The first image I drew is of a mind map that depicts the methods that the tutors in the One-on-One English program used in order to keep their English Language Learners actively engaged in what they were learning. Throughout the reading I ran into passages such as these two that depicted the means by which the volunteers kept the ELLs engaged: “volunteers would engage their young “English buddies” by interacting with them around colorful books and by telling stories using pictures” (Valdès, 2010, p. 70). Another passage that depicts the methods volunteers used to engage the ELLs was: “The volunteers would be trying hard to keep children interested in the colorful books they had selected to use with their young buddies. They would exaggerate, repeat, and pantomime. Some would walk outside with their child and talk about playground equipment, arriving school busses, and the activities of other youngsters preparing to go home” (Valdès, 2010, p. 46). It seems to me that the volunteers had a large bag of tricks in order to keep their “English buddies” actively engaged. The pairs would not just stay inside of four walls (which the kids probably were in all day), but they would go outside and learn while enjoying themselves.
Another passage that caught my attention was when the authors said “it was not unusual to see these volunteers’ dyads crawling on the floor to make meaning evident to their buddies, or by making flying motions pretending to be birds” (Valdès, 2010, p. 71). While my picture of the male teacher dressed as a woman is a stretch from crawling and making flying motions, I believe it is still relevant to the extremes teachers and tutors should go to keep their students actively engaged. ELL students have a hard enough time understanding what is being said to them, in order to help them comprehend, English speakers should use any means necessary, even dressing as the opposite gender.
My question I pose to you is, what other methods do you think would be applicable for teaching ELLs?
I like how you pointed out that the volunteers did not stay inside all the time while educating their English buddies. Typically, in the beginning stages of an ELL's journey, they are overwhelmed by images that are more on the pictorial side. Its important that they are also introduced to such vocabulary words in an authentic way. In one of the ESL classrooms I observed, the teacher had a bulletin board full of stapled authentic items. Such items included: a McDonald cup, a grocery bag from the local food market and much more.
ReplyDeleteTo respond to your question, a method/ activity that I saw work well in an ESL classroom, which included reading, writing, listening, speaking is a matching game. If the theme is body parts, one card would have a picture of a hand and have the word "hand" written in English underneath and its matching card would be written in the child's L1.
I love that method/activity. It seems like such a fun way for students to learn their vocabulary words. Kids get so excited when they L1 is included in their activites. I will have to remember that activity.
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