Holiday Cheer!

Tomorrow we are having an all-school movie/all-staff breakfast potluck.

Kdg-First: Despicable Me
Third-Fourth: Shrek IV
Second- Split between the two

I'm excited for the opportunity to socialize with the other staff members.  This semester has been so busy that I hardly have had a chance to commisterate/collaborate with other teachers.  I find it helpful to see what other people are doing in their classrooms, and sometimes I am able to incorporate their ideas into my lessons.

"The Family Under The Bridge"

Every year the fourth grade classes are forced to read "The Family Under The Bridge," an antiquated tale of a hobo living in Paris who has a chance meeting with three homeless children.  Much to the original dismay of their mother, he ends up becoming an integral part of the family structure and everyone lives happily ever after.  The End.

I understand the importance of the message; don't judge a book by its cover.  The problem as I see it is in the "odd" content within the text.  Their are a series of French words throughout the novel that the students in ESL find especially difficult to pronounce, not unlike there non-ESL peers, and in addition - the novel contains many outdated phrases and long syllabic words.  My students are finding it particularly disheartening to read this book, and it makes me generally sad.  Sometimes the looks on there faces after I've corrected there reading a dozen or so times breaks my heart. 

The questions that go along with the story are not too difficult, but the students still need some prodding at times to find the answer in long drawn out monologues/explanations made by the characters. 

I believe that a main reason for their lack of fluency in reading this story stems from the lack of comparable texts read in class.  This story is like an apple to the banana of other selections.

Good Advice

"I wish Lego people were alive" - First Grade boy

Cold

Right now my classroom feels like i'm teaching outside in the snow.  Brrrrrrr!

Snarky

I'm forcasting a looong week ahead.  Contrary to popular opinion, missing a Monday actually throws off the week much more than missing a Friday.  I would prefer the latter.  As nice as it was to sleep in and walk around the house wearing extra comfy socks for an extra weekend day, the consequences or ummm set backs makes it kind of a bummer.  The week is definitely thrown off now, and with a four day week coming up next week - teachers are scrambling to make up the missed work. 

In addition to the obvious annoyances, I got pulled to sub for a 4th grade class for 20 min - sans lesson plans.  Controlling a group of 29 kids is not my cup of tea, as I am extremely effective with smaller groups, I have not quite grasped the patience to deal with them in masses.  To be honest, hose 20 minutes were quite terrifying. 

Snow Day

Monday, December 13, 2010 we were charmed with a snow day!

Quiet Morning

Today was a pretty average Friday morning; quiet. 
I learned how to turn a wordsearch into a way to practice letter identification, beginning and ending sounds, and colors all in one.  The kindergarten student seemed to enjoy the activity.  She didn't seem to notice the list of words at the bottom..

The snow has the kids pretty excited for recess.

Once Upon a Lesson..

The first graders have finished their 12 sight word lessons and now there is some room for creativity.  We've divided the group in two; one with 5 and one with 3, with me at the helm of the larger group.  We are making books!  Using a blank hardcover book (available at any craft store) they are day by day adding a little bit about the "first grade experience" to it.  When they finish the year they will have a comprehensive personalized book of what they did and liked this year.  Not only does it allow them to be creative as illustrators, but they will eventually have more freedom to pick the topics they are going to write about.  This is a funjecational activity for everyone.

What's Your Name?

The cold weather has all the kids a little stir crazy.  Recess has been inside all week because of the windchill factor and the students are showing signs of restlessness.  Attitudes are at an all time high and teachers are generally irritated.  The signs of an impending vacation are also there - the students and teachers are grossly aware of the upcoming festivites - all school movie morning, holiday parties, etc.  If you can imagine, it's even worse in an ESL classroom.  With school going until the day before Christmas Eve and many of our students going to Mexico for the holidays, the last week will prove to be extrememly unproductive with a missing mass of kids.  Some of the kids are already convinced that we are on break.

It's hard to keep them focused when they are so excited about the holidays and vacation.       

Friday is Fun Day

Today I am the teacher :)
My supervising teacher is out and we have no sub.  It's not really much different from a normal day; I just had to cancel a couple morning groups. 

One of the kindergarteners figured out that we always do something fun on Friday (i.e.  abc BINGO, Leap Frog "Letter Factory" dvd, Starfall on the computer).  I kind of thought that would take the fun out of it to know it's coming and not be surprised - but he seemed happier than on regular days knowing he had something to look forward to :)

Peacock

It always amazes me the bonus words that a first grade class can come up with.  Every week one of our first grade groups has 2 challenge spelling words, this week: December (makes perfect sense) and peacock (?).
I wonder if the students get to pick? Or, maybe there is a grab bag type of system where the teacher pulls out a random word every week.  I think it's fascinating.

Stand and Deliver

With snow falling outside, students are more than distracted.
This morning I had to stand behind a student using the Academy of Reading software and repeat the phrase "which on is it?" - for 15 minutes.  It's unfortunate the lack of concentration that the average student has, but if that's what it takes for him to be successful I will do it everyday.
Is it spring yet?

Take Your Time!

4th Grade- Miraculously 2 of the groups are back on the same story this week.  This makes it easier when there are multiple groups in the same room (as kids tend to get distracted easily).  This means both groups are working on the same spelling, vocabulary, and story.  I hope that it stays this way for some time, this way we will be able to get more done. 

The 4th grade student that has been coming for extra time during recess four times a week is showing improvement.  Although his handwriting is horendous still,  he has been doing the bulk of his homework at home ::gasp::  I believe he struggles with completing assignments not for lack of total skills, but for lack of the ability to work at the required pace.  He simply works at his own speed which is unfortunately something that the school day often doesn't allow for, and the consequence is that he has to finish up classwork at home in addition to homework assignments.  Despite this, he is still a joy to have in class.  

T-Day

Kdg- we are working more on sight words, make mini books to help practice (one word a day, most days).  We are also concentrating on both beginning and ending sounds, supplementing this skills with targeted worksheets.

1st- we are on sight word list 11 (out of 12).  The students are focusing on using the words in a sentence to get a better sense of their context.  Today we used interactive writing to combine efforts in making sentences for specific words.

2nd- it's back to spelling, vocab, and story as normal this week. To fill extra time the students complete daily language reviews (1/2 sheet worksheets) and reading comprehension packets.  I can see a definite improvement in their ability to take the information they have read and express understanding.

4th- the focus in spelling this week are plural forms of words.  All the classes are still on separate stories, this week one of the groups started reading "Shiloh" (a chapter book).  The use of vocabulary flashcards seem to be helping.   

Review Week

This is review week for the Second grade groups.  They do not have a new story in class, but are going over selected spelling and vocabulary words that might have been slightly more challenging the first time around.  This is a great time for us to spend our sessions focusing on reading comprehension.  The Read & Understand packets are leveled for each grade.  They also have corresponding grade level skills such as vocabulary, compound words, contractions, punctuation, etc.  This helps to strengthen ideas that are introduced in the classroom. 

Most of the time we complete these packets together, however, it is nice to let them do small portions individually in order to gage their progress. 

Hump Day

Kindergarten-  The students are making progress; slowly, but surely.  We have almost grasped all of the letters and sounds, and are starting to be able to identify beginning and ending sounds.  The use of technological aides like the StarFall computer game and the Leap Frog "Letter Factory" dvd, the concepts have really began to plant themselves in the students memory.  They are able to recall letter information rather regularly, and seem to really enjoy the extra stimulation.

First Grade - The students are on the ninth set of sight words.  Their sentences are looking much better; spacing, capital letters, punctutation, etc.  They are still having some difficuly writing on a topic and making up the sentences, but we will keep working on it.  The students that are using the Reading Academy software are really doing great on it.  Out of the 31 skills it covers, most of them are at least a third through them; some obviously being easier than others.

Second Grade - We are starting the Read Naturally program with 1/2 of the students.  Hopefully this will improve their fluency.  The other half is going to keep working on some extra reading comprehension and sequencing skills.

Fourth Grade - Spelling is still a concern for some of the students.  Their work improves considerably over the week, but the end grade is still lower than I would like to see.  We will have to concentrate a little more on this.  Otherwise, I am happy with their comprehension - but would like to see a little more ability to think outside the box.

Out Sick

I made it almost until lunch yesterday before taking the rest of the day off.  Until I began working in an elementary school I took for granted my quality of health.  Your immune system is not inately set up to battle the germs of hundreds of sick children.  I used to feel like everytime a child sneezed on me I was going to come down with the flu, and most of the time I did.  This year I have been pretty successful at avoiding it; washing my hands every hour, germ gel, drinking lots of water, maximizing my vitamin c, etc.  Yesterday that all came crashing down - I spent the afternoon under the covers, not exactly how I pictured the week starting off.  Despite this set back, I am back at work today (half-speed ahead) and making the most of it.

 

Week #11

This week has gone by pretty quickly.  3rd and 4th graders have finished the semi-annual Acquity testing that is meant to track progress through the year.  This is a huge relief because all ESL students taking the text must have an ESL staff member in the computer lab, in case they have trouble reading a word.  This essentially means that we have to cancel normal sessions to sit in the room while students are testing to meet the state mandated modifications.  We are not allowed to help them or tell them what the words mean, simply read the word out loud to them.  When the test first started we used to read the entire thing to students, but the test doesn't go in order and it becomes a problem when trying to keep up with every student in a group larger than 2. 

The classes that really have missed out because of this have been my 2nd grade groups that meet back-to-back at the end of the day.  Due to the fact that I am the only one available after 1 p.m., if I am otherwise occupied the groups are automatically cancelled and not rearranged or covered by the supervising teacher.  These 2nd grade groups only meet 4 times a week and not 5 because of the early dismissal that happens every Thursday.  This combined with testing has caused for an additional 5 missed sessions.  Also, the 2nd grade has started their round of planetarium trips..one group of mine goes in the afternoon and thus will miss there time 3 weeks in a row.  Luckily, this is the stronger of the 2 groups. 

I'm looking forward to the schedule going back to normal relatively soon.  To my knowledge we won't have any schedule interruptions ::crosses fingers:: until January. 

Technology

The computers in the classroom were especially helpful this morning.  I had 3 different groups in the classroom and needed to occupy all of them at the same time with different work.  The computers allowed me to have students working independently while I instructed the other groups. 

The students also seem to really enjoy the program.  I think that helps them to be more focused.  How fun-ducational! 

Morning Madness

This week is off to a good start.  We are still helping with the Acquity testing, but the moderations to the schedule have been minimum.  Students are [at least slightly] refreshed from the 4-day weekend and are adjusting back to the everyday schedule. 

The fourth grade is still off on the stories, but eventually they will be back on track. 

The normal 5-day week is more consistent and hopefully students will be focused until the next break after having some time off.

Confusion

Once again the confusion continues.  This week some teachers have opted for no story, while others have opted for a short story or a regular length one.  This discrepency makes it difficult for groups that are combined with more than one class in the same grade level.  In order to make extra time for other students, there is no longer 2 adults available for every session, and multitasking plays a big role.  Fortunately, this is where my experience comes in handy.  It also relies on the relationship that we have built with the students which allows them to have patience.  Sometimes one group has to work independently while the other is being given directions.

The computers in the classroom definitely are benefiting our program already.  The ability to have some students working independently on the computer while others are working interactively is really comingi n handy.  When we had to take students next door to the computer lab it was much more of an all or nothing approach.  All students needs to be supervised, so all students need to stay together.  This way we are able to break off into smaller, more specifically customized groups. 

Fall Break

This week we are having fall break on Thursday and Friday.  This is first break we've had since Labor Day (Monday off).  The students are definitely ready for a little breather, and are showing the signs in their attention span. 

The Reading Academy software seems to slowing building the skills in the first graders.  Unfortunately, we have not had much time to work with the fourth graders on it.   The basic skills that it touches on are really the building blocks for all reading and language comprehension.  Hopefully, after fall break things will normalize again and we can use it more.  As of Friday we now have computer pods in our classroom!  This will make it much easier to access the program without interferring with a schedule class in the computer lab.  On the downside, the Title 1 program is now beginning to use the program and because of the limited number of licenses this may become an issue. 

I'm concerned because it is a short week that we will not have enough time to focus on the story and vocabulary before it's time to tst on it.  With the fourth grade classes still on different stories, this also presents a challenge of managing the time efficiently.  So far they have been doing very well on their weekly assessments (give or take a student and/or week), I have confidence that they will be able to keep it up this week even without the additional practice.   

Reading Academy

As the students get more use of the Reading Academy software, i've noticed some problems with the first grade group.  Some of the beginning lessons (rhyming, beginning sounds, ending sounds) are presenting the students with difficulties.  I feel that perhaps a lesson prior to using the program might be helpful for the students.  I am finding that when they have consistent difficulty passing a skill, they become discouraged; especiallly when other students are passing and receiving certificates.  Rhyming sounds are particularly difficult for ESL students because it is a concept that other languages do not have, which also makes it hard for parents to help at home. 

I have one student that is doing amazingly well on the program.  This student interestingly enough views it as a game, with levels to pass and puzzles to solve.  I think its an interesting concept that students enthralled in the gaming culture may benefit academically from this viewpoint. 

Extra Extra!

Once again we have tweeked the schedule to allow extra time for students that need additional one-on-one assistance.  I am now working with a kindergarten student, three times a week for 15-20 minutes.  We will be focusing exclusively on letter idenitification.  Hopefully this additonal practice will bring her up to par with the other ESL students.  

Split

A challenge of combining different classes of the same grade is that sometimes the teachers choose to insert or skip reading stories during the year.  When this occurs, you have two groups with different spelling words and related stories.  Worst case scenario, one class is reading a novel - this requires the entire week's sessions to be devoted to the reading and answering assigned questions. 

This week, two of the 4th grade classes have chosen to skipthe shorter "Time Life" story (which they will usually use during a shortened week - like next week's 3 day Fall Break week); whereas, one class is not.  This throws the routine off for this week and next until the classes reunite 2 stories from now. 

Fortunately, we have begun one of the lower classes on the Reading Academy computer-based learning software program and this will allow them to work on that while the other students continue the usual routine.  This class also is scheduled for more time that can be used specifically for spelling and reading. 

It is a unique situation, but we are making the most of it.  I am really excited to see the results of the program first hand.

Monday Morning

The 4th graders missed ESL today, they were scheduled to visit the planetarium.  The schedule for planetarium trips is on a 3-week rotation and offers the students an exciting opportunity to learn about science in a more hands-on and visual dominant way.  Even though they are missing a session of work, I think that this is an interesting experience for them and is especially helpful for some of my students that don't learn as well by reading information on a page.

The first graders that see me twice a day performed poorly on their spelling test last week.  I maintain that even with the extra practice we are doing, that if they fail to practice or study at home they will not succeed in this area.  Part of learning spelling words is memorization, and that takes time and effort.  Although, I do think the words were particularly difficult last week with the "qu" blend.  Based on this mornings pre-test, the students did not take any time to look over there words this weekend, but since they are marginally less challenging, the results may be slightly improved.  Crossing my fingers.

The kindergarteners need to be tested using the "Running Records" exam.  My biggest concern is that our ESL students have not yet learned there letters, and thus are not reading at any level.  I am interested to see how tests are scored when a student is not yet a Level A reader.   

Thursday Blues

Thursday is very much a review day.  Students mostly take their reading comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling tests on Friday.  Today is the last day to really practice the information and make sure that the students are prepared for the assessments. 

With my first grade groups, we are concentrating on rhyming words using their tricky words.  This is a concept that many of the students did not grasp in kindergarten for various reasons and will become increasingly important to them to be able to identify words that have the same ending sounds.

Child Abuse

Last Thursday, the professional development session focused on child abuse.  Although I considered myself fairly aware of the signs of child abuse or neglect; the obvious.  I realized that there was a considerable amount of information that is not highly publicized or recreated on your average Lifetime movie.

This week coincidentily I became acutely aware of a potential problem concerning this issue for one of my students.  Shocked, I went through the steps that we discussed which led to meeting with my principal.  I was amazed that just a simple overview of the things that school personnel should be on the lookout for, helped me to readily identify a possible risky situation. 

Alphabet

Kindergarten is progressing slowly with their abc idenitification. They are now on there 4th set of letters.  We are still working on colors, shapes, and numbers; but the focus is on the alphabet.  There is such a great mandate for learning the alphabet as the foundation for learning tricky words and being able to read starting in January with basic level A readers, that it is a pertinent skill for them to acquire.  There is one student that is particularly lower than the other 2 and can identify very few of the letters despite constant repetition.  This is going to become a hinderance very fast, if it is not already.  I am concerned that her lack of any language and previous educational experience will slow her learning down.  I have worked with 2 of her older siblings and they both still struggle on basic skills.  I was hoping that they would use their English skills to prepare her a little better for school, but even though she can speak in broken English conversational sentences and be understood - she appears to be retaining very little of the information we work on in ESL or that is worked on in class.   

Benefits

For the first time since the one 4th grader started missing his recess to receive extra time, he did not have any homework or classwork with him.  He is up-to-date on all of his assignments and is actually turning in his homework.  Now, we will be able to work on some other skills to help him succeed without limiting the work in order to have time for his graded work.  I'm hopeful that we might be able to cut back his time after the first grading period as a reward for his hard work.

Small Things

After yesterday's disappointing 1st grade session, today reminded me of the perks of working in an ermergence-based ESL program - special programs.  ESL takes a backseat on days when there are field trips or special programs/assemblies in the building.  This morning, it was learning about soil which consumed the first grade classes and gave me some room to reflect before our afternoon session. 

The time was good for me and them (or at least me).  The extra prep time allowed me to repair my mindset to one that would, and could, be more patient. 

Although the spelling scores still filled me with a internal sense of teacher failure (and made me slightly nauseated), I did see a minimal improvement and was able to remind myself that it's all new to them and they just need some more practice.

Regrouping

After a quick brainstorming session with my supervising teacher, we have come up with plans to conquer the atrocious spelling - start at the beginning.  Starting tomorrow we will be reviewing three-letter words and how to spell them and sound them out.  We will be using the letter blocks (reading rods) to give the kids a chance to get hands on.  Hopefully, the interaction element will make it a little more fun and keep their attention long enought to grasp the concept.

Frustrated

This morning was particularly frustrating.  I was working with 2 - 1st graders who suffer from a serious spelling problem.  Out of 10 words they only got 2 and 3 right.  My first go to technique for spelling (after a series of questions about their study habits at home) is to copy the word 5 times each.  The problem is however, that even with the word spelled out in front of them - they had no idea what the word was.  The low phonetic skills they exhibit is becoming a hinderance and already affecting their success.  Even more frustrating, is that one of the students repeated kindergarten and should be sufficiently able to sound out simple words like "lung" or "leg".     

Hello!

The adjustments made to the first grade schedule and the focus of that time seem like they will have the effect wanted for most of the students.  I like that we are focusing on lower skill areas even if that means a change from the normal routine.  I feel like the more repetition the better in this case.  Students will now be reading their weekly story and working on their spelling words, both in ESL and in their regular classroom.  In addition, we are really trying to hammer sight words into them. 

Week 7: The slump begins..

We are now in Week 7 of the school year and the novelty of a new year has definitely worn off for both the students and the teachers.  Last Friday, progress reports went home and we are now able to fill our extra time slots with students that are in need of some additional support.  A lot of this time involves focusing on skills that are not being absorbed during classroom instruction.  The other most important aspect of this extra time, is completing assignments that just don't seem to get done at home. 

Several of the students have already been flagged for consistently "forgetting" to bring back homework or bringing it back incomplete or significantly wrong.  The main goal in these extra sessions as a whole is to bring grades up as the first report card period reaches its half way mark.  By focusing on skills that the student is particularly struggling with, we are able to bring up a low grade with little consequence to the student.  For example, if we have a 1st grader struggling with spelling and they improve their spelling scores, there is a likely possibility that their reading scores will improve.  My theory, as I'm sure others share (or hope they do) is that if a student has problems sounding out a word or spelling it, than they may not be able to read it.  If they have a better understanding of words in isolation that they can read more fluently, and therefore ultimately have an improved comprehension of the material.   Since skills build on eachother the simple effort of strengthening the weakest block in the tower can really make a difference.     

Progress

Progress is definitely the theme for today.  After trying some new things this week with alphabet recognition, the kindergarteners are showing improvement in their identification skills.  From the first few weeks when they knew none of the letters that the class went over - for the most part, they are able to identify the first 11 letters.  We have also began working on their sight words, this week we covered the first 3 "I", "the", and "he".  Today 2/3 of the kids knew the words in order and out of order.  I am very excited about these improvements!

Improvement

Friday is testing day.  This morning I administered a reading test to a 4th grade group..and they did awesome.  The open ended question portion is always a little tricky (so I try not to look), but there sentence writing skills are improving on a weekly basis.  Their ability to comprehend the material is also improving, evident by there near perfect or even perfect multiple choice answers. 

We practiced the spelling words one more time on the white board.  The kids really like being able to write on the board (perhaps its the colorful markers).  100% for all students.  It's nice to see as the week goes how the number of incorrect words decreases.  I really hope the results translate back to class, it's always nice to end the week with some awesome grades for the Friday folder (which like its name suggests, goes home to parents weekly with grades and completed assignments). 

Early Dismissal

The state of Indiana requires a certain amount of time to be spent on professional development, or "kid free learning time".  However, the state has also mandated that school districts are no longer allowed to have half days.  In order to build this time into the calendar without taking away from the require number of minutes for instructional time, Merrillville elementary schools are releasing students an hour early every Thursday for the remainder of the year. 

What this means for the students is:
1) one less hour of school
2) one more hour of fun

What this means for an ESL student is:
1) one less hour of school
2) one more hour of fun
3) possibly one less ESL session a week

This last factor, leaves students missing out on help that they need.  For instance, 2nd grade does not come to ESL on Thursdays.  Now this may not seem like a huge deal except for the fact that next year they begin taking the ISTEP test and those scores have a profound impact on the school as a whole.  Also, students that come during recess because of slacking grade performance miss their allotted time because of the exclusion of morning recess. 

Focus

First graders are rolling right along on their sight word lessons.  We are now on list #3.  They are catching on to the patterns that exist within the worksheets and are able to complete them more independently.  I see this as a good thing, but possible negative consequences might be their overambition.  Some students like to work ahead and don't understand the point of staying together as a group.  Working as a group allows  them the time to comprehend the material and not just complete the "work". 

Review

This week is review week in Kindergarten for letters.  They have completed the first 2 sets of letters/sounds "s a t i p n" and "ck h e r m d".  That means that this is a great week to drill the students and work specifically on identification without worrying about falling behind on new letter sounds. 

Today, we used the Leap Frog "Letter Factory" DVD as a visual aide.  The students were able to see the letters in action more or less.  Hopefully, they will begin to associate the letters with their sounds through these repetetive techniques. 

Progressing Slowly

I'm beginning to get a little frustrated with the progress my kindergarteners are making.  Every day we review the letters and sounds that they learn in their classroom, and everyday they give me the sound and more-often-than-not cannot identify the letter.  As a child of another generation, perhaps I fail to understand the tremendous expectations that are placed on young children these days to produce results.  A 6 year-old is now expected to know not only their letters and sounds, but to make words out of them, put those words into sentences and than read those sentences (of course some of that comes later in the year).

The phonics part tends to be the more difficult part in my experience, but these students can look at the letter and sound it out without knowing what the letter itself is. 

I have begun reciting the ABC's with them while pointing to the letters in order, but I feel like its almost time to consider alternative options.  I think this week the lesson plan will stay about the same, but I will begin to discuss options with my supervising teacher.   

Constant Change

Today was the official start day, or "trial run" for the Title 1/remedial reading programs in our building.  What that means for ESL is changes to the schedule. Although we began pulling our kids several weeks ago after we finished the initial prep work, we were working on a tentative schedule.  Today, the official schedule kicked in.  We will now be able to tweek the schedule to allow for extra one-on-one time for specific students who need work on different skill sets. 

The minor changes to the schedule have been progressing rather well so far.  The students are adjusting to the new groups really well, and I am looking forward to the challenge of having students with different needs.  Me and Mrs. Davidson (ESL teacher) are discussing separating groups based on levels during the same class time to work on skills that are more catered to each group. 

Interactive Writing

This week the professional development focused on the idea of interactive writing.  I feel like this type of writing can be extremely useful for a small class setting.  I utilized the skills I learned during my first grade sessions last Friday.  We were working on building sentences using our sight words and the entire group participated in forming a sentence for the word "see".  I saw it as a nice segue between me giving them a sentence and them writing one completely on their own. 

Also, I used the concept of interactive writing during the "see" worksheet itself.  I had students come to the board to fix the misspelled words.

I try to include the students in the discussion, instead of simply dictating to them; however, I think that there is definitely more that I can do to include them.  Perhaps if they participate more than they will be more invested in the material and therefore absorb it better.

Education is Like Baseball

Education is very much like baseball.  The students are the players and the teachers are the coaching staff (with administrators being management).  After a summer vacation, students like players need some time to warm up - but after a while you expect them to get back in the groove.  A perfect example is the recent addition of Manny Ramirez to the Chicago White Sox lineup.  Manny has complained that the reason he hasn't played his best games for the Sox is because of his absense from the sport for most of the season.  Although this initially might have been true (more or less) it is clearly time for him to stop making excuses and step it up or consequences will be introduced.

The same thing is true for students.  Sometimes teachers need to introduce consequences (or rewards) into the situation to induce results.  A student of mine has consistently struggled with the concept of completing homework at home.  He has a questionable home life and is, as I believe to be the case, often overlooked.  He also suffers from a lack of intrinsic motivation.  In order to improve his grades, he will now be missing morning reccess to work with me on his homework - which I think is a small price to pay for significantly ::crosses fingers:: higher grades (or at least more likely).  Similiarly, Manny Ramirez should be let go by the White Sox if his batting average does not increase (or at least fined for wasting "our" time).      

Be Flexible.

Flexibility.  One of the most important part of education is the ability to be flexible.  This afternoon, while working with a first grade group on their weekly (ish) sight word packet, I discovered they lacked a basic foundation in vowels.  The word today was "can" so I decided to move from the sight word itself to a lesson on the short vowel sound of "a" using the http://www.starfall.com/ website. 

All of the classrooms in my building are equiped with lovely 42" flat screen tv's that are conveniently linked to the computer.  I was able to work directly from my computer on the tv which allowed the students to follow along.  We studied the sound by picking an interactive review story and reading it out loud (with some help sounding out words from the site). 

Originally, I had planned to begin leveled reading in an attempt to improve fluency.  This diversion included reading, but also was more targeted toward their needs.  I plan to concentrate on the vowel sounds as they present themselves in future sight words.

Kindergarden Corner

Our school has replaced the antequated "Letter People" used in education for a significant time period with the English-origin "Jolly Phonics" program.  This program allows students to complete the initial alphabet training prior to the mid-point of kdg and begin reading at a faster rate.  The program also includes blends and diagraphs that make it easier for students to sound out more difficult words, increasing their reading level.  The problem that some ESL students face is lack of previous education experience.  Students that begin with a year or more of pre-school often have a firm grasp of the alphabet and are able to identify the letters independently or at least in ABC order.  Students that do not attend any prepatory school may not have this same ability.

The Jolly Phonics program assumes that students begin kingergarden with a basic understanding of the alphabet. 

This year, we have 3 kindergarden students in the ESL program; this is particularly below our average of 10-12.  Two of the students have fairly adequate conversational skills, where the last one struggles with English pronounciation and sometimes mixes Spanish and English words in response to questions (or speaks in Spanglish, as I like to refer to it).  All 3 are able to recite the alphabet outloud - yet, none of them can identify the letters using a visual reference.

Up to this point, I have followed the sequence of Jolly Phonics which skips around the alphabet in a pattern that I am unaware of the reasons behind.  The letter is paired with a motion which helps students to memorize the sound (the motion is eventually second nature and disregarded all together later on).  The kindergardeners are doing pretty well on the motion and sound, but are having trouble identifying the letter attached to both.

Today, based on the recommendation of my supervising teacher, I began having the students recite the ABC song while following along on a alphabet poster.  The hope is that they will begin to correlate the letter with its name. 

       

1, 2, GO!

The beginning of the year is always a little rough.  The biggest challenge for an ESL classroom in a district that offers several opportunities for students to improve their skills in the major areas of study: reading, writing, math; is scheduling.  Establishing a schedule that is compatible with all the other services (for the most part) and allows for students to receive the maximum amount of instructional time possible is no easy task.  Over the last several years, the elementary school I work at has put in place a modified block schedule.  This new way of planning the day means that our ESL schedule is more or less determined by administration.  This has its benefits and challenges, as one may imagine. 

One challenge is that our particular program has less prep time required than some of the other remediation initiatives.  This means that the ESL staff is ready to begin several weeks ahead of the initiation of the "official" schedule.  In order to do so, we must improvise slightly and always be prepared for changes to our tentative schedule. 

This week we are still in limbo; next week we become "official".