In ELD (English Language Development) we work on reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English. In terms of speaking we don't just want to see students answering teacher's questions and giving prepared speeches. As teachers, we also want to help students engage in discussions with their peers. Learning how to agree, disagree, and build on the ideas of their classmates is an important life skill that will prepare them to actively participate in their community and future jobs. In class we read a book called Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty. It's about a young boy who has a passion for architecture and building. This lead students into discussing a time when they built something. Kids talked about what they built, how they built it, and what materials they used. This lead us into a discussion about forts and why kids like building forts. We started reading an article about child development and fort building (you can read the article here). Although the article is written for parents, students have found it highly interesting. Students are asking a lot of questions and engaging in a lot of peer discussion: - Why do kids like building forts? - Do all kids like building forts? - Is fort building good for kids? - What can be learned from building forts? Students have had a chance to practice their building skills in groups as they used magnetic shapes to create mini-forts for stuffed animals. Using their English to communicate their ideas, they relied on teamwork to accomplish their task. The negotiation required to build something as a group was great language practice for students. As we continue to engage in discussions about this topic (and read and write too!), here are some other books that your students might enjoying reading: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beaty, If I Build a Car by Christ van Dusen, and Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beaty.
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Our recipe book project is coming to an end and you should be able to find your child's copy of our soup recipe book in their backpack. This was a fun project that incorporated so much English reading, writing, listening, and speaking. I encourage you to ask your child questions about their recipe and have them show it to you. If you and your child chose to make one of these recipes at home together, I would love it if you could take a picture of your student cooking and email it to me. This is not required, just an optional activity for you to do at home. Also, ask your student to tell you about the story of Stone Soup. If you've not heard this story before, it is an old story about a hungry traveler who tells the people he meets that he can make soup from a stone - fancy that! There are many versions of this old story and it teaches about the importance of working together and sharing. You might have seen a note come home with your student today asking them to bring a soup recipe to ELD class on Monday, October 10th. Students can write the recipe on paper, print it off from a computer, or take a picture of a recipe and email it to me at [email protected]
We will be looking at the language used when writing a recipe, how to clearly communicate directions, and respond to questions about our recipes. Eventually, we will assemble all student recipes together in a book to take home and share with families. Thank you to our first family that already sent their recipe for "Garden Soup Vegetable" soup. This sounds delicious! Thank you! Now that students have a clear understanding of fruits and vegetables, they were asked to define both and give examples. This task requires students to adapt their language choices in order to communicate similarities and differences. This skill is useful not just in ESL, but in all subjects. In school, students might be asked to find similarities and differences between two characters in a book. When buying a car, it is important to compare and contrast different cars so you can make a decision about the best car for you. In the grocery store. When shopping for apples in the store, you might have to compare 5 or 6 different kinds of apples and think about the pros and cons of each option before deciding which one to buy. Students are beginning a unit about food that will provide a variety of opportunities to engage in rich language. For students that are new to the country, this unit will also introduce them to the names of foods, colors, plural vs singular nouns, and much more. This week we are focusing on vegetables, and students have already had some lengthy discussions about how to define a fruit compared to a vegetable (see video link below), and then justifying whether or not a particular food is a fruit or vegetable. A few foods that led to some great debates were: bananas, pineapples, avocados, tomatoes, and peas. Students critiqued each other's arguments and even spent some time researching on the computer to help them draw conclusions about each food's designation and how to support their claim. We read a book called "Growing Vegetable Soup" to introduce this unit and posed the questions: Can you grow vegetable soup? We will continue to read more books and articles that relate to the topic of food so students can practice gathering information from what they read. We will also talk about the language used to write a recipe. If you have any soup recipes that you would like to send to school with your child, we would love to read them as a class! You can even email a picture of a recipe your family loves and I can print it for your child at school. We have been responding to the question: What will the weather be like today? Students have gone outside to observe the weather, and researched the weather forecast on the computer. Some of the sentences we created as a class are below.
Students also pointed out that sometimes the weather changes during the day. Sometimes it is cold in the morning, but gets warm in the afternoon. If you have access to a weather app, a weather forecast on TV, or a weather section from a newspaper, you can ask your student each morning: What is the weather going to be like today? After looking at a weather forecast, your student can respond using the future verb tense. You can also ask them to explain the clothes they will wear based on the weather.
During ELD class on Mondays I like to have students talk and write about what they did over the weekend. I begin the lesson by asking student what today's date is, and then what yesterday's date was. Writing about their weekend gives students a fun opportunity to learn about past tense verbs (went, played, watched, cooked, bought, rode, etc) while sharing about their family's weekend activities. Some past tense verbs follow a familiar -ed pattern (walked, listened, jumped, visited, talked, etc.). Some other past tense verbs are called irregular because they don't follow an easy spelling pattern. Students will have to memorize these past tense verbs (went, brought, told, ran, made, won, slept, drove, said, etc.). Other verbs don't change when used in the past tense:
You can help students at home by asking them to think about what they did on Saturday and Sunday so they have some ideas of what to write about. I usually ask students to tell me one thing they did on Saturday and one thing they did on Sunday. As the school year continues, I ask students to include more details about their weekend. Students will have a chance to read their writing and ask each other questions about their weekend. Students can practice their past tense verbs by clicking on the "Past Tense Game" button below. In English Language Development, we have been talking about the importance of calendars, how to use them, and how to read them to gather information. Students have been practicing asking and answering questions, using ordinal numbers (first, second, third...eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, etc), the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.), and using computers to research school related dates that they wanted to include on their calendars.
Students can add information to their calendar about family activities when they bring these home. Parents can encourage student learning by asking what today’s date is, when an activity is happening, or what information they want to add to their calendar. Examples of questions to ask students:
(Note: This calendar activity was inspired by Mrs. Sonnen at Hiteon Elementary School) The first few weeks of school can be a challenge for students, and especially students that know multiple languages. It can be exhausting for students to be back in an English speaking school environment for 6+ hours a day. It is normal if students have forgotten some of their English and literacy skills over the summer, and we understand that. Their brains are working very hard when they are at school and it is normal for them to feel exhausted by the time they get home. To help your child through this transition it is important to make sure they have a good breakfast in the morning and get plenty of sleep at night. They may also need some down time after school to play outside, relax, or eat a snack before starting any homework they might have. You know your child better than anyone though, and if you're worried about their transition back to school this fall, don't hesitate to send myself or their classroom teacher an email. We are here to help! Warmly, Mrs. Burton Bethany ESL |
AuthorWelcome to Mrs. Burton's ELD blog! Come learn about what we're doing in the classroom and get suggestions on how you can support students at home. Archives
November 2016
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