Danielle G's Blog and E-Portfolio

TESL 0110  Assignment 3: Grammar Activity -Scenario 2- You are teaching a course called English for Academic Purposes in a government-funded program in Manitoba. Your students are CLB 7-8 learners who hope to study at a post-secondary institution after completing this course. Students have been working on writing expository essays. In their writing, you notice that they are still confusing simple past (to report on generalities or truths) and present perfect (to report on aspects from the past which are relevant to the present). Much of the corrective feedback you have provided on their writing so far has been about essay structure. What would you do? -What would you do? - At the beginning of the class, I would let the class know that there seems to be confusion when writing in the simple past tense with the present perfect tense and vice versa. Thus, as to correct the errors occurring, we would look at the two tenses. Warm-up Activity 1 I would arrange the students to work in pairs o

Unit 10 - A look into the Future- This unit looked into the wellbeing of the teacher, I remember when I did my first education practicum and how worried and stressed out I was with only a few weeks of training and trying to get things done on time and 'perfect'. I practically shut myself away from the world trying to figure out how to teach+making lesson plans that made sense + try to stay ahead of the game by making quizzes and some tests (exhausting 😫 !). I always thought that my peers were doing way better than I was (--as time went on everyone confessed to feeling the same way I had). That's when I kind of noticed that, that must mean I like what I'm doing!  If I'm focusing so much energy on planning and making lessons that are nearly perfect in my eyes (lol), I should continue on. However, my peers and I all handled our stress and worries in different ways but we all needed to re-balance ourselves emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally.  It was

Unit 9 - How do I make learning Fun? One of the major questions, is it not? How can you convey that learning is fun to your students? 😰 In this unit, it was proposed to use technology as an incentive of fun in the classroom. I completely agree! I don't think there are many people nowadays that don't have a smartphone on them at all times, that includes students of all ages. Now that we are living in the 21st Century, why not teach like we are in it? - I know and understand that change can be tough, but a teacher needs to adapt to the times as well, no? At least I need to work on it a little more. 😅  Below is my Infographic on "Teaching and learning in the 21st Century,' In the infographic I mention Engaging, The learner, Patience & Focus, Tech and Network Savvy, and finally Inclusive and safe environments. Take a look below, or click " here " to direct you to another page to get a better view. We touched on what interactive apps or websites h

Unit 8 - How do I assess Language learning? In this section of the course, we were learning about the different ways a teacher can assess the students in a class. And there are 3 kinds of assessments: Diagnostic assessment , which gives us information prior to starting a lesson or something that is done at the beginning of the course. It's to see what the students know about the topic and/or course, their attitudes, and personalities, as well as, their learning abilities.  The second assessment was the Formative Assessment , which happens during the class lesson. It’s the observational part of the lesson, where even our hand-out activity sheets, in-class activities, and quizzes help the teacher see, in the moment, how the students are doing, if they need more instruction or clear up a misunderstanding.  The last assessment is the Summative assessment , which is the sum of all the lessons/units learned. So this type of assessments are final tests, quizzes, projects, for example,

Unit 7 - How do I manage my class? This unit looked at classroom management which, when read it seems a little frightening. I have to 'manage' an entire classroom 😰. The textbook Teaching by Principles  by Brown and Lee. State that we will be called on daily to deal with the unexpected and that we will engage in unplanned teaching, which might deviate us from our lesson plan. That we need to deal with it gracefully and the key is 'POISE'. That we more than anything is to stay calm and assess the change and allow the lesson to continue (Brwon/Lee, p.295).  Even as I go to work every day, I always prepare for the unexpected, so to me, this is a bit of a heads up, but regardless if the students are learning something out of the information when we were lead astray it has some value (even though it's not what you had planned). I think in order to have good or great class management skills, is the overall respect that you have for yourself and your students (which

Unit 6 - How do I plan for language instruction? 🤔 hmmm.....  great question! Hahahaha. So in this unit, we looked at how to make a lesson plan, and although I have only done so many thus far, I find them super time-consuming! In the course, it suggests approximate times to get certain activities done. Sadly I am apparently one of these people that needs the whole day just to do a lesson plan! 😭   I somewhat exaggerate... a bit. It does take me longer than the suggested time, but I guess I just need more practice to do so. Anywho, making the lesson plan in itself is quite fun, I learn soo much as I do them. This unit provided some great samples of doing lesson plans, and they are very helpful! I love the layout and the amount of detail it shows me (I am a big fan of details and explanations why). I learned much more than the simple, "Introduction, middle (lesson), and conclusion/end." Also, I never had to plan for a 2hr class before but the setup examples really help v

Unit 5 - What can I learn from others? My Classroom.... So in this unit, one activity we did was to draw how we visualized our classrooms. I'm not teaching yet but, I did draw what I would consider my 'ideal classroom' (meaning I would actually have space for all of this).  In my classroom, I have a resource/library where there are textbooks and popular reading books for students of all ages. It would have round grouping tables (that can come apart into individual desks), with chairs that have small wheels (for those people, like myself, who kind of need to move on their seat while learning). 😁 The classroom would have posters of their works, as well as, informative, motivational/inspiring posters. A small little section with stationary, where students (if they need) can go ahead and use when in class. The teacher's desk would be at a corner near the board. There is also a Computer station in a corner for the students to use if and when we do projects or ac

Unit 4 - How are languages are learned? I really enjoyed this unit, lots of information that was super interesting. Language acquisition is an interesting topic. What I learned was that Acquisition of Language is developed subconsciously through comprehending input via communicating. When watching the video by Stephen Krashen   on language acquisition, is that 'acquisition' is far more important than 'learning' because it doesn't disappear with time. Krashen also spoke about 'noticing language', which is the process of attending consciously to the linguistic features of input, also known as deliberate learned knowledge. He also stated that MOTIVATION in language learning is a huge factor, and I agree! Ss who are motivated, have good self-esteem and low anxiety (no internal or external pressures) do well in acquiring language. But if a Ss is not motivated, has low self-esteem and has high levels of anxiety, a sort of wall goes up and blocks acquisition from

Unit 3 - What do I know about the English Language? When I read this question, I off the bat stated to myself, 'not much'. I always wanted to delve into how to teach Grammar properly and such. Even though we didn't do that here, I still got a lot out of how to do so when lesson planning.  We touched on the Communicative Language Ability models, super helpful when looking at the different kinds of knowledge the Ss are going to need as L2 learners. One of the models is from CLB, and it gives you 5 competencies that students need to go through:  1.Grammatical knowledge, 2.Textual knowledge, 3.Functional knowledge, 4.Sociolinguistic knowledge, and 5.Strategic competence.  And all five of these competencies ought to be taught together in context rather than individually. Overall, this unit was eye-opening in the sense that I still have much to learn. 👍 Laters!

Unit 2 - Who will I teach? This unit taught me and showed me the different types of people that I may encounter in my journey as an ESL teacher. The notion that I may be teaching young children, all the way to professionals is quite nerve-racking, but in a good way. The thought of teaching the younger ones seems fun with all the possible activities that could be done but also a little tough thinking about all the energy that class may have.  As for teaching older individuals might seem like my cup of tea, since I'm not that much younger myself, but being able to delve more deeply into lessons via experiences they have had can make for interesting lessons. The unit also spoke about the different proficiencies that one could encounter in a course. Already somewhat knowing that there are Beginners, Intermediates and Advanced learners for second language acquisition (because I had done my practicum for a Spanish class once upon a time, and I did learn some Spanish in University as

TESL 0130 - Unit 4 Reflection - Passing on the torch, Empowering the English Language Learner This Unit was short but it had lots of information. I learned about Autonomy in learning and its strategies, the concept is pretty straightforward, in the way that learners should be held accountable for their learning and by doing so they will learn many things. As well as the notion that the students get to choose what they want to learn versus us the instructors telling them what to learn. So to be more of a guide in their learning than actual teaching (is what I have understood). And the other idea of options is how would they demonstrate what they learned? - This portion of the course really reminded me of Universal Design for Learning (that lessons should be done for all kinds of learners), and that students should have options for example, in how to demonstrate what they have learned, via a small video clip, role play, in writing, audio recording, etc...as long as the rubric is consi

TESL- 01030 - Reflection on Unit 3 In unit 3 - Reading and Vocabulary - Having read the article on What 80% Comprehension Feels Like  really had me trying really hard to understand it. It's a great way to make you see and realize what English Language Learners go through when reading a text that is not in their native tongue. After the reading, we had to do a checklist of the reading strategies we went through in order to understand it. As I went through it, I did do most of them, but then I realized there were a few more options I could have done, but didn't.  I learned that there are:  Pre-reading strategies for reading a text, such as making predictions based on the titles, images, and content. Along with asking questions like, who wrote it, why, and where was it written?  While reading strategies , some examples are using mapping schematics, skimming and scanning. Post-reading strategies include paraphrasing, summarizing and discussing I used these strategies

TESL - 0130 - Reflection on Unit 2 This unit was pretty interesting, having to use the Readability app was lots of fun, I had a go at it with many different texts to get a good understanding of how its rating system worked. I had no clue that texts could be measured into how easy and understandable it is for the general public. Its letter system provides us with what would be considered an easy text versus what could be used in University seminar or lecture reading course. An activity that I enjoyed was 'adapting a text' for my ESL class (directed for high school students), and at the time we were nearing Halloween, so I found a text on the subject and adapted it accordingly. As I did this I had so many ideas for a possible lesson plan that I jotted them down and decided to use it next time. But it was interesting to see that I couldn't just choose any random text, it needed to have certain qualifiers. It needed to be suitable for the class - was it interesting? is it

Hey! So for this activity, I looked at the Skill-Based Plan Lesson provided on 'Fixing Aboriginal Education'.  In summary, some Vocabulary activities can include: Preparing a Kahoot! quiz based on the vocabulary that was looked at in the lesson (if you were wanting something more interactive). Or even have the students prepare a Kahoot! quiz for their peers using the vocabulary viewed and their definitions. Group discussions. So that students can use the newly acquired vocabulary and learn new ones from peers. Have them answer some questions on the readings, both written and spoken. Later can be a class discussion. Such as, what do you consider a good education? what are some suggestions you could give to motivate Indigenous Education? What is education like from where you came? The more advance Ss can even change a paragraph into a different tense. Have Ss make a list on the board of new vocabulary put in groups/pairs and give them a set of vocabulary to find

This Think Aloud activity was pretty nifty, I needed to use the tool screencastify (there was another option but I used this one) and it took a few seconds to figure out how to use it properly, sadly this thing kept cutting me off, hahah or I'm just a slow reader 😂.. Anyways, I really did like this tool, I'll for sure keep it in my bad of tricks. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5mAdObwq1xjb0I4LUN4YnBfWWc/view Reference: Now Staff. (2017). Survivors of residential school tell their stories. Retrieved from:   https://nowtoronto.com/news/residential-schools-survivors-stories/

Unit 2 - Adapting a Text As to get into the spirit of Halloween, I decided to look at a text relating to this celebration. I am not teaching at the moment; However, I’ll would be adapting this text for mainly ESL classes for high school students, ages between 16 -18 at the advanced level.     The course stated that there are three criteria’s for selecting a text: Suitability, Exploitability, and Readability. Suitability : Is this text interesting and appropriate for my class? Yes, I believe it is. The students are at the age in which the dilemma of the article states. I also believe it would be interesting for all English Language Learners to know the customs of the Country they are staying in and the fact that their fellow student/friends and school will be experiencing these customs. Therefore it is relevant and they could easily relate to the issue at hand. Is this text challenging? Yes, but in a good way. There will be new words that they will experience as they