Looking for input to better improve my english class

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Reading Teachers Chatboard

Looking for input to better improve my english class

by Christina

Dec 20, 2010

Hello,

I teach grade 8 (I teach English, math, science, social studies, and art for the same group of kids) in a native community. My kids are for the most part very low level but great kids to work with. This is my first full-time teaching job.

We have been off school for 4 weeks due to an illness in the community and then 2 weeks for Christmas, so we will be returning after approx. 6 weeks off. I have so much material to cover according to curriculum.

I have a lot of control over my schedule of classes.

I have 2 English classes/periods a day.

1st period of the day is English and we start with spelling and then move on to the main topic. We have been working on nouns, adjectives, and verbs. I kept it quite general. Nouns we talked about the difference between common, plural, and proper. Adjectives describe a noun, and a verb is the action.

I am almost done with this topic, need to review and quiz them.

It is very hard to...See More

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(3)

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ESL teacher What kind of a reservation is it? The cultural differences between our Native American communities and the rest of the country are Huge. It is not all that long ago that Native Americans lived a very different kind of life before they were brought to live on reservations. The history of interaction between Europeans (that's us), the US government a...See MoreWhat kind of a reservation is it? The cultural differences between our Native American communities and the rest of the country are Huge. It is not all that long ago that Native Americans lived a very different kind of life before they were brought to live on reservations. The history of interaction between Europeans (that's us), the US government and the Native American tribes is not a pleasant history.

And it's thrown its shadow down through the generations. I'd advise that you read up on the people you're with. I once worked with Vietnamese whose education prior to being with me was purely memorization-based. They memorized pages and pages of writing and that was education. I don't do memorization and they couldn't make sense of what I was doing at all and I couldn't figure why on a test all they would do was memorize the textbook.

I know the prescription is often written in stone but incorporate their language as often as you can. I'd also ask - if they don't/can't/won't write -what's really then the point of teaching noun, verb, adjective? The point of teaching the abstract grammatical concepts is to incorporate them into one's writing. > > And if they won't speak, why would they write?? To me the first goal would be to have these students feeling more comfortable. Try some of Louise Erdich's poetry or Sherman Alexir - both are Native American poets. Many students of non-European heritage often feel that in a school classroom all they're doing is studying someone else's rules, someone else's history.

If your reservation is like many of them, alcoholism is a big issue. Our traditional school curriculum was not designed with the Native American children on reservations in mind. It was not designed to make meaningful connections with this kind of children.

I think your interest in bringing the novel study to be more than read the chapter aloud is admirable but the key to this - and to pretty much everything - it seems to me is helping them to feel comfortable, connected and to open up a bit.

You might read Sister to the Sioux written by a teacher who worked on a reservation. There's a book and a film both called Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Watch the film for its insights - again about the teacher working on the Sioux reservation.

> > It is very hard to get some of my kids to do any real > writing. None of them will speak up in class (common issue > and is not just a problem in my class), so I do most of the > reading in class. > > Next, I was going to do "what is a sentence and types of > sentences" since there writing in their journals (if they do > it) is for the most part one big sentence or a couple > sentences in a paragraph. Then move on to punctuation. Then > I want to look at how to write a paragraph and small essay. > Then look at how to complete research and jot notes which I > might put into my other classes as a multi-dimensional > learning. Like how to do research for a social studies project. > > My other English class is a novel study right now. We have > read the first four chapters in the novel "Holes" by Louis > Sinclair. > I want to bring this beyond read the chapter out loud, > answer questions, use the dictionary to find definitions. > Any suggestions?

Dec 20, 2010

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arachgold2007 I hope at some point you will be able to assess their ability to read. Basic reading skills is critical to advancing their education.

On 12/20/10, ESL teacher wrote: > What kind of a reservation is it? The cultural differences > between our Native American communities and the rest of the > country are Huge. It is not all that lon...See MoreI hope at some point you will be able to assess their ability to read. Basic reading skills is critical to advancing their education.

On 12/20/10, ESL teacher wrote: > What kind of a reservation is it? The cultural differences > between our Native American communities and the rest of the > country are Huge. It is not all that long ago that Native > Americans lived a very different kind of life before they were > brought to live on reservations. The history of interaction > between Europeans (that's us), the US government and the Native > American tribes is not a pleasant history. > > And it's thrown its shadow down through the generations. I'd > advise that you read up on the people you're with. I once > worked with Vietnamese whose education prior to being with me > was purely memorization-based. They memorized pages and pages > of writing and that was education. I don't do memorization and > they couldn't make sense of what I was doing at all and I > couldn't figure why on a test all they would do was memorize > the textbook. > > I know the prescription is often written in stone but > incorporate their language as often as you can. I'd also ask - > if they don't/can't/won't write -what's really then the point > of teaching noun, verb, adjective? The point of teaching the > abstract grammatical concepts is to incorporate them into one's > writing. >> >> And if they won't speak, why would they write?? To me the > first goal would be to have these students feeling more > comfortable. Try some of Louise Erdich's poetry or Sherman > Alexir - both are Native American poets. Many students of > non-European heritage often feel that in a school classroom all > they're doing is studying someone else's rules, someone else's > history. > > If your reservation is like many of them, alcoholism is a big > issue. Our traditional school curriculum was not designed with > the Native American children on reservations in mind. It was > not designed to make meaningful connections with this kind of > children. > > I think your interest in bringing the novel study to be more > than read the chapter aloud is admirable but the key to this - > and to pretty much everything - it seems to me is helping them > to feel comfortable, connected and to open up a bit. > > You might read Sister to the Sioux written by a teacher who > worked on a reservation. There's a book and a film both called > Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Watch the film for its insights > - again about the teacher working on the Sioux reservation. > > >> >> It is very hard to get some of my kids to do any real >> writing. None of them will speak up in class (common issue >> and is not just a problem in my class), so I do most of the >> reading in class. >> >> Next, I was going to do "what is a sentence and types of >> sentences" since there writing in their journals (if they do >> it) is for the most part one big sentence or a couple >> sentences in a paragraph. Then move on to punctuation. Then >> I want to look at how to write a paragraph and small essay. >> Then look at how to complete research and jot notes which I >> might put into my other classes as a multi-dimensional >> learning. Like how to do research for a social studies project. >> >> My other English class is a novel study right now. We have >> read the first four chapters in the novel "Holes" by Louis >> Sinclair. >> I want to bring this beyond read the chapter out loud, >> answer questions, use the dictionary to find definitions. >> Any suggestions?

Dec 30, 2010

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Stacie Don't underestimate the power of reading out loud; they're probably taking in more than you think, like the way you speak and the words you are saying. I agree that teaching them noun/verb/adjective at this point isn't helpful. What's important is getting them to understand and participate. If you can learn more about how their language works, you ...See More

Jan 29, 2011

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