Documenting student results using pre-tests & post-tests

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ZhaoHong Han, my Second Language Acquisition professor at Teachers College, was the first teacher I ever had that showed data to support her students' progress over the course semester.  It made a lasting impression on me, and since then, I've tried to do the same with my students.

At the beginning of the term in my Reading 100 class, I give pre-tests for both reading and vocabulary.  During the last week of the semester, students take the same test again.  Then, after the results are scored, I give them the results of the whole class and show the students' individual progress (anonymously, of course).  This is pretty easy to set-up in an excel spreadsheet to make a simple graph to display.  Students are always so pleased to see evidence of their learning.  I make a big deal of it and make sure to acknowledge their hard work.  I also emphasize how the small score increases are actually quite significant. (And they are--the test is quite difficult).

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Summer Reading

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If you're like me, you start a vacation with the best of intentions, plans to work on your professional development goals.  But suddenly, rather than curling up in an office, you're on the couch binge-watching a season of something you had no time to watch during the busy school year. (House of Cards, anyone?)

In addition to your plans being thwarted because of Netflix, you might be lacking motivation to get reading because you don't even know what you're teaching next semester.  I hear you.  So, with that in mind, I've thought of three topics that I could learn more about regardless of my upcoming teaching schedule. 

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2 apps for (almost) daily use

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Classes and teaching duties ended last week for the semester.  Whew--it's been a whirlwind of a year!  Over the past two days, I've attended Faculty Summer Institute; I'll be posting later on what I've gained from the conference.  This week, as I've reflected on the last semester and classes I taught, I've been thinking of the new tools that I used to help manage class.  Two of these are free apps that you might wish to use too.

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For Reading Students

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This post is for my Reading 100 students.

Maybe your questions are: "Abby, what can I do to continue learning English?" Or, "What can I do to improve my reading?"

There are many ways that you can work to improve your reading.  Even during summer vacation!  Here is my advice: 

1. Continue to read stories.  

If you did not finish reading Give Us the Money or Flying Home, finish those!  If you want to find new stories, get an App called "How Good is your English."  This app will help you to find the right book.  You can read more stories on your phone, iPad, or you can buy them on the Internet.  Here is a short video that will explain more about the stories.

2. Read the news.

We used the readings from News in Levels in class at times.  I think almost every student liked this news article about criminals who steal wallets or phones.  They come in different levels--some are easy and some are hard.  Try to read one article every day.  Listen to the news as you read, and answer the questions.

3. Practice sounds and spelling.

Because you don't have pronunciation class, you need to remember sounds and how they match with letters.  There are some apps that can help you with this.  Hooked on Phonics is made for English speaking children, but I think it can really help you too! Spelling City has a lot of games that can help you to practice your spelling.

4. Continue to learn words!

Use your picture dictionary.  Learn and study words that you do not know and that are interesting to you.  You can make flashcards for your favorite words.  Use Quizlet to make flashcards and then share them with friends.  If you want to practice like we did in class, use the Picture Dictionary Practice.

5. Review what we learned in class.

You can always go back and watch parts of Reading 100 again.  How much easier is everything now?  

If you have any questions about reading or English, you can always find me on Twitter.  Keep up the great work! 


Using comics in the classroom

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A few years ago at Teachers College, I took a course in Content Area Literacy with Professor Margorie Siegel.  I really felt like I walked away with a much better understanding of what other content area classes look like in the K-12 world thanks to this course.  Additionally, during this time, I learned about what is now one of my favorite tools to spice up a lesson or materials--Comic Life.

I think that this easy-to-use program has been well known by many educators for a number of years.  The program is free (at least for the first 30 days), and I find it to be very intuitive.  There are already a number of articles written that justify using and creating comics in the ESL/EFL or language classroom. 

What I like to do is to create listening activities using this program.  I had students watch a short documentary about my friend, Paul Miller, who had recently quit the internet for a year.  Then, I took screenshots of the documentary to make a comic about it.  I asked students to then fill in the speech bubbles in the comic using the information they had heard in the documentary.  This seemed to really engage my students, and I think they liked the less traditional activity.  Usually, we watch Ted Talks, take notes, and answer questions about the notes, so this was certainly going in a different direction for a listening activity.  If you haven't yet checked out Comic Life, you should!  Give yourself 20 minutes or so to play around with it--I think you'll be pleased by the creative assignments and activities you can make.