These Days, I Teach ELD Without Even Trying
Our end of the year project is entitled "Mr. [TMAO]'s Day-Off," subtitled "Greatest Project... Ever," sub-subtitled "I've done it for 170 days, now it's your turn."
Kids present 3-5 minutes lessons on a variety of subjects, ranging from How To Shoot A Basketball, How To Cook Flan, How To Straighten Hair, and my all-time favorite: How To Put On Your Pants So You Look Cool.
Today I did that making-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches-by-following-student-written-directions-to-an-absurdly-literal-degree, which culminated in scooping peanut-butter out of the jar with my bare hands and smearing it on the outside of the bread-bag to illustrate the importance of clear explanation. Good times. Then I turn it over to them, and we start working on own instructions, taking care to write in excruciating detail. It is here that new vocabulary acquisition kicks in like vintage Mustangs finding that 5th gear.
How do you say licuadora? Blender.
How do you say cebolla? Onion.
How do you say cremallera? Zipper.
How do you say torta?
In Florida sub, in the Mid-West hoagie, in the Northeast grinder, plus a lot of people would call it a sandwich.
It's at this point some of the rapid-pace acquisition slows a bit.
The point. The point is, here I am trying to institute this fun end-of-the-year, pay-attention-to-each-other-not-me project, but lo! and behold! we are in service of language development goals. Awesome.
Kids present 3-5 minutes lessons on a variety of subjects, ranging from How To Shoot A Basketball, How To Cook Flan, How To Straighten Hair, and my all-time favorite: How To Put On Your Pants So You Look Cool.
Today I did that making-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches-by-following-student-written-directions-to-an-absurdly-literal-degree, which culminated in scooping peanut-butter out of the jar with my bare hands and smearing it on the outside of the bread-bag to illustrate the importance of clear explanation. Good times. Then I turn it over to them, and we start working on own instructions, taking care to write in excruciating detail. It is here that new vocabulary acquisition kicks in like vintage Mustangs finding that 5th gear.
How do you say licuadora? Blender.
How do you say cebolla? Onion.
How do you say cremallera? Zipper.
How do you say torta?
In Florida sub, in the Mid-West hoagie, in the Northeast grinder, plus a lot of people would call it a sandwich.
It's at this point some of the rapid-pace acquisition slows a bit.
The point. The point is, here I am trying to institute this fun end-of-the-year, pay-attention-to-each-other-not-me project, but lo! and behold! we are in service of language development goals. Awesome.
posted by Kilian Betlach at 8:02 PM
2 Comments:
I loved the peanut-butter-sandwich one every time I did it. Unfortunately, the school was so small that I had to wait a couple years between, or everyone would have had help from their elders.
Wait. That might not have been a bad thing.
hey, we call it a sub here in NY, too.
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