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Pre-Instructional Activities: Fun and Engaging Ways to Welcome Students

Mr. Jan Anglade

Dekalb International Student Center

DeKalb International Student Center

• INTENSIVE ENGLISH

• students who have minimal English abilities.

• students who are at grade level in L1.

• 409 students (October 16th)

• 52 different countries

• 36 different languages

• LAB PROGRAM:

• students who are 13 years of age or older.

• less than 6 years of formal schooling.

• 251 students (October 16th)

• 27 different countries

• 23 different languages

What is a SLIFE?(Students with Limited or Interrupted

Formal Education)• Lack basic academic skills and concepts.• Lack content knowledge.• Lack critical-thinking skills (such as observation,

interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and meta-cognition).

• May not be literate in their L1 language. (In the LAB program 25% of students are illiterate in their L1)

OBJECTIVES

• To deepen our expertise when creating and implementing meaningful pre-instructional activities, commonly known as "sponge activities".

• To improve educators’ collaboration practices when developing instructional materials and resources (Honigsfeld & Dove, 2010).

WIDA Tier Structure

"A teacher makes over 1500 educational decisions every school day"

Madeline Hunter originated the term sponge activities to describe "learning activities that soak up precious time that would otherwise be lost."

As ESOL teachers, we need to be sure that our sponge activities incorporate elements that will increase the language development of our students.

Language Domains

Receptive

Listening Reading

Productive

Speaking Writing

• The best sponges are academically rich and provoke

laughter.

• Humor is a powerful teaching tool that can create a

positive “emotional and social environment” in which

students can lower their defenses and focus more on

what is being presented (Garner, 2011).

http://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Sense-of-Humor

• Humor can “initiate and sustain student interest” as

well as improve students’ divergent thinking and

memory of the topic presented (Garner, 2011).

Writing and Speaking Domains

www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day

Reading Domain

Divide into syllables

1. pumpkin - pump / kin 2

2. bat

3. vampire

4. witch

5. October

6. ghost

7. Halloween

8. candy

9. costume

10. skeleton

11. cemetery

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/

http://www.englishforeveryone.org

Writing Domain

This past weekend (Friday night, Saturday and

Sunday), I ......

•

•

•

•

•

This past weekend (Friday night, Saturday and

Sunday), I ......

•ate pizza.

•went to the library.

•went to church.

•played soccer.

•went to my friend's house.

This past weekend was very __________. I

____________. Also, I

________________. In addition,

_____________. I like my weekends because ______________.

This past weekend, I.........

•paragraph (5 sentences or more)

•past tense (go - went)

• Yesterday my friend and I saw a___________.

When we saw it, I told (friend): Is that a

______ or a _______? Then, we kept walking

and ............

• Do not put your name. Write one sentence

about your friend. Do not write your friend's

name.

Writing Prompts• What do you do when you get home?

• Describe your home in your country.

• Describe your family.

• Describe your school in your country.

• What activities do you do with your family?

• What type of music you like? Artists?

• If you had 1 million dollars, what would you do?

• If you could learn something, what would it be and why?

• What do you usually do on the weekends?

• Do you like America? Why?

Activities to help with our ELs' other challenges• ELLs must learn English and develop the requisite academic knowledge in a

language not their own in order to graduate (DeCapua, Smathers, & Tang, 2009).

• A big number of ELLs have not been exposed to a print-rich environment.

• Perhaps the biggest challenge is related to comprehension skills.

• ELLs face other challenges such as culture shock, adjusting to the school setting, and adapting to North American popular culture.

Suggestions from ELLs

• “Teachers should include more examples of North American movies, television shows, and music because we are international students that don’t know this information”.

• “If teachers include information about North American popular culture, the lesson will be fun and many students will be interested”.

• “Teachers need to include information about North American popular culture because it will help the ESOL students talk to the American students, and this will help with their English speaking.”

SongsPégate

Ricky MartinY que venga el coro (que venga)Con todo el amor (que venga)

Para nuestros niños (que venga)Que venga la paz (que venga)

Y que vengan todos (que venga)A bailar mi plena (que venga)Bien pegaditos (que venga)

Con mucho cariñito (que venga)

Y que vengan rios de bondadA todos los pueblos de la tierraQue no nos podemos olvidar

Que el amor puro liberaY la mentira envenena

Que como decia mi madre bailando todo se arregla

https://playingforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/22-mirpur-great-guit-cover-home-.jpg

SongsCan't Stop the Feeling!

Justin Timberlake

I got this _______ inside my ________It goes _______, wavey when I ______ it onAll through my ______, all through my ______We're flying ____, no ceiling, when we in our ______

I got that ________ in my ________Got that good ______ in my feetI feel that hot _____ in my body when it ______I can't take my ______ up off it, moving so __________Room on lock, the way we _____ it, so don’t ____

feeling boneselectric turn

city homeup

zonesunshine pocket

soulblood drops

eyesphenomenally

rock stop

SongsLearn To Fly

Foo Fighters

Now I'm _________ to the _______ to save meLooking for a _______ of ______

Looking for _________ to help _____ burn out ________I'm looking for a ________________

Looking __________ I'm tired of __________Make my _______ back _______ when I ________ to

fly _________.

looking skysign life

something me brightcomplication

‘cause lyingway home learn

high

Let's share ideas.....

Review of OBJECTIVES

• To deepen our expertise when creating and implementing meaningful pre-instructional activities, commonly known as "sponge activities".

• To improve educators’ collaboration practices when developing instructional materials and resources (Honigsfeld & Dove, 2010).

THANKS FOR ATTENDING THIS PRESENTATION.

Jan Anglade

jan_anglade@dekalbschoolsga.org