Friday, November 20, 2009

Giving thanks

After explaining some typical traditions surrounding Thanksgiving, learners listed what they were thankful for:

• My family
• Being healthy
• My teachers at school
• My car
• That my children can go to college here
• Food to eat and my children
• My parents and how they took care of me
• My job
• Time off to rest with my family

Everyone was excited that they had the week off from classes next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Teaching grammar

One thing that amazes me about the teacher I work with is her ability to seamlessly incorporate grammar into a contextualized writing lesson that draws from the experience of the students. Today we worked on questions starting with “Do you know how to” and “Would you like to.” My teacher wrote the following simple definitions after introducing questions one at a time:

Do you know how to ride a motorcycle?
Do you know how to = Can you

Would you like to know how to fly an airplane?
Would you like to = Do you want to

Students immediately understood the more complex way of asking the question after seeing the simple definitions. The teacher did not have to launch into a detailed grammatical explanation, but the students understood meaning through the context and practiced different forms of the answer, as they responded to the questions and asked their partner. (Yes, I do know how to ride a motorcycle. No, I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle. Yes, she/he does . . . No, she/he doesn’t . . . )

Sometimes grammar can feel very daunting to teach, but doing so in a manner where meaning is emphasized over a strict repetition of grammatical forms seems easier to both teach and understand. My teacher also does this with vocabulary words. Today she defined “ride” as “sit and go.” There was a collective “ohhh” of understanding as all of the learners instantly were able to envision the verb. Through the use of pictures and simplified definitions, my teacher is able to aid learners in grasping new vocabulary and structures of English.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

When you were a child . . .


Today learners wrote about things pertaining to their childhood. They seemed to enjoy this topic and became quite animated while sharing their answers.

When you were a child, what was your favorite animal?
• Peacocks
• Birds
• Baby goats
• Cows and calves
• Horses on my farm
• Tigers (though this was hotly contested by some students who said they hated wild cats because they attacked humans)
• Brightly colored fish
• Camels
• Chickens

What did you like to do when you were a child?
• Play with my friends
• Swim in the river
• Help my dad feed the animals
• Cook with my mom
• Play games with my sister

Where did you like to play?
• Under my bed
• In the yard
• At the park
• Near the river
• Under the kitchen table

What did you like to eat?
• Candy
• Mangos and papayas
• Honey and bread
• Cookies and pizza
• Milk
• Spaghetti
• Bananas


I was struck by how many answers were similar between students from vastly different parts of the world. In some respects, children are children the world around.