Workshop 3 & 4 review

I know this is a bit delayed but I wanted to send this to everyone to remind you of
what we have covered in the previous workshops.

Workshop 3
I introduced another greeting. The Funny Voice greeting that was as follows:

Greeting: Funny Voices

hello, my name is __________ and I want you to greet me in a _____________ voice.

Students choose any variety of voice styles:

High, low, robot, squeaky, deep, quiet, loud, underwater, whisper, etc.

Class Timeline
We also analyzed this class timeline:

00-05: greeting, whole class sings head shoulders knees & toes one time.

05-10: teacher takes flashcards from desk and stands in front of class and reviews
cards with hobby vocabulary. Teacher shows card and asks, what is it? to whole
class and various numbers of students respond. Teacher translates vocabulary to
native language.

10-20: teacher asks students to open books to specific page. Teacher reads
paragraph at top of page. Teacher reads part of sentence and then students repeat,
teacher continues with another part, students repeat, and so on until paragraph is
finished.

20-30: Teacher divides class into groups and asks first group to read first part of
paragraph together, outloud. They struggle and so teacher reads first and students
repeat. Same thing for second group and third group.

30-40: teacher writes a table on the board with vertical side having names of
students and horizontal side having names of hobbies.
40-50: Teacher ask students to copy table into writing books. Teacher says they will
ask other students what is their favorite hobby? and answering My favorite
hobby is and fill in the table as they get answers from students.

50-60: Teacher tells children who are finished with their tables to begin asking their
classmates and they move around, some asking complete questions, some
answering in complete questions, some not. Some students are still working on the
table.

60: teacher announces class is over. Students are all over the room. Students have
tables filled in to various degrees.

A few things we concluded from our discussion:

-we should not translate and use native language. Everytime we use Malay
or Chinese we are reversing the progress we have made in English.
We all agreed that English class is the only time the students have to
experience an English environment so we must provide that, from
beginning to end, everyday!
Anytime you think it cannot be done, consider that I have taught many
classes in your classrooms to your same students and I only speak English!

-choral or whole class reading aloud is ineffective. When a whole class or

group is reading aloud, we cannot assess individual students reading
abilities.

-Reading aloud DOES NOT practice reading for comprehension or

meaning. It is only a practice of pronunciation.

-Reading aloud is a scary activity for readers who are not confident. Most
of our reading lessons should be focused on reading for meaning!

-Having students make materials is a good idea. However, we must

consider the value of the process and the value of the material.
If the students are making a material that requires them to read and write
and think about a topic and then they can use the material multiple times
in an activity to practice, this is valuable.
-If the students are making a material that is just copying a table or
copying text, or if the students are making a material that can only be
used once, how much class time is it worth? Can the teacher make the
material before class?

-time management: We should always consider if we have enough time to

do the activity, finish the activity and reflect on it.
If we come up with a good activity, dont rush! Take the time to make the
materials, do the activity and discuss it.
When we rush through an activity, just like when we speak Malay or
Chinese, we are decreasing the value of the activity.

Reading

I also gave you some quotes about reading. Even though we havent
installed classroom libraries yet, I have created groups of books that can
be read or used in the classroom. Ask me if you need help to find them or
to use them.

Quotes from Research about Reading in the Classroom

How important is reading aloud? Catherine Paglin seemed to answer

this question in In the Beginning, an article published in NW
Education Magazine (Fall 1998). "From being read to repeatedly,
children learn that reading is enjoyable, that pictures provide clues to
the story, that books and print go from left to right, that print
represents words and meaning, that stories have a beginning and an
end. By listening, watching, and asking questions, they add to their
vocabulary and increase their comprehension."

Children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better at

school than their peers, according to new research from the Institute
of Education (IOE).
The IOE study, which is believed to be the first to examine the effect
of reading for pleasure on cognitive development over time, found
that children who read for pleasure made more progress in maths,
vocabulary and spelling between the ages of 10 and 16 than those
who rarely read.

"The importance of reading aloud to children on a daily basis cant

be overestimated. The U.S. Department
of Education Commission on Reading took into account over 10,000
studies and found that the most important activity for building the
skills and background for eventual success in reading is reading
aloud to children
(see Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985). Children who
are read to are usually the very best readers in the classroom, and
they acquire large vocabularies, write well, and do better in other
subject areas, as well."

Workshop 4

Greeting:
Ball greeting

Students stand in circle. Student with ball points at friend he wants

to pass to and throws the ball. Student who catches the ball says:
Hello, my name is___________. Good morning!
Everyone responds, Good Morning.
Student throws ball to another friend.

We sang:

Bim Bum- please check previous email from me for lyrics and video.

Little green frog-

Mmm aaa went the little green frog one day
Mmm aaa went the little green frog
Mmm aaa went the little green frog one day
Mmm aaa mmm aaa Mmm aaa aaa aaa
All the other frogs say odie odie odie oh, odie odie odie oh, odie odie odie oh
All the other frogs say odie odie odie oh
But this little frog says mmm aaa mmm aaa mmm aaa aaa aaa
Sustainability

We discussed sustainability in education.

What is it?

sustainable
adjective \s-st-n-bl\
: able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed

: involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources

: able to last or continue for a long time

We discussed how we must think about creating a sustainable classroom.

That means that we should make the topics sustainable by not just teaching one day
or one week and never talking about them again. We should review and repeat and
reference.

That also means that we should make materials that we can use over and over
again, but that we can adapt to any lesson or topic.
We discussed that some examples would be:

Classroom calendar
Classroom library
Classroom art center
Books/stories
Playdough
Songs
Greeting activity
Student work bulletin board**

These are the things I am attempting to help you create and use.
Playdough

We made playdough. I gave you a recipe but since then I have decided that perhaps
that recipe uses too much flour and it becomes dry. So I have altered it.
Please experiment with the recipe since it may come out different depending on the
flour, oil, and salt that you use.
Decreasing the flour will make it less dry or increasing the water.

If you make it at home u can try cooking it.