Fostering Community in Diverse Adult ESL

ClassroomsRachel FabianHope Hardin

Maria HodappDr. Cheri Pierson

______________?

pineapple

What’s your favorite fruit?

pineapple

_____________?

5:40 am

What time did you get up today?

5:40 am

_______________?

Winchester, Kentucky

Where were you born?

Winchester, Kentucky

__________________?

Spanish,

English,

and Portuguese

What languages do you speak?

Spanish,

English,

and Portuguese

Fostering Community in Diverse Adult ESL

ClassroomsRachel FabianHope Hardin

Maria HodappDr. Cheri Pierson

Today’s Topics1. Who are our students?

2. Why is community important?

3. What activities can we use to foster community?

4. What works in your class?

What do we know about students before the class

begins?Brainstorm together

Things we might know...• native language

• age

• immigration status

• time spent in the U.S.

• scores on entrance assessments

• home country

• marital status

• children

• new or continuing student

• home address

• email use

• level of education attained in home country

• work and hours of work per week

demographic information

(what we see on the

registration card)

What do we NOT know about students?

Brainstorm together

What cultural knowledge will be

helpful in building this community?

Background Cultural Knowledge (CQ)Some Continuums to Consider...

• high/low context

• collectivist/individualist

• power distance

• justice/honor

• generational differences

• polychronic/monochronic

• universalist/particularist

• gender roles

Offering an Opinion

High Context Low Context

*slide courtesy of Dr. Moreau, INTR

561

Handling Problems

High Context Low Context

*slide courtesy of Dr. Moreau, INTR 561

IndividualisticCollectivistic

Self Concept

Intimate Social and Cultural Environment

SelfSelf SelfSelf

*slide courtesy of Dr. Moreau, INTR 561

Classroom

*slide courtesy of Dr. Moreau, INTR 561

The Teacher: Power Distance

*slide courtesy of Dr. Moreau, INTR 561

What is a community?

What is a Community of Learning?

• One which is ‘together’; in which there is a strong ‘we’ feeling; and which students are happy to belong to...members’ commitment to the group and each other. (Dornyei, 2001, p. 43)

• Cohesive learning community - one in which they feel comfortable interacting among themselves and with their teacher - takes time to achieve. (Senior, 2006)

• A group of people with shared goals, needs, and concerns. (Farrell and Richards, 2011, p.126)

Why is fostering community important?

Why is fostering community important?

• Leads to increased proficiency

• Beneficial for teachers

• Motivation

Initiated

Sustained

Transferred

Aspects of Motivation

SUSTAINED TRANSFERREDINITIATED

Factors Influencing Classroom Community

Classroom

Community

(adapted from Farrell and Richards, 2011)

Challenges in fostering communities -Standards

Standards should guide curricula; they should not dictate everything that happens in the classroom. The teacher’s job is to guide learners to articulate their goals, and then look for overlaps among those goals and program or state outcome and standards by which learners will be assessed.

(adapted from Parrish, 2004, p.293)

Challenges in fostering communities -Multilevel Classes

Students in multilevel classes need to feel that their needs are being addressed, and individual learning plans are essential. However, one way to bridge the gap between learners’ diverse needs is to identify and negotiate shared goals, which results in more realistic expectations for the whole group.

(adapted from Parrish, 2004, p. 192)

Challenges in fostering communities -Student Persistence

Where did all my students go? I’ve often asked myself that, wondering why a class that had 18 or 20 students at its highest point has dwindled, by late in the term, to 12 people coming regularly . . . or 8 . . . or 6. Is it me, I wonder? The class? The school? Short answer: none of the above. I did a little research and quickly found that student persistence... is an issue for adult education programs everywhere...Help students set goals and develop self-efficacy.

(adapted from an article, “Student Persistence in Adult ESL: The Continuing Challenge”)

How do we address these challenges?

● Incorporate Student Goals:

○ Find out student goals through surveys, questionnaires, interview

○ Show students the correlation between their goals and curriculum

○ Have students share their goals with each other

○ Collective celebration when goals are met or progress achieved toward them

• Show students at the beginning of the course the awards they could achieve at the end. (Perfect Attendance, Completion of Level 2, etc.)

• Sign-in sheet for attendance, make calls when students are absent

Pictorial Student Goal Assessments

http://nevadaadulteducation.org/userfiles/files/ESOLStarterKit.pdf http://www.cal.org/caela/scb/iii_a_assessinglearnerneeds.pdf

Student Goal Checklists

http://nevadaadulteducation.org/userfiles/files/ESOLStarterKit.pdf

Student Goal Checklists

http://nevadaadulteducation.org/userfiles/files/ESOLStarterKit.pdf

Classroom Techniques to Foster Community

Teacher Habits

Community-Building Activities within Required Curriculum

General Mixers and Conversation Starters

Teacher Habits - Names

● Learn them quickly and correctly● Sign-in daily● Nametag activities: group greetings, spelling,

groupings, calling on students, new seats, absences.

Teacher Habits - Names

Teacher Habits - Affirm PastAsk students to teach you how to greet in their language

Learn about their work life before the USA

Google Map of student home countries

Teacher Habits - Affirm Goals

Teacher Habits - Affirming

• Phone each student before the first day

• After a few classes, ask what activities they enjoy

• Bonus English chart

• Require lots of student-provided examples (correct graciously)

Teacher Habits - Affirming

Use students to generate examples.

It’s snowing and the roads are terrible!

Imperative:

(-) Don’t …

(+)

Please…

Suggestion:

(+) Why don’t you…?

Teacher Habits - Treats● Surprise with coffee

● Peppermints to share in the evening class

● Holiday treat (candy hearts for imperatives)

● Student birthdays

● Dollar Store prizes (school supplies)

● Music

Teacher Habits - YOU

Use your life as class material.

Teacher Habits - YOU

● Humor and anecdotes

● Participate in the mixers and surveys.

● Be the first brave volunteer for charades or pictionary.

Curriculum-Friendly Ideas

● Writing about personal experiences

focused on verb tense, sequence words, frequency words

● Writing about goals and future careers.

“want to,” “need to,” “I will,” sequencing words

● Share writing with each other and summarize partner’s work.

● Interview and write a paragraph about another student. Create a class

newspaper.

● Make or bring food, describe process

imperatives, ordinal numbers, sequencing

● Share writing at a culture night.

Michiganby Maria Hodapp

Michigan is a very beautiful state. There are many lakes; some are big and others are small. The lake in the photo is Lake Michigan. It is very big. In the summer I like to visit Lake Michigan and see the bright blue water. The sand is warm and the water is refreshing. I also like to visit Lake Michigan in the winter. It is very cold, but it is still beautiful.

Curriculum-Friendly Ideas

Polanczyk, PolandBy Irena

My country is Poland. My favorite city is Polanczyk. I spent every holiday there. I loved being there. There are beautiful green forests, nice neighborhoods, beautiful scenery and big lakes. On the lake is a little island. In summer it is beautiful and in winter it is nice, too. I would like to go there this year.

Curriculum-Friendly Ideas: Light-Hearted

● Sticky Spelling (Vocabulary)

● Charades (Present Continuous)

● Ending Slap (singular to plural nouns, ‘ or ‘s possessive endings)

● Pictionary (Students each contribute 1 or 2 secret words)

● Flyswatter (photos to vocab, present to past, finish the sentence)

● Scattergories-Style Brainstorm - Class split into 4 teams, and have 1

minute to write down as many vocab words on that topic. Teams read

off answers, only get a point for each answer not written by another

group. Health unit example:

○ Round 1: body parts

○ Round 2: health problems

○ Round 3: products (aspirin, crutches, etc.)

dishes

Open Mixers - Getting to Know You...

• “Speed Dating”

• Student-Developed Survey

• Memory Circles

• Roll the Dice or

Beach Ball Toss

• What’s in your bag?

• Toilet Paper Activity

• Be My Guest!

Native country travel advice

• Advice for living in the U.S.

• Advice for being in your

class: write a letter to the

next group.

Open Mixers - Camaraderie • Facebook Page

• Mini Field Trip to Library (or transit, restaurant, grocery store…)

• Meet in cafeteria or student

lounge occasionally

• Class “Craigslist”

(auto repair, salon...)

Micro-Mentoring: Take note

students of who have big

events coming up. Ask who

else has gone through the

experience already. Share

ideas.

(Parking ticket, citizenship exam,

court date, driver’s license test,

talking to landlord…)

Open Mixers - Camaraderie

My Three Words

Headlines

Goals Collage

It’s worth the class time that

you “lose.”

Open Mixers - Groupings

● Student-made: Teach them how to form groups

(“Hi, do you have a partner?” “Can I work with you?” “Let’s talk.”)

● Group with photos

● Pick nametags at random.

● Deck of cards: Students find someone from the same suit, number, odd/even,

black/red, etc.

● You’re wonderful, You’re marvelous…

● Like-Ability or Mixed Ability

● App: Team Shake

● Synonym Rolls and Antonym Partners

● Paint Chips

What works for you?• Names

• Activities Tied to Curriculum

• Goal-Setting and Celebrating

• Accountability

• Class Atmosphere

Q & A

For additional handout with links and descriptions, ask us!

fostereslcommunity@gmail.com