankly putting project upon project together?

mad.

plans for final three weeks

Hi Gang!

In order to get the most out of reflective work (and to ease the tension in regards to deadlines), I've revised my planning for the final three weeks (parking some readings as you see at the bottom of this) to allow for more in-class time to work on the final assignment.

Best,
Doug

no class Mon Nov 13 (in lieu of Remembrance Day)

day 23 (Wed Nov 15)
1) Alana (R/R): Murphy: Reflective teaching (p.499)
2) Sophia (Materials): games
3) work on lesson plan
assigned reading: continue working on Bell chapter

day 24 (Fri Nov 17)
1) discussion of assigned reading (Bell)
2) David (Materials): Role Play
3) work on lesson plan
assigned reading:
Gunderson: teaching literacy skills to teenagers (hand out)

day 25 (Mon Nov 20)
1) Madelaine (Materials): flash/ mat cards
2) Marin (R/R): Ediger: Teaching children literacy skills (p. 153)
3) work on lesson plan
assigned reading: Grabe and Stoller: Reading for academic purposes (p. 187)

day 26 (Wed Nov 22)
no class: in lieu of optional Saturday field-trip to KEC bookstore (and Collins)

day 27 (Fri Nov 24)
1) discussion of assigned reading
2) Jillian (Materials): Vancouver Stories
3) work on lesson plan
assigned reading: Olshtain: Mastering the mechanics of writing and beyond (p.207)

day 28 (Mon Nov 27)
1) discussion of assigned reading
2) work on lesson plan
no assigned reading

day 29 (Wed Nov 29)
1) work on lesson plan
no assigned reading

day 30 (Fri Dec 1)
1) work on lesson plan
social

parked:
teacher ‘body language’ practice
Bailey: Action Research (p.489)
Brinton: Media (p. 459)
Weinstein: Developing adult literacies (p. 171)
Kroll: Considerations for teaching an ESL/ EFL writing course (p.233)
from website: teacher professionalism

subject to change
possible field-trip to Oakridge Assessment Centre

field trip to KEC bookstore

Morning all!

I have arranged for us to go to the KEC ESL bookstore on Saturday Nov 25. Please meet there at 11:00 am (store hours on Saturdays are 11am- 3pm). In lieu, we will not have our class on Wed Nov 22nd.

Marin, can you present on either the Monday or Friday that week?

If possible, I'd also like to go to the Collins teacher supply/ bookstore that Saturday.

Still hoping to set up the field-trip to the Oakridge Reception Centre.

Please note:our field-trips are optional
(while educationally sound and very worth while!)

See you later today,
Doug

exit slip

Hi everyone,

My exit slip comments are really similar to the ones posted so far, so I'll keep this short. The relaxed classroom atmosphere, friendly rapport, presentations, reading responses, supplementary materials, etc. are all things that have made this class one of my favourites. I feel like I've learned a lot from this class. We've collected a lot of links to resources and I'm definitely looking forward to exploring more of them once December comes around (and I have more time). I also like that we'll be getting time to work on our lesson plans in class - thanks Doug! Brenda's comment about a materials collection also sounds good.

See you all tomorrow!

Feedback/Checking In

Hey everybody,

Here are my two cents about how the class is going so far:

-Overall, great! The presentations are always interesting and relevant and give me lots of ideas about general facilitation approaches (in addition to ESL-specific ideas).

-The classroom rapport and laid-back atmosphere are great! People seem so relaxed together and the conversation really seems to flow.

-The practicum debriefing and discussion about classroom management were really useful (not to mention quite a bonding experience!). I like knowing about the diversity of ESL classroom situations in Greater Vancouver.

-I might want to talk a bit about unit planning, which is the most daunting aspect of the long practicum for me. Basically my SA has said that I can do whatever I want; she seems to fly by the seat of her pants and have no really precise plan as to where her courses are going in terms of units or topics. How do I deal with that?

-The least useful part of the course so far has been the theoretical content, since I haven't really heard any discussions of theoretical approaches at my practicum placement. (This does not include the stuff on the SMART system, which has been invaluable! On that note, a big thanks to all of you who have shared materials and resources, and to Doug for making copies!)

-I found the sample lesson plans very useful, both in order to understand the assignment and as general lesson planning models

That's all for now! See y'all Friday!

A

Reading - I agree that textbooks should be chosen after the course goals have been decided upon. It seems that a lot of English teachers choose a text because the teacher likes the text, not because it is useful. Not sure if this is the case in ESL classrooms so much.

Sohpie, I've seen some upper-level ESL writing classes use the following textbook:

Writing Academic English

Authors: Ann Hogue, Alice Oshima
Format: Book
Publication Date: September 2005
Dimensions:10.5"H x 8.25"W x 0.75"D; 1.55 lbs.
ISBN: 0131523597

Some teachers use this in regular high school English classes as well, so maybe your school might have it in their bookroom?





Exit Slip - This class is better than the other classes I'm taking right now. I really appreciate how open Doug is to suggestions; he's willing to tailor his classes to fit students' needs and concerns. Thanks Doug!

sorry lea and sophie

I spelt your names wrong!!!! ;((((

Bloghog

Hello,

This is my exit slip.

I really like this course, and look fwd. to it every week (seriously)...maybe it is the small class size, making it much easier to build a rapport with the group and talk easily about key issues, or it is that Doug has reliquished his ego for the sake of being constructivist in his approach to teaching, and allows us to go at it. I think he sets a good example of what an ESL teacher should be like....But also, the course material is really interesting and I don't know why, but I find that I prefer teaching ESL so far.

I hope that I wsn't too didactic myself when getting into the psychology of culture shock, and I didn't get to ask it it was clear, and/or if people agreed with the theoretical views expressed. Please let me know what you all think, I look fwd to hearing back!

I really enjoyed Brenda's fun lesson today and appreciated her ideas...also Sophia and Leah's presentation was very informative (all the facts will prove useful in the near future)...

So look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday! p.s included are the "indicators of culture shock, and help info. for refugees.
Madelaine :)


INDICATORS OF CULTURE SHOCK

An individual undergoing Culture Shock may experience the following symptoms:
1. A particular concern for cleanliness or dirtiness.
2. A helplessness - a dependence on his or her family or others from the same country.
3. More irritation than is usually shown for things that go wrong.
4. A fear of being cheated, injured or robbed.
5. A concern for pains or skin eruptions.
6. A longing to be back home with people who understand.
7. A delay or refusal to learn the language of the new country.
8. Feelings of anger, indecision, frustration, anxiety, unhappiness, loneliness, homesickness and/or illness.
A refugee suffering from culture shock may also have the feeling of rejection. The feeling of rejection means that the refugee is rejecting the environment which makes him or her feel badly. A refugee may also have a feeling of regression. The feeling of regression means that the home country becomes most important and that he/she will choose to remember only the good things about it.

Taken from:
http://www.discoveret.org/refugees/Handbook/2C-CULTURE%20SHOCK.htm

RESOURCES FOR REFUGEES:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/index.html
Richmond Multicultural Concerns Society210-7000 Minoru BoulevardRichmond, BC V6Y 3Z5(604) 279-7160www.rmcs.bc.ca
Family Services of Greater Vancouver250-7000 Minoru BoulevardRichmond, BC V6Y 3Z5(604) 279-7100www.fsgv.bc.ca
SUCCESS - Richmond Office220-7000 Minoru BoulevardRichmond, BC V6Y 3Z5(604) 279-7180www.success.bc.ca
Surrey Delta Immigrant Services Society1107-7330 137th StreetSurrey, BC V3W 1A3(604) 597-0205
Options: Services to Communities Society100-6846 King George HighwaySurrey, BC V3W 4Z9(604) 596-4321www.options.bc.ca
Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society109-12414 82nd AvenueSurrey, BC V3W 3E9(604) 596-7722www.picssociety.com
Immigrant Services Society of B.C.501-333 Terminal AvenueVancouver, BC V6A 2L7(604) 684-2561www.issbc.org
MOSAIC2nd floor, 1720 Grant StreetVancouver, BC V5L 2Y7(604) 254-9626www.mosaicbc.com
Inland Refugee Society of B.C.101-225 East 17th AvenueVancouver, BC V5V 1A6(614) 873-6660
South Vancouver Neighbourhood House6470 Victoria DriveVancouver, BC V5P 3X7(604) 324-6212www.anhgv.org/southvan/southvan.htm
SUCCESS28 West Pender StreetVancouver, BC V6B 1R6(604) 684-1628www.success.bc.ca
SUCCESS5836 Fraser StreetVancouver, BC V5W 2Z5(604) 324-1900www.success.bc.ca
Pacific Immigrant Resources SocietySuite 205-2929 Commercial DriveVancouver, BC V5N 4C8(604) 298-5888www.pirs.bc.ca

Thoughts on SMART Reading, teaching across age groups

Hey everybody,

A big thanks to Marin for her presentation on the SMART Reading System; I keep hearing about it, so it seems like it's a good methodology to be aware of. Here are a few of my reactions:

-I like the fact that it gets students to engage throughout the reading process by making predictions and writing about their understanding of the text as it unfolds. Far too often in highschool, I would read through a text fairly uncritically and cursorily and then get to the end wondering "What on earth was THAT about?" I kept expecting that finishing the text would suddenly make everything come clear, but since I hadn't been thinking very deeply as I went along, that never really happened. It's important for students to realize that interpreting a text is a process that is integrated with the act of reading itself, not a separate process you go through after you've finished reading.

-That said, the breaking up of the text into sections doesn't really prompt a holistic approach to understanding it. This could easily be remedied by adding a stage where the students re-read (as preposterous as many students might find this idea--better get used to it!) and answer some questions about how the ideas in the entire text fit together.

-The biggest limitation of the system, as I see it, is the "smarking" (as Madelaine put it). Without a lot of written explanation, it would be nearly impossible to tell what positive aspect of the writing the highlighting is supposed to indicate, and if you're going to write a lot, what's the point of the highlighting anyway? I also think that progress would also be hard to track with a highlighting system (presumably, the approximate ratio of highlighted to non-highlighted bits would remain fairly constant regardless of the specific strengths and problem areas in the writing?)

On a different note, I was kind of disappointed in the article on teaching across age groups, because I sort of assumed from the title that it would deal with age diversity within a single classroom (at Lord Byng, my ESL classes have students ranging from Grade 8 to 11!). I also thought the article essentialized what it means to be a "teenager" according to North American stereotypes ("age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness" [92]) ... I would have liked to see some acknowledgement that there are different cultural constructions of what it means to be a teenager. (Even in the West, adolescence as we know it is a fairly recent development; not all societies have a period between puberty and entry into the full-time workforce, and even those that do assign a variety of meanings to this period.) So, not only are ESL teachers likely to have to work with students of various biological ages, but they may also come up against a whole range of socio-cultural ages, even within a single classroom. Sounds complex, to say the least. I was also a little frustrated that the article about teaching learners of different levels of English proficiency glosssed over the difficulties involved in multi-level classrooms: "that diversity can work to your advantage with carefully designed activities that capitalize on differences among students" (108). Okay, sounds great--but can we get some concrete suggestions here?