I want to talk about two things today, and I will keep it brief because I am a busy busy girl!
First I want to talk about using games in ESOL tutoring. For my third week, I decided to try a couple of games with the students. To shake it up a bit. I created a bingo game using pictures and words for grocery store vocabulary. I used a great website that has a bingo card generator on it:
If you would like to know more about Jefferson's story here is a link to his bio. Also here is a link to a story about him on The Literacy Tribune website.
First I want to talk about using games in ESOL tutoring. For my third week, I decided to try a couple of games with the students. To shake it up a bit. I created a bingo game using pictures and words for grocery store vocabulary. I used a great website that has a bingo card generator on it:
Here is an example of one of the cards:
I gave them pennies and buttons to use as their markers.
Observation 1: Normally when you play bingo you only have to get a whole row across, down, or diagonal to win; but when the cards only use 16 pictures, the game ends too soon. I suggest using the rule that you have to fill the entire card to win. We played about 5 games of bingo, in about 10 minutes, too fast!
Then I played a response game with them, to try and teach them the words under, over, beside, etc. I gave each student a piece of paper with these two pictures on it:
Then I told them to put an X on the table, put a check under the table, put a circle in the box, and put a plus sign beside the box. Then I showed them my sheet of paper and told them it should look the same:
Most of them understood, and those who didn't would ask their neighbor to help them, so they all got them right. I wanted to do this game because my partner N and I noticed that they were getting confused with the words on, in, and at. N told me that in the Spanish language they say "on top of" as in "Put the X on top of the table." English speakers say this also, but most people say the shortened version "put the X on the table" and I want my students to understand what that means.
This brings up a good point. There are many idiosyncrasies in the English language that can not really be translated well to other languages. Whenever possible it is good to try to explain and teach these to ESOL students, the more they use the "real" American language, the more they will feel at home. In my opinion anyway.
So we did those two games, which took me about 4 hours to prepare, and in class they took about 20 minutes to finish. That left 40 minutes of open non prepared time. I sort of panicked and looked helplessly at N when I realized I had nothing to do for the next 40 minutes. She suggested we go over some emergency words, so we talked about the different times you would call 911 or go to the ER versus calling a doctor. Like I have said before, the students are all so easygoing and they never missed a beat. This is why I love teaching this class!
The other topic I wanted to talk about was the recent LVNJ Annual Literacy Awards Celebration. I didn't get a chance to talk about this before it happened because I was so busy preparing for it. LVNJ hosted a beautiful event where two important people in the adult literacy world were honored. Mr. Dennis Bone, president of Verizon, and Reverend Dr. M. William Howard, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, NJ.
These men have contributed so much to the field of adult literacy and it was nice to be able to honor them, and personally I love to hear Dr. Howard speak. I saw him speak at the LVNJ Literacy for Life conference in 2010 and I was so moved. He has a passion for helping people reach their potential and he is a genuinely caring and gregarious figure.
The best part for me that night however, was hearing Jefferson Vidal speak again. Jefferson is a literacy student with LV-Monmouth County. I saw him speak this past Spring at the LVNJ Literacy for Life 2011 conference where he was a Student Excellence Award Winner. He made me smile at that event with his sweet and humble words of praise for all literacy volunteers. This time he got up and was interviewed by one of his tutors who asked him questions like "What was it like when you could not read?" and "How has your life changed since you learned to read?" One of my favorite things he said though was that "Everybody's stupid in a way...somebody with all the education, they could be still stupid." Yes, that is so true! He made that point because he said he felt stupid when he couldn't read, but then as he learned and met more people, he realized he was not stupid for that. Anyway I loved his speech and I loved talking to him before and after his speech, he is a wise person.
Here is a picture of Jefferson with Miss New Jersey at the event. Yes Miss New Jersey was there also. Her name is Kathryn Nicolle and LVNJ invited her because her platform is literacy. One thing I have learned from working with LVNJ, it is always great to have famous people talk about literacy!
If you would like to know more about Jefferson's story here is a link to his bio. Also here is a link to a story about him on The Literacy Tribune website.
