Monica+Widdison


 * July 22 (Tim Conrad): Monica, you've written such an observant teaching journal, and in your reflection summarized the entire process from beginning through the end. I could tell from the brief times I was able to sit in with your group that they appreciated and were very engaged in the classes and discussions you prepared.**

Yeah Monica, I agree. This opportunity was great for giving us a chance to apply the many principles that we had been taught and learned. I was also kind of nervous with the thought of teaching an adult community class and even the first and second lessons I still had some nervousness, but as time went along, the more confident I became as well. You also mentioned differentiation; you’re right, every student had slightly different things that they hoped to get out of the classes and it was up to us to make that happen.
 * (Heidi Marriott) - I think that you are right that trying to figure out proficiency levels was one of the most difficult parts of this experience. But I also agree that it became easier to pinpoint the more we worked with the students. I also really enjoyed getting to know our group and see them expand on thier knowledge and ability as we worked on different things. I guess that is what makes us teachers...that enjoyment of the learning process from assessment to celebration of imporvement!**
 * July 18th (Jaron Meyer)**

(Heather Greenfield) Monica, I too look at these students and am in awe of all they must do to learn a second language. I also think that teaching a language, even the language one is native in, will help the teacher know more about that language. This experience taught me some vocabulary words. I know I used the words correctly in sentences, but couldn't give anyone a concrete definition of what the word meant. By teaching these students we have probably grown as teachers just as much as they have as students.

__Reflection__ As I reflect over the last few weeks of our course I have really thought about how I look at others and who they are. As a teacher I have always felt that it is my job to continue learning to show my students how important an education is. I want to be the best teacher that I can and have the best information to do that. We have been a part of a community learning class where we are teaching adults English. In this course we have had the #|opportunity to put our learning into practice.

The first night we had a potluck dinner and got to know each of our students. We were able to interview them and find out what they wanted to work on and how we as the teachers could best serve them. I think the hardest part for me was trying to figure out what level my students were at in their English learning. It was something that I have never really had to think about and as the weeks have progressed I can see some of the levels more clearly as we have worked on different domains of learning.

We divided the students up into different learning groups depending upon their language ability and also what they wanted to work on and learn. Heidi and I decided to work together and our group consisted of Jose, JiSook and Sunny. Jose is from Mexico and has been in the United States since 1985. He came when he was 17. He has a ninth grade education. His English language ability is about a level 3. He has a very thick accent and is sometimes difficult to understand. He is very eager to improve his conversational skills and worked very hard to do everything we asked. JiSook is from South Korea and is here going to Weber State earning #|a degree in International Economics. She is very dependent on her boyfriend for helping her with her English. She is also about a level 3 in her language acquisition. She wants to be able to answer questions and talk with her classmates. She also plans on staying and working in the United States. Sunny is also from South Korea and here for the same degree. She is very shy and is hesitant to participate in conversations. She plans to return to South Korea at the end of her degree. Over the course of the weeks she has really been trying and is improving in our weekly conversations. It was a pleasure getting to know and helping these wonderful people.

Our group wanted to work on their conversational skills and vocabulary. As we set up our lessons we focused on how to help them feel comfortable in joining in and starting conversations. We used the theme of media and used several different strategies to help teach our students. One of the strategies that we used was a vocabulary sheet that Heidi created. It helped them take words that they were struggling with and break them down into definition, part of speech, a sentence and a picture. This helped our students to really think about what vocabulary words they wanted to know about. By using the different strategies and different teaching domains we were able to really help our students with what they wanted to accomplish.

One of the things that surprised me the most is how much I learned from preparing and teaching these students. It made me look at language in a new way. There are so many things that I have taken for granted in knowing the English language and so many things that I really didn’t know how to teach or explain. As the weeks went on I became more confident and was not as nervous to teach. What a great opportunity for learning about myself and others. I really had to think about what would be best for these students and made me go out of my comfort zone.

Another great learning experience for me was that it is never too late to learn something. Each of our students was on about the same level, but they all wanted something just a little different in their learning. This is where differentiation comes in to play in our lesson planning. After meeting our students I was so grateful that they were willing to put themselves in a new situation. Not only were we helping them, but they were helping us put our learning into practice. It was wonderful for me to get to know these wonderful people and I will never forget this experience.

July 15, 2012 (Karla Barrow) I agree with you about how much I learned from the students that I worked with this summer. I think before we started working with students much of what we had learned in previous classes kind of sat in a file in my head and said "SO WHAT". Working with the adult students helped me put all that learning into practice. It solidified it and made it real. I agree that it was a great opportunity to learn more about myself.

July 16 Well, tonight was our last official class. I was a little nervous at first because we only started with two students. Luckily, they showed up and we had a great night. We started with our usual conversation. We talked about food, which is always a great topic. It was fun to see everybody get excited about different types of food. We then started talking about recipes, it was neat to talk about different ingredients. We then broke into our small group. Only Sunny and JiSook were here tonight. We did an activity where the girls had to read a paragraph and identify the mistakes. Sunny was very confident in the mistakes she found. Jisook was a little more timid in sharing her answers. They both did a great job. I think this will help them in their academic studies. We gave them a list of vocabulary words to help them in their writing. They are both excited to continue their learning.

July 11 I really enjoyed the mix and mingle tonight. It was fun to get to know some of the other people we have not been teaching. We had a new girl join our group. Her name is Yespie and she is from Mexico. She is working at AutoLiv. As we had our weekly conversation she seemed to fit right in. Her English was pretty well developed, she was a little hard to understand with her accent, but her vocabulary was very good. She would probably fit into a level 3. Our conversation tonight was about different holidays and how we celebrate with our families. It is was really great to learn about how others celebrate. One thing that we all had in common is that most of our holdiays were surrounded by our families. It is great to see that even though there are many things that are different in other cultures and countries we still value many of the same things. Sunny was the only other person in our group that came tonight so we were able to have some good one on one work and study time. We talked about commonly confused words and how we can figure out their meaning from context. It was a good night.

July 9 I can't believe that we are down to the last two weeks of school. Tonight was great as usual. We had a great discussion tonight with everyone participating. I feel like everyone is becoming more comfortable with each other and the conversations are becoming more natural, which is the whole point of the conversations. We did a little writing and then talked about how we can change different words to change the meaning of what we are trying to say. We also did some listening activities with the internet. I showed our group some different websites to practice the different skills that they wanted to work on. At the end of the night Jose was really interested in continuing with the classes. He said that he has learned a lot and was sad that we would not be continuing the class. I hope that he can find another resource to keep him going. I really think that he is dedicated to learning and doing his best.

July 7 (Tim Conrad): It's often very difficult for ELLs to find opportunities like the one you're providing for conversation in the target language. And this is such a powerful way for improving so many aspects of language learning: listening, vocabulary, hearing yourself speak the new language, etc. Of course, if you want feedback, the direct approach is alway one way: simply asking if they like what the class has been doing so far or if there's something else they feel they would like to also practice.

July 2 I very much enjoyed Paulo playing the guitar tonight. I love when we are able to share our talents with each other. We started our night with another amazing group discussion. It started out a little slow but then everyone started getting more comfortable and they really didn't want to stop talking. Our group then did some vocabulary work and talked about how we can start group conversations. We talked about what our students wanted to still work on. The girls want to work on scientific vocabulary and political terms for their school classes and Jose wants to work on listening skills. He is having trouble at work trying to work and have conversations at the same time. I told Jisook and Sunny to start reading the newpaper to learn more about political topics. Things seem to be going well. I am still not sure if what we are doing is helping them. I sure hope so.

July 1, TC: You're doing such creative work: moving your students into other groups for interesting conversation practice, using a TV clip, working positively with a student who missed a class and still wanted to share that prior Birds reflection. Community, and so often K-12 classes too, require teachers to be flexible and figure out how to make things work meaningfully no matter what challenges might arise, which you're all doing so well.

June 27 Tonight was great. I really like the ice breaker activities to get everyone moving and talking. All of our group came tonight which I thought was great. We started out by inviting another group to come and have a group conversation with us. We provided a list of topics and asked Karla to ask someone a question. Everyone started talking and enjoying the conversation. It was a good way to get started. Because Jose was not here on Monday he was very excited to share his homework from "For the Birds". He made a good connection to how he felt about speaking a different language. We then brainstormed all of the things that we can get from television. We talked about the things that we like to watch and how we can use television as conversation starters. We watched a tv clip and then wrote about and discussed what we watched. We had lots of good dicussions tonight. We gave them a challenge to speak at least 30 minutes of English each day to practice their conversational skills.

June 25 Our class tonight went very well. It was fun to do the activity with Connie to get to know everyone. When we broke into our small groups one of the people, Jose, we were suppose to teach did not come tonight. I was a little surprised that he did not come. I do understand that it is summer and a very busy time for many people. I thaught with Heidi and we had JiSook and Sunny in our group. We decided from the information we got on the first night that we would work on group discussions and vocabulary. Heidi and I decided that we would start with media information. Tonight we focused on reading a newspaper article and then discussing and talking about the article. This was a good way to talk about some vocabulary words that are specific to a certain topic. We were able to have some good conversations about some interesting topics. We asked the girls if they enjoyed what we were doing and they both said yes. I can see that JiSook relies on Sunny for conformation of her English or asks her questions in Korean for clarification. Heidi and I asked her to tell us what she was saying in Korean so we could help her. I felt really good with what we accomplished tonight.

June 20 What a great way to get to know some wonderful people. The pot luck helped put everyone at ease and made the environment a friendly place to be. I interviewed Jose and Sandra who are married. They have 3 children. They are from Mexico.

Jose - has been in the US since 1989. In Mexico he attended school through the 9th grade. He feels ok with his English, but would like to be able to communicate better in group conversations. He also would like to help his children with their schooling. He is starting a new job today where he must speak English. He really would like to learn more vocabulary and pronunciation skills. I felt like I could understand Jose pretty well. I did need to help him with some vocabulary words in our conversation. I think Jose would fit into a high level 3 to a low level 4. Sandra - has been in the US since 1998. She is very uncomfortable speaking English. In Mexico she attended school through the 6th grade. She is currently working at her children's elementary school as a custodian. She feels like no one likes her becuase of the language barrier. She would like help in all areas of learning English and especially learning vocabulary and pronunciation skills. She would also like to practice reading. I enjoyed getting to know Sandra. I feel like she was about a level 2 or low level 3. They are both very interested in learning more and being able to help their children.

This page is for Monica to post her goodies :D