Fourth week

Day 12

We started the class talking about what we do to stay healthy. As the warm up, I drew parts of the body on the board and the students guessed the name of each part. Then I asked them the spelling of each word.

We read the daily message about what we were going to study and I also wrote the agenda on the board. The students have already perceived that the agenda is a summary of the message. This is great! :-)

We reviewed the parts of the body by filling in the blanks with the names of each body part in an exercise. I asked them to use the previous exercise as a model since it was a similar activity. It was good because they could practice reading and writing the words.

We learned the word "Goodbye" and the sight words "She" and "He". I asked the students to give me some examples of sentences using the sight words. I wrote the sentences on the board and we read them together. I asked the students to copy the sentences on their notebooks.

We practiced the numbers 11 - 20 using the website Learning Chocolate. (Every time we use this website, the students stand up and touch the Smartboard to do the exercises. It is great to see them helping each other and very happy after they finish.

We practiced a short dialogue between a doctor and a patient. I elicited ideas on this topic from the students and I wrote on the board: What is the matter? I have a headache.

I printed the sentences I have a headache/stomachache/backache/cough, and cut into one-word pieces. I mixed all the words and asked the students to create a sentence putting the pieces in a clothesline. It was nice because they could stand up, worked in collaboration and see the sentence structure and the use of the period in the end of the sentences. :-)

Day 13

We started the class talking about common health problems we sometimes have. We reviewed creating sentences using the clothesline. We also reviewed some common health problems using some flashcards.

Now instead of writing the agenda myself, after we read the message of the contents of the day, I elicited the agenda from the students and they told me what to write. I believe it is a nice reading practice.

We learned the expression "Have a great evening!" and the sight word "it". We created some sentences using it. The students copied them on their notebooks.

We learned the numbers from 30 to 100 using the website Learning Chocolate. We also worked with grocery store flyers. The students learned how to see the price of things and understand the meaning of lb, ea, off. Each student read a flyer and shared in pairs what they wanted to buy and its price.

Then we learned about a conversation with a doctor. I elicited from them what they thought a doctor and a patient usually say in a conversation. After that, I told them I would play a video between a doctor and a patient without the audio so they could guess what the problem was. They watched the video and guessed that the patient had an earache. I played the video again so they could confirm their thoughts. They laughed a lot when they realized I was the patient in the video and they asked me if the doctor was my husband. LOL. I told them I had asked my husband to record a video with me because I hadn't found a very short and simple video like that on YouTube and my husband had kindly agreed to help me. :-)

Video - Doctor and Patient :-) - Yeah, it was a very simple video just to help my students learn. :-)

After watching the video, I gave the conversation on slips of paper so each group could put the dialogue in order. I played the video other times and they were all able to organize the dialogue. After that, they checked if they knew all the words and we repeated the dialogue. They also practiced it in pairs.

Finally, I asked them if they would like to record a video like mine to practice and post it in our Facebook group. Most of the students got excited and did it. I recorded the videos using my cell phone and we watched the videos afterwards. We all had a blast!

They told me they really liked the class today. Like Marc Prensky believes, students really enjoy using  and creating videos to learn. :-)

Day 14

I started the class asking the students what they wanted to learn more in our classes. I took notes and I hope I can teach what they want.

As I wanted to practice the alphabet in a different way, we had some listening exercises as the warm up. I thought we would spend 10 minutes with it, but we spent way longer than that. I realized that my instructions have to be VERY clear so ALL my students are able to follow them. I noticed some students checking on other students papers. I believe this happened because they are not yet confident but, anyway, it was a good practice for me and for them. I also think it was way too difficult for my two students that need more support... At least some classmates helped them. I keep wondering what they are thinking of these classes... They seem to be happy, but I wish I could know more about their thoughts and feelings...

We read the message for the day and they helped me write the agenda. I think they learned this very fast! I am proud of them! :-)

We learned the expression "I need ______." and the sight word "of". We wrote a sentence with the sight word and they copied it on their notebooks.

They reviewed some health problems by checking some flashcards and the names I posted on the board. It was nice because they just checked the ones they didn't remember.

We practiced the conversation between the doctor and the patient using other health problems.

We reviewed the meaning of lb, ea and off using some grocery store flyers.

We started reading a book about Going to the doctor in Manitoba. We discussed the importance of going to a doctor. I saw that some students got tired... Maybe it was too much information today...

In the afternoon class, we did a bit more and they started playing a board game about favourite things.

Day 15

We started the class talking about dreams. As the students did not know the meaning of the word "dream", I used Google images to show them its meaning and they got it right away. Images are really worth a thousand words. :-) I wrote their dreams on the board and we practiced saying them. I also wrote the sentence: I hope our dreams come true. It was interesting that some students that speak Arabic told me they say "Inshallah" when they hope the dreams come true. I really love to learn from my students! :-)

Then, we had a word search as the warm up of the day to practice the parts of the body. I used the website Puzzlemaker to create it.

We learned the expression "Can you help me?" and the sight word "in". The students gave me some examples of sentences using the sight word and I wrote them on the board. They wrote the sight word on their list and they also copied the sentences.

We played a board game to practice speaking. They had to share their "favourites". In the afternoon group, I put the students together to play while I helped a Foundations student learn the letters A, B, C. It was a great time because the other students helped each other and I could give more attention to the student that needed more attention. I used flashcards, a puzzle, an exercise to circle the letters A, B, and C and a workbook with this student. I noticed she circled the letters R when she meant B and G for C. I showed her the letters together and she was able to see the differences between them.

For the afternoon group I also taught a bit more of spoken language. I wrote the conversation below:
A: What is your favourite _________?
B: Well, uh, um, my favourite _______ is _______. / I like __________.
A: Really? Mine too. / I don't like _______.

I decided to teach the discourse markers "well", "uh", and "um" to help them sound more natural in their speaking and they had fun saying them. :-)

After the break, we practiced locating the alphabet on a paper computer keyboard. I also elicited from them what they already knew about the keys. I told them we would study it more frequently and I asked them to use it at home as well. We discussed about the importance of knowing how to better type in order to get some jobs in Canada.

Then we went to the computer lab to add another page to their books. They looked for a picture using Google Images and typed I like _________. After that, I asked them if each student wanted to practice math or typing. The students that chose math used this link: Math . The ones that wanted to practice typing used this link: Typing. Two students finished using those websites and asked me to do something else. I asked them if they wanted to read and listen to books and they used the website Bow Valley ESL Literacy readers . They really enjoyed choosing a book to read and listen. It was interesting to see that because one of the students told me she did not like reading books at all. I believe many students have this feeling because of the lack of good experiences with reading books in the past. My Foundations student watched some alphabet videos as she had told me she wanted to learn how to read and write.

On a side note, I always get very happy and excited when I see many parents spending time reading books for the children here in Canada. Unfortunately this is not very common in my country. At least my parents gave me many books and I had to read a book a day when I learned how to read and write. However, reading books is not a very common hobby in Brazil and this affects the lives of millions of people...

Reflection: I really liked to work with my Foundations student the way I did. I believe she felt comfortable and did a lot of progress. I am going to think about more ways to do that. I also decided to keep the sight words in a part of my board all the time. I think it is good for the students to keep looking at them. I noticed one student arrived 20 minutes before the class started and she was reading the sight words and she copied them again. I am also going to prepare special materials for my Foundations students, I think they really need that. I continue to be very happy and excited working with all of them. :-)

Third week

Day 8

We reviewed the parts of the body sticking slips in two volunteer students and we had fun. We also reviewed some greetings and the word STOP. They learned the words WALK and THE. We walked around our school to read some signs and some numbers.

We read the book The Big Surprise and we counted how many times we read the words The, she and her.

The students retold the story and I wrote some sentences on the board with the title of the book. The students copied the sentences and practiced reading.

In the afternoon, I received two new students. While the new students were in the orientation session, I worked with my other students. We studied about ailments and how to talk to a doctor. We used the website Learning Chocolate to learn about some basic health problems.We saw some ailments using the Word by Word Picture dictionary and we watched a video of a doctor's appointment on Youtube. We talked about the video.

Day 9

We started the class talking about our favourite fruits. I wrote the names of the fruits on the board and the students played a game to erase names of the fruits according to the fruit I said.

We reviewed the parts of the body and I wrote them on the board. The students did an exercise to fill in the blanks with vowels of the parts of the body and another one with consonants. They reviewed the greetings and learned Hi and Hello. We reviewed the words STOP and WALK and learned the word WOMEN. We also learned another sight word: TO. We walked in the school to read the words we had learned.

I asked them to start writing a list of the sight words on the last page of their notebook. Each day they are going to add a new word.

We reviewed the numbers and did a listening exercise using numbers and simple calculations. They learned the words plus, minus, times, divided by and equals.

I observed that the students focused a lot on the listening exercise. A few students could not follow the exercise very well but their peers helped them. One of the students had a lot of difficulty to do the listening exercise so I asked her to practice writing upper case letters instead.

Day 10

We started the class talking about our favourite numbers and then I asked the students to stand up and ask three classmates' phone numbers using this sheet below. They wrote their classmates' names and phone numbers. They asked me how to say the word spell.

We reviewed some math symbols and we finished the listening exercise about numbers. We corrected the exercise with volunteers going to the board and writing the correct numbers on the board.

We reviewed the greetings and learned EXCUSE ME. We also reviewed the previous words from the past days and learned the word MEN.

We added another word to our Sight Words list: AND.

The afternoon group also used the website REEP World to study more about health problems. They used the Word by Word picture dictionary too.

Day 11

I decided not to talk about ailments today so we can learn about a different topic every week. As I am asking them to write a book about themselves, I thought it was a good idea for them to talk about things they like and dislike.

We started talking about one thing we liked. While they told me things, I wrote the words on the board and we read them together.

We reviewed the math symbols  + - x ÷ = and some health problems. We also reviewed the sight words and added the words I and YOU. We practiced and they wrote them on their list.

I talked to my coordinator about doing likes and dislikes and she suggested that I ask them to draw some things they liked on a sheet of paper. I showed them mine as an example. After that, as some students wrote the names of some things, I asked them to write the names of all the things on their paper. Then, I put them in pairs and asked them to share the things they liked. They really enjoyed this activity and I am going to use it more often. :-)

After the break we went to the computer lab so they could continue or start writing their books. I showed them mine as an example.

We read it together and I asked students to write theirs. I taught them how to look for pictures using Google Images and how to copy and paste the pictures in their books.

One student did something different since she has just started classes and it was the first time she was using a computer. I taught her how to turn on the computer and I asked her if she would like to practice the alphabet and the numbers. She watched some videos on Youtube. She also watched some videos of likes and dislikes.

Then they used some websites to practice what they wanted. Most students chose the website Learning Chocolate and one student read a book from the ESL Bow Valley website.

Reflection: I realized that I should ask students to write one page at a time. Besides, I am not going to stick to one theme every day anymore. I believe the students want to learn about other things too. I am going to ask them more about this on Monday. I think it is not just because they have chosen to study health in their needs assessment that I should focus ONLY on that.

Second week

Day 4

I had planned to teach other parts of the body but we spent more time reviewing and practicing the alphabet using various materials (puzzles, flashcards, and websites). We also had a chance to review the parts of the body in the warm up. I asked the students to be in pairs and they had to point at their friend's body parts. They laughed a lot!

We had an alphabet dictation. I asked them to write the word dictation below the date on their notebooks. I corrected the dictation with the help of the students. I asked each one to go to the board to write the correct letters.

They also used some worksheets about the parts of the body that I had created using Pinterest ideas.

The afternoon group was faster and I could do more activities with them so we had an alphabet bingo and they had fun playing the game.

I realized I can't do the same activities for all the students since they have different levels in ESL Literacy. Besides, as I assumed everybody in class knew each other's names (at least I always know all the students' names) I never put an emphasis on that. However, my coordinator talked about how important it is in Canada for people to know and use other people's names and I am going to incorporate it into my lessons. I still have a LOT to learn about teaching ESL literacy...

Day 5

Three students arrived very early today and I believe they don't know how to check the time... I also thought that I can have a digital clock instead of an analog one in class...

We started talking about our favourite body parts as I was taking attendance. Then we had a warm-up to practice our names (unfortunately some students arrived late and missed this part).

We had a dictation about the parts of the body. They were able to write and to draw each part of the body. We corrected the dictation using the same technique of the previous class. While most students did that, one of my students practiced writing upper case letters.

The afternoon group used a picture dictionary to complete a worksheet. I taught them how to look for something using the table of contents of the dictionary and they were able to identify the name and the page! Yay!

Day 6

I had a cold and took a day off. My substitute used a lesson plan I had created. They practiced the alphabet.

I rested a bit and spent some time studying since I know I need to learn a lot more to help my students learn. I used the links Kelly Morrissey provides in her amazing website. I read the book Making It Real and I learned so much! It has amazing practical ideas that are going to help me create better classes for multi-level groups.

I have decided I am going to change some things in my classes. I am going to include an "Everyday English" part and numeracy every class. I am also going to work on sight words too.

There is so much to learn and sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed because I wish I already knew a lot more. But I have to be patient with myself and do the best I can now and keep improving. At least I know I can provide a safe place for my students to learn.

Day 7

I started the class telling them that I was quickly recovering from the cold and feeling much better. I asked them to tell me any word in English after I told them my word "Love". Each student told me a word and I wrote them on the board reading each one slowly.

We practiced greeting each other using our names and the name tags. I printed the greeting "Good morning!", we read it together and I put it on the wall. We read it together a few times.

First words: I wrote the word "STOP" on the board and we worked with it. Most students could read it and we talked about its meaning and where they had read it. I showed a picture of a STOP sign and we talked about its colors.

Then I wanted to know if they knew the numbers. We used the fingers to count, we counted some things in the classroom and we also used the website Learning Chocolate. After practicing with it, we had a dictation with numbers.

With the afternoon students, I did something different since they already know the numbers. We read the book "The Big Surprise" by Linda Kita-Bradley. We explored each picture and we read the sentences together and discussed what was happening on each page.



After the break we went to the computer lab because I wanted the students to finish the week practicing what they wanted using the Learning Chocolate website. After they were able to turn on the computer and type the username and password, they typed the website address and worked independently. Some students wanted to review the alphabet, others wanted to practice the parts of the body and others wanted to practice the numbers. It was great because they practiced what they needed most.

Reflection: After I discussed about my lessons with my coordinator, I have decided to have this structure from now on:

Attendance: Ask a simple question so all the students have a chance to say something

Warm-up

Calendar + Weather

Review

Everyday English

Sight words

Numeracy

Content

Wrap up

Leave taking

Computer lab once a week

I am very happy with my students' progress and I am enjoying every single minute with them. :-)

First week

I have two groups of ESL Literacy, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I am going to write a summary of both classes.

Day 1

I found out that the students already know the letters of the alphabet. I also realized that even though they are all literacy learners, they have various levels (Foundations, CLB 1L, CLB 2L)*. I am glad they could help each other as some of them are from the same country.

I told them I am from Brazil and a student mentioned "Football!", of course. :-) I replied with "Soccer?" and he told me the names of two soccer players. Oh, well, I can't change that... :-) At least we connected right away.

I showed them the website Quizlet and we practiced the alphabet with it on our Smartboard. I also showed them the Quizlet app in my cell phone and I told them they could download the app for free if they wanted. As most students have smartphones, they all wanted to have the app and installed it.

The very few students without smartphones used the alphabet flashcards to practice and another student used the Learning Chocolate website on the Smartboard to match the letters.

After that, I used some plastic fruits and suddenly my Foundations student started saying the names of some fruits and the word "garden". I felt so happy we could connect! :-) I taught her how to say "I like _______." She repeated after me and touched some fruits.

I displayed the Learning Chocolate website again with some fruits and asked my students to match the fruits with the audio of their names. They enjoyed doing that.

I am glad I could connect with my students. They seem to be happy in class and so am I. I am also happy I could use some digital tools as well. I believe digital literacy should be taught since day 1. :-)

Day 2

I received new students and they were welcomed into the class by the other students. It is great to see their sense of community!

It is important to mention that I always start my classes with the attendance call asking a different question every day and I am the first one to answer to model it for my students. This way everybody has a chance to practice speaking and we can all listen to each other.

As I wanted to know what my students already know, I thought about starting with favourite colors. I showed colored markers and told them my favourite color. I called each student and they mentioned their favourite colors too.

As a warm up, I asked them to stand up and touch something of a certain color. They had fun and I also asked them to tell the colors for us to touch. It was a great kinesthetic activity to review the colors.

We reviewed the alphabet using the Learning Chocolate website. I asked the students to stand up, listen and match the sounds and the corresponding letters. I also asked them to listen and type the letter they heard. They helped each other.

After that, I asked them to write their names on a sheet of paper so we could learn everybody's names.

As I wanted to check how much they knew about reading and writing, I showed them some grocery store flyers using the Genre Based Approach (in fact, I always use it - if you want to learn more about it, you can read this article - Genre Based Approach: Theories, Lesson plan and Teaching simulation )

I showed them 5 things I wanted to buy from the flyer and I asked them to choose 5 things too and show them to their classmates saying "I want to buy _____, _____, ____, _____, and ______."

I asked them to copy the date on their notebooks and write one thing from the flyer starting with the letters I wrote on the board. I wanted to check if they were able to read and write something from the flyer.

They reviewed the alphabet using Quizlet. The advanced students wanted to add other sets to their folders on Quizlet. I helped them with that.

I asked the students to take pictures of some things they wanted to learn in English.

I have been using various activities to check what they are able to do so I can plan my lessons accordingly.

Day 3

The students completed the needs assessment and most of them choose the theme "Health".

This includes parts of the body, illnesses and how to talk to a doctor. Before I teach something, I always elicit from the students to check what they already know. We practiced the song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" to learn and review some parts of the body. We also used the website Learning Chocolate to practice. I could see the students really enjoy touching the Smartboard.

They had opportunities to listen, read and type the parts of the body. After that, I wrote the date on the board and I asked them to copy the date on their notebooks and write 3 words they didn't know. I also asked them to draw each part so it would be easier for them to remember these words as it is important to make them aware of some language learning strategies.

After the break, I took them to the computer laboratory for the first time. I showed them my story and read it for them.

I asked them to fill in the blanks with their information (their information was on the board). I shared a template in our intranet so they all could open the file in their computers and type their information.

While they were typing, I took pictures of them so they could insert their photos in their stories. Then I asked them to save their stories, I thought it could be a good idea to keep those stories in the computers and help them to write a book instead of printing the stories right away. So every week they would write a new page of their books. I believe they will feel proud of themselves when they have a printed copy of their books in the future! I was inspired by the books I saw in the Bow Valley website Bow Valley College - ESL literacy readers .

Reflection: This week was very nice to get to know my students and learn about them. I also realized that when something does not happen the way I expect with the morning group, I can change it and make it better with the afternoon group. I am very happy with my students and I am learning a lot from this experience. I hope my students enjoy our classes and learn a lot.

Peace!

*Canadian Language Benchmarks - L means Literacy. For more information you can check the website: ESL Literacy

Getting ready for a new adventure...

It is my first time teaching ESL Literacy and I am super excited and happy to have this opportunity. I believe education is love and I am ready to share it with my students and to provide a safe place for them to feel comfortable to learn.

When I read Paulo Freire's ideas many years ago, I was fascinated and I really wanted to have the challenge of opening a new world for people, the world of literacy. I believe there is no better award for an educator than seeing people being able to read and write.

I have been studying a lot and I can't wait to meet with new students tomorrow and learn as much as I can about them so I can plan my classes according to their needs.

I have already  opened a new folder in my Google Drive and the first file I uploaded there was a poster I have created using images I got from Google images. You can see the poster below.

Yeah, my students can use digital tools to help them learn. I am an advocate for the use of technology to learn languages. :-)

I have also finished reading CLB: ESL for Adult Literacy Learners and some other materials about the field. 

Besides, I have been following lots of ESL teachers on Twitter and reading their tweets about ESL Literacy. One of the most important ones for me is Teacher Kelly Morrissey, who has a very rich website for teachers and students of ESL. 

I would like to thank Teacher Kelly for her immense generosity. Her website has been helping me a lot. Can you believe she even wrote a post with one of my requests? She is the best!

in addition to studying, I also bought some materials at a great store called Scholar's Choice . I really loved everything there and I wish I could buy lots of things for my students. Anyway, I can buy materials little by little. :-)

Last but not least, I would like to thank my coordinators for giving me this amazing opportunity! I can't wait to start tomorrow! 

I will keep you all posted! Please send me positive thoughts. 

Love!