Frustration

"Go ahead and start on your math sheet," EL teacher Amber directed. "I'll be with you in a moment." She scooted over to the other table with the other students' needs. 

Multiple students, multiple levels, multiple needs. Such is the life of a teacher.

Pound, pound, pound. Amber was interrupted by the harsh sound of pencil meeting textbook. Little eyes glanced back and forth between distressed student and concerned teacher.

Teaching reaches far beyond pure academics.

Eduardo had zoned from the classroom. "Eduardo," Amber began. No response. "Eduardo!" Still the pound, pound, pound of hopelessness. "Students, you may go back to class," Amber directed, sending the three scurrying from the room. She crouched down on all fours next to his spot on the carpet. "Eduardo!" she called. Fingers snapped, zone broken.

"I just don't understand, Mrs. Cotherman." And difficult it was. Multiple step problems with a new skill set.

New language, new content. Big words, big risk of failure. 

"Don't worry, Eduardo, we can do it together."
"But it's due today!"

Amber was able to pour confidence into the frustrated sixth grader by reminding him of what he did know, what he was capable of. And by reading the questions to him, helping him dissect the many words that he did know but that had jumbled themselves all together, and looking for those key words (in this case, "percentage" and "total"), he was able to complete his assignment. Even on time.

There are lots of modifications for ELs in mainstream classrooms. One of them is extra time (time-and-a-half). Another is being read the material. But it is never dumbing down the content. Make content accessible. Amber did.

A Letter from an Author

Remember all the Jorge activities we've done this year? Well, I wrote to Jane Medina (the author and creator of Jorge) to let her know how much we've grown because of him. And guess what? She wrote us back! (Okay, she wrote us back a while ago, but...I'm still on my maternity leave, so I'm just now posting it.)

Isn't that amazing?? She wrote it FROM JORGE!

And check this out. She wrote it in Spanish, too!

Jane Medina, you rock! :)

Sooo Coooool!

Remember Levi, "my new favorite zero"? Well, we finished a project we'd been working on to give his parents. I had him create a book from the sentence stem, "This is my family member." We had read a book together about family and drew a picture of our families (although his family looked an awful lot like mine, which worried Mom when he showed it to her at home...she's not pregnant nor trying!). So in order to help differentiate between my family and his and to become familiar with a useful phrase ("This is..."), we created said book with computer paper for the inside and construction paper for the cover. We finally finished yesterday (I wanted to make sure he was able to take it home before Thanksgiving Break), so I laminated, punched, and spiral bound it and pulled him out of his classroom to give it to him. 

His reaction?  Biiiig eyes. "Oh. My. Gosh!" His tiny fingers caressed the shiny pages. "Wow! Soooo cool!" I handed it to him. 
"This is for you, Levi," I said. "Read it to your Mom and Dad, okay?"
"No, now," he replied. So we stood right there in the hallway and read My Family by Levi. 
"Again," he whispered. So we read it again. 

As I took him back to class, he did nothing but look at his precious creation, and as soon as we arrived in his classroom, he marched right up to his teacher and handed it to her. And the coolest thing that she did? "Will you read it to me?" So he did. And then he proceeded to read it to the rest of the class. They oohed and aahed over the beautiful book, and several students were heard remarking about how very much they would like to make a book about their families. Levi went from being the new curiosity to the coolest kid in school that day.


And I just know his mom loved it.

The Brick Wall of ESL

At a recent ESL training led by Katie Brooks & Susan Adams from Butler University, we practiced an activity called Barriers or Bridges. We tweaked it a little for use in our classroom. I wanted to take some time one of these odd three days before Thanksgiving Break to remind students of the purpose of ESL, no matter what teacher is guiding them. We wrote down any and everything that came to mind of things that we've done in the ESL room that have helped us connect to our mainstream classrooms. We put the completed wall in the hallway outside our room. Check it out!

We have some 5th graders coming in today to draw three things--on one side of the wall, we'll have some pics/graphics that represent ESL; going across the top of the wall will be footprints; and on the other side, we'll have some pics/graphics that represent our regular classrooms. Genius, eh? But really, I hope even moreso that they'll remember that ESL is not just a bunch of fun random activities where we read cool articles and meet new people, but that what we do in that classroom is actually beneficial in making them successful students...no matter the environment. (*sigh* It's hard to talk about this like it's over, but for me, it almost is. :( )

"But, Mrs. Steele, it's not on ISTEP!"

Melissa was particularly concerned that we were spending our time "drawing pictures" instead of doing "real work." She complained to me, "Mrs. Steele, why are we doing this? We have to pass ISTEP. They won't make us draw tattoos on ISTEP!" Little did she know that what we were doing was so much more than just "drawing pictures."

1. We had to listen intensely to understand the most important things another person values. 

2. We had to think critically about how to represent those ideas with pictures (and no, a boy playing baseball does not represent a boy playing baseball--it is a boy playing baseball; we had to go deeper!). 

3. We had to write a paragraph justifying why we put each individual item in the tattoo, colors and all.

4. We had to present the tattoo and our justification in front of an entire class of our peers!

No, Melissa, neither ISTEP nor LAS Links will ask you to design a tattoo. But they will ask you to listen to directions and/or oral stories, think critically about a problem, and write intelligently on a topic. Tattoos were just a tool to practice.

Hank's Tattoos

Welcome to Hank's Tattoo Shop!

I'm Miss Star, one of the artists here.

And this is Senorita Estrella, our other artist.

Here's our design process:

Step 1: Take notes on another person's values.

Step 2: Design a tattoo uniquely for that person.

Step 3: Write a paragraph describing how this tattoo "represents" (key word!)
your partner and present it to them in front of the class.

"Oh, I know. Dumb."

WORKSHEET: "The opposite of foolish is _ _ _ _." (Hint: Change one letter from the word: wide.)

Well, this group of four boys didn't know what foolish itself meant. So I was trying to give them lots of examples...to no avail. Their classroom teacher (we split the whole group of 50 kids into 3 classes but come together occasionally) came up and said, "Oh, this group of boys should really know what foolish means." *red flag in my head* He continued, "'Joe is foolish.' So what does 'foolish' mean?" Joe looked down, utterly dejected. "Oh, I know. Dumb."

I attempted to repair the damage.

Then I cried.

My Students are Fighting to Read

At an ESL Workshop this summer, Susan Adams mentioned how she was reading while the students were reading and somebody asked her about her book. Susan's response was something to the effect of "You wouldn't want to read this book," or "It's just a regular book," or something. And it made the students crazy about that book!

As I hear this I'm thinking, "That'll never happen to me. I don't know how to lure kids like that." And I really don't think I do it well. I think I make it too obvious that I'm trying to entice them.

So. My students are reading about Mary McLeod Bethune, 1st generation free black woman. Our book referenced Uncle Tom's Cabin, so I borrowed the book from the library so they could see that, in fact, it is a real book. They then asked if I'd read it to which I responded, "No." Long story shorter, I'm reading it now, persuaded by my students. As I read it while they're reading, I gasp every now and then. Or tear up. Or laugh. It's a deeply enthralling and moving and enraging book.

Well, that has them entirely curious. I keep telling them (in all honesty and sincerity) that they should not read this book until they're at least in high school. Which only makes them more curious! I had a sub the other day. I came back the next day and all the students are giggling. "We got the sub to read us a page and a half!!" (I won't read it to them. 1-It's crazy hard to understand. 2-It's got really mature content!) I've found my book missing, my notes/quotes that I'm writing down in someone else's book, students actually reading my book. I finally asked them, "Why do you want to read this so badly??" "Mrs. Steele," they cried, "you just make it sound so good. So mysterious. I mean, you cry sometimes! It's just GOT TO be a good book!"

WOW and LOL!! Anyways, what I thought would never happen to me did! I didn't even try to trick them into it. I was just being honest, and it caught them. I. Love. Teaching. Students.

A Glyph to Remember

We're experimenting with this type of project called a glyph. In the example I'm showing here, students put blue petals on their flowers for the number of brothers in their family, green petals for the number of sisters, gray if they're returning to Harrison, red if they're new, etc. After they get everything glued on appropriately, they get to make a mini speech in front of the whole class, describing what their glyph signifies. We've done this as young as 1st grade, and I know a teacher who's done it with kindergarteners!

Anyways, back to the story. One little guy got confused during his speech. He was telling us what his orange petal meant: "This one means I'm orange-and-a-half. *pause* Ha ha ha! I mean seven-and-a-half. Ha ha ha. Orange-and-a-half...!" And the whole class laughed right along with him. Too funny!