Guest-Led Discussion Oct.16-20: ESL Classroom Videos for Teachers & Volunteers

We are excited to have Andrea Echelberger from the Minnesota Literacy Council in St. Paul, MN with us next week to lead a discussion of classroom videos each of which features a different ESL teaching strategy. Welcome, Andrea!

Are you curious about what happens in other English language classes and wish you had the time to observe teaching colleagues? This online discussion is for any English language teachers, tutors, or volunteers who would like to develop their teaching skills through observing and discussing the teaching practices of five different English language teachers working in St. Paul, MN. These videos were created by the Minnesota Literacy Council to support teachers and volunteers who have limited time and access to professional development opportunities, but who are interested in continuing to grow their skills.

Each day our discussion will focus on a video of a different teacher leading their class through an English language activity. In our online discussion, we can talk through the successes and challenges of the activity, teaching techniques demonstrated by the teacher, and potential activity modifications for other levels of classes.

To participate fully in the discussion:

1) Read the day’s featured activity instructions

2) Watch the video (links are below).

Some of the teachers featured in the videos will be joining the discussion, so you’ll be able to ask them questions about the learners in their class and their teaching practices.

Monday

Level: Pre-Beginning 

Activity: Walk, Talk, Trade

Activity Instructions         Activity Video

Tuesday

Level: Beginning

Activity: Number of the Day

Activity Instructions         Activity Video

Wednesday

Level: Low Intermediate

Activity: Walking Dictation

Activity Instructions         Activity Video

Thursday

Level: High Intermediate

Activity: Post-It Chart

Activity Instructions         Activity Video

Friday

Level: Beginning

Activity: Tap the Syllables, Rubber Bands for Word Stress, Show the Word Stress, Group the Word Stress

Activity Instructions         Activity Video

To see the entire list of the Classroom Activity Videos, visit the Minnesota Literacy Council’s website at mnliteracy.org.

Comments

The response for this discussion has been extremely positive. Members are certainly enjoying the videos shared and modeling these lessons. Can you share a bit about how you made these? How did you decide what lessons to record? For programs who may want to create a similar resource for ABE or Math instruction as a part of tutor or new teacher training, what tips and advise do you have? 

Sincerely,
Kathy 

Thanks for asking, Kathy! I'm happy to share about the video creation process. Our organization has five satellite learning centers; two of the centers have classes with paid teachers, and three of them have completely volunteer led classes that follow a set curriculum. When coming up with the idea for the videos, our first priority was to create materials that would support volunteers in either situation, and make the lives of teachers and volunteer coordinators easier. Volunteer teachers who are teaching independently read the curriculum, see what activities are coming up, then find the video and watch the activity so that they can get a better sense of how to lead the activity and don't have to figure it out for the first time in front of the class. Teachers with volunteers as classroom assistants can have their volunteers watch the video, then lead a small group or half of the class in the activity without needing to get extensive instructions from the teacher. Also, as Jessica mentioned in her comment above, teachers can write the activities into their lesson plans and have subs watch the videos ahead of time. 

In Minnesota, we also have a lot of schools far outside of the metro area where teachers may be very isolated and have very limited access to professional development. Our second aim of the videos was to give teachers a way to increase their skills through the observing and reflecting on the teaching of other professional teachers. If you go to our website at http://mnliteracy.org/classroomvideos you can download the video reflection form that can be completed while watching the video.

When we were deciding which activities to film, we selected ones that appear frequently in the volunteer curriculum and that new teachers often have questions about. If you'd like to take a look at our pre-beginning and beginning level curriculum, you can find at http://mnliteracy.org/curriculum-lesson-plans. We also included some activities that are ESL teacher favorites, like the Jigsaw and Mingle activities. The teachers featured are all professional teachers; some of them are working with their regular classes, and some of them are working with classes that are usually led by volunteers.  We selected teachers who have strong teaching skills and include additional teaching techniques in their instruction, such as checking for comprehension, prompting, scaffolding, and giving corrective feedback. 

My number one piece of advice for programs would be to invest in a decent microphone so that you have good sound quality! With our first round of videos, we didn't know how to properly set up the microphones through the camera, and that really limits the sound quality. You'll notice that the sound is much better in pronunciation video that we'll be watching on Friday. That's because we had a volunteer who worked in film for years put together a training for us on how to use the camera and microphones, and it made a world of difference! I'd also suggest being really clear with the teachers ahead of time about what you want to capture in the video. Make sure that everyone is on the same page before you start taping, and go over the plan in detail. Finally, when you're filming, don't hesitate to stop and ask the teacher to redo a part of the activity if something doesn't work out the first time. We definitely missed some magic moments when we were taping because the camera was pointed the wrong direction or we needed to switch out memory cards. 

There are some other really excellent training videos available for tutors who are working on literacy skills with ABE learners. They can be found at the Partners in Reading-San Jose Public Library Youtube channel. I'd definitely recommend taking a look; they're excellent videos.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or comments about the video project, or would like to talk further about how to integrate them into professional development. I'd love to hear if other programs have put together similar materials, or if you have suggestions for additional videos that you'd like to see. Thank you everyone for joining in the discussion this week- I hope you enjoy the final two videos!

Best, Andrea

Thank you for getting us started this morning, Susan. The video that we're going to watch today features an activity that helps learners interpret data on charts and graphs, which is a foundational numeracy skill as well as a feature on many literacy tests. I love how learner-centered this activity is, and how Jessica involves her class in all aspects of creating the graph. The Post-It Chart can be used in a variety of class levels from low beginning to advanced. The class we're watching today is a high intermediate class, however, Jessica demonstrates the activity in a way that would be appropriate with lower levels, so that teachers and tutors can get a sense of how to scaffold the activity to support all of their learners.

A couple of questions to get us started out this morning:

1. How could this activity be adapted to support learners at very low levels, or to challenge learners at advanced levels?

2. Is there anything that you would like to “steal” from the teacher to incorporate into your own teaching? (e.g. classroom management techniques, the way the teacher creates a good classroom atmosphere, learner involvement, etc.)

I'm looking forward to the conversation today!

Best, Andrea

Hello Andrea and all, I hope everyone gets a chance to watch this video with Jessica Jones. The video beautifully illustrates how to support learners to understand how to read and understand graphic information, which is essential in today's world. Jessica walks learners through the process of creating a graph step-by-step. I've long believed that having learners create their own graphs is a powerful way to teach them how to read and understand graphs.

I have been having students at various levels create graphs for years. Usually they collect data from their classmates on a data collection form I provide. Students are assigned to teams to collect information on one question. For instance in a low/high beginning level class, students collected data related to gardening. Each team was assigned one of the following questions: Do you have a garden? Did you have a garden in your country? Do you like to grow flowers? Do you like to grow vegetables? Are you looking forward to spring? I first modeled how to create a graph with a question I asked everyone in the class. The teams then worked together to collect data on their assigned question and then created their graphs with chart paper and markers. The teams then presented their posters with the graphic information to the class.

We've also collected data on the ways students use English and their own language for reading, writing, speaking and listening inside and outside of class. Another topic has been how students use technology: How often do you use a computer? How often do you text? Do you use Facebook? Do you use the internet to study English at home?

For lower level students, I created the categories and asked students to place their post-its with their names in the predetermined categories, for instance: I work, I need a job, I don't need a job.

For advanced students who were engaged in career pathways activities, learners first completed the survey on the My Next Move site. They then created graphs of the own work personality based on the Holland Code, i.e., Realistic, Investigative, Social, Artistic, Enterprising,Conventional, and then presented their graph to the whole class. It was fascinating for all of us to see how different everyone is and for students to connect with those who shared certain similarities.

For those who want to learn more, I would recommend checking out the LINCS ESL Pro online course "Meeting the Language Needs of Today's English Learner," which is focused on ways to enhance the rigor of our teaching. The one-question interview process that I've been using in my own teaching is explained in detail in that course.

There are so many ways to engage students in reading and creating graphs. I'm eager to hear how others have integrated graphic information into their instruction.

Cheers, Susan

 

Good morning everybody, and welcome to the final day of our online discussion. The video we will be watching today is a little different than the other videos; this video shows a series of activities designed to develop and strengthen a class of beginning level learners' awareness and production of word stress. This is a bit of a passion project for my colleague Suzanne McCurdy and I. We've done a number of trainings and professional development initiatives on pronunciation instruction in the ESL classroom over the years, and participants often comment after the sessions that they want 1) more training, and 2) the opportunity to observe pronunciation instruction. To respond to these requests, we wanted to create a product that would provide educators with concrete ideas on how to integrate pronunciation into their classes in a systematic and content-based manner.

To get us started off today, I'd like to begin with a few questions that get us thinking about pronunciation:

1) Do you teach pronunciation in your ESL classes? If so, what pronunciation features do you focus on (stress, individual sounds, intonation), and what are your favorite activities?

2) The activities in the video focus on word stress, which is a critical part of English pronunciation that many learners are unaware of. Could you integrate any of the activities shown in the video into your regular vocabulary routine?

I'm really looking forward to the discussion today. I hope you enjoy the video- we have two pronunciation videos up so far, and more will be coming in the next few weeks!

Best, Andrea

Hello colleagues, Even though Andrea's role in leading our discussion officially ended last Friday, I am sure many people would like to comment on this pronunciation video. Please let us know what questions and comments you have about this interesting approach to teaching pronunciation.

It would be great to hear from teacher leaders and those who support volunteers about how you train people to teach pronunciation. Can you see using this video in your work?

Cheers, Susan

I want to thank Andrea Echelberger and the Minnesota teachers who joined us last week to talk about the Minnesota Literacy Council's teacher training videos.  We are grateful that you all took time to be with us. What a wonderful resource these videos are for the field. Andrea's process for creating in depth and meaningful discussion with a group of teachers and/or volunteers about the teaching strategies demonstrated in the videos is one that can also be readily adopted by others who are providing support and training.

Thank you! Thank you!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition