Teaching in a Test Tube: ESL Research and Recording

MODL 571 – Final Portfolio Introduction

vertisio — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:35:16 +0000

The purpose of this portfolio is to demonstrate my knowledge as an ESL teacher by displaying various aspects of my work and how they relate to the standards set forth in MODL 571.

The standards:

B. An English as a second language teacher understands a variety of methods, techniques, and program models suitable for second language instruction with diverse learners including adapting existing materials to meet the needs of the students with limited English proficiency. The teacher must: be able to adopt appropriate learning materials and adapt teaching strategies to meet the second language needs of the students with limited English proficiency in a school setting (2).

D. An English as a second language teacher demonstrates the ability to communicate successfully with students, parents, colleagues, and community members. The teacher must: work with other professionals to improve the quality of educational services provided to students and with limited English proficiency (4).

E. An English as a second language teacher demonstrates an understanding of communication instruction in the second language context and the importance of developing communication skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing across the curriculum. The teacher must: understand how to develop communication skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing as an important contributor to academic success across the curriculum (2); and understand and use a variety of communication techniques and be able to use verbal, nonverbal, and multimedia and other technology based resources that enhance student learning (3).

J. An English as a second language teacher must demonstrate an understanding of the teaching of English as a second language that integrates understanding of English as a second language with the teacher’s understanding of pedagogy, students, learning, classroom management, and professional development. The teacher of English as a second language in kindergarten through grade 12 must: develop curriculum goals and purposes based on the central concepts of English as a second language and know how to apply instructional strategies and materials for achieving student understanding (3); and apply the standards of effective practice in teaching students through a variety of early and ongoing clinical experiences with kindergarten and primary, intermediate, and middle level and high school students within a range of educational programming models (9).

The standards listed above will serve to organize the rest of the material displayed within this portfolio.

Let me know if you all have any questions

ESL Standard B

vertisio — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:32:51 +0000

Standard:

Evidence:

CBI (Content Based Instruction) Lesson Plan

Lesson: The Great Depression
Grade: 10th grade (I believe 10th grade is when the students study the Great Depression here in MN)
English Level: Intermediate

Materials: Stock Market Madness with all of its pieces, different magazines, poster board, glue, scissors, markers, chalk/whiteboard markers, novels/story books about the Great Depression, mainstream text section on the Great Depression, and simplified text section on the Great Depression.(Before doing a lesson or activity that contains a lot of numbers it’s best to do a little warm-up game. I call this Number Writing Races!)

Number Writing Races!

Objective: This activity is to be used as a number listening exercise primarily for listening to dates (2007, 1919, 1929, etc…) and monetary values ($1, $20.75, $11.12, etc…) before talking about numbers in class or having the students do an activity that involves different number values.Materials: paper, pens or pencils, writing board (white board or blackboard), markers or chalk (depending upon the board), two chairs and students!Warm-up: Give every student a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. The teacher dictates ten different numbers including both dates and monetary numbers to the students. The students write the number the teacher has stated onto the piece of paper.Activity: 1. The teacher divides the class into two teams and calls one student from each team to the board to participate in the writing race. Do not allow the students to hold the marker or the chalk. 2. The teacher says a number and the first student to pick up their writing utensil, write the number correctly on the board, place their writing utensil back down on the writing board shelf with cap on (if it’s a marker), sit down in the chair and raise their hand wins.

3. Each pair of students should get three opportunities to write different numbers each time they go to the board. Which ever student wins two out of three writing races earns one point for their team.

4. Continue the above sequence until every student has had a chance to write at least once. If the teacher feels that it is necessary to continue to play the game he or she may do so.

Stock Market Activity – Stock Market Madness!

Objective: To teach the basic workings of the stock market and key terms that relate to the Great Depression.Materials: white board/blackboard, writing utensils (pens and pencils for the students, chalk or markers for the writing board), Risen and Fallen spinner, Great Depression spinner, play money, money amount deck of cards, share cards, loan application forms, default cards, foreclosure cards, two calculators and individual stock market scripts.Object: The object of the game is to make more money than everyone else by playing the stock market.Set-up: Across the top of the writing board write down the names of five potential stock companies (ex. Coke Cola, Walmart, Sony, McDonald’s, and Blockbuster) and set up a small table (label the table STOCK MARKET) next to the writing board with both spinners on it. On one side of the room set up a table (label the table BANK) with play money, default cards, foreclosure cards, one calculator, and loan application forms and on the opposite side of the room set up a table (label the table BROKER) with play money, a calculator, money amount deck of cards, and stock share cards.One student needs to work at the BANK table, one student needs to work at the STOCK MARKET table and one student needs to work at the BROKER table.The rest of the students start with no money!

In the beginning all stocks cost $2.

ROUND 1

1. The students must take their script, go to the bank, fill-out a loan application form and say, “I would like to take out a loan for _________ dollars please.” The bank gives the students the money and may allow the students to borrow as much money as they want, but the student must pay it back every 5th round. The banker must keep track of how much money each student owes.

2. The students must take their script, go to the broker and say, “I would like to purchase____ shares of ______ please.” The students are allowed to purchase as many stocks as they have money to purchase and the broker must give each student a share card for each stock share purchased.

3. The stock market spins the Risen and Fallen spinner and reads where the arrow has landed (ex. Risen) and calls out, “The stock market has risen!”

4. The broker draws a card from the money amount deck and calls out each company with the corresponding amount card (ex. The broker draws the first card and says, “The Coke Cola stock has risen 1 dollar.” The broker draws the second card and says, “The Walmart stock has risen 3 dollars.” Etc….). While the broker is calling out the stock amounts the stock market is writing the total amount of the stocks on the board (ex. Coke Cola started at 2 dollars and has risen 1 dollar, so the stock market draws an up arrow – to indicate that the stock has risen – and writes 3 dollars under the Coke Cola stock on the board).

5. The students now have the option of selling their shares back to the broker for a profit or a loss depending on how their stock did. If the students chose to sell their shares, they must pay back as much money to the bank as they can and say, “I would like to put ________ dollars towards my loan.” The banker should adjust the student’s loan application as necessary (ex. After Jim’s stocks drop he sells the shares back to the broker and then pays the banker, but since the stocks dropped and Jim only has 15 dollars instead of 20 dollars the banker then writes on Jim’s loan application that he only owes 5 dollars).

6. After the students finish selling their shares back to the broker and paying back the bank round 1 is completed.

ROUND 2, ROUND 3 and ROUND 4 – repeat ROUND 1

ROUND 5

1. Same as previous rounds.

2. Same as previous rounds.

3. The stock market spins the Great Depression spinner, which indicates whether the stock market has risen, fallen or crashed. The stock market then calls out the corresponding situation.

4. If the stock market has either risen or fallen, repeat steps 4 through 6 from round one, but everyone must pay back the bank. If the stock market has crashed all the students must give all of their shares back to the broker and proceed to settle accounts with the bank.

5. The students must pay back the bank any money that they have. If the students are unable to pay off their loan they say, “I am not able to pay, I do not have any money,” then the banker says, “Your loan is in default, the bank must foreclose on your house.” The banker then gives the student a default card and a foreclosure card. The bank must continue to keep track of how much money the students still owe.

6. The student with the most money wins! If all students default, all students loose.

Continue playing as time permits and/or students are having fun.

Poster Activity: Divide the students up into pairs and have them look through magazines to try to find pictures that might reflect the time period of the Great Depression. The students are to glue the pictures they find onto the poster board and when they are finished explain their poster to the class.

Storybook: Read a storybook that deals with the Great Depression or something specific related to the Great Depression in order for the students to receive less formal input that they can remember later.

Simplified/Mainstream Text: The students should read the simplified text with the teacher and specific vocabulary from the text should be taught. If the students are able, the mainstream text should be read by the students with the teacher’s assistants (if needed), all homework or exercises from the text should be completed with the help of the teachers (if needed).

The first two activites (Number writing races and Stock Market Madness) should fit into about a 1-2 hour time frame (of course I’ve never actually played Stock Market Madness)and then the other activities would be implemented. Depending on the needs of the students and the teacher, I think that the activities regarding the poster and books could be very short or very long – it just depends on a lot of things.

Note: there are a lot of materials that go with Stock Market Madness! If anyone is at least interested in seeing the supplemental materials I can certainly email them to you or even post them on this blog (with the exception of the money and spinners).

Portfolio Rationale:

The CBI lesson plan meets the standard set forth by B (2).

B-2: The CBI lesson plan uses materials and activities to modify the teaching of The Great Depression for LEP students in 10th grade. The lesson plan starts out with hands-on activities and games in order to familiarize the students with the subject matter and then moves into more cognitively demanding materials, such as the text books. The CBI lesson plan demonstrates the adaptation of materials and strategies to meet the needs of students with limited English proficiency, therefore, meeting standard B (2).

ESL Standard D

vertisio — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:11:57 +0000

Standard:

The following paragraph is from one of my students in ESL 202 and I believe that it demonstrates my ability to successfully communicate with my students, therefore, meeting standard D.

“International students should take ESL 202 class to have a lot of fun. Our teacher wants us to make food, like desert and bagels. He shows some magic with cards. He makes an interaction with all students and always wants us to share our view and opinion. He also feels free to share his opinions and talks about his family. He always shows interest on our country, so it feels great to talk about our culture and tradition. We all really enjoy his class. So I persuade everyone to take this class to have a lot of fun.”

I also have demonstrated my ability to work with other professionals by completing multiple projects and lessons with other teachers. For example,

The Unit Plan listed under ESL Standards E and J was a collaboration with two other teachers.
The CBI Lesson plan listed under ESL Standard B was a collaboration with three other teachers.
The Contrastive Analysis Between Somali and English located under the projects in this website was a collaboration with one other teacher.

I feel that I have continually worked well with other teachers to help give students the best education possible and that I communicate very well with teachers, students, parents, colleagues, and community members.

ESL Standards E and J

vertisio — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:33:03 +0000

Standard:

Evidence:

Unit Plan: Academic Essay Writing

Students: 15-20 Advanced ELLs in a college writing class. Each class is approx. 100 min. long and contains students from all over the world with a variety of native languages and backgrounds. The class also includes both undergraduates just starting their education, students who have graduated once already and are working on a second BS or BA and graduate students. The primary focus of the class is on academic writing.

Unit Rationale

This unit plan is designed to introduce students to various types of academic writing in English. The plan fulfills one of the key areas where international students coming to the United States for higher education have problems. The unit plan also assists the students in various other ways. Through this plans the students will learn to critically think about the subjects they are writing by using various diagrams and outlines in order to organize their ideas into a logical progression. The students will also be using all four of the language skills even though the class is focused on writing. These skills will mostly be used while the students are working in small groups and building relationships with their peers from other countries.

Goals

1. To introduce students to various brainstorming techniques.

2. To learn how to successfully compose academic texts.

3. To learn how to deconstruct an essay.

4. To learn about other cultures.

5. To build a classroom community.

Objectives

1. The students will be able to use personal knowledge in order to brainstorm for academic essays.

2. The students will be able to use various diagrams and outlines in order to successfully brainstorm for academic writing.

3. The students will be able to effectively communicate with others in regards to their culture and personal knowledge.

4. The students will be able to effectively present their work in class.

5. The students will be able to utilize various writing templates/outlines in order to compose different types of academic texts.

6. The students will be able to compose a complete academic text that pertains to the subject being studied (narrative essay, compare/contrast essay, cause/effect essay, etc…).

7. The students will be able to measure their work through peer review and teacher feedback.

8. The students will be able to deconstruct an academic text by using various diagrams and outlines, identifying the key linguistic features of the text, identifying the different parts of the text and identifying the different sentences used in the text (topic sentences, supporting sentences, conclusion sentences, etc…).

Instructional Procedures

The teacher will model the use of various outlines and diagrams in both the brainstorming and construction of academic texts. The teacher will assign groups of students (2 or 3 students per group) in order to work together on the composition of the academic essays and the deconstruction of the academic essays. The teacher will model the peer review process so that students can review themselves and each other. The students will be required to journal and blog on a biweekly schedule in order to improve their writing fluency.

Assessment

The students will be assessed through their in-class presentations related to both their brainstorming outlines and their deconstruction work. The peer-review sessions will also serve to assess the students’ writing and the final essay compositions will be assessed by the teacher.

Critical Thinking

The students will use various brainstorming techniques, diagrams and outlines in order to logically develop the beginnings of their own academic writing. Many of these techniques, diagrams and outlines force the students to think critically about the subject matter by showing the cause/effect relationship, compare/contrast points or even by illustrating the steps of a process. The students will also be able to recognize various types of writing based on their structure and word choice. The students will learn to apply their own knowledge by logically organizing it into an outline and then into an essay.

List of Sources

http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/Com_Con.html

http://712educators.about.com/cs/writingessays/a/comparecontrast_2.htm

http://www.bookrags.com/articles/5.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp

http://www.leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/comparcontrast.html

List of Materials

Templates, outlines and diagrams for the students to write different types of academic texts.
Peer review worksheets
Copies of different example essays for the students to deconstruct.
Classroom textbook – The Write Start with Readings.

Class Overview

Week 1

Day 1: Explanation of writing editing code, in-class website/blog page set-up, personal inventory of writing goals – the students will list the major writing problems that they feel they have and some of their goals over the 9 week period.

Day 2: Essay 1: Process Essay – introduction to process writing including various brainstorming techniques.

Week 2

Day 1: Process Essay rough draft due – peer editing for content

Day 2: Deconstruction of different Process Essays in groups of 2 or 3 students. Students present their findings to the rest of the class. The biweekly journals are due – 2 blog entries and 6 personal entries.

Week 3

Day 1: Process Essay due, introduction to Compare/Contrast Essay including, various brainstorming techniques and diagrams modeled by the teacher. The teacher also begins to construct the Compare/Contrast Essay by using introduction, body and conclusion paragraph writing outlines.

Day 2: The students are placed into different cultural groups of 2 or 3 students and are told to compare and contrast their countries using the Compare/Contrast diagram (Venn Diagram). The students then fill-out the Compare/Contrast introduction outline and begin to construct the rest of the essay using the paragraph outlines.

Week 4

Day 1: Compare/Contrast Essay rough draft due – peer editing for content

Day 2: Deconstruction of different Compare/Contrast Essays in groups of 2 or 3 students. Students present their findings to the rest of the class. The biweekly journals are due – 2 blog entries and 6 personal entries.

Week 5

Day 1: Compare/Contrast Essay due, introduction to Cause/Effect Essay including, various brainstorming techniques and diagrams modeled by the teacher. The teacher also begins to construct the Cause/Effect Essay by using introduction, body and conclusion paragraph writing outlines.

Day 2: The students are placed into different cultural groups of 2 or 3 students and are told to show the causes and effects related to a subject that the teacher assigns them using the Cause/Effect brainstorming diagram. The students then fill-out the Cause/Effect introduction outline and begin to construct the rest of the essay using the paragraph outlines.

Week 6

Day 1: Cause/Effect Essay rough draft due – peer editing for content

Day 2: Deconstruction of different Cause/Effect Essays in groups of 2 or 3 students. Students present their findings to the rest of the class. The biweekly journals are due – 2 blog entries and 6 personal entries.

Week 7

Day 1: Cause/Effect Essay due, introduction to Persuasive Essay including, various brainstorming techniques and diagrams modeled by the teacher. The teacher also begins to construct the Persuasive Essay by using introduction, body and conclusion paragraph writing outlines.

Day 2: The students are placed into different cultural groups of 2 or 3 students and are told to show the pros and cons related to a subject that the teacher assigns them using the Persuasive Essay brainstorming outline. The students then fill-out the Persuasive Essay introduction outline and begin to construct the rest of the essay using the paragraph outlines.

Week 8

Day 1: Persuasive Essay rough draft due – peer editing for content

Day 2: Deconstruction of different Persuasive Essays in groups of 2 or 3 students. Students present their findings to the rest of the class. The biweekly journals are due – 2 blog entries and 6 personal entries.

Week 9

Day 1: Persuasive Essay rough draft due – peer editing for content

Day 2: Persuasive Essay due – Begin Research Paper Unit.

Three Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan 1 – For Goal 1 & 5: Week 3, Day 1

Materials: Compare/Contrast Essay Writing Outline, introductory paragraph outline, body paragraph outline and conclusion paragraph outline.

Housekeeping: Role call, homework return and upcoming homework (read the Compare/Contrast Essay chapter in the textbook) (5min).

Warm-up: Review previous brainstorming activities (writing web, process essay outline, etc…) (10min).

Procedures:

Step One: Teacher to Student

The teacher explains the difference between “Compare” and “Contrast.” (10min).

Step Two: Teacher to Student and Student to Teacher

The teacher draws the Compare/Contrast rings on the board (Venn Diagram) and asks one of the students to talk about his/her country. The teacher and the students compare the U.S. with the student’s country by filling out the Venn diagram. (30min).

Step Three: Teacher to Student and Student to Teacher

The teacher now fills out the Compare/Contrast Writing Outline and creates a thesis sentence with help from the students. (15min).

Step Four: Teacher to Student

The teacher then uses the introductory paragraph outline and shows the students how to take the information from the Compare/Contrast Writing Outline and use it to form an introductory paragraph. The teacher also illustrates how to produce the first body paragraph and the conclusion paragraph with help from the students (25min).

Step Five: Teacher to Student

The teacher divides the class up into small groups (2 or 3 students) and makes sure that each student in each group is from a different culture (5min).

Homework: The students are to read the Compare/Contrast Essay chapter in their textbook.

Lesson Plan 2 – For Goal 2 & 4, 5: Week 3, Day 2

Materials: Compare/Contrast Essay Writing Outline, introductory paragraph outline, body paragraph outline and conclusion paragraph outline.

Housekeeping: Role call, homework return and upcoming homework (Compare/Contrast Essay rough draft due on Tuesday) (5min).

Warm-up: Review Compare/Contrast Essay brainstorming diagram (Venn Diagram), Compare/Contrast Writing Outline, introductory paragraph outline, body paragraph outline and conclusion paragraph outline (15min).

Procedures/Activities:

Step One: Student to Student

The teacher asks the students to go back to their groups that were formed in the previous lesson. Within their groups the students are to use the Venn diagram and discuss the differences and similarities between their countries by filling out the diagram (35min).

Step Two: Student to Student

While remaining in their groups, the students should fill-out the Compare/Contrast Writing Outline together and come up with a thesis sentence for their essay. The students should talk with each other and review their Venn diagram and outline (20min).

Step Three: Student to Student

The students should start to produce an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a conclusion for their essay using the paragraph outline forms (15min).

Homework: The students are to complete and type up the Compare/Contrast Essay in order to bring it to class on the following Tuesday for peer review.

Lesson Plan 3 – For Goal 3: Week 4, Day 2

Materials: Sample compare/contrast essays, Compare/Contrast Essay Writing Outline, introductory paragraph outline, body paragraph outline and conclusion paragraph outline.

Housekeeping: Role call, homework return and upcoming homework (final draft of Compare/Contrast Essay is due the following Tuesday) (5min).

Warm-up: The teacher very briefly goes over the production of a Compare/Contrast essay again to refresh the students’ memory on the overall construction of the essay (10min).

Procedures/Activities:

Step One: Teacher to Student

The teacher illustrates the essay properties the students are to look for in their sample compare/contrast essays and deconstructs the essay by filling out the Compare/Contrast Essay Writing Outline. The properties include: a thesis statement related to either a comparative essay or a contrasting essay, an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, a conclusion paragraph, topic sentences for each paragraph, conclusion sentences for each paragraph and compare/contrast transitional expressions (10min).

Step Two: Student to Student

The teacher divides the class into groups of two or three and asks them to find the key elements of the sample essays and fill out the Compare/Contrast Essay Writing Outline. The students also need to prepare to present their findings to the rest of the class (30min).

Step Three: Student to Student

The students present their sample compare/contrast essays to the rest of the class by using the document camera and showing where the essay had or was missing certain elements. The students also show the rest of the Compare/Contrast Essay Writing Outline that they filled out using the sample essay. Each presentation should only take about three minutes (35 min).

Homework: Final draft of the Compare/Contrast Essay is due on the following Tuesday.

Suit the Students’ Needs

This course is designed in such a way as to provide students with a comfortable learning environment. In this learning environment, students are given opportunities to use and practice spoken and written English in addition to listening comprehension. Students are encouraged to participate in group discussions, volunteering information that they know or what they have an opinion about. Students are exposed to academic English and receive instruction on how to form an argument/thesis and how to structure academic papers. Students are made aware of resources that they can use independently for help with the assignments they will have during their academic career here at MSU. Students are given a tour of CAS (The Center for Academic Success) and are made aware of their hours and that they need their MavCard to take advantage of the services offered there. During exercises and group work, the classroom is carefully monitored for questions or confusion about the task at hand. Students are encouraged to ask questions about anything that does not make sense to them or that they are having problems with.

Reflect Personal Teaching Philosophy

Through the teachers’ practical planning of this course, they will provide a comfortable and tolerant learning environment in which students will be able to thrive and grow. Throughout the lesson plans and course work the teacher will present their students with the following information, understanding, and skills:

· Students will become familiarized with academic writing terminology.

· Students will gain more fluency in the English language through academic and non-academic writing.

· Students will learn to utilize techniques with which to generate ideas for papers, such as brainstorming, Venn diagramming, researching, etc.

· Students will learn how to structure academic papers.

· Students will be equipped with knowledge of resources available to assist them with academic needs.

· Students will gain confidence in their own skills and abilities and will become more independent and autonomous.

· Student’s skills will be fine tuned and brought to a higher level than the one they entered this course with.

Portfolio Rationale:

The Unit Plan meets the objectives set forth by standard E (2 and 3).

E-2: Although the focus of the Unit Plan is on academic writing, the Unit Plan also integrates the three other language skills (reading, speaking, and listening) into the lessons through reading other students’ papers, reading papers written by professional writers, interacting with the teacher and other students, listening to lectures, and giving/listening to presentations.

E-3: The Unit Plan demonstrates the use of a variety of communication skills by the teacher and can be modified in order to use different types of media. The Unit Plan specifically mentions the use of a document camera and the use of various handouts, but again, these materials can be modified in order to utilize the technology available in any classroom.

This Unit Plan meets the objectives set forth by standard J (3 and 9).

J-3: The Unit Plan has clearly defined goals and objectives, while giving a general overview of the class. The Unit Plan also lists three lesson plans that specifically illustrate instructional strategies and show materials for achieving student understanding.

J-9: The Standards for effective practice have been applied in my own ESL 202 college writing class through approximately 124 hours of classroom teaching over the last two semesters. The Unit Plan is very similar to my own course outline/syllabus and illustrates some of the strategies that I use in order to effectively assist my students in learning the English language.

Genre-based Literacy Project

vertisio — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:19:29 +0000

Course Context

1. Identify the context: Advanced ELLs in a college writing class. The class contains students from all over the world with a variety of native languages and backgrounds. The class also includes both undergraduates just starting their education, students who have graduated once already and are working on a second BS or BA and graduate students. The primary focus of the class is on academic writing.

2. Develop an aim: The purpose of this course is to help non-native speakers of English with writing for academic purposes in their courses at the university. This course will explore the process of writing and help students to be more successful writers.

3. Note event sequences: attending class, diagnostic testing and assessments, syllabus and requirements, journal writing, essay writing, peer-review, essay exam, finding reference/research materials, selecting a research topic, citing sources, outlining, and writing a research paper.

4. List the texts required: The writing textbook:

- Checkett, L., & Feng-Checkett, G. (2001). The write start with readings: Paragraphs to essays. NY: Longman.

- Assessment test papers

- In class handouts.

- Peer review outlines

5. Outline sociocultural knowledge: Students need knowledge of – classroom practices and genre knowledge and an advanced level of English.

6. Gather text samples: Written texts:

- Checkett, L., & Feng-Checkett, G. (2001). The write start with readings: Paragraphs to essays. NY: Longman.

- Pages 178 to 204 contain the Persuasive Essay portion of the textbook.

- Newspaper articles.

7. Develop units of work and unit objectives: The students will be able to independently produce a Persuasive essay (there would be more than just one type of essay in the whole course, but this is the objective for this particular unit).

a. Setting the context – Read sample persuasive essays on pages 191, 195 and 197 in the textbook, these include samples written specifically for academic purposes and read persuasive articles in the context of a newspaper.

b. Modeling – The breaking down of the text to examine key features.

c. Joint construction – The teacher assists the students in producing a persuasive essay.

d. Independent construction – The students will independently produce a persuasive essay and revise based on feedback from the teacher and peers.

e. Comparing – Compare the persuasive essay to other essays already studied, such as the cause/effect, compare/contrast and process essays.

Genre Based Lesson Plan Objective: The students will be able to produce a persuasive essay.

Setting the context: The teacher and the students will discuss the different kinds of persuasive writings. These different types may include newspaper articles/editorials, movie reviews and advertisements. The teacher and the students will also read and discuss the sample essays in the textbook and how they apply to academic writing. The teacher may ask a student to talk about his/her major and discuss how persuasive writing may be used in that context.

Modeling: The teacher and the students will look at different persuasive texts together from both the textbook and the newspaper to breakdown the persuasive writing. The students should look for the text stages, arguments for a belief or arguments against a belief, topic sentences and their relation to the entire text, answering the opposition techniques by the author, the author referring to an authority, predicting consequences in the writing, the author using facts and the author providing examples. The teacher and the students should also look at some of the vocabulary choice features of the texts. These features may include verbs like should/should not, is/is not and must/must not. The features also may include transitional expressions such as, according to, although, nevertheless, of course, on the other hand, others may say, consequently, in conclusion, therefore, thus, another, next, because, since, finally, last, first, second and for.

Joint negotiation: The teacher should model the essay writing using the writing frame and plan below.Persuasive Essay outline: The teacher should write the persuasive essay outline on the board and ask the students for a topic. The teacher should then ask the students to assist in filling in the outline.
Topic:________________________________________________________
Pro                                                                   Con
1._________________             1._____________________
2.____________________       2.______________________

3.____________________        3.______________________

4.____________________        4._______________________

5.___________________          5._______________________

Thesis statement: Using the outline the teacher should ask students to assist in creating a thesis statement for the Pros and a thesis statement of the Cons. The teacher should write the thesis statement on the board (the thesis statement should contain language familiar to the persuasive essay with words like must, must not, should, should not, is, is not, etc…).

Persuasive writing activity: Divide the students into groups of two or three and assign each group a topic. The topics may include:
- Working while in college
- Men and women training together in the military
- Allowing controversial organizations to advertise in campus publications
- Requiring students to study a foreign language in high school
- Drinking age of 18 years old
- Legally designating English as the official language of the U.S.
- Allowing single adults to adopt children
- Allowing prayer in public schools
- A one world government
Allow the students to choose their topic, but each group must have a different topic and the teacher should briefly explain each topic to the students.

Persuasive writing activity continued: In their groups the students should fill out the persuasive writing outline in its entirety and present it to the rest of the class using an overhead or document cam. The presentations should be brief (no more than 5 min. per group) and only explain the points on the outline.

Topic: ________________________________________________
Pro                                                                 Con

1.____________________        1._______________________

2.____________________       2._______________________

3.____________________       3._______________________

4.____________________       4._______________________

5.____________________        5._______________________

Topic Sentence:_______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________Thesis Sentence/Essay Map:_____________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence: ____________________________
_______________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 2 Topic Sentence: ____________________________
______________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 3 Topic Sentence: __________________________

Independent construction: The students should now use the writing frame to produce their own persuasive essay outline and then complete the entire persuasive essay. The outline provides prewriting brainstorming as well as an easy outline for the students to initially follow. After the students have completed their essays they should be put into groups of two and review each other’s essays. The students should look for clear stages of writing as well as the modeled features of persuasive writing.Comparing texts: The teacher and the students will now look at other styles of writing that they have already produced in the class and compare those with the persuasive essay. They will also look at the different brainstorming/outlining techniques and compare those to the one used with the persuasive essay.

Writing Assessment Rubric

Course Objective	The student should be able to create a persuasive essay.
Writing Task (genre)	Persuasive text/writing
Rubric (instructions to learners) Time limit Length of expected response Format (essay vs. short answer, typed vs. handwritten, etc.) Evaluation criteria (what will be evaluated and the relative weighting of the criteria)	The students have one week to complete the essay. The essay should be 1.5 – 2 pages in length. The essay should be typed using 12 point, Times New Roman or Courier New font and be double spaced. The essay should contain:- Introduction with a clear thesis statement- Three body paragraphs with a topic sentence for each paragraph- Conclusion that summarizes the essay
Prompt (The test content used to elicit a response from the learner)	Write a persuasive essay concerning one of the following topics:- Working while in college- Men and women training together in the military- Allowing controversial organizations to advertise in campus publications- Requiring high school students to study a foreign language- Drinking age of 18 years old- Legally designating English as the official language of the U.S.- Allowing single adults to adopt children- Allowing prayer in public schools- A one world government
Expected response (a description of the expected response to the task and the criteria for judging the quality of task performance)	The student should produce a five paragraph persuasive essay that addresses one of the topics listed above and contains all of the required elements. See the modified Jacob’s scale below for the assessment rubric.

Modified Jacob’s Scale ESL Composition Profile

Student Date Topic

	Score	Level	Criteria	Comments
Content		25-20 19-15 14-10 9-5	Excellent to Very Good: knowledgeable, substantive, thorough development of thesis, relevant to assigned topicGood to Average: some knowledge of subject, adequate range, limited development of thesis, mostly relevant to topic, lacks detailFair to Poor: limited knowledge of subject, little substance, inadequate development of topicVery poor: does not show knowledge of subject, not pertinent, or not enough to evaluate
Organization		20-18 17-14 13-10 9-7	Excellent to Very Good: fluent expression, ideas clearly stated/supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing, cohesiveGood to Average: somewhat choppy, loosely organized but main ideas stand out, limited support, logical but incomplete sequencingFair to Poor: non-fluent, ideas confused or disconnected, lacks logical sequencing and developmentVery poor: does not communicate, no organization, or not enough to evaluate
Vocabulary		20-18 17-14 13-10 9-7	Excellent to Very Good: sophisticated range, effective word/idiom choice and usage, word form mastery, appropriate registerGood to Average: adequate range, occasional errors of word/idiom form/choice/usage but meaning not obscuredFair to Poor: limited range, frequent errors of word/idiom form/choice/usage, meaning confused or obscuredVery poor: essentially translation, little knowledge of English vocabulary/idioms/word form or not enough to evaluate
Language use		25-22 21-18 17-11 10-5	Excellent to Very Good: effective complex constructions, few errors of agreement/tense/number/word order function/articles/pronouns/prepositionsGood to Average: effective but simple constructions, minor problems in complex constructions, several errors of agreement/tense/number/word order function/articles/pronouns/prepositions but meaning seldom obscuredFair to Poor: major problems in simple/complex constructions, frequent errors of negation agreement/tense/number/word order function/articles/pronouns/prepositions and or fragments/run-ons/deletions, meaning is confused or obscuredVery poor: virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules, dominated by errors, does not communicate or not enough to evaluate
Mechanics		10-8 7-5 4-3 2-1	Excellent to Very Good: demonstrates mastery of conventions, few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphingGood to Average: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing but meaning not obscuredFair to Poor: frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor handwriting, meaning confused or obscuredVery poor: no mastery of conventions, dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible or not enough to evaluate

Genre-based Literacy Project Narrative

vertisio — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:11:36 +0000

Creating lesson plans that effectively scaffold the students’ learning are difficult to do well in any subject, but developing a lesson plan that is specifically created to assist ESL students in learning to read and write in their second language is even more complex. There are many intricate parts that go into the genre-based literacy lesson plan and each part contains an important role for both the teacher and the learner.

Hyland (2007) assists the teacher in creating a genre-based literacy lesson plan and covers a number of areas that need to be addressed when producing the lesson plan. In the production of my genre-based lesson plan I have followed the procedures recommended by Hyland and now I will explain and defend my lesson plan as it relates to Hyland and other research that has been done in the field of second language literacy.

The first component of the literacy based lesson plan, or any lesson plan for that matter, involves the context of the course. I used the outline by Burns and Joyce (1997) in order to specifically design my lesson plan to cater to the needs of my students. I am currently teaching a college ESL writing class and I thought it would be appropriate to produce my lesson plan in relation to my current students who are advanced English language learners (ELLs) from a number of different backgrounds and countries. The students are also different ages and may be studying for their bachelor’s degree or master’s degree. All of the students are motivated to improve their English and do well in their classes. The overall aim of the course is to help the ELLs improve their writing for academic purposes in the university. The text book used in this lesson plan is the same text book that I currently use in my ESL class. This particular lesson plan was developed to assist students in writing a persuasive essay with the intent that the students will eventually be able to produce their own persuasive essay without the help of the teacher. I feel that the persuasive genre is very common in academics and very common in everyday life, therefore making it one of the most useful genres to teach. The units of work within this lesson plan include setting the context, modeling, joint construction, independent construction and comparing. These different units are defined by Hyland (2007) as a teaching cycle that will show the process of learning a genre and give support as the learner moves toward understanding the text.

The genre based literacy lesson plan consists of the teaching cycle listed previously. The first part of this cycle is setting the context. Setting the context is very important when dealing with ELLs, because if the student is unfamiliar with the context or even the culture this could greatly affect the students’ comprehension (Singhai, 1998). Setting the context can be done in many different ways. Spack (1993) sets the context by asking students questions about their experiences before they ever even read the genre or text to be studied. Hyland (2007) recommends looking at the different uses for the genre and how the language works within that context. I have decided to use a little from both Spack’s model and Hyland’s model and start by discussing persuasive writing in general outside the confines of the text to be read, perhaps relating persuasive writing to the students’ own culture or major, and then reading different examples of persuasive writing from the academic standpoint (from the textbook) and journalistic standpoint (newspaper articles).

The second part of the cycle is modeling. Modeling is simply the teacher critically looking at the text and explaining its features to the students. This portion may involve discussion of the text and looking at its different stages. Checkett and Feng-Checkett (2001) give a clear list of the different features that should be looked at within persuasive writing and some of the clear language features. I have included all of Checkett and Feng-Checkett’s features in my lesson plan to be identified or looked for by students. Checkett and Feng-Checkett also list some common vocabulary words that can be used as transitional expression within the genre that are helpful to identify and teach. I think I find this portion of the lesson plan the most difficult for me personally. I feel like I don’t know enough about the English language and its construction to explicitly teach genre features, but with the help of this class and the textbooks I am certainly becoming more confident and understanding more about the different genres.

The third part of the cycle is joint negotiation. Joint negotiation is my favorite part of the lesson plan, because I have used this type of procedure in classrooms before and I have been very successful. In this part I have included a writing frame that I have changed and adapted from Checkett and Feng-Checkett (2001). The writing frame helps students look at any topic and brainstorm in order to find the pros and cons related to the topic. After the students brainstorm they are equipped to choose whether they want to argue for or against something and then to outline their subject. I have included modeling by the teacher at the beginning of this cycle while moving towards a small group activity. The writing frame includes the brainstorming outline, thesis statement and body paragraph topic sentences. I believe these features are the most important for my students to place in their outline, so they have an idea of how all of the stages relate. The students are to then present their outline to the class and explain their points. I find that when doing a lot of small group work it’s important to have the students do some type of presentation (even if it’s just brief) to ensure that the task gets finished completely and well. Hyland (2007) also suggests creating a number of different texts through joint negotiation to build the students’ confidence and create awareness.

The forth part of the cycle is independent construction. The name certainly gives away the meaning and this part of the cycle is simply the students producing their own persuasive essay individually. Hyland (2007) notes the importance of this part of the cycle by saying, “All writers, regardless of their proficiency in English, need opportunities to create texts. In fact, independent, extended writing is the ultimate goal of the L2 writing class, for while writers do not learn to write only by writing, they cannot learn to write without writing” (p. 136). I find Hyland’s view to be accurate even though others seem to believe strongly in collaboration. Hirvela (1999) promotes a writing program that appears to almost involve collaboration exclusively. I think that both small group work and independent work should be utilized in the ESL classroom to assist the ELL in every facet of writing. Included in this part of the cycle I have also decided to have the students assist each other through peer-review. Through this peer-review I want the students to pay special attention to the organization of their persuasive essays and make sure that it’s comprehensible.

The last part of Hyland’s cycle is comparing the texts. As a class and then in small groups the students will review some of the other genres that have been presented in class and the brainstorming techniques that have been utilized. The students will then compare the persuasive genre to the other genres and there will be a discussion to analyze the findings. I think this is a great way for students to be able to categorize different genres and really see the differences. I also think that this is a great way to review different genres by comparing them to the genre just studied.

In accordance with the persuasive writing lesson plan I have modified the Jacob’s scale rubric to be used to evaluate the students’ writing. This rubric will provide assessment for the persuasive essay task and will assess the writer’s content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. The only modification made to the regular Jacob’s scale is the adjustment of points from the content section to the mechanics section. The reason for this is because I feel that the Jacob’s scale does not give enough emphasis to the mechanics of writing. It is obvious to me that most content area teachers (sciences, math, etc…) tend to look at a lot of the mechanics of writing rather than the content (whether or not they should is another matter) and therefore I want my students to be aware of that and focus on their mechanics a little more. The reason I chose the analytic style of rubric is so I can not only see the different areas my students need help in, but also so they can see the different areas themselves and work on the specific things that they struggle with. A holistic scale is good, but it does not offer the same quality of feedback to the students that the analytic scale provides. The rubric is fairly straight forward in the scoring procedure. Each area (content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics) provides a detailed description of the criteria for the points to be scored. There is also room for specific comments in each section that can be used to give the students quality feedback on their writing.

In conclusion, I feel that my genre-based literacy lesson plan meets all the criteria outlined by Hyland and supported by others. Upon creating this lesson plan I was excited to discover that I already do a lot of things in my writing class that are recommended by Hyland, but now I feel that I have the knowledge and tools to make my classes even better and assist my students in many more ways. I look forward to using this type of lesson plan in the near future and making it a part of my own teaching style.

REFERENCES

Burns, A., & Joyce, H. (1997). Focus on speaking. Sydney: NCELTR.

Checkett, L., & Feng-Checkett, G. (2001). The write start with readings: Paragraphs to essays. NY: Longman.

Hirvela, A. (1999). Collaborative writing instruction and communities of readers and writers. TESOL Journal 8, 7-12.

Hyland, K. (2007). Genre and second language writing. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Singhal, M. (1998). A comparison of L1 and L2 reading: Cultural differences and schema. The Internet TESL Journal, 4. Retrieved September 8, 2007, from www.iteslj.org

Spack, R. (1993). Student meets text, text meets student: Finding a way into academic discourse. In J. Carson and I. Leki (Eds.). Reading in the composition classroom: Second language perspectives. (pp. 183-196). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

Reflection Paper 5

vertisio — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:54:41 +0000

Reflection Paper: Pre-Reading Strategies

Jen Gunderson and Daniel Englehorn

The multi-genre project initially looked at different reading strategies. These strategies included pre-reading strategies (strategies used before beginning reading), during reading strategies (strategies used while reading) and post-reading strategies (strategies used after reading). The topic was then focused on different pre-reading strategies that ELLs can use to better or fully comprehend their classroom textbooks.

The focus of this project was on pre-reading strategies and it really gives teachers a lot of tools to use in the ESL classroom to help the students build a bases to begin reading a text. The most important things to do in pre-reading are to activiate prior knowledge about the subject being read, be able to predict the upcoming events, look for vocabulary words that might be unknown and analyzing the text.

There are many different things we can do as teachers to assist our students in reading and teaching them pre-reading strategies is one of the most important things. Before reading a book in class the teacher can ask different questions related to the book to the class and try to relate the material to the students’ own experiences. The teacher can also tell a story to the students and leave out the ending to try to get the students to predict the rest of the story, the students should learn how to try to predict the rest of the story in this way. Vocabulary that may be unknown to the students can be explicitly taught with pictures, actions, etc… before reading and the teacher can teach the students how to overview and analyze a text before reading.

I do my best to teach both native and non-native speakers of English different strategies they can use before reading and I know that I will put the strategies above to good use.

Reflection Paper 4

vertisio — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:57:43 +0000

Reflection Paper: Whole Language Approach and Reading

Zhang, Tacheny and McLaughlin

The multi-genre project asked six questions related to the topic. These questions included: (1) what is whole language? (2) Is whole language and effective approach to teaching reading? (3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of with whole language? (4) Does whole language interact with other approaches? (5) How is reading instruction implemented in whole language? And (6) what are the important teaching techniques in whole language?

The whole language approach focuses on meaningfulness and wholeness through the learning experience. The whole language approach is a student centered method that believes that all aspects of language are naturally connected to one another. The students in a whole language program are immersed in a literacy rich environment including all aspects of the language.

It is important for teachers to realize that whole language teaching is very complex and there is not a lot of research available on the subject. Teachers need to be aware of their students and how well their students are achieving in the classroom. Teachers also need to keep in mind the culture of their students and the students’ previous educational background, as these factors can affect the learning of the students within the whole language method.

Personally I believe that the whole language method is a very good approach to teaching a language and should be used along with other methods to ensure that all the students are learning the material. There needs to be a balance between learning naturally and learning through the explicit teaching of an instructor.

Reflection Paper 3

vertisio — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:57:09 +0000

Reflection Paper: Process Writing

Linda Jacoby

The multi-genre project asked four questions related to the topic. These questions included: (1) what is the process writing approach to teaching writing? (2) What is the rationale behind this approach? (3) What are the benefits of this approach for ESL students? (4) What are some of the difficulties with using this approach with ESL students?

Process writing focuses on five major areas of writing. Those areas are pre-writing, drafting, evaluating/reviewing, editing, and publishing. Researchers believe that the process writing approach parallels communicative language teaching, in that it provides authentic communication at any level of ability, provides language in context, focuses on the learners’ development and provides collaborative teaching and learning. The problems with process writing may include difficulty with error analysis, problems with coherence and cohesion, and the process vs. product approach can provide some assessment challenges.

Process writing is a great way to begin the writing process for any students, whether they are ELLs or not. All teachers should teach their students to use some type of process when writing papers. Starting out with brainstorming techniques and then moving into the formation of the paper can really give students a lot of confidence in their writing and provide them with the scaffolding they need to become proficient writers in English.

I use a process writing technique in my own class and I’m continually looking for more ways to scaffold my students’ writing and give them the tools they need to be successful writers at any academic level.

Reflection Paper 2

vertisio — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:56:14 +0000

Reflection Paper: Differentiated Literacy Instruction

Julie Lemley

The multi-genre project asked three questions related to the topic. These questions included: (1) how does the use of multi-media increase effective learning? (2) What are the best practices of DLI for ELL students? And (3) how can professional development impact improving DLI instruction?

There appear to be four domains of literacy. These domains are functional literacy (learning to read, write, speak and listen), content area literacy (reading, writing, speaking and listening to demonstrate content learning), technological literacy (using reading, writing, speaking and listening in multimedia to create products and demonstrate learning) and innovative or creative literacy (reading, writing, speaking and listening to do a complex task, solve a complex problem, invent a unique product or process, or create something new or influential).

Differentiated literacy instruction can help students meet learning goals that are achievable and give teachers specific objectives in order to create strategies to assist the students in reaching their goals. We as teachers need to start with the state standards and look at the most important content and concepts that need to be taught. Teachers then need to decide which literacy focus to implement to establish purpose, increase critical thinking and provide relevance. Getting to know the students is also a big factor and the choice of instruction may depend on the students’ needs and preferences.

Currently I believe that I use a lot of different teaching methods in my classroom to meet my students’ needs and I will continue to seek out new ways in which I can teach students where they are at.