Category Archives: Impact

Why We Do This


Written by - Laila Al-Sbeinati @lailasbeinati
Recognition

I went to my last class this past Friday expecting my entire class to be present. Well, of the 13 who normally attend, only 5 showed up! I didn’t know how to feel about this. But no matter, I carried on with the lesson. To stay positive, I thought it was great that I could focus more on each individual. We had a lot of fun despite the lack of attendance that day.

The feeling in the room was certainly bittersweet. On one hand, I was happy to have my Fridays back to spend with my little girl, but on the other hand, it was kind of hard for me to leave these special individuals, whom I’ve come to respect and appreciate so much throughout the course of the past seven weeks.

If you remember from my last post when I discussed WorkPlace ESL (http://blog.teslontario.org/workplace-esl/), classes run Continue reading →

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Is Two Better Than One?


Written by - Laila Al-Sbeinati @lailasbeinati

bigstock-Image-of-two-young-pretty-busi-49672886I was looking for something inspirational to write about when I came across this very interesting and thought-provoking article online by Judie Haynes, and felt the need to share it with everyone: http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/cooperative_teaching_two_teach_83908.php. The article discusses co-teaching and begs the question: Is two better than one when applied to ESL classrooms?

Judie breaks it down quite nicely and explains that collaborative teaching can be of great benefit to the learners in the sense that they get better and more individualized attention from the teacher because there would be two teachers in the room.

On the other hand, she believes that an ESL teacher would have some challenges to face, as co-teaching may complicate lesson planning, make it more difficult to effectively deal with learners, or worst of all, one of the teachers being looked at or referred to as a helper instead of the instructor. Judie is of the opinion that the benefits of collaborative teaching outweigh any potential negatives that accompany the practice. She mentions how sharing a classroom would equate to Continue reading →

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Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane?


Written by - John Stevens
bigstock-Colourful-paper-shopping-bags--63176053
image source: www.bigstock.com

Want something for lower-level ESL students that is fun and informative?

When I taught benchmark one classes, I did something that increased their vocabulary by about 100 words in a month or so. It was also fun. It’s not a very original idea. In fact, I borrowed it from my days as an occasional teacher when I had to teach kindergarten.

In many kindergarten classes, they have show and tell. A child brings in an object in a bag, and the rest of the students have to guess what it is by asking questions. I decided to do this with my ESL class.

We sat down and thought of all of the properties that might be associated with an object, things like shape, size, colour, age, and material.  I got poster paper for each attribute, and then had them make one for each. They supplied me with the words, and I Continue reading →

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Images with Impact: Editing Images (Part 1)


Written by - John Allan @mrpottz
white hand on images patchwork
image source: www.bigstock.com

Images can be a great visual tool especially in ESL, but the process in making them technologically effective can be overwhelming. Images with Impact will be a 3-part series of posts by John Allan in order to give you  researched information and the opportunity to reflect at each step.

 Instructors and Images

Many instructors are expected to create their own presentations, worksheets, or online learning materials called learning objects (LOs) to enhance their classroom offerings. This situation is tricky since most LOs in the modern classroom include multimedia objects. For now, let’s focus on images. Image handling is a very common problem for instructors. This problem is especially onerous for instructors who may not have access to image editors, image repositories, or media design support. Continue reading →

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The Unsung Heroes of ESL/FSL


Written by - Laila Al-Sbeinati @lailasbeinati
apple-hero
image source: www.bigstock.com

I’ve always wondered how an adult who is learning a new language felt when surrounded by the unfamiliar. Although I’ve once experienced the difficulty and hardship of learning a new language and acclimating to a brand new environment as a child, it doesn’t compare to the emotions and experiences felt by an adult learner.

Having watched both my parents in the past try to interact with other fellow Canadians without the proper use of the English language was noteworthy.  Though at times they were clearly frustrated, they seemed to get by.  Today, my parents’ command of the English language is vast and they are both able to carry on conversations and express their wants and needs. Aside from their drive to want to learn and acclimate, they also had French to fall back on. But what about those who migrate from Continue reading →

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