Mary Jane-- now THAT is a good, practical question!   Here is what I 
generally do with a group of adult ESL learners.  Make of this what you 
will:   First I prepare folders for each student with a few generic 
activities at different levels-- a reading/questions sort of activity, 
vocabulary matching, some phonics=related activity, some easy grammar, 
maybe a handwriting activity that includes spelling ( like the ones in 
the handwriting book I mentioned a few days ago).  Then I get a few 
things ready from whatever books are around and design them for what is 
known as differentiated teaching--one topic and one starter reading and 
then activities at a wide range of levels.   When the students first 
come, we do a rather long session on getting to know each other, and 
then I have them do one of the activities I have ready for everyone and 
I observe like crazy-- who has trouble with what, who is whizzing 
through the materials.   Then we go back to a group-based  
activity--usually a brief reading at "mid" level--whatever that is for 
the class-- and then back to individual work on that --the activities I 
have already prepared at different levels.  I go around to each student 
and work with them and observe like crazy.

The next class, as students arrive I will start them on the folders-- 
which I may already have adjusted in response to what I observed-- more 
advanced stuff for some, easier stuff for others.   Again, I observe 
and coach and take notes, both mentally and otherwise.   Then , when 
everyone is present and has had a minimum of 15 minutes in folders, we 
do group conversation, or vocabulary or a simple grammar lesson.  Then 
back and forth to individual and group work, oral and reading, etc.   
Next time I will use the folder time to begin to take students  to a 
private place for a few minutes of interview to get a better idea of 
oral skills and to ask what they especially want to work on.   I can 
usually see about 5-8 students an evening doing that-- I may put some 
of the class in small groups to work on some activity or other, 
depending on their skills.  If it is a very low-skill class, I make 
sure to have activites such as matching pictures to 
words--vocabulary/picture concentration, for example--, sentences on 
cards to put in order with a partner, puzzles ( I collect puzzles of 
states, or other sort of "educational" puzzles), handwriting 
activities, copying sentences etc.  ( Someone once asked me in 
disbelief if I evaluated EVERY one of my students this way---of course 
I do!!  How esle will I know what each needs???)

I never do formal assessment of my class simply because I LOATHE formal 
assessments--I always find that they are unfair to someone and give me 
a false idea of some students.

I was trained in the Peace Corps school of language teaching-- highly 
interactive, lots of focus on praise and reward,  focus on mastery, 
keeping the class as interesting and motivating to use English as 
possible.  I combine that with some excellent special ed training that 
taught me how to do individualized work.   The folders keep evolving to 
be highly individual and fitted to each particular learner.  I find 
that they are useful for several things, but especially for 1) having 
something useful for learners to do if they arrive early 2) giving them 
time off from listening --which is exhausting if you are a language 
learner-- 3) giving me time to work with individual students while 
others work on their own or in pairs or triplets.  4) letting me know 
just what each student's strengths and challenges are.     I give LOTS 
of feedback  on work in folders and reward perfect papers with great 
big holographic stars from Staples-- I work with all learners to make 
sure everyone has perfect papers often.   (and papers are suited to 
learners' levels s othey can get rewards readily).  I put a lot of 
emphasis, as you can imagine, on phonological skills and phonics-- with 
a very wide range of activities for that. I always do minimal pairs for 
every class I teach and lots of work on rhyme and other patterns.

Even in Adult Ed/ESL I always gave a lot of homework-- chosen with and 
by the student where possible.  Of course not everyone did the 
homework, but I made it pretty clear in many conversations about 
homework that without doing SOMETHING outside of class, they will not 
progress much at all--and that was OK as long as they understood that.  
  The vast  majority of them did some most of the time-- . I made sure 
to have a wide range of things for them to choose from.

While I was teaching at a university ESL program, I did not like to 
give grades. To me, attending and working hard , and doing homework was 
automatically a good grade-- since I was in a university setting I had 
to give grades ultimately, but provided portfolio-like activities for 
students to continue to revise to get better and better grades.   I 
NEVER graded things in adult education-- except to mark a perfect paper 
perfect.

Currently, with the program I train people to use, learners are 
screened for a variety of learning barriers that I have frequently 
mentioned--then they get reports that detail strategies they can use to 
accommodate their learning needs.  These strategies are combined with 
the learner's very tightly framed learning goals to assure they have 
full control over time decisions and material and goals--but with full 
information about what they need to do to reach those goals. Each 
learner learns to create his or her own plan with a lot of guidance. It 
is not so different from how I ran, and would continue to run, an ESL 
class-- I love working with adults because we are equals and we share 
humor and life problems and family worries and successes as adults.   
My classes are more like seminars in that respect--people moving around 
and helping each other and asking me for help with questions etc.

As the year goes by, I work at responding to what each learner has done 
and wants to do-- some make special requests--and usually will land on 
a theme that will take us many weeks to do.  I also take care to 
rework, review, reteach, restructure because adult language learners 
and those with challenges need many passes.    do not assume anyone has 
learned anything until I have multiple evidences of that ( my special 
ed training.....).    I like to have "learning stations"--activities 
learners can do on their own--around the classroom--they can go to 
those instead of or after their folder work.

I hope that gives you some ideas to go on-- it may seem unstructured, 
but in fact is highly structured.  I generally have a rough schedule-- 
30 minutes on this, an hour on that, etc-- gthe same for every evening 
so students know what to expect, and I always know where we are going 
and so do the students-- but I also always respond to teachable 
moments-- someone attended a funeral or wedding, current events, 
something happened in someone's country, etc.

Robin





-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Jane Jerde <mjjerdems at yahoo.com>
To: The Focus on Basics Discussion List <focusonbasics at nifl.gov>
Sent: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 03:35:41 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] teacher professional development

Hi,

As one of those who fits between the certified teacher category and the 
educationally inexperienced category, I have to say that what has 
helped me the most dealing with any class or student issue. (I taught 
overseas at colleges for two years, did other things--an RN-- for about 
20 years, taught in Prince George's County's Refugee Program in 
Maryland, and earned a masters in curriuculum and instruction.)

1. Clear, excellent models of skills to be learned and techniques of 
instruction

2. A cadre of experienced and successful professionals to talk to

3. Good references to learn from

4. A good library of class materials on-site

The LD thing is really frustrating because it is so ameboid. I've asked 
my current program to buy some of the materials that have been referred 
to in this listing, because, while I really enjoy the global aspects of 
discussion, I have to be able to walk into class and do something that 
will benefit the student. I don't have "world enough and time."

I hope that in the materials I am able to find some straightforward 
frameworks I can use to organize assessment and interventions.

One question may help, how do you organize initial assessment and class 
plans with specific students in mind? Can you give us a walk through?

South Dakota, a land of black dirt and straight roads and distant 
horizons.

Thanks,

Mary Jane Jerde

"Cheek, Sandy" <sandyc at bigbend.edu> wrote:HI all,
Some thoughts to add to Robin's:
It's true that better training for teachers and tutors will result in 
more and better student outcomes. That's kind of an inarguable point. 
However: that is also assuming that there is a plethora of teachers and 
tutors out there, and we have the luxury of being highly selective when 
it comes to choosing volunteer tutors and teachers. That's simply  not 
the reality. Oftentimes the opposite is true: we have to accept those 
who are willing to learn but inexperienced, and do the best we can to 
inspire and train them.
Teaching has never been a field that attracts a huge number of people. 
There are realities around pay, job security, and benefits that have 
had the effect of reducing the numbers of people interested in this 
profession.  I consider myself lucky when I get someone in my office 
who expresses an interest in teaching for me on a part-time basis, who 
may have limited teaching experience, but has a sincere desire to "give 
back" to their community. 
So the question really is:  Should we aspire to fewer, but better 
trained teachers and tutors (which would be the reality if we became 
more stringent in our selection criteria)? I know that if I were to 
require additional training and certification for tutors and teachers, 
I would lose a significant number of my teachers. And know that these 
are GOOD teachers, but most of them work full-time during the day, or 
are stay-at-home moms, and work for me in the evenings teaching 
part-time, and they don't have much spare time beyond those 
commitments. 
I don't have the answers, but it's important to balance our idealism 
with the realities of the profession when considering future directions.
Sandy Cheek
Sandy Cheek
Director of Basic Skills
Big Bend Community College
7662 Chanute Street NE
Moses Lake, WA  98837
509.793.2305
toll-free 877.745.1212
fax 509.762.2696
 

--------
 From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov 
[mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Missy Slaathaug
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 8:41 AM
To: 'The Focus on Basics Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics] teacher professional development



Hi Robin - it was South Dakota, one of those nameless flyover states!
 
And I couldn't agree with you more that teachers absolutely need to be 
trained and educated in this.  My comment was only that too much 
information in the very first teacher training may be wasted or even 
counter-productive.  Teachers can only absorb so much in one six hour 
training, and usually until they have begun to teach they don't have a 
conceptual framework to help them process much information.  They are 
hungry for classroom strategies and techniques - they want to know what 
to DO in the multi-level classroom that they are facing the very next 
week. 
 
But as for ongoing training and higher expectations for adult ed 
teachers, and the entire rest of your posting, I couldn't agree with 
you more.  
 
Missy Slaathaug
Pierre, South Dakota
 
-----Original Message-----
 From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov 
[mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of 
robinschwarz1 at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 6:28 PM
To: focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Subject: [FocusOnBasics] teacher professional development
 
Hi --this is in response to the person from Oregon or Washington and to
Janet Isserlis on another list, both of whose topic was teacher
professional development and the fear of overloading teachers with
information.
 
This topic is near and dear to my heart.  As I indicated in another
posting today, it is surprising to me that the field of ESL does not
seem to prepare teachers for the sort of really hard-core learning
problems that several readers and responders have mentioned.
 
In another message on one of the NIFL lists the notion of profesisonal
development qualification standards for teachers in adult education was
mentioned.
 
Frankly, what I often see is that it is too common that teachers in
adult education and adult ESOL education are woefully unqualified to do
what they do.   Then learners suffer.   My article in FOB indicated
that in some of those cases, teachers were simply not prepared to ask
the right questions or to consider the key issues in adult ESOL
learners' situations that significantly impact the learners' progress
in their settings.
 
Those of you who know me, know that I get pretty passionate on this
topic.  I believe, as do my business partners, Laura Weisel and Al
Toops, we are supposed to be in business for the learners, not for the
tutors and teachers in our programs.  In other words, it is not the
needs and limitations of the teachers or tutors that should drive
decisions or policies about how our programs run but rather the needs
of our learners.  I have advocated for years that there need to be
minimal qualifications for hiring teachers or tutors to teach adult
ESOL learners.  I can write an entire book-- and someday will-- of
stories like those in the article where the learner was somehow blamed
for no progress when in truth the learner's teacher had no idea how to
address the learner's real needs.
 
I agree strongly with Janet that it is essential that the nature of
learning challenges-- of all kinds, including language learning
challenges-- be constantly put out to teachers and required reading for
them.    Though I am sure no program is going to fire its tutors
because I say so, I certainly hope you will consider a far more
stringent approach to requiring that those already in your employ
inform themselves about adult learners and adult ESOL learning,  about
the very most basic principles of language instruction,  about the
culture of their learners. etc.    Also, program administrators have
everything to gain by requiring more training for tutors and better
experience and qualifications for teachers.  In the end, they will be
more effective and programs with have better outcomes.  The NCSALL
research project on learner persistence (2005 --at NCSCALL.net)
indicated that when tutors were better trained, not only were learners
happier and tended to persist longer, but tutors also persisted because
they did not feel so helpless in helping those with significant
learning needs.
 
Somewhere recently I saw reference to the suggestion or proposal that
adult education teachers be subject to qualification much as K-12
teachers are.  This can only be a good thing for our learners.
 
And as for LD issues, I know for a well-documented fact that having a
tutor or teacher who is well meant and kind but does not "get" LD and
language learning challenges is actually worse for the learner than
just sitting in a class and trying to absorb something.
 
Just as for learners, having high expectations for teachers and tutors
is critical to having an effective program.
 
As a start for ESOL and learning challengs,  programs might want to
look at the handbook : Taking Action: A Handbook for Instructors of
Adult ESOL Learners with Learning Dissablities"  produced and
distrbuted by the Minnesota Learning Disabilities Association (visit
www.ldaminnesota.org to find it).  This walks teachers through the
topic of LD and an approach to determining if other problems might be
at the root of learning difficulties.
 
There is also a great handbook for tutors teaching reading to
English-speaking adults  called The Adult Reading Toolkit ( ART)
 
Both of these are designed for tutors and teachers who have little
prior knowledge on the topic--and they are extremely user-friendly and
beautifully thought out.   --And no, I don't have any financial
interest in them......
 
 
 Robin
 
 
 
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