This is from www.cultofpedagogy.com, by Jennifer González.
“Kids aren’t just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test,” says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. “If you really want the kids to learn, they’ve got to be engaged.” That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn’t have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice."
Small groups! This is what we're already doing, right? The HTH way is for students to have the opportunity to problem solve amongst themselves, and for it to be related to something greater within the community - or at least bigger than a final exam. In order for this to happen, students have to appreciate the work as meaningful, that there is an important connection to what they're being asked to do. They must feel safe in the whole process, and that means open participation/questioning/reflection/etc. Feeling like they're an equal contributor to their group and classroom will empower students to take risks and ask more questions. We absolutely want students curious about the work they're doing. This gets me thinking about an interview (click HERE) with Carol Dweck. Now you've checked the link and saw the video is nearly an hour long, you're saying "Aleida, I don't have time for that." I hear you. Not even with this three day weekend did I have time for a bonus hour video. If you watch any snippet, please go to the 9:00 mark and watch the next few minutes.
Cheers to hard work and knowing our students and families are better for it.
“Kids aren’t just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test,” says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. “If you really want the kids to learn, they’ve got to be engaged.” That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn’t have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice."
Small groups! This is what we're already doing, right? The HTH way is for students to have the opportunity to problem solve amongst themselves, and for it to be related to something greater within the community - or at least bigger than a final exam. In order for this to happen, students have to appreciate the work as meaningful, that there is an important connection to what they're being asked to do. They must feel safe in the whole process, and that means open participation/questioning/reflection/etc. Feeling like they're an equal contributor to their group and classroom will empower students to take risks and ask more questions. We absolutely want students curious about the work they're doing. This gets me thinking about an interview (click HERE) with Carol Dweck. Now you've checked the link and saw the video is nearly an hour long, you're saying "Aleida, I don't have time for that." I hear you. Not even with this three day weekend did I have time for a bonus hour video. If you watch any snippet, please go to the 9:00 mark and watch the next few minutes.
Cheers to hard work and knowing our students and families are better for it.