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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
