Week 28: Teaching the TED Talk

This week was the last week of instruction prior to finals at Fallbrook High School, so, naturally, all of my classes were winding down. My English 11 classes had their Gatsby party on Tuesday and worked on research papers for the rest of the week, and my ELD 2 class continued to work on their 20% projects. When I introduced the 20% project about a month and a half ago, I told my students that they would have to present their project in the form of a 5-minute TED talk; I told them I would go over this later, and I left it at that. Well, now is later. (When I said that in class, the kids repeated it, "Now is later..." trying to make meaning of this phrase and internalize it to be able to use in the future in the same way that they sometimes repeat some of the other soundbites they often hear me say.) Anyway, as I was saying, now is later, so now is the time I needed to discuss the presentations and explain what they needed to do.

Over the weekend, I watched a few TED Talks to get some ideas. While I really liked the messages in some of the longer talks, I decided that showing my students a few of the shorter, 3-minute talks would be more effective and efficient. With the shorter talks, it would be easier for my students to focus on the way the presentation was given without getting lost in the length, density, and intensity of the talk. Also, I could obviously squeeze in a few different shorter talks in the same amount of time that it would take me to show them one of the longer talks.

After watching a number of talks, I decided to use these 3 in class:

• Matt Cutts: "Try Something New for 30 Days"
• Terry Moore: "How to Tie Your Shoes"
• Richard St. John: "8 Secrets of Success"

I chose these talks for a very specific reason: the three speakers present in very different ways. For example, Cutts only uses a handful of pictures throughout his talk, while St. John has a PowerPoint slide for every point he makes. In contrast, Moore doesn't have a PowerPoint at all; he simply takes the stage with a simple prop - a black tennis shoe. I wanted my students to see that all of these forms of presentation are acceptable - they can use a PowerPoint, but they don't have to; they can use pictures, but they don't have to; they can use props, but they don't have to; etc. However, I also wanted them to see that ALL of these talks were memorized - the speakers did not have note cards or papers from which they read. Additionally, all of the talks were engaging in their own way. 

After deciding on the talks, I created a worksheet with 3 questions for each video:

1. What did you notice about this talk?
2. What did you see in this talk?
3. What did you not see in this talk?

On the worksheet, I asked the students to answer these questions for the 3 videos I showed them as well as for a 4th video of their choosing (one of the full-length TED Talks). Then, I included a t-chart to help them synthesize their ideas on what a TED Talk is and what a TED Talk is not:

After creating this first worksheet, I did a little more research. I googled something like "planning a ted talk" or "how to make a ted talk," and I came across a few help'ful resources. The first was a website titled "How To Make A Great TED Talk" which listed and explained 5 key features of successful TED Talks. I also found a website - teachingwithted - with a resource page that included links to different articles on how to create and prepare for a TED talk. From these sites, I created a second worksheet to help my students begin to plan out their talks. I took the 5 ideas from "How To Make A Great TED Talk" and adapted them into a form that I thought would be more helpful to my students. 

On Monday, we began our work on our TED Talks, which, of course, started with my first worksheet to help my students understand what a TED Talk is and what it looks like. We watched the first video, and I walked them through the 3 questions. Then, we watched the other 2 videos, and I had them walk me through the 3 questions. As we discussed each video, questions began to come up: 

"They don't use note cards. Are we allowed to use note cards?" 

"Nope."

"But Miss!..."

"You can do this! You will have all week to work on this and memorize your presentation."

"But it will be very difficult."

"Yes, it will be difficult, but this is your final. I know you can do it."

"How long does it have to be?"

"5 minutes."

"5 minutes?!? In English??? With no note cards???"

"Yep."

"Miss... it will be very difficult."

"Yes, it will be difficult, but this is your final. I know you can do it."

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 

One boy, who had not done very much to work on his project over the last few weeks, was very concerned about how he was going to speak for 5 minutes on his topic. I explained to him that this is what I'd been trying to get him to see the entire time. When I introduced the project, he choose to write his own album of songs; however, once he realized how much work that would entail, he asked me if he could change his topic to make a video with an app he frequently uses and knows very well. Since making a video wasn't anything new for him, I told him he could teach someone else how to make a video OR he could make a video, explaining how to make a video. He didn't listen to me, and the next day, he came in to show me the video he made for his friend's project. 

"Is this okay?" he asked. 

"No," I said, "because you didn't do anything new. You did this in one day, and while it is a very nice video, it isn't good enough for your project. You are supposed to spend 20% of your time between now (this was the end of April) and the end of the year working on your project. You should choose a topic where you can actually do that."

"Okay, okay," he said, but then he continued to not do much of anything for the next few weeks. 

So you can imagine his concern when Monday came along, and he realized just how much trouble he'd gotten himself into by trying to take the easy way out of this project... I explained to him that he had a choice: he could try to make his current topic work, or he could choose a new topic and work a lot on this new topic all week to make up for how little he'd done so far. 

Luckily, after watching a TED Talk on his own, he was hooked; he knew exactly what he wanted to do: create a presentation on what it takes to be successful. I steered him away from just copying Richard St. John's 8 ideas, and he came up with 7 ideas of his own. 

After all the students were finished watching the TED Talks of their choice, I had them talk to each other and fill out the t-chart. We went over the chart at the start of class on Tuesday, and from there, I introduced "Planning a TED Talk" and tasked students with writing out what they wanted to say. 

Over the next couple of days, they worked on what they would say and put together their presentations. I had them time themselves to make sure that they had 5 minutes worth of speaking. Then, they had to figure out how and when they wanted to include pictures, props, etc. into their speeches. One student, who had done research on depression and anxiety, wrote his speech and then created a brochure to hand out to the other students in the class that lists the warning signs of depression and anxiety. 

On Friday, I directed them back to the t-chart from the first worksheet. From what we filled in on the t-chart, we created the rubric for the presentation. Here are the criteria we came up:

• The speaker…
• speaks for at least 5 minutes
• has a good connection with his/her audience
• memorizes the presentation
• does not use note cards, papers, etc.
• explains the topic well
• speaks loudly and clearly with confidence
• does not speak too fast
• has good pronunciation, especially of past tense verbs*
• speaks in a professional manner
• dresses professionally
• The presentation…
• is interesting and understandable
• includes pictures, slides, examples, videos, etc. 

*We included the pronunciation of past tense verbs, because we've been working a lot on that over the last couple of weeks.

The students will present their projects next week, on Wednesday. They will have one block period on Tuesday to practice, practice, practice. I will admit that I am a little nervous, because there is a possibility that these presentations will bomb; however, I am trying to have faith in my students. Much like Jenn Roberts explains in her most recent blog post, "I'm cutting the cord, pulling out the rug, and letting them sink or swim."

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Ease of use: After I decided upon the videos and created the worksheets, introducing and implementing this with my students was fairly simple. The way I set up the introduction to what a TED Talk is, using the videos, made what I wanted my students to do very clear to them. They also knew exactly what was expected of them, because they came to the concept of what a TED Talk is (and is not) on their own.
Would I use this again: I am curious to see how this goes. I think the instruction went well, and I liked the 20% project overall, but, as always, there are things I will probably do differently in the future. Based on how the presentations go, I will know if I need to adjust my instruction on what a TED Talk is and how to plan a TED Talk. Next week, I will report back with a reflection on how the presentations went (and follow up on a few other topics as well).
Downsides: The main downside was that I have a few students who aren't very motivated students and haven't done much of anything. On Friday, I had to keep 2 boys in my classroom for detention at lunch because they had been goofing off in class and not getting their work done. Both kept complaining that this was a lot of work, but then they proceeded to do very little in class. I tried to be supportive, but when it came down to it, I had to put my foot down and forbid them from talking or doing anything else until their speeches were written. I think with projects like this one, you really see the differences in your students. My paraprofessional made a comment about whether or not the students saw the value of this project to their daily lives, and I pointed out that some of the students had taken it and run. The students who had chosen topics that were important to them - like learning to cook or depression and anxiety - were doing extremely well. One girl, for example, has close to 20 sources listed from all the research she did for her project. Unfortunately, there are a few students, as I've mentioned, who have not committed themselves to the project, so I am a little worried about how their presentations will be. But I guess that's how it goes with most projects assigned at school...
Applications: If you are having your students present something, and you want to move away from having your students reading everything off of a PowerPoint, Prezi, or Google Slides, you can use the TED Talk format.
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Week 26: Socratic Seminar

I am a little embarrassed by what I am about to say... in my 7 years as an English teacher, I had never held a Socratic Seminar until this past week. Sure, my students engage in class discussions, similar to the Socratic Seminar, but I had never held an official Socratic Seminar. Why? I had never taken the time to really figure out how to run one because, above all else, I didn't think there was any way I'd be able to form a circle of 40 desks - or even an inner and outer circle of 20 desks each - in my classroom. However, it was always something I felt a little guilty about; after all, the Socratic Seminar is a regular activity in most English classes.

This last week, my 11th graders finished reading The Great Gatsby. In my 1st period class, I really focused on making the unit as student-driven as possible: I had the students focus on finding "difficulties" in their reading (as I discussed in my Week 23 post), and our class discussions centered on students sharing out those difficulties, figuring them out in small groups, and then discussing their thoughts with the entire class. All of our discussions were driven by what the students determined as key ideas and questions in the text.

As I thought about preparing my class to write a literary analysis on the text, I was faced with a couple dilemmas: 1) I had to figure out exactly what I wanted my students to write about, and 2) I had to figure out what I could do in 1 or 2 class periods to prepare my students to write.

Originally, I planned for the class to write the analysis on Thursday, but, as I began planning out the details of the week and thinking about some of the things we still had to complete (such as a reflection for a study we are part of), I realized that it would be better if they wrote on Friday. I knew I could put something together in regards to structure of the essay or give them the prompt early and have them create an outline, but, since we've done a lot of writing practice and preparation throughout the course of the year, I didn't really think they needed either of those things, and, more importantly, I felt we still needed one more day to discuss the novel as a whole. As I was planning, I decided a Socratic Seminar made the most sense, and we would just make it work.

I did some research on how to run a Socratic Seminar, and the very first link I clicked on provided me with an entire packet on setting up the Seminar, including questions to ask and handouts for students; it was perfect! (Isn't the Internet wonderful?)

I decided it was probably best to try for inner and outer circles, as opposed to one large circle, so what I really liked about this particular packet was the handout included for students in the outer circle called "Socratic Seminar Discussion Partner Evaluation." Prior to getting into the circles and starting the Socratic Seminar, you have students partner up. (I did this based on where they were sitting in their original table groups.) Then, when you form the 2 circles, 1 partner sits in the inner circle, and 1 partner sits in the outer circle. The students in the outer circle are tasked with paying attention to their partners' participation in the discussion taking place in the inner circle and evaluating that participation using the handout. Halfway through the time allotted for the Seminar, you have the circles switch, so the students in the outer circle have a chance to discuss the topic as well. After both groups have had the opportunity to have a discussion, the partners meet and talk about their participation in the discussions. This type of reflection is extremely beneficial for Socratic Seminars that are held early in the year, because it will help students improve upon their participation in the discussions as the year progresses. Despite the fact that we only have 3 more weeks of school, I still felt as though this particular component of the activity would be useful for my students.

My class finished reading the book on Tuesday, and we discussed the difficulties from the last chapter on Wednesday. At the end of the period on Wednesday, I gave them the handout called "Open-Ended Questions for a Socratic-Seminar," and I asked them to complete the sentence starters to help them prepare for the discussion the next day.

On Thursday, when the students got to class, I went over the norms for the activity. Then, I confessed to them that I had never done this particular activity before because I didn't know how we would make the desks fit. However, I told them I believed they could make it work. I gave them 1 minute to move the desks, and they managed to move the desks into 2 circles in that amount of time; it worked!

I sat in the outer circle with my Chromebook, and I kept notes on the main points and questions that were brought up. The first group in the inner circle was dominated primarily by two voices, but other students were able to contribute as well. Halfway through our time, I had the circles switch, and the second discussion featured more voices than the first discussion. It also ran more naturally than the first discussion; there were a few times during the first discussion when I had to ask them questions to promote further discussion, whereas with the second discussion, I never had to speak up, because the students propelled the discussion along themselves.

In the last couple of minutes of class after we wrapped up the second discussion, I reminded the students that they would be expected to write an analysis the following day. I told them I would post my notes from the Socratic Seminar on Google Classroom, so they could look over them if they wanted to use them in preparing for the writing assignment the next day.

In constructing my writing prompt that evening, I struggled. I wanted to phrase it in a way that would promote student thinking, rather than just a regurgitation of information. I wound up asking them to write an analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald's message in the book, but, beyond that, I left it up to the writers. I offered some guiding questions and some reminders about what to include, but I did not go into specifics. Here is what I came up with.

On Friday, in assigning the analysis, I told the students that I wanted them to try to write for the entire period, as opposed to saying I wanted them to write X number of paragraphs and/or pages. Usually, when I tell them I want at least 5 paragraphs, I get only 5 paragraphs, and some students turn in their assignment within about 20 minutes. Yes, they structure their essay well, but they don't really progress in their thinking. Since I am really interested in their thinking on this assignment, I decided I didn't want my students to worry too much about structure or length. As it was, the first student to turn in his assignment did so only 10 minutes before the end of class, which means he worked for a good 45 minutes prior to turning it in. As I walked around the room during the period, all students seemed to be working the entire time. I have only had a chance to skim a few of the essays they turned in yesterday, so I can't really make a judgment on the final product; however, I was pleased with the process.
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Ease of use: Implementing the Socratic Seminar actually wound up being very easy. If you don't know where to start, I highly recommend that packet that I discovered online. If you don't like the packet I shared, you can just Google "Socratic Seminar" and look through the resources for something you do like.
Would I use this again: Starting next year, I am going to try to incorporate Socratic Seminars on a regular basis - at the end of each unit or even more frequently.
Downsides: You need to make sure students have read and understand the text. By holding the Seminar at the end of our unit, I knew my students already had a good grasp of the text. Also, it takes an entire period, and even then, you might feel as though you have to cut off the conversation because the bell is going to ring. (But, then again, I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing...)
Applications: I feel Socratic Seminars are most appropriate in English classrooms and with higher level students. However, I might just be biased because those are the only places I've seen them take place. If implemented properly, with an appropriate text or topic, I think they could be beneficial in history, science, and even math classes. I also think they are possible with younger students; it might just depend on the group of kids.
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Do you have any resources that you really like to use with Socratic Seminars? If so, please share them in the comments; I'd love to get more material to use in the future.

Week 23: A New Approach to Developing Reading Comprehension

This week, my school started the first round of SBA testing, which meant we were on a different schedule every day of the week. Meanwhile, my students had just started reading The Great Gatsby the week before, and I had to figure out a way to keep the momentum rolling despite losing time to testing. I also wanted to find a way to put more work on my students' shoulders without having to assign them multiple chapters to read for homework. In other words, I wanted to have them reading in class, but I wanted to get them to do actual work with that reading, because we all know that if you simply tell students to read silently in class (or to read in groups or to follow along while you read), some of the students will pay attention while the rest of the students will: a) work on other assignments, b) fall asleep, c) try to sneak out their phones to check __________ (insert name of any social media app here), or d) all of the above. In the past, I have read or had the students read and:

1. told the students to take notes.
2. stopped to ask the students questions that they then answered in the "Think-Write-Pair-Share" method.
3. asked the students to come up with questions that they then answered in the "Think-Write-Pair-Share" method.

All of these methods work, and they do promote engagement and help students understand a text, but... I wanted to do something different. If you've been following my blog, you know we recently came out of a unit on The Awakening, during which I did a lot of options 2 and 3, and I didn't want to just keep doing the same thing over again.

Therefore, I decided to adapt a method from Inquiry by Design originally intended to be used with short (expository) texts. The method asks students to identify "difficulties" in the text they are reading and to use those difficulties to construct meaning collaboratively. What I like about this method is that it levels the playing field; it allows - and encourages - students to admit they don't understand everything they are reading and to talk about the parts they don't understand. 

In the past, in order to lower the affective filter for my ELLs, I would tell my students to not worry too much if they didn't understand everything and that I wanted them to try to focus on what they did understand. This is all well and good if you understand enough of the text to piece together the story or the theme, but what if you really don't understand anything, as some of my ELLs sometimes tell me in exasperation? And what happens if you think you understand everything, but you really don't? And what am I teaching my students - that they should just ignore things that are difficult for them? How horrible. You can see why I felt a need to change my ways.

I started by recording myself reading all of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 on my phone. I wanted an audio recording for a couple of reasons: 1) using the recording would allow me to walk around and watch my students follow along with the reading, which is something I can't do very well when I am actually reading out loud, and 2) the recording helped me figure out how I wanted to chunk the text because I decided that I would stop the reading approximately every 5 minutes. (Why 5 minutes? Because it wound up being about 4 pages of text. Also, it wasn't too short where I felt that I was making the reading too choppy, and it wasn't too long where I felt the kids would start to lose focus.)

In class on Tuesday, which happened to be a day where I had about 85 minutes with my 1st period class, as opposed to my normal 56 minutes, I explained to my students that I wanted them to focus on difficulties; I wanted them to follow along with the reading and pay attention to anything they had trouble with or anything that confused them for whatever reason; I told them that if they had no difficulties, then they were not reading very well because even the best readers have difficulties. I told them that they didn't have to worry about writing anything down while we they were listening to the recording, because I would give them 3 or 4 minutes at the end of the first chunk to go back, re-read, and write down their difficulties.

We read the first chunk. I gave them the time to silently look back over the pages we'd just read and to write down their difficulties. Then, I gave them another 3 or 4 minutes to discuss their difficulties with the person sitting next to them. On the next page in their notebook (after the page where they were writing down their individual difficulties), I wanted them to write down anything that they both thought was difficult and why they found it difficult. Essentially, in their discussions, they were filtering out some of the difficulties because they were working through what some of them meant, thus leaving them with only the ones that they couldn't figure out together. 

We worked through all of Chapter 2 in this manner. We were left with about 10 minutes at the end of the period during which I asked students to share out some of their difficulties while I compiled a list of class difficulties. At the end of first period, this was our list of difficulties:

• Who is Dr. Eckleburg?
• Why is Gatsby in West Egg? Is he really getting money from family?
• The description of Dr. Eckleburg
• Why does Tom get angry when Myrtle says, "Daisy?"
• Why was Myrtle upset about her husband borrowing the suit?
• Why don't the women make a big deal when Tom hits Myrtle?

As you can see, this list comprises some of the most important issues in Chapter 2 - many of the issues I would have asked my students about if I had used my old reading method. However, the beauty with this list is that it was entirely student created. They were reading carefully enough to pick out these issues, and they understood that these issues were somehow important in relation to the rest of the book. 

The following class session, I started by having the students try to figure out one of these issues in their table groups. I told them they should look back in their books and that they could also use their phones to help them look up anything they wanted to look up. Again, I gave them 3 minutes. I told them that if they figured one difficulty out completely, then they should move onto another difficulty. 

After the 3 minutes were up, we discussed these difficulties as an entire class. I just asked the groups to share out what they found. Even though some of the groups discussed the same difficulties, each group was able to add something to the discussion; by the end, they figured them all out, and we were ready to begin reading Chapter 3. 

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Ease of use: It took me a little while to figure out exactly how to do this, but once I did, it worked fine. Also, the students didn't seem to have any trouble with it, once they understood the process. I did have to walk around the room the entire time, encouraging discussion, but other than that, it was a very easy method to implement.
Would I use this again: I used this for reading Chapter 3 as well, and I think I am going to continue using this method throughout the novel.
Downsides: It takes time. I was blessed with the block period that first day because we were able to finish the chapter. When we read Chapter 3, we started in class, and I told the students to finish for homework, looking for difficulties as they read; it worked out fine, but it would've been better if they'd been able to do it collaboratively in class.
Applications: Reading fiction or nonfiction texts in any subject area. Inquiry by Design uses this approach with shorter texts, about 4 or 5 pages long, but if you chunk a longer text like I did, it works just as well.
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UPDATE: 

As the unit progressed, I transitioned from having students read with the recordings to having students read out loud in their small groups. I assigned each person in the group a number - 1-4 - based on where they were sitting in the group, and I would roll a die to determine who was going to read. If I rolled a 1-4, then the person with the corresponding number would read (i.e., if I rolled a 2, then person #2 in each group would read). If I rolled a 5, then I would just choose a number. If I rolled a 6, then the students were allowed to choose in their groups who would read. 

When they read this way, I would have the person read out loud for 3 minutes. Then, I would give the groups 1 minute to discuss what they read and determine difficulties. I changed from the reading time to only 3 minutes, since only 1 person in the group was reading during this time; I didn't want the reader to go on for too long and have the other group members disengage. 

I would also use the numbers and roll the die when I asked the groups to report out difficulties to the class. 

Week 22: New Routines with ELD 2 that Promote Critical Thinking and Conversation

Vocabulary

For a while now, I'd been feeling like I needed to up my game with my vocabulary routine in my ELD 2 class. It's not that the words I've been giving them need to be more rigorous; I've been using words from Averil Coxhead's Academic Word List in addition to words from the readings we do in class, and I've been quite happy with the results. What I needed to improve was the way in which I presented that vocabulary to the kids and had the kids work with the vocabulary throughout the week. My routine followed this sequence:

• Monday:
• Give the students the vocabulary worksheet (sample)
• Go over the pronunciation of each of the words
• Give the students the parts of speech and definitions using a Google Presentation (sample)
• Students work together to come up with synonyms and antonyms for the words
• Go over the synonyms and antonyms with the class
• Students write sentences and draw pictures for #1-5 on the worksheet in class; check to make sure the sentences use the words correctly
• Tuesday:
• Spelling test
• Students write the words they missed 5x each
• Students write sentences and draw pictures for #6-10 on the worksheet in class
• Wednesday:
• Spelling test
• Students write the words they missed 5x each
• Students write sentences and draw pictures for #11-15 on the worksheet in class
• Thursday:
• Spelling test
• Students write the words they missed 5x each
• Students write sentences and draw pictures for #16-20 on the worksheet in class
• Practice test using a Google Presentation with pictures to represent each of the words (sample)
• Students have to guess which picture matches with each word
• Friday:
• Vocabulary Quiz (sample)

While this routine gave the students plenty of practice with writing the words, it did not really help the students to internalize the meanings of the words. Also, the method in which I delivered the definitions did not encourage them to do any critical thinking to try to figure out the words for themselves, which is the very skill they need when they are reading or having conversations out in the real world; they need to know how to use context clues and how to tap into their prior knowledge in order to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word because they won't want to stop everything to look up a word every time they come across a word they don't know. 

I decided that my routine needed an overhaul. I needed to do more in order to help my students develop their thinking skills as well as their vocabulary. 

At 8:45 on Sunday night, the last night of Spring Break, I was busy grading notebooks when my wonderful husband asked me if there was anything he could do to help. I looked at him and said, "Well... I need to make my vocabulary for ELD 2..."

"Okay. I can do that for you."

"But... I am going to start doing it differently..."

"What do you want me to do?"

"If I put together the word list and a worksheet, will you come up with three sample sentences for each word? You can just get through as many as possible; if you don't want to do all of them, you don't have to..."

"Sure. I can do that."

I quickly came up with a new worksheet template that had 4 columns - Word, Sample Sentences, My Definitions, Actual Definition - and set my husband up with the computer. Here is the result. I planned on having the students work in groups to try to figure out what each word means, based on the sample sentences, before I gave them the actual definitions. This would start teaching them how to use the rest of the sentence to make meaning for themselves, which is exactly what good readers do. It would also get them working in groups, teaching each other, which promotes learning. 

I still wanted to give them the actual definitions because I wanted to make sure they had the correct definitions in the end. I also needed to figure out a second worksheet that would have the students write sentences and draw pictures for each word because I really feel that those are beneficial activities in helping students understand the definitions. I also wanted to give students the related word forms, so they will start to recognize that if they know what the word verb "communicate" means, then they can also figure out what the noun "communication" means and what the adjective "communicative" means. I came up with this basic worksheet, which I can use for every list for the rest of the year. 

On Monday morning, I began introducing the changes to my students. I told them, "I am going to change the way we've been doing vocabulary-"

"Awww! Why, Miss?"

I explained to them that I wanted them to start learning how to use context clues in order to help them figure out the meanings of words they aren't familiar with. I explained that "this is what good readers do." I gave them the worksheet, and they got to work. It took them about 40 minutes to work through all 20 of the words. Then, I presented the actual definitions. What I didn't do, which I plan on doing in the future, is have them reflect on which words they were able to figure out and which words they were not able to figure out; I think this will help them refine their thinking process in the future. By the end of the second period on Monday, we got through about 2/3 of the definitions, and I told them we would pick back up where we left off. 

On Tuesday, we finished going over the definitions; then, I gave them the second worksheet. I went over the different word forms (something I will have them do on their own in the future), and I told them that I wanted them to write sentences and draw pictures for all 20 words for homework that night. Most of the students gawked, "What? All 20 words?" But a few of them just nodded and packed the worksheet away into their backpacks. After I explained, once again, that I am trying to help prepare them for their future classes, the rest of the students quieted down and packed away the worksheets as well. I told them that I wanted them to try; my paraprofessional and I would check their sentences the next day and help them with any they were unsure of. I also told them that anyone who didn't do the assignment would receive a detention (a method I had to implement much earlier this year when 3/4 of the class weren't doing their homework). 

On Wednesday, I only had 2 students who didn't do the assignment. We checked the students' sentences while they worked on an independent grammar activity, and most of them were very good. After that, I had them take a spelling test and write the words they missed 5x each, like we used to do in the past. I planned on having them write conversations using some of the vocabulary words, but since some of my students had to go to an assembly during the 2nd period, I pushed the activity to Thursday.

On Thursday, I was out for professional development, but I left plans for my sub to do the spelling practice, 5x each, practice test using the Google Presentation and the pictures, and the conversations using this worksheet. 

On Friday, we had our vocabulary quiz as usual. Prior to the quiz (I think on Wednesday), I told the students that I would just choose one of the 3 sample sentences to use for each word on the fill-in-the-blank portion of the quiz. I told them that I didn't want them to try to memorize all three sentences for each word; instead, I wanted them to focus on really trying to understand what the words mean, because, if they know what the words mean, then they will be able to figure out which word goes in each sentence, especially since I include context clues in the sentences on the quiz to help them figure out the answer. Here is what their quiz looked like.

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Ease of use: Now that I've established this routine, it will be easy for me to follow. The key with any new routine is that you follow it. That's all. Kids love routines. Also, it wasn't very difficult to switch from the old routine, since they were already used to doing some vocabulary work every day.
Would I use this again: Yes; I am going to continue with this method throughout the rest of the semester. (Although, I may continue to refine it.) I like that this new method has them think about the words in different ways - from figuring out the definitions, to writing sentences and drawing pictures, to using the words in conversation; the more work students do with new vocabulary, the more likely they are to remember those words.
Downsides: Although I like our new system, I don't think I would start the year with this in ELD 2. I feel like it was beneficial to do the vocabulary the other way for a while, because the students need a strong foundation in the English language before context clues are any help to them in figuring out what words mean. Also, now I (or my husband) will have to come up with 3 sample sentences for each word, which means a total of 60 sample sentences every week. However, once it is done, I will have those worksheets saved to use in the future. Also, my students did not do as well on this week's quiz. However, I think the scores will start coming back up once they get used to the new routine. Furthermore, the thing that really matters is that the kids start using these words on a daily basis, and since they've started doing this, I don't really care that the quiz scores aren't that great.
Applications: Routines, in general, help with classroom management. Other than that, I could see this kind of system used in almost every level of ELD or English (you would obviously just tweak it a bit to fit your level of students - perhaps in a high level English class, the students have to go out and find examples of the words and use those examples to come up with the meaning). Also, the conversation component is good in any language class, and I know it is a method that is used often in language classes. For my conversation worksheet, I tied in the grammar concept we were working on this week with the vocabulary. Speaking of conversations...
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Conversations about Watching Television and Current Event Assignments

Every week, my ELD students have to turn in a Watching Television assignment on Tuesday and a Current Event on Thursday. Every week, one student presents his/her assignments to the class. This has been working pretty well, but since I wanted to give my students more structured opportunities to talk to each other in English, I decided to create a conversation activity centering on these assignments. I put together this Google Presentation which walks students through discussing their Watching Television assignment. By using this presentation, I got all of my students speaking in English, instead of just the one student who was presenting. On Thursday, I did the same with their Current Event assignments. 

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Ease of use: This is really easy to use. I walked the students through the presentation, and I wandered around the room while they were talking to make sure they were actually speaking in English.
Would I use this again: Yep. I am looking for every opportunity I can to get my students speaking in English.
Downsides: Students got a little confused on Part 2 of the conversation, and I blame myself because the slide is a bit confusing. However, now that we've gone through it, they should know how to do it in the future. Also, if you have students who did not do their assignment (like I did), you will have to come up with something for them to do while the other students are talking.
Applications: Promoting discussion in the classroom.