2016 ESL Tutor Manual
Welcome to the Migrant Education Program!
We are so excited you’ve committed to serving the migrant farm workers and their families in your area and that you are personally invested in their educational success! The mission of the Migrant Education Program (MEP) is to help migrant students and youth meet high academic challenges by overcoming the obstacles created by frequent moves, educational disruption, cultural and language differences, and health-related problems. We hope that as ESL teachers, you will build lasting relationships with your students that support and facilitate their educational growth and success despite the hardships that they face.
Your relationship with them will encourage them to grow personally and academically, which in turn will foster their self-confidence and self-worth. You will be a valuable resource in their lives, one they can turn to for advice on studying habits, questions on how to move towards obtaining their GED, or even how to get through a tough math problem they’ve been struggling with.
Being in a country where you do not speak the language is incredibly hard. However, the farm workers are very eager to learn English! You will come to admire their commitment & dedication to learn the lessons that you prepare each week. As their ESL teacher, you will explore and encourage alternative types of learning that your student is interested in. You will find that the possibilities to encourage educational success are unlimited! Class time is your time to be creative in your teaching style.
We are thrilled to have the opportunity to train and lead you on your ESL journey and we hope that you will gain as much from this experience as your students will. We know that you will make countless memories along with way that will shape the way you view and experience your community around you.
We hope this ESL Handbook will serve you as a useful guide along your teaching journey. We want it to be a go-to manual with tips, ideas, and resources that make your role as a teacher a little bit easier. Remember along your journey that your students and the people of the MEP thank you for your dedication to farm workers, your community, and to service!
Contact Information
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns
AnastacioBasabe
VISTA Member
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Jordan Trivette
VISTA Member
Our websites:
Search on Facebook: NC MEP ESL Volunteers
ESL Tutor Responsibilities
Responsibilities each week:
Co-plan lessons with fellow co-tutors
- Collaborate and plan ahead for each class. Plan out what activities you will be doing and what materials you need. If you need additional materials that are not provided, your recruiter.
- Do not “wing” your lesson. Please plan ahead.
Attend your class each week!!!
- If you are unable to attend your class, please let your co-teachers know, as well as the VISTA recruiters.
- Please inform co-teachers of your absence at least 24 hours prior to your lesson.
- We will find substitutes when necessary.
Fill out the tutor survey on the website after each class you teach.
- The tutor survey is a way of telling us how the lessons are going. It is located on the home page of our ESL website:
- If you prefer to fill out the paper version of the survey, you can also print off a copy of the survey, fill it out and then scan it and email or fax it to us.
Evaluate your students.
- Weekly: pre/post tests
ESL Teaching Methods and Tips
Our ESL website:
The following are guidelines for teachers who are new to working with adults learning English.
- Respect the knowledge, skills, and experience of the learners in your program.
Adult English language learners come to class to learn English, not because they are deficient in cognitive skills. Making overgeneralizations about learners is disrespectful and counter-productive (e.g., "My students can't understand that because they are from {name of country}" or "because they can't read and write in their own language!").
- Where possible, build on learners' knowledge, skills, and experience in instruction.
In most cases, adult English language learners do not come to class with negative feelings about past education. They are excited about and committed to learning English.
- Be interactive.
Although learners (and the teacher) may be more familiar with traditional teacher-led classes, interactive, communicative activities and classes give learners the opportunity to use the language they need to acquire.
- Be Patient.
Depending on learners' native languages and other factors (e.g., amount of time spent in school, exposure to print, experience with focusing on language structures), language components that might seem easy to learn, such as using the correct personal pronouns, or distinguishing between definite and indefinite articles, may take a long time for learners to use appropriately.
- You will encounter various literacy levels, and that’s okay.
Some teachers—especially those new to teaching adult English language learners—express concern about teaching learners whoaren’t literate in their native language ornever went to school. In many ways, this concern is unwarranted. Having or not having had access to formal education does not correlate to cognitive functioning, interest, and energy. Most literacy-level learners will need explicit instruction in basic literacy skills (e.g., phonologicalprocessing, vocabulary development, syntactical processing). However, these learners bring an array of life skills knowledge (often including some oral proficiency and knowledge of American culture) problem-solving skills and enthusiasm to the process.
- The new, hip term: “Pre-literate”
Some confusion also lies with deciding who the literacy-level learners are. Some educators and texts talk aboutlow-level literacy studentsor use the termilliterates when talking about adult immigrants who cannot read or write. The first term, while descriptive, has a mildly negative connotation. The second term has an even stronger negative connotation. The current term used is “pre-literate”.
- Be aware of your English knowledge
A second step to being a successful ESL teacher is to become aware of the language and how it is used. Be aware that certain concepts may come easily to you as an English speaker, but may be less obvious to new English learners. Even though you have probably spoken English for years (maybe even all of your life) and have been taught the language formally in school, you may not be aware of many of its aspects that give non-native speakers a hard time. Very often the things that give your students the hardest time are things that come most naturally to a native speaker. There is not time nor space in this manual to teach everything about the language.
Teaching Tips:
- Maximize Student Talking Time
How: Put the students into pairs or small groups
Why:
- Making students speak to each other instead of the teacher maximizes STT (Student Talking Time) and minimizes TTT (Teacher Talking Time). This is a good thing because the students are the ones who need to practice their English - you, hopefully, don't!
- A lot of students will be using their English to speak to non-mother tongue speakers anyway so they might as well start getting used to it. For example, my students are Italian and they often need English to speak to other European clients and colleagues. Some of them never use English to speak to mother-tongue English speakers at all!
2. Error Correction
How:
- Let the students make mistakes. They need to. We all learn best through making mistakes. Trial and error is the name of the game.
- Give students time to realize they've made a mistake and try to correct it themselves. If they can't, maybe someone else can help them. If nobody can help then you can either step in and give the correct form or make a note of it for later.
- As far as possible, correct mistakes anonymously. Do so, by making notes of students' mistakes as you monitor then putting them on the board later and give the students themselves the opportunity to correct them, in pairs or small groups. If no one knows the right answer, give it to them, but only as a last resort. Anonymous error correction is a kind way to deal with mistakes. It isn't important who made the mistake originally - the point is, can the students all correct it? I tend to doctor the mistakes so that even the perpetrator doesn't recognize them as their own. Essentially, DON’T call students out individually on their errors, since many students are already not very confident in their ability to speak another language. Correct them in positive ways; don’t put them down.
Teaching tip- avoid translating (especially if you know Spanish)
3. Translating
How to avoid doing it:
- Refuse to give translations for new vocabulary yourself. Pretend/admit you don't speak the student's language.
- Encourage the students to guess the meaning of words they don't know or to ask each other for help or to look it up in a monolingual dictionary instead.
Try to avoid using Spanish, even if you know Spanish. There are certain lessons however where you are teaching a more complicated topic (such as the dangers of heat stress in the fields), and it is okay to speak in Spanish. Also, if learners are really struggling with understanding directions to activities, you can explain in Spanish. The most effective ESL classes are full-immersion however, so don’t use Spanish as a crutch!
4. Common Mistake
- Taking up all of the talking time
- In an ESL class, what is the most common reason students are enrolled? They want to speak English! And what happens when the teacher speaks most of the time? They don’t have enough chances to actually practice their speaking skills. Those who are new to ESL teaching often make this very crucial mistake: They take up too much of the talking time, either because they feel uncomfortable around silence or long pauses, or because they are over-enthusiastic to share their knowledge. So clearly, hogging most of the talking time is out of the question. But,how to find the right balance between student talking time and teacher talking time?
- As a general rule of thumb,students should speak for 70% of the class time, while teachers speak for the remaining 30%. This means that in most cases, your participation should be limited to giving instructions and explaining essential points, but above all to eliciting response from students and facilitating all types ofspeaking activities.
Lesson plan guide:(in your manual you have an “ESL Planning Sheet”)
- Warm-up:This includes a review (revision) of the previous lesson linked to this new lesson; questions and answers you have written above, used to elicit conversation using the new structures and function; to show examples of what your students will learn in this lesson. In some countries and with some age groups this may come in the form of a specifically designed game.
- Presentation: Note the target language to be taught – and how you will teach it. Include how you will stimulate the student’s interest in the language and how you might elicit from the students the language you are planning to teach. Include details as specific as when you might model structures and dialog – and when you will require a repeated response (choral response) from the students. Include a structure chart for the grammar – or the dialog you intend to teach.
- Practice:Include the specific activities and attach any handouts to the lesson plan. Include up to three practice activities – sequencing them from most to least structured – slowly giving the students more freedom.
- Production:This is where students really learn and generalize a new language skill. Allow/encourage the students to talk about themselves, their lives, or specific situations using their own information – but focusing on the target language that was taught in the presentation – and practiced in the previous activities. Include exactly what you will ask the students to do – and that you (as throughout the lesson) intend to monitor students and encourage and correct them as needed in their use of the target language.
Co-teaching strategies:
- You will all be teaching with 1 or 2 other people. You will need to communicate with your co-teachers to plan the lessons each week. Here are some various strategies you might use:
- Planning:
- Co-teachers can meet during the week to co-plan the lesson, and pick out what activities and materials they want to use.
- Co-teachers assign one of the tutors to “lead” each week. The leader that week will write out a lesson plan, gather the materials, and create the activities, and then email the lesson plan to the other co-teachers prior to the lesson.
- In the classroom:
- Co-teachers can take turns introducing new topics. (e.g. Jessica teaches first topic, Lauren teaches second, and continue switching off)
- Co-teachers can have a lead teacher and assistant teachers each week, and delegate different tasks to each role.
- Multi-level classroom: Teachers can split up the classroom if there is a noticeably large difference in learners’ levels. If part of the classroom knows a good amount of English and part of the classroom knows none, split them up. The co-teachers can then split up and teach at different speeds.
- After the lesson:
- All teachers are required to fill out a post-lesson survey (located on the website).
Your first ESL class (tips):
At the end of each lesson make sure to remind the students you will be there again the following week at the same date/time. If possible, get one of their phone numbers as a main contact person
Cultural differences and things to note when tutoring:
◦Don’t be alarmed if your students show up late. It is very common in Hispanic culture to show up late, so it is not necessarily any sort of reflection on your tutoring.
◦Clothing: Don’t wear short shorts or skirts. Dress comfortably, in a way that your students will respect you.
Full online resources:
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Lesson Plan List
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Lesson 1: Introduction to ESL and What is your Name?
Lesson 2: Greetings II
Lesson 3: Numbers
Lesson 4: Where are you from?
Lesson 5: Filling out Forms
Lesson 6: American Money
Lesson 7: Debit Cards
Lesson 8: Food
Lesson 9: Farm Vocabulary
Lesson 10: Interacting on the Farm
Lesson 11: Weather
Lesson 12: Farm Safety: Pesticide and Heat Stress
Lesson 13: To Be Verbs and Feelings
Lesson 14: Family and Possessive Adjectives
Lesson 15: Sicknesses and Symptoms
Lesson 16: Body Parts
Lesson 17: Going to the Doctor and talking about Pain
Lesson 18: Calling 9-1-1
Lesson 19: Making Phone Calls
Lesson 20: Question Words
Lesson 21: Days, Weeks, Months, and Years
Lesson 22: Telling Time
Lesson 23: Household Appliances and Household Complaints
Lesson 24: Clothing and Colors
Lesson 25: Ordering Food
Lesson 26: Giving Directions
Lesson 27: Navigating the grocery store
Lesson 28: American Culture and Laws
Lesson 29: Nutrition: Health Eating and Drinking
Lesson 30: Safe Sex: STD’s and HIV/AIDS
Lesson 31: Forming Healthy Habits
** Lessons: 1, 3, 6, 9 & 10 are required for OSY.
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Migrant Education Program
2016 ESL Curriculum
______
Planning Sheet
Lesson Number:
Topic:
Date:
Learning Objectives of this lesson: (students should be able to):
Warm-Up (review):
Presentation:
Practice:
Production/Application:
ESL Lesson Topics Survey:
Ask your students which topics they are most interested in learning. Ask them in Spanish, and go into detail on some of the topics if necessary. Then when planning which lessons you will teach each weekend, pick lessons based on their interest.Note: Lessons 1, 3, 6, 9 and 10 are required lessons.
LessonNumber / Topic - Spanish / Topic - English / Tienes interés?1 / Saludos y Como te llamas / Introduction to ESL and What is Your Name? (required*)
2 / Saludos II / Greetings II
3 / Números / Numbers (required*)
4 / ¿De dóndeeres? / Where are you from?
5 / Llenandoformas / Filling out Forms
6 / Dinero Americano / American Money (required*)
7 / Tarjetas de Débito / Debit Cards *Ask your students if they get paid in cash or debit card. Do this lesson if they get paid in debit card.
8 / La Comida / Food
9 / Vocabulario del Rancho / Farm Vocabulary (required*)
10 / Interaccionesen el Rancho / Interacting on the Farm (required*)
11 / La Clima / Weather
12 / Seguridad en el Rancho: Seguridad de pesticidas y el estrés por calor / Farm Safety: Pesticide Safety and Heat Stress-
13 / Los verbos ser y estar, y las emociones / To Be Verb and Feelings
14 / La Familia y Adjetivos Possessivos / Family and Possessive Adjectives
15 / Enfermedades y Síntomas / Sicknesses and Symptoms
16 / Las Partes del Cuerpo / Body Parts-
17 / Ir al doctor y hablar sobre el dolor / Going to the Doctor and talking about Pain
18 / Llamando 9-1-1 / Calling 9-1-1
19 / Haciendo llamadas por el teléfono / Making phone calls
20 / Preguntas / Question Words
21 / Días, Semanas, Meses y Años / Days, Weeks, Months and Years
22 / Decir la hora / Telling Time
23 / Aparatos y muebles de la casa, y problemas en la casa / Household Appliances andHousehold complaints
24 / La Ropa y Los Colores / Clothing and Colors
25 / Ordenar comida / Ordering Food
26 / Dar Direcciones / Giving Directions
27 / Navegando el supermercado / Navigating the Grocery Store
28 / La ley y la cultura Americana / American Culture and Laws
29 / Nutrición: Comidas y bebidas saludable / Nutrition: Healthy Eating and Drinking
30 / Sexo seguro: Prevenir enfermedades de transmisión sexual / Safe Sex: STDs and HIV/AIDS
31 / Formando Hábitos Saludables / Forming Healthy Habits
Additionaltopics?
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