SLA Strategy Share
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Word Camera:
After telling or reading a story, write important vocabulary words on notecards and place the cards facedown in various spots around the room. Check understanding of the words by reviewing them, then asking students to draw them in the air or on a desk. When you feel they’ve got them, direct students to draw, with paper and pencil, these important vocabulary items.
Then model the following procedure:
1. Put down pencil and paper and get out your "camera."
2. Go to one of the notecards, turn it over, and "take a picture" of the word that is written on the card. Let your "exposure time" be several seconds so that students feel comfortable taking their time.
3. Return to your place and label the picture, writing the word in your "word camera" by the important vocabulary drawing.
4. Check it over extra carefully, then return to the notecard you took a picture of and compare what is written with what you wrote on your card.
5. Go back to your desk and make any corrections you need to, returning to the notecard any time you need to.
6. Set a time limit and tell your students to start.
Afterwards: Read the story again and give your students time to compare the words they wrote with the original words in the story.
SLA Rationale:
® According to Connectionism, this activity has multiple associations between the desired output and the teacher input. It reinforces language through body movement, imagined drawings, and visually.
® Also, according to Deacon, a connectionist, this activity is at the proper maturity level for children. This activity lets them build their language base one word at a time and is in synch with their developmental level.
® According to Krashen’s Monitor Model, this activity would lower the affective filter. Students would have low stress and therefore a higher intake of comprehensible input.
After telling or reading a story, write important vocabulary words on notecards and place the cards facedown in various spots around the room. Check understanding of the words by reviewing them, then asking students to draw them in the air or on a desk. When you feel they’ve got them, direct students to draw, with paper and pencil, these important vocabulary items.
Then model the following procedure:
1. Put down pencil and paper and get out your "camera."
2. Go to one of the notecards, turn it over, and "take a picture" of the word that is written on the card. Let your "exposure time" be several seconds so that students feel comfortable taking their time.
3. Return to your place and label the picture, writing the word in your "word camera" by the important vocabulary drawing.
4. Check it over extra carefully, then return to the notecard you took a picture of and compare what is written with what you wrote on your card.
5. Go back to your desk and make any corrections you need to, returning to the notecard any time you need to.
6. Set a time limit and tell your students to start.
Afterwards: Read the story again and give your students time to compare the words they wrote with the original words in the story.
SLA Rationale:
® According to Connectionism, this activity has multiple associations between the desired output and the teacher input. It reinforces language through body movement, imagined drawings, and visually.
® Also, according to Deacon, a connectionist, this activity is at the proper maturity level for children. This activity lets them build their language base one word at a time and is in synch with their developmental level.
® According to Krashen’s Monitor Model, this activity would lower the affective filter. Students would have low stress and therefore a higher intake of comprehensible input.
TPR Storytelling:
Tell a story while you act it out(it should be only 10-15 simple sentences long). The story must use previously taught vocabulary so that students are not confused (I prefer to teach the vocab. using TPR). Check vocabulary understanding by asking students to perform commands showing that they understand the vocabulary. Then tell the story two more times. After that, you can ask students to volunteer to act out the story while you tell it. You could even ask for a volunteer to be the narrator and tell the story if any are ready for that challenge.
Once you’re sure that all students understand the story, give them several activities: A cloze exercise where they must fill in the blank with the correct information about the story; A list of 10 short answer questions; an exercise that asks them to put several events from the story in order; and a list of true/false questions. After they have worked through these exercises, ask them to write the story by themselves. Provide then with a six-frame drawing that shows the story visually, step by step. (If they groan, assure them that they know the story and that all of the words they need to write it are in the series of exercises they just finished.)
After they’ve written a story, the next task can be editing the story. Then give them the opportunity to write their own creative version of the story, accompanied by a six-frame drawing, like a comic book story. (Students usually love this because they have already been acting out their own versions as you tell the story).
Rationale:
® According to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, students can progress from an "actual developmental level to a potential developmental level" where learning precedes maturation. Moving from acting out stories to actually writing stories supports this theory. Students often don’t think they have enough language to actually write an entire story.
® According to Ellis’ Variable Competence Model, students will have the opportunity to negotiate meaning of the story that they have been told in the target language. The process is interactive in that: 1)they hear the story while acting it out; 2) they hear the story from the teacher who is more adept at language than they are; and 3)that the student has the opportunity to engage in unplanned discourse through questioning by the teacher and in enthusiastically engaging the teacher and other students by acting out and speaking out different versions of the story.
® According to Connectionism, this activity has multiple associations between the desired output and the teacher input. It reinforces language through body movement, storytelling, and visual aids(the drawing of the story).
® According to Krashen’s Monitor Model, this activity would lower the affective filter. Students would have low stress and therefore a higher intake of comprehensible input. It’s fun to act out stories!
Tell a story while you act it out(it should be only 10-15 simple sentences long). The story must use previously taught vocabulary so that students are not confused (I prefer to teach the vocab. using TPR). Check vocabulary understanding by asking students to perform commands showing that they understand the vocabulary. Then tell the story two more times. After that, you can ask students to volunteer to act out the story while you tell it. You could even ask for a volunteer to be the narrator and tell the story if any are ready for that challenge.
Once you’re sure that all students understand the story, give them several activities: A cloze exercise where they must fill in the blank with the correct information about the story; A list of 10 short answer questions; an exercise that asks them to put several events from the story in order; and a list of true/false questions. After they have worked through these exercises, ask them to write the story by themselves. Provide then with a six-frame drawing that shows the story visually, step by step. (If they groan, assure them that they know the story and that all of the words they need to write it are in the series of exercises they just finished.)
After they’ve written a story, the next task can be editing the story. Then give them the opportunity to write their own creative version of the story, accompanied by a six-frame drawing, like a comic book story. (Students usually love this because they have already been acting out their own versions as you tell the story).
Rationale:
® According to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, students can progress from an "actual developmental level to a potential developmental level" where learning precedes maturation. Moving from acting out stories to actually writing stories supports this theory. Students often don’t think they have enough language to actually write an entire story.
® According to Ellis’ Variable Competence Model, students will have the opportunity to negotiate meaning of the story that they have been told in the target language. The process is interactive in that: 1)they hear the story while acting it out; 2) they hear the story from the teacher who is more adept at language than they are; and 3)that the student has the opportunity to engage in unplanned discourse through questioning by the teacher and in enthusiastically engaging the teacher and other students by acting out and speaking out different versions of the story.
® According to Connectionism, this activity has multiple associations between the desired output and the teacher input. It reinforces language through body movement, storytelling, and visual aids(the drawing of the story).
® According to Krashen’s Monitor Model, this activity would lower the affective filter. Students would have low stress and therefore a higher intake of comprehensible input. It’s fun to act out stories!
Monday, December 08, 2003
Jay Ellerglick
Strategy Sharing #1
Oct. 6, 2003
EDIS 548
The Emotional Game
This is a game to review and reinforce the teaching of emotions. First teach several emotions through TPR. Then create a game board with spaces that lead a pathway from a starting to a finishing point. Create or select interesting game pieces so that each child can choose what piece they want to be. Make up several cards with pictures of the emotions or just words for more advanced learners. Children have to act out and/or say the name of the emotion to move forward the number of spaces designated on the card. The one who reaches the end first is the "winner."
For advanced learners, they could have to tell a situation that makes them feel the emotion on the card and why.
Rationale
? Due to the excitement of a game, the students will lower their affective filter from the Input Hypothesis. Also, the chance to act out an emotion provides motivation and fun and reduces the stress of language learning.
? Again, because of the excitement and fun of a game, students have a chance to progress naturally from focused processing during TPR to more autonomous processing as they draw card after card on their own.
? This method also employs the four principles of the Natural Approach. Students aren?t required to talk if they are still in their silent period, the topic of emotions focuses on basic communication language, and a game lowers the affective filter, as stated before.
Strategy Sharing #1
Oct. 6, 2003
EDIS 548
The Emotional Game
This is a game to review and reinforce the teaching of emotions. First teach several emotions through TPR. Then create a game board with spaces that lead a pathway from a starting to a finishing point. Create or select interesting game pieces so that each child can choose what piece they want to be. Make up several cards with pictures of the emotions or just words for more advanced learners. Children have to act out and/or say the name of the emotion to move forward the number of spaces designated on the card. The one who reaches the end first is the "winner."
For advanced learners, they could have to tell a situation that makes them feel the emotion on the card and why.
Rationale
? Due to the excitement of a game, the students will lower their affective filter from the Input Hypothesis. Also, the chance to act out an emotion provides motivation and fun and reduces the stress of language learning.
? Again, because of the excitement and fun of a game, students have a chance to progress naturally from focused processing during TPR to more autonomous processing as they draw card after card on their own.
? This method also employs the four principles of the Natural Approach. Students aren?t required to talk if they are still in their silent period, the topic of emotions focuses on basic communication language, and a game lowers the affective filter, as stated before.
