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Tip of the Week
Current Tip of the Week
Teaching in a Multi-level Classroom
Tip from Denise Reddington
Posted 3/5/10
If you are an adult education teacher in New Hampshire, chances are you are teaching in a multi-level classroom. Organizing a class with different level learners can be challenging. Listed below are some things to consider when working in a multi-level classroom that may be helpful.
- INVOLVE STUDENTS IN PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING
Guide your students into taking charge of their learning as much as possible.
They decide on how much homework is right for them, correct their own work, decide when something is too easy and go on, ask for extra work when needed. Assess progress often and adjust as needed.
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ENCOURAGE AND PROMOTE “COMMUNITY” IN YOUR CLASSROOM
Always introduce new students to the class and point out others with common
goals. Throw questions back to the class; correct work together, share writing,
work in small groups or pairs. Have “fun” worksheets handy to do together.
- STAY ORGANIZED
Use folders to keep track of individual learners and group lessons. Have students keep track of their own work.
- BE FLEXIBLE
Have a variety of lessons and individual work on hand to use. Always be listening and paying attention to the needs of the group as well as the individual.
- SET RULES THAT EVERYONE KNOWS AND FOLLOWS
Don’t disrupt other students learning, be positive, don’t ever answer for another student unless asked, listen to and respect others.
- STAY UPBEAT, POSITIVE, & ENTHUSIASTIC WITH STUDENTS.
Humor and laughter is a very good thing.
- GET HELP
Volunteers or assistant teachers can be very helpful.
Archives
Concept of Specific Learning Disability
Tip from Robin Letendre
Posted 2/28/10
The concept of specific learning disability can be defined with six key points.
- The concept of specific learning disability, or SLD, is valid and is supported by strong converging evidence.
- Specific Learning Disabilities are neurologically based, and intrinsic to the individual.
- Individuals with Specific Learning Disabilities show intra-individual differences in skills and abilities.
- Specific Learning Disabilities persist across the lifetime.
- Specific Learning Disabilities may occur in combination with other disabling conditions, but they are not due to other conditions, such as mental retardation, behavioral disturbances, lack of opportunities to learn, or primary sensory deficits.
- Specific Learning Disabilities are evidenced across ethnic, cultural, language and economic groups.
(Taken from Learning to Achieve, material developed and prepared by the National Institute for Literacy Module 1)
Add Color to Lessons
Tip from Elise Hood
Posted 2/18/10
Just because you are teaching adults, don’t think crayons or markers should never be used. There are many lessons that will be enhanced if a little color is added. The color can expand your students’ learning capacity and their retention. When working with maps, using markers to enhance certain geographic areas really makes sense. When teaching latitude and longitude, use two different colors to make a visual connection in the brain. In math, preparing graphs and making color-coded liquid capacity charts can catch your students’ attention. Even in writing, you can have students sketch something from their past and then use their picture as a writing prompt.
To get started, put a mug, cup or any container of markers in the middle of classroom tables or desks. Encourage students to use these markers when appropriate. There are students who will resist or think this is “kiddish”. But, after a while most will participate. Do not worry if a few never want to use them. It happens.
Walking and Talking
Tip for Adult Diploma Classes from Debby Kanner
Posted 2/11/10
A great way to get acquainted with your students on the first night of class in September is to go for a themed walk. For a social studies class the walk could feature local monuments, public buildings, or historic markers. Science students might focus on local flora or weather and a math class might do some measurements or try orienteering. Walking provides a non-threatening opportunity for class members to chat with each other and the teacher, thereby becoming more comfortable. Remember to ask the program director or counselor to notify students as they register so that they will dress appropriately!
Adult Diploma Teachers: Classroom Management Tips
Tip from Lynda Galard LeBlanc
Posted 2/3/10
I enjoy the challenge of getting the students in the Adult Diploma program engaged in literature. Many of these students do not care much for reading when they enter my courses, but I have been successful in getting them to develop a love for, and appreciation of, the pleasures of reading great works of literature, whether they be works by Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or Arthur Miller.
Here are a few classroom management tips I have shared with other Adult Diploma teachers across the state to help them build a successful classroom community. By implementing these easy strategies and techniques with your students, you will find that they will soon feel comfortable and, even more importantly, they will develop a strong sense of community within their individual classroom.
Some classroom practices and activities that have proven particularly effective for me include the following:
- making the students accountable (for attending class regularly and being on time, for completing reading and writing assignments by their due date, etc.)
- structuring the class in an orderly way so that there will not be any surprises (e.g., I put a focus agenda – or “road map” – on the blackboard at the start of each class so that the students know exactly where we will be going during the remainder of the class session, and at the end of each class session, in a free-write activity, I have them answer the question: “What have I learned today in class?”)
- instituting a leadership program (one of the students volunteers each class session to be the group’s unofficial leader)
- utilizing catch phrases that grab the students’ interest and attention (I label one of our reading comprehension and textual interpretation activities “detective hunt”)
- implementing active learning and active questioning (e.g., students regularly do structured pairs work and small-group work, during mini-lectures I use the “think-pair-share” technique, etc.)
- exposing students to works of critical literature that interpret many of the texts they are reading.
Fluency Writing
ESL Tip from Christine Powers
Posted 1/27/10
Transfer this skill from speaking to writing. Have the students discuss a topic in small groups to get ideas for writing. Limit this to about 10 minutes, leaving the students wanting to talk more. Next ask them to date a page in their notebooks and write for 3 minutes. They are not to use a dictionary or worry about spelling or grammar. The pencil and paper must be in contact for the 3 minutes. The first few times if they can not think of anything to write let them know they can write their name, address, children’s names, grocery list – anything, as long as the pencil and paper are working together.
At the end of the given time have the students read what they have written out loud to themselves. It is fun to listen to all of the voices! Initially the students may feel a bit silly but as you continue the activity in each class they become comfortable with it and look forward to it. Dating the page each time allows the students to look back and see how they have progressed.
Essay Writing
Tip from Susan Bubp
Posted 1/18/10
One way to give students additional experience with essay structure is to cut-up an essay into paragraphs and ask students to reconstruct the essay into the whole. When choosing an essay for this exercise, make sure the introduction, body and conclusion are quite clearly denoted with transitional words like “first of all,” “next,” “in conclusion”, etc. Students can highlight the transition words to help them justify and understand their organizational strategy. This exercise works particularly well if students work in pairs so they can discuss their thinking; then everyone can come together as a large group to discuss the results. Eventually, you can try this technique with essays that the students have written.
Lesson Planning Help
Tip from
Christine Powers
Posted 2/14/07
Do you have trouble finding just the right idea or activity for your lesson? Do you find yourself looking for a new “hook” to get your students motivated? Do you find planning time a difficult thing to fit into your busy schedule? If your answer is yes to any or all of these questions then I have a book for you!
“ZERO PREP Ready-to-Go Activities for the Language Classsroom”
by Laurel Pollard & Natalie Hess
Alta Book Center Publishers
ISBN 1-882483-64-2
This book is set up into seven chapters covering the four skill areas as well as ice breakers, vocabulary and structure. The activities are written very clearly with simple, easy to read directions. The level it is intended for, the aim of the activity and the procedure to carry it out as well as variations for some activites are included. With a little bit of experience and time you will find yourself thinking of new ways to use some of the ideas.
An example of an Ice Breaker: “MY ADJECTIVE”
This is suggested as a Monday morning wakeup to encourage conversation as well as a focus on adjectives.
Students brainstorm adjectives that can be used to describe people. This can be done in small groups or as a class. They then choose the adjective that best describes them at that moment. They mingle throughout the class telling each other which adjective they have chosen and why.
They can then talk about what classmates told them in plenary.
This could be expanded by having students choose a few classmates to write about. This lesson can lead to work with comparisons and superlatives as well as the use of pronouns.
An example of a Writing Lesson : “CLOZE DICTATION”
This activity promotes attention to detail and student self-correction.
It is for beginning to advanced levels and works on spelling, vocabulary and content review.
Choose a passage the students have read. It should be about 2 paragraphs, less for beginners. In pairs have the students create 2 cloze passages with different words left out in each. Next have each pair trade with another pair and then dictate to each other the passage with the left out words. When both dictations are finished they should be the same and they can check by looking at the original.
This requires little teacher work but the students have practice in writing sentences in the correct word order with the correct punctuation.
These are only two of the 100 activites that are in this great book. It is handy for the times you are tired and need a quick lesson and for those times when you need an idea to stretch to meet the needs of your class.
If you have this book let me know how you have used it. If not, put it on your wish list for materials to get. As with all ideas and lessons, think about how else you could use any of the ideas in this book.
Posted by Christine Powers
Here’s A Great New Book About Writing!
Tip from Susan Bubp
Posted 9/8/06
Mary Pipher’s newest book, Writing to Change the World, (ISBN 1-59448-920-3, Riverhead Books, 2006) should be on the nightstand of every adult educator. Whether you’re a teacher or administrator, or a little of both like me, you’ll find this book to be both useful and inspirational.
One section is devoted entirely on writing to elected officials… (We’re no strangers to that) According to Pipher, “Politicians pay attention to personal stories about the impact policies have on voters. They are also influenced by letters of appreciation. Many politicos said they choke up when they receive thank-you notes. I inferred from this that gratitude is in short supply for people in public life.”
She goes on to give some concrete guidelines when writing to your political representatives:
- Respect your reader
- Find common ground
- Keep to what you hold in common
- Empathize with the person
- Say what you want to achieve
- Say what actions you would hope the recipient will take
- Keep your language simple
- Avoid academic language and acronyms
- Be hopeful
- Use the “sandwich method” to place any criticism between two positive comments
- Always end your letter with a suggestion for action
Every chapter is loaded with stories of the power of words. Pipher’s goal in wrting this book is “to help you translate your passion and idealism into action. This is not a book on how to write; rather, it’s a book on how to write in order to improve the world.”
Practical Learning Disability Resources
Posted 11/5/06
Over the last few years, the educational resources developed by Dr. Richard Cooper for learning disabled students have been of value to me. Although he is not in the business of creating educational materials for marketing purposes, Dr. Cooper has made many of his resources available in an inexpensive catalog. These resources have proven useful at the his Center for Alternative Learning in Havertown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Cooper, who has ‘learning differences’ himself, developed these simple instruction booklets and tools which are not sold elsewhere. One appeal of these tools is that they are related to specific difficulties that a student may be experiencing. Dr. Cooper (and recently some other professionals) identifies and addresses specific difficulties rather than general learning disabilities. Dr. Cooper uses specific phrases such as ‘students who have difficulty keeping their work organized on a page’.
My first recommendation is an instruction manual for the Tic Tac Toe math system. This technique uses grids to help ‘students who have problems with multiplication and division’. Using the system, I have found that it is possible for students to learn their math times tables and solve problems related to multiplication and long division. This technique uses visual spacial memory effectively.
The Cooper Screening of Information Processing has a long and short form. The short form takes about ten minutes. The longer form helps teachers develop an educational plan based on its findings. There is also a Spanish form for those able to use it.
The Mnemonic Guidebook lists guidelines and examples for effective mnemonics. The mnemonic technique employs clues for memorization that help ‘students having difficulties with memorization’.
A Packet of Dice is another inexpensive tool used for teaching ‘students with difficulties learning number facts and organizing their numbers’. The packet includes a set of 16 die, eight white and eight red, which are used for assessing organizational skills and increasing speed with number facts.
The Modified Rulers are another device that can be used to reduce confusion for ‘those who have difficulties learning measurement’. These rulers keep the inch and half inch labels directly below the actual distances.
The Comprehension Companion provides notepads printed with the words ‘who, what, when, where and how’ on the front, and ‘why and summary’ on the back. ‘Students with difficulties remembering and organizing what they read’ can use the sheets as bookmarks and write notes as they read.
Another resource worth mentioning is the graph paper with half plain and half graph lines to help ‘students who have difficulty keeping their math calculations straight’. There are also clock faces with the minutes printed on them, and a talking math calculator for ‘students who need to hear the numbers when they enter them’. Finally, there is a discrete checkbook insert for those who resist writing checks because they can’t spell the number words correctly.
These and many other teaching aids are available in the Learning Disabilities Catalog. I have found them useful in my own work with students with learning difficulties and I hope you will find them helpful as well. The catalog can also be found on line at www.learningdifferences.com or requested by calling 1-800-869-8336.
