Extended Orientation Course

Orientation = Information Overload

Any orientation is helpful but often fast-paced, overwhelming, brief and difficult for the students to retain all the new information.

A solution: an extended orientation course

My colleague, Julie O'Sullivan, and I organize a 3-week intensive orientation course for all new ESL students. Each day we cover a new topic. Guest speakers from departments around campus visit our class and discusses the services that are offered. A few of the sessions are outside the classroom (museum, planetarium, computing).


Overview:
Required for all new ESL students
3-week intensive
Fall & Spring semesters
Monday-Friday, 1:40-2:50
1 credit
Time slot filled by TOEFL prep class after course is over

Level of Students:
Beginner-High Advanced

Purpose:
1. Provide an in-depth introduction to (a.) the college campus and (b.) life in the U.S.
2. Introduce students to leaders of departments around campus.

Topics*:

1. Immigration information
2. Student Activities (clubs, organizations)
3. Athletic & Wellness Center
4. Campus Police
5. Computing (my.newpaltz, blackboard)
6. Health information (nurse)
7. Residence Life (a male and a female representative both come and separate the class into two groups -- male & female -- to talk about gender-based issues).
8. Conversation Partners Program (pairing ELLs with American students)
9. About Town (all things about the local community -- shopping, places of worship, restaurants, entertainment, etc.)
10. Museum (guided tour of campus art museum
11. Campus Health and Safety (Oggie, the campus dog, and his owner, Mike)
12. Planetarium 
13. Psychological Counseling Center
14. Plagiarism and University Policies in US (led by a professor in the School of Business)
15. Culture Shock (no guest speaker)
16. Public Transportation (and how to get a license)
17. Eating on Campus (how to find healthy options)
The last class is a review of everything.

New topics arise each semester.

*Some topics are combined into one class session.

Teacher's Role (varies):
Prepare schedule (This process is very time-consuming but well worth it! Start at least one month before the start of the semester.)
Instruct speaker on the needs of the students (ex: topics of discussion, language level adjustment)
Summarize main points on board during presentation
Ask questions during presentation
Encourage speaker to repeat, if necessary
Review main points after speaker is finished (Speakers usually don't use the entire class period.)

Assessment: 
Short quizzes to cover the basic -- most important -- information.

Grades: 
Attendance: 75%
Quizzes: 25%

Feedback:
*Students are highly engaged and enthusiastic in class.
*Students feel more comfortable and informed about the campus, community and life in the U.S.
*Attendance is fantastic.

Hello, Philly!

TESOL 2012

I'll be at TESOL Wednesday-Friday this week. 

I'm speaking on Thursday and Friday and I hope to see you all there! 

Spring Cleaning: Drawing from Student Evaluations to Update Lessons

There comes a time in the semester when I feel like everything has become routine. It's time to freshen up.

So, today I asked my students 3 simple questions about the class:

1. What is helpful?
2. What is not helpful?
3. What comments/suggestions do you have?

They wrote their responses on pieces of scrap paper and, after 5 minutes, I very happily collected their notes.

Why I love mid-semester course evaluations by students:
1. Give me new ideas (question #3 especially). Students are creative!
2. Force me to reevaluate what may not be working and make adjustments.
3. Encourage me to build on what is working and push the students harder.
4. Show the students that their opinions are valuable. I want to hear their thoughts!

This type of evaluation would be useful at any level: K-12, adult, one-on-one tutoring, English for specific purposes, etc. It's quick, easy and super-useful for the teacher. It feels like I'm "spring cleaning" my lesson plans. Love it!

A New Kind of Book Club

Book club + cocktail party =  Paris' 21st Century Literary Salon

I read this article recently about a popular new literary club for young people in Paris. The concept is simple: come to the "party" and bring a copy of your favorite book to trade. The books act as conversation pieces. Rather than awkward introductions or forced small talk with strangers, you have engaging and interesting objects to discuss and then you exchange them.

What a fun idea that can be adapted for an ESL class or an IEP!

Example modifications:
Show & Tell favorite books
Lunch Table book conversation
After School Book Club

If I ever host any activities outside of class (after school, lunchtime), I like to invite American students to join us as much as possible. It adds to the diversity of the conversation and helps build friendships.

What do you think? How would you use this new kind of book club?

Blogging Lesson

Last Friday we went to the computer lab to upload new essays to our Reading/Writing class blog. Students uploaded their narrative essays (stories) and in the process, I learned a few things about classroom blogging.

Some Glitches:

1. Two students never handed in their rough drafts yet directly uploaded their writings to the blog. Minor frustrations!!

2. As I was reviewing one of these rough drafts in "edit post", I clicked one wrong button and accidentally deleted the essay. So, I contacted the student and asked him to upload it again (*face palm*). We're on spring break so it might take some time before he responds.

Some Surprises:

1. Students got more involved in the comments. First, I must admit that they are assigned to write constructive comments on their classmates essays. It's forced participation. However, this time around some of the comments have turned into conversations. Students are starting to find pleasure in reading peer feedback about their essays. They've been checking on their comment section for the past few days and responding.

2. Students in other classes have visited the blog. This is how I know: a few students have commented directly on the blog. And, a former student of mine referenced a story from the blog on Facebook: I liked it ;) Cool story :)

Some Revelations:

1. The class blog will be a keepsake. Half the class will leave SUNY New Paltz after this semester. They are exchange students. As a group, we will never be together again. The blog can become a kind of souvenir. This gets me thinking of how we can make it more oriented on current experiences.... Next up is comparison essays so perhaps they could be on the topic of their life in the U.S.

2. Promoting the blog adds excitement. I've posted our class blog on various TESOL/ESL Facebook pages, including our department ESL page and have e-mailed it to teacher friends. When an outsider comments on a student's essay, now that is exciting and it is so gratifying for the writer! Love it!

So, please visit La Paloma, our Spring 2012 Reading/Writing class blog and leave a comment if you'd like! :) 

Spring Fever

Well, it's been a busy few weeks. We've just passed midterms and are preparing for spring break which begins tomorrow afternoon. The students definitely have spring fever as the weather is warming up and they are getting super antsy. "Can we have class outside today, pleeeease???"

Anyway, tomorrow is Friday and we are going to the computer lab to update our class blog. Students have been working on narrative essays. I'll post the updates tomorrow for you to check out.

My Reading & Writing students also recently completed their first pleasure books and wrote reviews. I will submit the best ones to our campus library blog within the next few days. In the meantime, you can check out some reviews written by my students from last semester.

I'll write more about pleasure reading in another post. It deserves much attention as I'm a huge advocate of teaching "reading for pleasure" in the ESL classroom.

Spring is near!

Midterm reviews

We've come to mid semester at SUNY New Paltz so I asked the students to share their opinions with me about the class thus far. It's always refreshing to hear back from the students about the class, especially at this point in the semester. Waiting until the end of the semester to get student feedback is potentially disastrous because there is no time left to make changes, if needed.