At first, students were shown a picture from Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella, adapted by J.R. Coburn and T.C. Lee and illustrated by A.S. O'Brien.
Overall, I thought the lesson went very well, but like many others, I thought the time was too limited. I felt very rushed, and I neglected to model what I was asking of the students, something that I would definitely do in a language classroom. After explaining the sensory note boxes, I would say, "For instance, I see three women, one is young and the other two look older," and then write those comments in the What do I see? box. Then I would say, "If I was this girl, I would feel sad, because the older woman is yelling at me," and write those notes in the What do I feel? box. This is important for all students, but especially language learners, because they often need scaffolding for vocabulary and grammatical structures.
In the end, however, I thought the other students in class learned more about what English Learners might need in their class, even if they would not use the exact format I presented. It is important with all students for the teacher to brainstorm or otherwise scaffold this procedure before expecting students to write continuously for five minutes. With practice, however, this can be a great tool for students to get down their ideas without concern for spelling, punctuation, or grammar rules.
No comments:
Post a Comment