Interested in Making Dream Flags?

I am leaving ITESM in about a month!

As such I am putting together packets to pass onto teachers who will be teaching the levels I teach.

One of these packets is the Dream Flag Project!

I really think that the Dream Flag Project is an amazing opportunity to get your students connected internationally.

If you are interested in starting I am offering the packet for free! I believe that ANYONE who wants to should have the chance to be involved and this is my chance to help :)

You can download and view the packet below or download it from Teachers Pay Teachers (if you haven't registered yet you can do so here)

It contains too much information (some worksheets you can certainly skip) but it gives you plenty of options.

Dream flag 101 from Carissa Peck

I really hope you take part of this project and that your students enjoy it as much as mine have! 

Dreams and Symbols

 In my class we are reading Stephen King's novella "The Body." In one chapter of the book the narrator specifically discusses a dream he had.

Today's class we talked about  the significance of dreams and different ways to interpret them.

There are SO many different ways to do this lesson, but this was how I did it today. You  can easily do a lesson about dreams without using, "The Body," and it ties in quite nicely if you choose to do the Dream Flag project later.

WARMER
To start I had created this little slips of paper. I basically made note of different idioms, songs, and movies that invove dreams.

I divided them in half and gave each student part of a phrase. They had to try and find someone who made sense with theirs.

NOTE: There were technically different "correct" answers. You can grammatically say, "Be in a dream," but it doesn't have any special meaning in English.

After a few minutes I gave the students some clues.

For example, "On of them is about a baseball movie with Kevin Costner," "One of them is something you say to someone when their dream is impossible." etc.

After a few  more minutes I went through the numbers and let the students read their phrase together. If they correctly made an English phrase I congratulated them and asked them what it meant. Then as a class we went over connotation and denotation. If you want to do more activities with the dream words check out the vocabulary post.

Finally, my students were ready to start the lesson. I like this warmer because it gets them moving, thinking about dreams, focusing on different idioms, and thinking in English. It can be done in five minutes, or you can spend more time on it if you wish.

READING
As a class, we read the story out loud (try popcorn reading!). From time to time we stopped and went over different words or discussed what the author meant. If you're reading chapter 15 you'll know it is when the boys are camping in the woods and they think they hear a ghost!

We discuss words they may not know and what the author is mentioning (cats being in heat for instance).

The chapter ends with his dream. We discuss the different parts to be sure that students understand the essence, then we talk about possible symbols. What does drowning usually mean? Why is Chris drowning etc.

SYMBOLS
When I was in University I backpacked a lot. Sometimes, as a way to make friends, I would walk fellow backpackers through these imaginary woods. As they walk through the woods in their brain you ask them specific questions. later you explain that these questions were asked to figure out more about the person. I'd explain what certain things symbolized and even when people disagreed they enjoyed it.

There are a few different versions of this going around, but here's the version I like best. I made it into a PowerPoint with pictures to help students who may be stuck. We also learned a few new words like, "to wade through water" (which will actually come up later in, "The Body!" After students take the imaginary walk through the woods we discuss what else the objects could symbolize and whether or not they think this, "test" is accurate.

WRITING
In order to tie this back into, "The Body," we ended with the students wrote about one of the characters walks through the woods.

For example, "Gordie would walk through the woods with Denny. Even though Denny has passed away Gordie mentions him a lot through the story. I feel like Denny didn't change Gordie's life really until he died."

This helps students get used to writing explanations, dealing with different points of view, and reinforcing their understanding of characters in, "The Body."

Is your class addicted?

What do you think of when you hear about an addiction?

Have you ever been addicted to something?

What are the most common addictions?

Most of your students can relate to the concept of having an addiction, so I find this is always a nice topic to use with a conversation class, and since there are lots of related news articles you can find it is also nice for a reading or listening class.

You can start with some of the questions above. I normally give my students a blank chart. On the board we discuss different things people can be addicted to, be sure to include some "soft" addictions like shopping or working out.

Students pick ten and write them down in their chart. Then we try to figure out how many times a
week makes it an addiction.

For example, does being on the internet for 10 hours a week make you an addict? What about 20? What about 40? Are there exceptions? What if your work requires the internet?

How many alcoholic drinks can you have a week before you become addicted?

How many video games can you play before you become addicted?

etc. etc.

As a class have the students defend their answers and keep tally of the amounts (showing the class average at the end is always fun!)

I tend to pick one news article to read in class depending on their maturity level and interest. One my students normally like is about the boy who died playing video games.

After the reading we come up with solutions. How can we help people with addictions? Students answers tend to be very interesting!

In the end I have students pick an odd addiction (the TV show "My Strange Addiction" is available on YouTube and has some great examples). They then pretend to interview that person and write a news article.

You can learn more about Internet addiction and other process addictions by reading through the following infographic. Created by Valiant Recovery, treating the roots behind addiction not just the surface problems. For more ideas check out the infographic below.
You can also see some possible topics for mini-debates. Have students argue both sides of the topics that follow (be sure they know the vocabulary first!): 

THE BEST WAY TO GET OVER AN ADDICTION IS TO GO “COLD TURKEY.”

WORKAHOLISM IS A SERIOUS DISEASE AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH.

ALL ADDICTIONS ARE BAD.

ADDICTIONS ARE A SIGN OF WEAKNESS.

ADVERTISERS ARE GUILTY OF MAKING PEOPLE ADDICTED TO THEIR PRODUCTS.

NO ADDICT CAN EVER BE COMPLETELY CURED.

COCA COLA IS JUST AS DANGEROUS AS COCAINE

I hope you enjoy these ideas in your class! My students usually find the concept that you can be addicted to something that isn't a drug really interesting and they enjoy talking about it.

Differentiate Smarter...not harder

So, yesterday I caught the last two steps of Robyn Jackson's webinar via the ASCD, "Beyond Differentiation." I was a bad un-punctual teacher, so I missed the first 15 minutes.


Basically her webinar talked about the three ways to easily differentiate any unit you teach to help every student! Alright this sounds good; I am in!


STEP ONE
The first step is unpacking your standards. As stated earlier, I was caught up with helping who was bored and reading a book of short stories in my office so I COMPLETELY forgot about this and ended up missing step 1. I am going to assume that this is when the teacher breaks down the standards so they are at their bare essentials and you can more clearly plan your lessons understanding exactly what you expect each student to be able to do at the end of the unit.


STEP TWO
Divide your students. This is NOT dividing them among high, medium or low. There are four categories with only two qualifiers.


How does your student deal with content? Do they struggle with vocabulary words, and the basic content or they have a million words and understand the content. For example: If they rock content they can convert all verbs into participles and understand what a participle phrase is. 
Your students either have high content(HC) or low content.(LC)

How does your student process? Does your student apply process easily? Do they struggle with the process? For example: If they rock process they can put a participle phrase into a sentence no problem.

Your students either have high process(HP) or low process (LP)

Now by the end of the lesson a student should have the process and the content. So each student gets grouped by their starting content and process LCLP, LCHP, HCLP, HCHP


How do you figure out which student goes where?

• Well you can give a pre-test (where each question signifies either content or process) and grade it deciding from there who is a best fit for where.
• Have students self identify, "How much do you know about participles? Do you know all the irregular ones? Can you use them to describe a noun?"
•  Have the teacher identify: If you know some students struggle with content put them in a different group

It should be made VERY CLEAR to the students that these groups are NOT rigid. They are fluid and as such students can easily move from one to the other. 

SO FAR
Here's what I like about this method.
It encouraged students to learn how they learn and help themselves. If they know they struggle with conjugating then they can learn that they need to focus on that.


I was discussing on a forum the other day that I listen really well. I learn VERY well by listening. When I read it takes me longer to learn. I know this about myself, it is why I prefer lectures and webinars to websites and books. I did not always know this about myself and once I learned I became a better student.


Here's what I don't like about this methodI know she said that students don't feel constrained by the labels because they are always changing, but I just don't believe my students would feel that way. Nor do I believe I would feel that way were this done to me as a student.


I prefer my differentiation done on the sly, "OK I have put you in random groups: Susie, Johnny, Jorge and Lee I want you to do the project this way." The groups are random the partners are selected by me, etc. This is a way to differentiate without making students feel inadequate
Finally STEP THREE

Make your lesson plans  and JUST think about the standard. What would work well for this unit? Focus on that. AT this point the teachers are NOT thinking of the students. Below is a screengrab from the webinar. At this point we are ONLY doing the grey.

NOW we step in and add steps for each of the students (the white background). 

Since we were short on time Robyn couldn't go into THAT much detail on each of them but we got a gist.

• Low content students should

o  Get more practice on the vocab (cheat sheets, homework)

o    May need help connecting (Graphic Organizers)

• High Content

• Add ambiguity (selection of readings, raising other questions)
• Add complexity (more irregular verbs)

• Low Process
• Keep samples around
• Have formulas (Noun+ past particle + verb = sentence!)

• High Process

• Increase complexity of the process (Ass a participle phrase to a past perfect sentence)
• Help students use multiple processes at once (Great, can you add an appositive to that sentence too?)
• Improve speed and accuracy (Try to do five in 10 minutes)
• Add restraints (Don't use the cheat sheet)

Robyn was very charismatic and seemed intelligent. I am just not sure this is the best match for my personal teaching style, but I will be keeping it in the back of my head while planning my fall classes this Summer. Amazon has quite a few books by Robyn the following seemed relevant to the webinar. In particular she mentioned how to support struggling students and the differentiation workbook.

Occupations

Before the lesson I printed out the bunny outlines: http://www.makingfriends.com/friends/f_bunny.htm and dressed the bunnies in different occupations this worked well.

The Doctor outfit from makingfriends.com

To start the lesson We started with the normal hello song and reviewed the emotions, days etc. Then I showed them a picture of my friend Larry who is a leprechaun. We describe Larry and guess his favorite color and job (many students guessed things like miner or show maker). I explain Larry´s job is to protect the gold, so if you find it he will give you a wish to get it back. Then I show a picture of a rabbit who found the gold.  

The story Once a rabbit found the Leprechauns gold. The leprechaun offered him anything he wanted. The rabbit said "I want a job" The Leprechaun said "1. 2 3 abracadabra and the rabbit turned into a _________" (the students guess the occupation based on the clothing, we then review the clothing). But the rabbit didn't´t want to be a _____, so the Leprechaun said "1, 2, 3 abracadabra" (repeat until all occupations are covered) Activity When the students are seated we look at the clothes for different occupations. Then we practice saying "I want to be a ______" and "I don´t want to be a _______" After the students, who were well behaved, can pick which coloring doll they want (but they have to ask in English). They ask lots of questions about which shorts to color etc so they also practice vocabulary. Not very complex, but good fun! For fast finishers they had to also color a leprechaun and paste the rabbit on the leprechaun page (make sure they draw a rainbow!) Clearly I meshed this with St. Patricks day but you could easily mesh it with an easter bunny who wants a new job or Cupid who lost his bow etc.

Bilingualism helps postpone Alzheimers!

This is for a Spanish class for native speakers, while I MAY in some circles be considered a native speaker, I certainly would NEVER want to teach Spanish to native speakers! If a Korean school asked me to give a class to students in basic Spanish I would feel confident, but this is never something I would feel qualified to do.

So anyways, the

Ficha de la actividad
1. Objetivos
a.Trabajar la comprensión lectora.
b.Refuerza la importancia para ser bilingüe.
c.Usa del pensamiento de mayor nivel
d.Para aplicar el información del texto a la vida de la estudiante.

2.Nivel especifico recomendado: B2

3. Tiempo: 1 hora
Antes que leer 25 minutos
El gran olvidor 8 minutos
Luces Camar Accion 6 minutos

(Elecita la palabra Alzhéimers de los estudiantes y pregunta si alguien sabe alguien con Alzhéimers. Pregunta la conexión entre Alzhéimers y las primeras actividades.) 7 minutos

Un minuto para el video que da un poco de un cuento de Alzhéimers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXMV1x-iugI) 4 minutos (primero solo para ver, la segunda vez para notar las señales de Alzhéimers).

Durante la lectura 6
Elija el mejor 6

Después de la lectura 27
Obtener toda la historia 6
Preguntas 10
Imagen vale más que mil palabras (y resumen) 3
¿Qué más? 4
¿Y tú? 4

4. Materiales: Fotocopias de las hojas de trabajo

5. Dinámica: grupos de dos, individual, como un clase grande

===========================================================================================



Hay otra hoja para parte B pero mas o menos ellos son lo mismo.

You can download A and B for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Practicas de Escritura (facebook and Greek myths)

One of my classes (taught in Spanish) was supposed to help us be better teachers in regards to writing. So this is Spanish as a Second Language class designed for high school students around the Greek myth of Summer. Most of it is pretty standard, but I am quite happy with the fake facebook page!


Essentially students read the myth make a bullet point timeline for the characters and then pick one and make a facebook page on their behalf.

Ignore the typos please (if you can read them).

Children's Literature

So in Methodology we were discussing different ways to teach using Children's Literature. My friend Danesha and I got together and made up a lesson for Hansel and Gretel. In this case we taught emotions and made a brief version of the story

So this is the lesson plan:


And this is the script for the role play:

CLIL and Teaching Methodolgy

The talented and smart Jennifer Schmidt

My other first class was led by Jennifer Schmidt. She got her Masters in TESOL and Linguistics and works as an English Professor in a business school. Our classes were mainly spent going over the different methodologies used to teach and trying to focus on teaching English through teaching another subject matter (using math for example to teach plural nouns)

For our final project we had to create a CLIL lesson plan using a seventh grade standard (from the LOE again) to teach English. In my case I taught about Alexander the Great to teach reported speech, and how to summarize. Throughout the lesson there would also be a review of past tenses. This is the first lesson (includes activating the schemata and such).



This is the teacher's notes, as Jennifer explained its like a toolbox it doesn't need to be in any order, it is where we put all the information we COULD use and then we use them when creating the daily lesson plans.


Overall it was nice introduction to the world of CLIL

House and Home

One of my courses was Biliteracy and Curricular Design it is designed to "include an analysis of biliteracy as well as its application to curriculum design in bilingual and multicultural schools." Our teacher Amparo-Abengozar is a coordinator of the bilingual project in Madrid as well as an English teacher in the program itself. She is also an English Language Assistant trainer for the Bilingual Project in the Community of Madrid State schools AND the BEDA program (Bilingual English Development & Assessment).

Through the course she focused on having us look over the different types of bilingual programs, the bilingual program in Spain and most importantly how to plan a didactic unit that connects the Ley Orgánica de Educación (LOE) which creates the standards all classes need to follow.

In the end I created a didactic unit on the house and home (focusing on prepositions) for infantil classes.

House and Home on Prezi