Wednesday, January 28, 2009

What do you think of the weather?

We began an ongoing activity in class today that simultaneously focuses on grammar points, discussing certain topics and following concrete directions. Each student has a grid with two squares horizontally and five squares vertically. To the left side of the grid, there are lines. The students have to number the lines corresponding with five grid spots. They then write their name in the first square on the top. They have to ask their partner how to spell their name and write it in the top right square.

The activity revolves around asking and answering questions about a certain topic. Today’s topic was the weather. I wrote a question on the board, and they would have to copy it in the correct spot on their paper. We would then discuss how they would begin to answer the question, and how they would answer the question according to what their partner said, using he/she. One question was: do you like the weather in Minnesota during the winter? We would brainstorm how to answer the question: I do/don’t like the weather in Minnesota during the winter. He/she does/doesn’t like the weather in Minnesota during the winter. Another question was: what was the weather like in your country during January? The weather in _______ during January is ________.

The learners would then write the answer to the question in the square under their name, across from the question. After filling in their answer, they had to ask their partner, and transcribe their partner’s answer in the square next to their answer, under their partner’s name. It sounds confusing, and a few of the learners were perplexed at first, but it was good practice for following directions for things like forms or applications. During this time, I circulated the room, helping people and making corrections. After most people were finished, everyone in the room stood up and had to ask many different people the question. After everyone had talked with others, they returned to their seats and the process was repeated with a different weather related question. We’ll continue using this same grid with other topics in the weeks to come.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Participating in history

After class today, Aziza, one of the particularly inquisitive students called me over to her desk. She was holding a printed out copy of Obama’s presidential inaugural address and was attempting to read it. Clearly most of the vocabulary was far above her current level, but it was evident that she was doggedly plowing through it, as many sentences were underlined and notes were written in Somali in the margins. She asked me to define inaugural and a few other related terms, and then proudly told me she wanted to read the speech for herself, since she didn’t catch all of the words when she watched it on television yesterday. The image of her working so diligently to understand the declarations of our new president really made me appreciate the respect she has for her new country. While not abandoning her own culture and language, Aziza strives to be engaged and informed to positively contribute to her community. I’ve had that same experience with most of the students I’ve worked with, which I think contradicts many stereotypes people have about immigrants and refugees.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Back from break

There were only about ten students in class, which is quite low as we usually have over twenty. It was amazing to see how much more we were able to help students in-depth with fewer students in the class. It was nice to be able to spend more that a few seconds with each student before moving onto the next one. Today we worked on an activity in which there is a picture of an old man sitting on a chair, and in pairs, students get to make up a story from the prompts given about the old man. The worksheet called it a poem, and many of the students were unfamiliar with this word. I had a hard time describing what a poem using the limited vocabulary words they know.

Another thing that was difficult for the students was the concept of making things up. They kept motioning me over and asking me questions about the man. I had to tell them repeatedly that they were able to create the man’s story. After a while, they seemed to get the hang of it, and some of the answers were quite amusing. Each class period, the teacher and I try to encourage them to utilize words they don’t know in the class exercises. A picture dictionary is provided for this purpose. At the end of the class period, students read their poems to the class.