Balancing Truth and Fiction in Celebrating "Thanksgiving"

Well, Halloween is finally over!  November is here and with it, the start of major holidays through the end of the year.

So, with Thanksgiving around the corner, we are faced with how to teach the myth of the first Thanksgiving while acknowledging the living history and diverse cultures of Native Americans.  Can it be done?  In the New York Times LEARNING BLOGS, many suggestions along with supports are offered to help teachers walk that delicate line between fact and fiction in such a way that the message of the holiday remains while also weaving in some of the facts behind that “first Thanksgiving.”

For middle and high school students, there are several links (along with graphic organizers) to review several links with each offering a different political perspective (from Libertarians/Tea Party members to Native Americans).  Students must visit the sites on the post and carefully note the different viewpoints.  What makes this an exciting assignment is that the opinions of respected, well-known indigenous people are offering their valuable insight for a change. 

Use the holiday to address diversity in American culture.  Yes, we have definitely stumbled along the way, but America continues to evolve in the hope that one day all its members will be acknowledged and valued as truly equal.

On another happy note, it is only 6 weeks or so until we are on winter break!

Denise, Marnie, and Cheryl

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Building Academic Language for ELLs--a MUST for Common Core

Common core is here.  For English language learners (ELLs) to survive and thrive in this new learning environment, they must have more developed literacy skills to tackle far more challenging academic demands than in the past.  Dictionaries should never be the first resources for any students and especially ELLs.  For the English only students, they are often confused by the different definitions for any given word.  The waters get muddier with ELLs since definitions for new words are defined in a language that they are not that familiar with for the most part. 

So how can teachers provide those crucial supports for ELLs so that they may experience success in completing academic tasks in the classroom?  Delivering such supports is not difficult.  It can be built into any instruction with just a few adjustments.  Further, these same adjustments will also support the English only students because often times what is good for ELLs is also good for EOs.

Here is one site with a few approaches to building academic vocabulary.  It is one I wrote for the Examiner a year ago.  Within it, there are two more websites which address key academic words students should learn along with additional strategies to teach vocabulary. Another link, though geared to science, the strategies would work in any classroom for any content area.

Find approaches which work for you and your students.  Make activities engaging, informative, and fun.  Then watch their academic vocabulary base grow:)

Denise

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Incredible Tool To Scaffold Instruction Of ALL LEARNERS!

Every teacher in just about any teacher credential program over the last 57 years has had experience with Bloom's Taxonomy.  It provides teachers with support to provide quality instruction to students at levels moving from factual recall up through analysis/synthesis.  Using Bloom's taxonomy assists teachers in developing quality lessons that continually challenge students to eventually be able to tackle the more demanding assignments they will eventually encounter in college, the work force, and the university.  ELLs especially benefit from this since they do not always face as many of the same academically challenging questions as the native speakers.

 BLOOM'S TAXONOMY--21ST CENTURY EDITION  Well, with the arrival of the Common Core, teachers are now turning to an updated version of Bloom's which assists teachers in meeting the academic content and language needs of all their students with relative ease.  It offers a fresh way of engaging students in active learning without watering down content.  This is especially beneficial to ELLs who are often not in academically challenging classes until they have exited ELD classes.  Once the transition occurs, they are often at below average grade reading levels by 2-3 years so it becomes a constant game of "catch-up" which they often fail to accomplish. 

Creating, Evaluating, Analyzing, Applying, Understanding, and Remembering (new levels of Bloom's Taxonomy)--There are iPad apps for each of those levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  Students at every level of the learning process would find additional support in becoming more proficient at all those key academic skills that students must master to succeed academically.  They would not take the place of a teacher, but when teachers need to differentiate based on need, the iPad app could fit in with ease.

Consider this a brief recap on Blooms and see how it can assist in the planning of assessments, lessons, activities, and projects.

Denise

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Before the Start of ANY Lesson, Teachers Must Activate ELL's Prior Knowledge!

This topic has been addressed before in this blog, but now I would like to share my own personal strategies in this area.  They are easy to implement and work at any grade level with most subject areas.

Though all students benefit from this, ELLs probably benefit the most.  Tying new knowledge to past learning experiences makes content more accessible, and, with content more comprehensible, language skills develop further.  Typically, activities here need only last for 5-7 minutes.  The feedback the teacher receives tells her/him if any changes might be called for in the delivery of the lesson.  For example, if the feedback received shows that 90% already have a handle on the upcoming concepts, the teacher can speed up a bit and move on to more challenging aspects of the lesson.  On the other hand, if more than 50% of the class seems confused, the teacher proceeds on to addressing the gaps in knowledge before moving into the lesson.  Time spent here in the first few minutes of class leads to students reaping the full benefits of the lesson.

Now, here are some of my favorites in activating prior knowledge.

1.  Concept webs--I have a huge sheet of butcher paper with the term or concept written in the center.  It is written within a circle.  Students then share any and all items they believe are connected to the concept.  I write down everything (this way I validate all attempts).  When we are done (no more than 3 minutes), we start to make connections.  From the connections, come some eliminations (I guide this part).  The results stay on the chart which is taped to the wall to go back to after we have completed the lesson.  Now students will know more and revise the chart as needed.

2.  Anticipation Guides--Here the teacher generates 10-20 extreme statements on the upcoming topic.  Students can only choose YES or NO for each statement.   For example, for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, one statement might be "Juries always reach just decisions."  Another one might be "Girls are smarter than boys."  Each statement should almost be guaranteed to be extreme enough that even the quietest students will want to take a position one way or the other.  Students do not share their responses initially.  They hold on to them until later when they are almost done with the book. At that time, they revisit their original responses and discuss them within small groups.  Many want to change positions by that time since they have more information on the novel than they had at the start.  How does this help the ELLs? They now have a far more thorough knowledge of the theme and will be in better position to take a test, write an essay, do a project, etc. on the book.

3.  Elbow partner brainstorming is also fun.  Using this approach, the ELL can ask for help as s/he tries to share her/his understanding of the topic.  Once the partner share is complete, the teacher can do some random calls on pairs to share out what they came up with.  Here there is no right or wrong.  Upon completion of the lessons, the pairs will revisit what they wrote about earlier and revise where necessary.

What I have just shared are my all-time favorites.  What I plan on trying out this year in my university class is TWITTER.  I will throw up the topic/question and have students tweet their reactions.  Since TWITTER is limited to 140 characters, stress levels should be low:)  Further with a class twitter account, I will be able to easily review tweets to see who might have experienced some difficulty with my lesson or assignment.

ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE Here, EDUTOPIA goes over the basics of APK (Activating Prior Knowledge).  It is an integral part of the learning process and can't be stressed enough.  Time spent here is time well spent! :)

Denise

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