TESL Methods that will blow your mind

Reaction to class on 4-7-09

2009-04-13T12:39:00.003-05:00

I always love learning tips for writing. Last week, Aaron (Chuck? Charlie?) gave an interesting presentation on using various writing skills. I enjoyed it because I had given a presentation the week before on pre-writing skills, and I got to use that information again when Aaron gave his presentation. It was kind of nice to hear a different take on that same stuff.

After he presented, we got some questions answered about the research we're supposed to be conducting for our observations. What we decided we might want to find out (which is subject to change) is whether or not a student's country of origin affects his or her writing output. We noticed that many students write MUCH more than their classmates, so we want to find out why.

Reaction to class on 4-1-09

2009-04-06T17:22:00.002-05:00

My presentation went well. I'm going to try a different tack this week, I'm going to post my verbatim comments from Esther on here for everyone.

Nice start about asking whom among your classmates have taught writing.
It might have been good to show your classmates your agenda before starting. It might be good to have a visual scaffold.
Nice activity to break your classmates into groups according to writing strategies. Nice to give your classmates a time limit to partner up and to finish the activity.
Good that you go around monitoring your classmates’ work. It would be good to have a time reminder, and you just did that. Interesting activity. Good job.

I was a little nervous before I started presenting. Last semester, Veronika and I worried greatly about each slide in our gigantic powerpoint presentation, and we labored to cram as much information into our 30 minutes as we could.

I promised myself I wouldn't bore the class with powerpoint lecturing, and I decided to let everybody talk and share with everybody else their ideas on how to incorporate the ideas presented in the book with a curriculum. For the most part, a lot of positive feedback was received, and except for Adib's skanky picture, most of them were ideas I would use in my own class.

Readings for 4-6-09

2009-04-06T13:59:00.003-05:00

Jeez, is it already a week into April?

Like Jodi, I was struck by the idea of having students create photo illustrated essays. The students bring in some photos from home. Then, they organize them into an order that can be used to tell a story. They glue them down or mount them onto something, and then they share the story with the class. After sharing orally, they write the story they want to tell.

The reason I like this activity is because it's one of the requirements of the Photography merit badge and I have quite a bit of experience in using it. It also employs a very good pre-writing technique, and shows students a very good way to organize their thoughts .

Reaction to class on 3-30-09

2009-03-30T17:10:00.000-05:00

Urban Dictionary defines an Asshat as "one who is oblivious to the world around them, lacking common sense". That's what I felt like when I showed up two weeks ago and didn't have a presentation ready. I wrote down the wrong date in my binder, never bothering to double check it against the syllabus.
I did, however, learn how an effective teacher can improvise a "plan b" when something doesn't go as planned. Esther didn't miss a beat and she gathered all the students together for a roundtable discussion on how to get students excited about reading, and what sorts of troubles and issues they can and will run into while learning to read. The discussion was lively and educational as well, and I'm glad I got to hear what everybody had to say about reading.

Readings for the last week of March

2009-03-30T17:00:00.003-05:00

I love writing. I don't often think that I'm an amazing writer, but I do often feel as though I'm a proficient writer at the very least. Because of this, I was especially interested in this week's subject of writing.
In the P&B book, there are several different techniques which can be used with beginning to intermediate writers to teach the writing process and the organization of thoughts. Being the amazingly ADHD person that I am, I really enjoyed how the different techniques were presented. It was almost like a list, and very easy to follow.
I remember back in middle school and using the idea of clustering to come up with ideas. Maybe I could use this in my presentation tonight? Even though I had used clustering, I had never heard of mapping being used the way it is in this book. I REALLY like the idea of having a prompt in the middle, and then clustering the ideas around it. Even thought I'm a kinesthetic learner, it always helps to see the ideas on paper before me. It helps keep me focused, and the mapping and clustering techniques are chaotic enough to appeal to my nature, and they're organized enough to keep me focused on the task at hand and help me come up with better, more coherent writings.

Readings for March 23rd

2009-03-23T17:23:00.002-05:00

I've never been able to read as fluently in my L2 as I can in English, and I've always been very envious of those who can. It was always a little bit of a sore-spot seeing my fellow students read and understand fluidly while I struggled to keep up.
Like Thea, I have trouble stopping and deciphering every word. I read in an ESL textbook that it's best to reread as many times as it takes to get the "gist" of the meaning instead of deciphering every word. It's IMPOSSIBLE to keep up with that much input and still figure out what you're reading about.

Last week

2009-03-16T14:54:00.000-05:00

Class was interesting tonight. I really liked how Mariya led a half-hour discussion with two questions, something which I could not accomplish. I suppose if I had to, I could fudge it, but I need more than that to take a half hour. I don't have the focus. :-)

I don't know if I would want to correct students as they made errors, because I think the hardest thing would be staying consistent. I think I would give up after a while, but it would make students rely on me too much, and if I stopped correcting them, they would have a very hard time discerning whether or not they had stopped making mistakes, or if I had merely stopped correcting them.

Comment to Jodi

2009-02-23T17:24:00.001-06:00

Jodi - I can't comment on your blog for some reason, so here's the comment I left:
Aaaahahahaha, I love the joke. What about having the students write their own jokes? That may be more useful (or usefuler) for advanced students, but still pretty great.

That one reading for that one week

2009-02-23T17:12:00.003-06:00

I think one of the worst exercises for teaching an l2 is having the students read a pre-written script to each other. I've always known that stronger connections are made if students are made to think in the l2 "on the fly" rather than reading a prescribed piece. As long as it was written in English characters, I could READ anything handed to me. I would probably learn nothing, but I could form the letters together to make noise that sounded like words. I would much rather be placed on the spot to form a conversational phrase than anything else, and I feel that would be much more efective at cementing knowledge than prescribing a script.

Class from Febtober ninth

2009-02-16T14:25:00.003-06:00

I love words. I've always loved words. When I was young, I would often speak in spoonerisms, much to the annoyance of my poor mother and teachers. I used to read books on secret codes and how to speak in Pig Latin and other pseudo-languages because I loved words. Naturally, last week's presentation by Rachel and Officer Stephanie really reached out to me. I was partnered with Lillian, and between the two of us we learned some new words and puzzled out the meanings of others. I was inspired to go home after class and google "Top Ten weirdest words" and see what I could find. I found a list with the words they used with the class, along with some choice other words. Click here to see that list.

You're sleeping on the couch tonight!

2009-02-16T13:55:00.004-06:00

Even though we are all in school to become teachers, this program teaches us much more than simply methods of education. There are always delicious little snippets of information which can be used in our daily lives. MCM, for examples, tells us that most days, we listen roughly twice as much as we speak, and almost five times as much as we write! Interestingly enough, this could be potent fodder for fights with that special someone. Take the following dialogue as an example:

Wife: I told you last week we were going to spend today finding out how many shoes I have that match my purses! You never listen! I hate you! You're sleeping on the couch!

Husband: Well, my beautiful wife, according to Marianne Celce-Murcia, we listen TWICE as much as we speak. Why, today alone I've engaged in bi-directional listening 17 times, and autodirectional listening this morning when I was asking myself what I wanted for breakfast! I listen to you five times more than I write to you! Doesn't that count for anything?

Wife: I'm sorry, you're so brilliant and handsome. I love you.

See what happened there? I totally defused a potentially hostile situation just by using information I acquired during my education.

There were a few questions I had during the reading though. Is reading considered unidirectional or autodirectional? Is autodirectional listening considered a constant? As in, am I CONSTANTLY engaged in autodirectional listening, and can I be engaged in bidirectional listening (or a conversation) and autodirectional listening simultaneously? Or do we switch from one to the other? I will have to watch for this.

Time + Distance

2009-02-10T02:06:00.001-06:00

Time + Distance

LISTEN

by Leslie Monsour
The tea you pour is black and strong.
It doesn't taste like tea to me;
I must have been away too long.

It isn't jasmine, spice, oolong;
It tastes like an apology—
This tea you pour, so black and strong.

Where's that old fork with the bent prong?
What happened to the hemlock tree?
Have I really been gone that long?

I think I hear the saddest song;
It has no words, no tune, no key.
The tea you pour is black and strong.

You're careful to say nothing wrong,
You seem too eager to agree...
Yes, I've been travelling far and long,

And now it's clear, I don't belong.
I watch you sash your robe, as we
sit, sipping tea that's black and strong.
I went away too far, too long.

Don't "Hey Smidt" me!

2009-02-09T17:24:00.003-06:00

What a discussion. Apparently I'm a strange breed, being a native speaker who corrects without mercy. Most of my friends know that when they're around me, they need to watch their grammar and colloquialisms, since I would rather be taken out behind Morris Hall and beaten senseless with a Brook Trout than be caught using bad grammar.

One other thing I enjoyed discussing was how teachers are addressed in different cultures. Esther made a comment that she doesn't mind being called "Dr Smidt" or "Esther" but being called "Smidt" really gets her blood a'boilin'. The biggest comment which stood out to me from class was her saying "You can call me Esther, but don't 'Hey Smidt ME!' "

I also felt moderately smart because I referenced a conversation that Bekir and I had early last semester about personal boundaries. In Turkey (his home country) it's considered VERY offensive to step back when one enters your personal space. I think I would die in such a context. I like having my space, and I can't bear for casual acquaintances or strangers to enter it.

Readings for week whatever

2009-02-09T17:09:00.003-06:00

I really enjoyed how Chapter 22 of HDB was laid out. I'm a kinæsthetic learner, so reading material never really quite does it for me, but when forced, I can process the material if there are a variety of formats which I can follow, and chapter 22 with its charts and illustrations helped me with that process. It helps to remind me to keep my students interested in whatever we're learning about, and to not just spit a bunch of text at them. Similar to Jodi, I also enjoyed the sample exercise 1 which suggests using reala to teach posession. I also find some things difficult to teach with ink and paper, and using reala would hit the spot in such a context.

Poem for 2-4-09

2009-02-04T03:00:00.000-06:00

Of The Terrible Doubt Of Appearances

LISTEN To this poem

by Walt Whitman

Of the terrible doubt of appearances,
Of the uncertainty after all, that we may be deluded,
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable
only,
May-be the things I perceive, the animals, plants, men, hills,
shining and flowing waters,
The skies of day and night, colors, densities, forms, may-be
these are (as doubtless they are) only apparitions, and
the real something has yet to be known,
(How often they dart out of themselves as if to confound me
and mock me!
How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows,
aught of them,)
May-be seeming to me what they are (as doubtless they
indeed but seem) as from my present point of view, and
might prove (as of course they would) nought of what
they appear, or nought anyhow, from entirely changed
points of view;
To me these and the like of these are curiously answer'd by
my lovers, my dear friends,
When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while
holding me by the hand,
When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and
reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,
Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am
silent, I require nothing further,
I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of
identity beyond the grave,
But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied,
He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.

Poem for 2-3-09

2009-02-03T03:03:00.001-06:00

I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ

by Walt Whitman

LISTEN

I heard you solemn-sweet pipes of the organ as last Sunday
morn I pass'd the church,
Winds of autumn, as I walk'd the woods at dusk I heard your
long-stretch'd sighs up above so mournful,
I heard the perfect Italian tenor singing at the opera, I heard
the soprano in the midst of the quartet singing;
Heart of my love! you too I heard murmuring low through
one of the wrists around my head,
Heard the pulse of you when all was still ringing little bells
last night under my ear.

Reaction to class on 2-2-09

2009-02-02T20:25:00.005-06:00

One thing that will always stick with me from tonight is Esther's wedding story, and how well it contrasts with traditional American wedding values. She was telling us about her matron of honor, and what she went through to get her to be in that position. Her fiancee at the time was dumbstruck by the fact that she was not going to ask her friend to be her matron of honor because her friend simply knew. She knew it would not be an issue. Had she asked, her friend may have been offended because their bonds of friendship did not allow for assumed knowledge like this.
Such discussions really open my eyes to subtle cultural differences like this, and really make me want to be a better teacher and understand the different contexts my students are coming from.

Poem for February 2, 2009

2009-02-02T17:24:00.000-06:00

'Faith' is a fine invention...

by Emily Dickinson

I like a look of Agony...

by Emily Dickinson

"Faith" is a fine invention...

"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentleman can see—
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

I like a look of Agony...

I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it's true—
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe—

The Eyes glaze once—and that is Death—
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.

A rolling stone...

2009-02-02T16:58:00.002-06:00

When looking back at last semester, it's very apparent that I saw school differently at each end of the semester. At the beginning, I was about an inch away from clawing my face off with the anticipation of how much work needed to be done. By the end, I managed the work much more efficiently and I was a LOT less stressed. It seemed that the more work I did, the easier the work became. One could make the metaphor that I was pushing a giant stone, and once I got to the end of the semester, the momentum seemed to carry me through. Now I have to start all over, since the stone came to a standstill and filled itself with beer and holiday cookies over the last few months.

It was nice getting back to class and seeing presentations again. Last semester, class was my oasis. I loved and still love going to class. Oftentimes, my classmates will remark that I seem to be in an exceptionally good mood ALL THE DAMN TIME. It's not that I'm in a good mood all the time, it's just that going to class PUTS me in a good mood. It's hard to miss the fact that sometimes I'm squirrely in class and it often appears that I'm completely unaware of the task at hand, but nothing could be further from the truth. Through the hardships of advanced academia come very tight-knit friendships which are very hard to break. I feel very lucky to have found such friends and I also feel very lucky to have the chance to work with them every week. To me, getting to go to class is worth every minute I have to spend reading or doing what appear to be menial assignments.

One thing I dreaded last semester that I'm not dreading this semester is the class presentation that everybody is assigned. Last week, Brian (Bryan?) bravely volunteered to do his first. I liked his use of an outline on the overhead, which gave me something to reinforce the topic and purpose of the discussion and task to be accomplished. I thought he did a splendid job of teaching us about what people other than our book authors were saying.

Poem for February 1, 2009

2009-02-01T17:25:00.000-06:00

Bright Sun after Heavy Snow

by Jane Kenyon

A ledge of ice slides from the eaves,
piercing the crusted drift. Astonishing
how even a little violence
eases the mind.

In this extreme state of light
everything seems flawed: the streaked
pane, the forced bulbs on the sill
that refuse to bloom...A wad of dust
rolls like a desert weed
over the drafty floor.

Again I recall a neighbor's
small affront — it rises in my mind
like the huge banks of snow along the road:
the plow, passing up and down all day,
pushes them higher and higher...

The shadow of smoke rising from the chimney
moves abruptly over the yard.
The clothesline rises in the wind. One
wooden pin is left, solitary as a finger;
it, too, rises and falls.

Blogito, ergo sum (I blog, therefore I am). A Diary Entry.

2008-12-05T12:10:00.012-06:00

I like putting things in Latin. Even the most menial phrase can make you sound impressive and well-educated if you say it in Latin. Exempli gratia: Non somnuo, ergo sum. Google translate THAT one out, dear readers.

As the weekend passes, I'm making a list and checking it twice, but instead of names of children who will be receiving gifts this year, my list contains APA formatting tips, multiple genres of research papers based upon using humor to teach, linking them together, and organizing the group.

Throughout the project, I often reflect back to elementary school when we had an arts and crafts project to accomplish in a group. Our teacher would assign the task that we needed to accomplish, and then within that group we were each supposed to assign specific roles. There was a cutter (the person who cut the paper), the gluer (the person who glued the paper), the writer, and the leader. I often shied away from the leader task, since it involved keeping track of too many things at once. Reliably, I was forbidden to be the writer since my handwriting is terrible, so I was often the cutter or the gluer. That fact was fine by me. With those tasks I had a very concrete goal which left very little room for mistake by interpretation. The writer drew the shapes, and I cut them, or I glued them on the paper. It required accuracy, and I accomplished it well.

During this project, I often thought back upon those days when everyone in the group had an assigned role within that task. It's harder with this project because each person needs to fulfill each role. There is no single task for each person to accomplish, and there are very few concrete requirements for each task. This has caused me some frustration.

The week of November tenth gave us a small amount of relief. Rachel and I got together on Sunday to flesh out our final genres, and we determined that we would have Thea do a personal essay about using humor in her teaching, and Mitch was to conduct an interview with one of his associates. Naturally, the interview was not without its suspicious hitches. First the interviewee didn't write back, then the changes didn't save, then the e-mail wouldn't attach, and Mitch seems to like to take care of the problem and THEN communicate to us the details. The lack of a willingness to communicate which is present some of the group members often leads to hair pulling and teeth gnashing. We'll see how these final genres go.

I am so Lutheran...

2008-12-02T17:42:00.004-06:00

Since I'm Lutheran, I have an inborn, genetic sense of guilt. Catholics get Original Sin, Lutherans get Original Guilt. In no small way, this guilt affects every aspect of my daily life; from work to Internet browsing, it's there. And every time I see the little "Blogger" bookmark on my Internet browser, I feel just a little bit guilty.
"I could be Blogging right now" a nagging voice inside my head will say. So, guilt, be slaked for another week. Here is a blog.

Class seems to end with frustration and confusion lately, and I can't decide what's making me feel worse: The amount of work I have to do for each class or the confusion surrounding the assignments. Everything seems to make sense while I'm there but then I sit down and try to accomplish what was discussed in class, and I suddenly, everything I "figured out" in class seems to disappear. Is anybody else feeling this?

Our list from tonight

2008-11-17T20:45:00.000-06:00

1. Create an alternate ending.
2. Act out the story
3. Paraphrase the story
4. Rewrite the story as a poem
5. Write an essay calle d “MY happiest day”
6. Write a story from the girl’s point of view
7. Write the story from the point of view of the other teachers
8. They could give advice to the teacher
9. They could fix the mistakes of the teacher
10. They could fix the mistakes the girl made in the essays
11. Write about what they would have done if they were in the teacher’s place
12. They could write the story as a song
13. They could draw the story as a comic
14. Write about how they would have coached the girl
15. Make it into a motion picture event
16. Make the story into a powerpoint
17. Rewrite the story in a different setting
18. Rewrite the story in a different time period
19. Reverse the roles of the student and the teacher
20. Complete the story of the girl
21. Scramble the order of the story and make it make sense.
22. Write about what they would do if they were the other teachers
23. Act the story without words
24. Write an outline of the story
25. Write a conclusion of how the teacher should change
26. Draw a picture of the girl and the teacher.
27. Continue the story from where the story ends.
28. Write the backstory of the teacher
29. Brainstorm ideas about teacher-student relationships
30. Interpretive dance
31. Write a personal reflection on the story in your blog.
32. Rewrite the girl’s stories
33. Discuss what makes a good teacher
34. Think about what makes a good teacher
35. Discuss good teaching habits in groups
36. Write an essay about your favorite teacher
37. Share the essay with the class
38. Analyze the minimal pair problems the student ran into
39. Make a board game out of grammar issues found in the story
40. Make a collage
41. Make a collage of the words found in the story
42. Make a collage of the words containing mistakes found in the story
43. Write a news report about this
44. Write a script for a news report
45. Write an interview with the teacher
46. Make Vietnamese food and write down the recipe.
47. Make some cakes
48. Go through and underline the words you don’t understand. Make different definitions for them
49. Find the date July 12, 1976
50. Listen to the story on a tape.
51. Record yourself reading the story and critique it.
52. Beat your partner with a hose.

Readings for this week, whatever number it is

2008-11-17T17:00:00.002-06:00

I lost track of the weeks. So it goes.
Even if it weren't mentioned in the reading, I would still want to mention here what concept I've appreciated the most from this year: The K-W-L concept. It's so simple, and it can do so much for helping a teacher who is trying to determine how his or her students will respond to the topic being taught.

I also like what was presented on Sheltered Instruction. This framework is incredibly useful for anything from building an entire curriculum down to designing a specific lesson.

The other part I enjoyed was the section on group work. As I've said before, group work is not my forté, so it's always interesting to read about why it works and how others are MAKING it work. Within that, the buddy system stood out to me for a few reasons. The first reason is that in Scouting, use of the buddy system is required of all scouts. Second, this helps students play on the strengths of their classmates, and build their own learning goals within themselves.

Another Poem

2008-11-17T15:38:00.004-06:00

Sometimes
By David Budbill

Sometimes when day after day we have cloudless blue skies,
warm temperatures, colorful trees and brilliant sun, when
it seems like all this will go on forever,

when I harvest vegetables from the garden all day,
then drink tea and doze in the late afternoon sun,
and in the evening one night make pickled beets
and green tomato chutney, the next red tomato chutney,
and the day after that pick the fruits of my arbor
and make grape jam,

when we walk in the woods every evening over fallen leaves,
through yellow light, when nights are cool, and days warm,

when I am so happy I am afraid I might explode or disappear
or somehow be taken away from all this,

at those times when I feel so happy, so good, so alive, so in love
with the world, with my own sensuous, beautiful life, suddenly

I think about all the suffering and pain in the world, the agony
and dying. I think about all those people being tortured, right now,
in my name. But I still feel happy and good, alive and in love with
the world and with my lucky, guilty, sensuous, beautiful life because,

I know in the next minute or tomorrow all this may be
taken from me, and therefore I've got to say, right now,
what I feel and know and see, I've got to say, right now,
how beautiful and sweet this world can be.

Why I wasn't in class tonight.

2008-11-10T23:06:00.002-06:00

Above is a picture of my lovely baby car sitting on the lot. I love my car. A lot. Not many grad students have a Volvo, but I'm one of the privileged few who has the luck of driving a snobby liberal car while listening to MPR on the way to Grad School. I rule.

Snobbycar, as I sometimes call her, has been sick lately. I've had an inkling due to the fact that when I turn too far, her wheels scrape the body of the car and throw everything out of alignment. About two weeks back, she got real sick (yeah, bad grammar, deal with it) and I brought her in. My extended warranty covered the following:
Sway arm
Bushings
Ball joint
Steering Stops
Alignment

In all, it came to about 1500 dollars worth of work. I had to pay 200 because of a technicality and a deductible. In all, not a bad deal.
But one does not simply call a guy when Volvo parts are needed. Oh no. Mr Mechanic called Volvo in Minneapolis and they didn't have the parts. Nobody in the surrounding states had the parts. Nobody at Volvo North America had the parts. So they called Sweden. At this point I overheard Mr Mechanic talking to his other Mechanic worker bees in a panicked voice.
We don't speak Swedish, and he doesn't speak English! I heard. How are we going to order these parts if we don't speak Swedish?

Now pay attention, because this is where it gets good.

Upon hearing of their plight, I snuck into a phone booth* and changed into my Captain Awesome outfit. I stepped out of the phone booth and stood for a moment so they could fully drink it in.

Captain Awesome doesn't speak Swedish, but he speaks Norwegian! They're mutually intelligible! I'll save the day! I cried in a manly voice.

After speaking very slowly to the man on the other end of the phone, I managed to get across what parts we needed. I don't know what sway arms or bushing are, and I sure as hell don't know how to say "Steering Stop" in Norwegian, but with the help of the mechanics I managed to describe the parts to the man on the other end of the phone. After getting all of that straightened out, I asked him very casually (but in a manly way), How does one say "Sway Arm" in Swedish?
He casually replied Du sier det "Sway arm!" I guess it's good to know that in Sweden, they don't change the names of car parts.

But I digress. After waiting a week for the parts for Snobbycar to show up, they fixed it and I assumed that I would shortly be on my merry way. But when I got to the driver's seat and turned her on (as I am so adept at doing), I thought to myself My, that's a strange loud noise! And my, that's a strange surging sensation! And my oh my that's nowhere near the horsepower I had before! After hearing out Mr Mechanic's end of the tale on why it wasn't their fault that the engine didn't want to work after they did 1500 dollars of work to it. After sitting at home chewing it over and Googling the symptoms, I brought her to Tires Plus to see if she would even make it to the dealer in Minneapolis. 160 dollars later, they said yes. Yes she will.
Here's the damage:

One Mass Airflow sensor: 500 dollars.
Two Oxygen sensors: 1050 dollars.
Six Spark Plugs: 192 Dollars
One Timing chain: 600 dollars

* May be exaggerated. Maybe.

Readings for week twelve

2008-11-10T15:27:00.002-06:00

Reading about Content-Based instruction made me realize how much I buy into that idea. Even though I'm a grammar nut, I've always believed that content-based learning is a much more effective way to teach a new language than by constant correction and an emphasis on being "right" over conveying an idea.

Along those same lines, I believe that a natural acquisition setting is much more effective than a structure-based setting. Since students get to focus on the language for several hours a day instead of just in short snippets, students will get stronger and more immersive experience with the target language.

The structured setting doesn't appeal to me as much due to the fact that there is more pressure on the student to be correct, and there is less emphasis on accurately conveying an idea. The communicative setting is more appealing to me but I still don't like the idea of only exposing the students to the target language for 60 minutes a day.

Reflections on Week 11 class.

2008-11-10T13:14:00.004-06:00

Wow. I feel so overwhelmed. When I first read about the portfolio at the beginning of the semester, I didn't fully grasp or appreciate the magnitude of this project. Combined with the Multi-Genre Research project, it seems as though I'm in for a long few weeks. I'm glad that I can work with a partner on this, that makes it a little less stressful.

Aaron and Bekir gave a stirring presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed how they presented their information and engaged the class. The way they got us into groups was very effective, and I felt that overall, I learned a lot more than I would have by simply listening to a lecture.

Poem!

2008-11-09T15:41:00.002-06:00

How To Be a Poet
Wendell Berry

(to remind myself)

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

Happy Election Day

2008-11-04T12:38:00.006-06:00

Success is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host
Who took the Flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of Victory

As he defeated — dying —
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!

Lessons

2008-11-03T11:05:00.003-06:00

I'm still hooked on this daily poem from The Writer's Almanac. I never was much of a poetry fan, but ever since I actually studied it, I've started to really appreciate it. I don't expect this to count as one of my blog entries for the week, but I'll keep posting these nonetheless.

Lessons
By Pat Schneider

I have learned
that life goes on,
or doesn't.
That days are measured out
in tiny increments
as a woman in a kitchen
measures teaspoons
of cinnamon, vanilla,
or half a cup of sugar
into a bowl.

I have learned
that moments are as precious as nutmeg,
and it has occurred to me
that busy interruptions
are like tiny grain moths,
or mice.
They nibble, pee, and poop,
or make their little worms and webs
until you have to throw out the good stuff
with the bad.

It took two deaths
and coming close myself
for me to learn
that there is not an infinite supply
of good things in the pantry.

Readings for week eleven.

2008-11-02T15:07:00.000-06:00

I actually learn from Mechanical Drilling. I don't like it, I don't prefer it, and I don't endorse it, but somehow it makes me learn. I've actually thought a lot about it, and I think it's because I can look for patterns in the words, and as long as I can discern meaning from the words, I can try to figure out what is being said and what I'm being taught. This is definitely an advantage for me, and I enjoy the fact that I have this ability.

Reaction to week ten class

2008-11-01T17:39:00.002-05:00

I often joke that I sit in the back of the class because I'm Lutheran. If you've ever been in a Lutheran church, you'll notice that they fill from the back to the front. We Lutherans are a modest, sensible people and we don't like to draw attention to ourselves. This is a proven, scientific fact. Any good Garrison Keillor fan knows this. But there is also a darker, more sinister reason I sit in
the back.

I have the ADHD!

One thing that stuck out to me from class this week was Thea's comment on ADD/ADHD students. She said that the worst thing to do to an ADD student was to stick them in the front. When I was a little kid, I would often get put in the front of the class because it didn't appear as though I was paying attention when in reality, I was paying attention to EVERYTHING! It's far easier for me to sit in the back and watch everything that's happening in front of me than it is for me to sit in the back and twist around to see everything that's happening behind me.

Aside from that discussion, I also really enjoyed Mai and Kizuna's presentation. The game got me up and moving, and got me engaged in the content being presented. Kizuna and Mai worked together seamlessly and played very well off of each other's personalities, and all around I throughly enjoyed their presentations.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch

2008-10-28T07:31:00.002-05:00

Every morning, the poem for NPR's radio show The Writer's Almanac comes to my inbox. The poem is a quiet moment that I have to lok forward to every day, and today's was no exception, especially given what we discussed yesterday in class while we were discussing ADD/ADHD.
One thing I like about reading and hearing The Writer's Almanac is the way that Garrison Keillor ends it with "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch". Enjoy.

Tuning
By Christine Rheine

I try to tune out the boom! boom! boom!

from the shooting range two miles from my house,
and think of the people who live next door

to the targets, or in the din of London and Berlin
where nightingales now sing fourteen decibels louder
to be heard by mates, quintupling the pressure

in their lungs. I've never heard a nightingale,
but I know noise came from nausea, and bulls-
eye names the goal for some blurry desire.

Bullseye is a band in Norway playing gung-ho rock and roll,
like the kid down the street whose car speakers rumble
through his closed windows and mine,

drums pummeling our insides. If I told him I once hiked
among redwoods, heard ghostly calls in the stillness,
branches somewhere in the canopy sky

moaning as they swayed, would he say Cool
or Whatever, the way my sons have mumbled it,
intending that I shouldn't—or maybe should—hear,

all talk target practice, ricochet and sashay, headache
and heartache, duck and cover. In a fable, Lion realizes
too late his vulnerability, the tunnel of his ear,

tiny Mosquito zooming in. Out beyond Pluto, Voyager's
golden disc offers mud pots, thunder, footsteps,
a Brandenburg Concerto and Johnny B. Goode.

Was the very first song a hum or a shout, laughter
or weeping? When my friend, at forty, praised
her cochlear implants, she complained about work,

the ringing office phones—How do people concentrate?
I consider her vacations—wind surfing, rock climbing,
marathons—how different now that she hears

each splash and scrape, the huh of heavy exhalation.
I wish I could adorn my ears the way warriors in India did,
with metallic green beetle wings, an iridescent

clacking and tinkling at the Feast of Courage. Imagine
if we could hear bread rising, dew forming, the budding
of raspberries, the tear of a cocoon, a minnow's pulse,

our own cells growing, dying. When my husband
kisses my ear, I love the swoosh, the quiver, his breath
sand driven by wind, my whispered name.

What a buzz (reaction to class on 10-20-08)

2008-10-25T14:47:00.003-05:00

I like giving presentations. In fact, I love it. Given the fact that I work best with pressure (as I've mentioned before) it makes sense that being in front of a group makes everything fall into place with me.

My first presentation went very well, but Dr Smidt gave me some valuable feedback that I took to heart. Stephanie also used the feedback she was given in her previous presentation, and between the two I think we came up with a pretty kick-ass lesson.

Throughout the planning process, Stephanie did a very good job at reminding me that we need to cover ALL of the learning types, not just the ones that I respond to. Keeping that in mind, we designed a very diverse lesson that covered kinaesthetic learners, aural learners, and visual learners. Trying to keep the students active and interested throughout the whole process was a bit of an ongoing challenge, but since we're both flexible teachers, this was not a problem.

After the presentation was over and we had moved to the GLL, we started critiquing the genres of other groups, and we got ours critiqued as well. It was nice getting them reviewed because many of the other groups gave us ideas that we didn't have, and they saw problems that we hadn't caught before. Now that we are aware of those problems, we can fix them and have an even nicer presentation.

Readings for week nine

2008-10-20T16:20:00.004-05:00

I know I say this every week, but HOLY CRAP, IT'S WEEK 9!
I'm not sure if I was just tired this week or if I have a legitimate point, but this week's reading was drier than Sarah Palin's newspaper repertoire... ba-ZING!

As I was reading, a common theme kept recurring to me, one that I plan to touch on in my presentation with Stephanie tonight.

ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN B!

No, I'm not talking about birth control, I'm talking about your lesson plan. What if your students don't like what you're talking about? What if they don't understand what you're talking about?
What if they don't participate and your lesson is contingent on their participation?

This idea was discussed in the reading, and another concept was brought up; one that I hadn't given much thought to before. The differences between macro and micro are pretty big, and if you take one into account but not the other then you'll have a pretty big mess on your hands. As I said before, I had never given those concepts much thought, but now I know I'll have to. One of the biggest fears I have surrounding teaching is my ability and motivation to create lesson plans, and this chapter is definitely helping me.

Class on 10-13-08

2008-10-20T16:12:00.002-05:00

Class went well tonight. Smooth sailing through calm seas.
There were two things I liked about class tonight. The first was Jodie's presentation. I REALLY liked the way she handled the different learning styles of the students. I liked the videos, I liked the worksheet, and I liked the way it all tied together.

The second thing we did in class which made me feel a lot better was discuss the multi-genre project with my groupmates. I lack focus in MANY areas of my life, and my groupmates and I were having trouble keeping our project going in one direction at a time. We managed to get a common thread to tie everything together and we now have two completed genres.

4 more to go.

Readings for week eight.

2008-10-12T23:18:00.002-05:00

I've had a very diverse history of language learning. Throughout all of my experiences, however, I only had one teacher who was a native of the target language.

Madame (Hereafter abbreviated as Mme.) Hoveland was my French teacher my senior year of high school. I had taken (and enjoyed) beginning French the year before from an American woman who taught Spanish and French, and I was hoping my experience with Mme. Hoveland would be similar.

It wasn't.

It's eerie how the list on page 435 of MCM follows the differences I experienced VERBATIM! She was much more relaxed in her methodology, but she also had significantly higher expectations. A clear example of the contrast between her and my previous teacher was with spelling. Mme Hoveleand was far less patient with students who had problems with French phonetics, while Mme Kuettner (whom I had the year before) was very patient with poor spellers.

I could bore you with the details, but I've had a few complaints about the length of my blog entries, so I'll cut this one short and see you all in class tomorrow.

Multi-genre project journal 1

2008-10-12T23:17:00.002-05:00

My multi-genre group and I sat down together in class and discussed our timeline for our upcoming
due assignments, and we fleshed out our own due dates (which of course, coincide nicely with Dr Smidt's due dates!) for when each of our genres are due. The first set is due this Wednesday (amongst ourselves) so that we can show each other what we've accomplished, and we can give and receive feedback on our drafts. It will be nice to have these "due" a little bit earlier than normal so we don't end up cramming it together at the last minute.

That said, I'm still a little intimidated by the magnitude of this project. The examples that we've looked at in class are 40-60 pages long! I don't know what I'm going to produce that will be that length, but I hope it's good, and I hope I pass....

Reaction to class on 10-6-08

2008-10-12T23:07:00.003-05:00

Holy cow, we're already done with week 7. That means I will soon be halfway done with my first semester of grad school. At least 3 more semesters to go. You can do it, Ferguson....

I really enjoyed Rachel's presentation. Sometimes it's fun to introduce an element of competition to the class. As long as that competition stays friendly and doesn't cross any lines, I think it's a good thing that can be used very well to a teacher's advantage.

One thing I really enjoy in class is coming up with a lesson plan. It's a little intimidating to think that I will eventually have to make a lesson plan for every single day that I will be teaching, but again, that's why I'm in school.

Our lesson plan was very thorough, and the lesson plan that we reviewed was also very thorough, at least after we got done picking it apart and changing it for a more advanced group. I'm definitely keeping these created plans to use in the future, because even though they got graded, they will still work in a classroom setting! This is definitely giving me practice for what I will hopefully spend the rest of my life doing.

The other thing I liked about class was the librarian who gave a synopsis of the electronic resources on campus. Like Dr Smidt, I never attended the freshman library orientation, so I was blissfully unaware of the resources at my disposal. The librarian showed us several different places we could look for information, and I intend to use that information to my full advantage.

Readings for week 7

2008-10-06T00:26:00.002-05:00

Tension and anxiety are my drug of choice, second only to caffeine. On page 61, Lightbrown and Spada discuss how some students may respond better to certain levels of tension and anxiety, and also to certain levels of relaxation. Also, a technique mentioned in class (I think we all know to which one I'm referring) was studied for lowering inhibition in second language learners, although this may only demonstrate a performance increase in second language learners, and not actual acquisition.

Returning to my original point, tension and anxiety are the thread that hold me together, especially during times when focus is necessary. I will often have friends and family ask me if I can understand people speaking Spanish in the mall or grocery store or something, and I never can, because there is no tension keeping me focused on what is being said. If I'm in a conversation where I need Spanish, I'm always able to perform well, since the situation provides me with a small amount of tension that I can use to keep myself focused. It's interesting reading about these ideas and seeing them fleshed out and put into words.

Week 5 class

2008-10-04T16:48:00.002-05:00

Aaron gave a presentation that summarized what we read. Even though the class had already read the material, I always find it helpful to review what I learned.

One concept that tonight's class helped me put into words is the fact that reward can backfire. Yes, students may learn more/better if they are rewarded for their efforts, but the reward may often take the place of the motivation to learn. For instance: If students are given a task with vague instructions like "make flashcards" and are given a piece of candy for each flashcard they make, they may create low-quality flashcards in great quantity so that they can receive more candy. The point of the exercise is not to eat candy, but students will treat it as such. It takes a wise teacher to know when to cut off reward, or to know when to limit it to keep it from overtaking the task at hand.

Also, as Stephanie pointed out in class and in her blog, the reward can backfire if some students are left behind. If students are given a piece of candy for each correct math problem, the reward will be effective so long as the students are receiving roughly equal amounts of candy. But in her case, she was far behind the class, and started to lose hope, thusly decreasing her motivation. Just as we learned a few weeks back, a teacher must observe the frustration level of the students to determine if the activity/reward is causing more bad feelings than good ones.

Class on 9-22-2008

2008-09-28T23:55:00.003-05:00

I was initially pretty uncomfortable with the entire concept of this multi-genre project. I chose "humor in the TESL classroom" for my topic, and I was growing increasingly apprehensive about how we were going to report on using humor to teach English. But, my group and I talked it over, and I'm now feeling MUCH more comfortable with this as a topic. I think that this project is going to be rather enjoyable, and I'm really looking forward to the outcome.

Aside from assuaging my fears on the multi-genre project, class made me (once again) very aware of the differences between undergrad and graduate school. Obvious differences aside, I always notice how much enthusiasm my fellow students have for school. It's obvious that they're there because they want to be, and not because they have to be. It's a nice change. :-)

Reaction to 9-15 class

2008-09-21T23:53:00.002-05:00

I liked the activity we played in class. It gave me a chance to stretch my legs and get my blood flowing, and to meet more people. I didn't know the material as well as I thought I did, but I manged to figure out who my partner was supposed to be, thanks mainly to some generous clues. I also learned a very important lesson from Dr Smidt: Know how much is too much. As an ESL teacher, it will be my job to monitor my class during activities and determine if it's an effective and challenging activity, or if the students are merely becoming frustrated. While I didn't have any problems with what we did, I could definitely see how some students would become frustrated with such a task. I think Dr Smidt taught us all a very important idea that wasn't in the text, and I hope that I can remember to stay vigilant and remember to always observe how my class is feeling.

Reading for week 5

2008-09-21T23:35:00.002-05:00

I like lists. There's a website that I frequent which is called Digg that frequently displays "Top Ten" lists (such as this list of the top ten reasons for making top ten lists) and I enjoy them because they provide me with a format that is much easier for me to follow than traditional print. That's why I enjoyed chapter 7 of L&S so much. Even though a lot of content was given, I could follow it much more easily than plain text.

Number 17 on the list caught my eye at the beginning of the semester, and again tonight. I've always know that anything can be taught to anybody, given the proper teacher, and I've often believed this to be true, even if the student doesn't understand the language of instruction. I tested my theory in my Wednesday evening class and even though it's far from a conclusive study, students can learn to use Picasa even when they're instructed in a language they don't understand.

Number 16 also spoke to me. When I was in Madrid, I had a wonderful teacher named Sara (without an H!) who would always correct our grammar as the words left our mouths, giving us a chance to IMMEDIATELY correct ourselves. I loved that she did this, and she taught me a lot about Spanish and also about teaching and proper correction. This also tied in with number 12. Even though some students may feel discouraged when they are constantly corrected, I enjoy it and learn best from it because the context is still fresh in my mind.

f1r5t p05t!!!!111oneoneone

2008-09-14T23:48:00.000-05:00

I didn't know what to expect during my first class. It was my first graduate level class, and I was very, very surprised at the amount of interaction between the Esther and the class, and as the class went on and various methods were mentioned, they stuck in my head because Esther was not only teaching them to us, she was USING them. Simultaneously, it was wonderful and fascinating to see a professor using the material being taught in class. My undergrad degrees were in foreign languages, so I saw the material being used on a daily basis, but there was little "practice" being taught. Spanish doesn't have a lot of "theory" attached to it, and one could argue that there is no approach to speaking Spanish, you just do it.

I had a few emotional breakdowns those first two weeks of class, caused by the amount of work I had to do for each of my three classes, and I had to do it with the spare time I had after working full time and being a decent member of my family. A large contributor to that pool of stress was my looming presentation on the assigned readings for the week. I was well aware that during undergrad, I put work off until the last possible moment. I work phenominally well under pressure, but I knew that had to change for grad school. All of that led me to volunteer for the first presentation.

I liked being in front of the class. I like giving presentations, and I love being able to interact with groups. I thought the presentation went relatively well, but Esther gave me some advice that will help me hone my technique for next time. I'm aware that I don't work well in groups, and that habit reared it's ugly head during our presentation. I didn't let Veronika talk. I got nervous and mildly inspired, and I led the class on a wild goose chase of a discussion. During all of that, I nearly forgot there was someone else who was supposed to be helping me present.

Hopefully, I'll have a better APPROACH and METHOD for next time. :-)