WOW! Stories from Real Life

Teaching Beginners with

Zero Prep and

WOW! Stories from Real Life

An Alta Book Center Presentation

www.altaesl.com

TESOL 2014

Portland, Oregon

Laurel Pollard

Educational Consultant

www.laurelpollard.com

Co-authored by Laurel Pollard, Dr. Natalie Hess, and Jan Herron

Zero Preparation Activities

What if your reviewed every activity you ever used or heard of,

choosing only the ones that are the very best teaching teaching/learning practices?

What if you selected from that collection only the activities that take

NO TIME for the teacher to prepare?

And then, what if you collected only the ones that are flexible enough to use with

different content, at different levels?

We did that.

Here it is.

Enjoy!

When you include Zero Preparation routines in our lesson plans, you have more time to relax, reflect, and recover your vision!

Sample activities from

Zero Prep for Beginners

POINTING-OUT FUN

Students laugh a lot in this activity. For once, it is correct to be incorrect!

AIM: Vocabulary review, practicing simple affirmative and negative sentences, practicing this vs. that (see extension)

Procedure:

1. Review objects in the room, including students’ clothing and parts of the body, by walking around the room and saying things like, “This is a window.” Students repeat these statements chorally.

2. Bring two students up to demonstrate the activity. They both stand near a window (for example). One says to the other, “This is a window.” The listener responds, “Yes, this is a window.”

3. They do this with a few objects.

4. Independent work: Students pair up and walk around pointing out objects and using the two sentences. Continue this for a few minutes.

5. Students sit down.

6. Do the activity again, this time with negatives. This is where it really becomes fun! Stand near the window again with a student. Point to it and say, “This is a door.”

7. Prompt the student to respond, “No, this is not a door! This is a window!” The class chorally repeats both sentences.

8. Do a few more examples. Each time, be sure to stand near the object.

9. Independent work: Students pair up and walk around, pointing to something and saying that it is something else.

10. Continue as long as students are having fun.

Variation: To support low beginners, have students write these two sentences on a note, which they hold behind their backs:

This is a ______.

Yes, this is a ______.

And for step 6, students add negative sentences to their notes:

No, this is not a ______. This is a ______.

Students may refer to these as they work. But the notes should always be behind their backs when they speak!

Extensions:

1. Students switch partners and go around the room again. (They can switch several times.)

2. With more advanced beginners, stand farther from the object sometimes so you can contrast that and this. “This is a window. That is a door.”

WHO SAID IT?

Beginning language learners understand much more than they can express in their target language. Here’s a task that gives them plenty to read and listen to, then allows them to demonstrate their comprehension with one-word answers.

AIM: Listening comprehension, reading review

A story from the student text or another source

Procedure:

1. Input: Tell a story, demonstrate something, show a picture, or do a reading with your class.

2. Say something that one character said (or might have said).

For example, say, “Please let me go to the dance!”

3. Ask the class, “Who said it?”

4. Choose one of the options below:

a. Volunteers call out the name of the character, for example, “Cinderella!”

b. Pairs or small groups consult until they reach agreement; then you call on one student from each group to answer. (This option activates more students.)

Variations: With more advanced students, teams can make up the things characters would say. They call these out to another team, who must tell who said it. You may set this up as a competitive game.

Dicta-Comps

Dictacomps combine Dictation and Composition.

Students reconstruct a sentence (or longer passage).

They have clues to help them: a list of key words from the passage.

Dictacomps are wonderfully adaptable! Use them for pre-reading, reviewing material, recycling vocabulary, or reinforcing a grammar point.

They can also be used to teach details like punctuation and spelling.

Best of all, students get immediate feedback when they correct their own work!

WHAT’S THE STORY?

This activity uses all four skills. Students not only remember what they read, but also think about how to retell it. To reinforce what they have learned, they re-create it one more time by writing it.

AIM: Reading practice, summary practice

MATERIALS: A short reading passage from the student’s textbook or another source

Procedure:

1. Choose any short reading passage.

2. Read the first line of a passage or read until the end of the first sentence.

3. Students repeat chorally.

4. Students repeat individually.

5. Say, “Choose a word!” (Sometimes you will make a more specific suggestion, such as “What’s the action?” “Where did this happen?” “Who did it?”)

6. Students call out words.

7. Write on the board a key word (or more than one) for each sentence.

8. Continue this process for each sentence until you’ve reached the end of the reading passage.

9. In pairs, students read the passage to each other.

10. Without looking at the reading, volunteers retell the passage by looking only at the important words on the board.

11. Students write the passage by just following the words on the board. (Even if they only get a few words right, this is good practice!)

12. Students compare their written passage with the original text.

Stand For Your Word

This activity gives students a feeling that they own certain words.

It’s a short, fun activity that benefits students at all levels.

One more reason to do this often: it gives students a chance to stand and sit again rapidly several times. This helps them wake up!

Aim: vocabulary review, reading review, grammar, spelling

Materials: A passage that students have already read or heard and understand well

Procedure:

Students take out a piece of paper.

Give each student a word to listen for. (The same word may be given to several students.)

3. Be sure students know what their words mean. They may get help from other students or from you.

4. Read the passage out loud while students listen.

5. As soon as a student hears his/her word, they stand up, then sit down quickly. Repeat this stage a few times if it is challenging for them.

Extension:

6. Students trade words.

7. Students hold up their new word and call it out. (Again they get help with meaning, if necessary.)

8. Read the text aloud again while students stand up each time they hear their new word.

9. Repeat steps 6 - 8 several times.

Taking it even further:

10. Write the words on the board in the order that they appeared in the text.

11. Students look at the text and read out the sentences where "their words" appeared.

12. Students read the whole text and answer questions about it.

Note: Stand for Your Word is NOT GOOD for general comprehension. However it is EXCELLENT for

· Working the big muscles – getting oxygen to the brain

· Distinguishing words in a stream of speech (useful for beginners in English)

· Learning parts of speech: students can stand up for nouns until they are very clear on what a noun is, then go on to other parts of speech.

· Sight-sound correspondences in literacy training; choose words with a sound that students are learning to spell.

· Paying attention to unstressed (but important) words. Students who skip the verb ‘be’ in their writing or don’t hear pronouns well will improve if they ‘Stand For’ these words!

ONE-MINUTE FEEDBACK (Exit Tickets) (Zero Prep 5.19)

For the teacher: This activity gives us valuable feedback about what our students got (and didn’t get) from a lesson.

For the students: A quick, individual end-of-class review reinforces for each student what they have learned – very satisfying!

LEVEL: Intermediate—Advanced

AIM: Writing practice, feedback for teacher about what students are learning

MATERIALS: Blank index cards

Procedure:

1. When students come into class, hand each a card. Tell them that at the end of class you will ask them to draw or write on the card something they learned today and give the card to you.

2. Be sure they put their cards away.

3. Allow one minute at the end of class for each student to write his or her note to you. Because the time is so short, students are concise, and you need only a few minutes after class to read their notes and incorporate what they have said into your planning.

Notes:

1. Once students are accustomed to this, once they have come to expect to write you this note, they become more aware during the class of what they are and are not learning. This leads to increased student responsibility for their learning and more questions during class.

2. In conjunction with “One-Minute Feedback,” let students determine the pace of the class by asking such questions as, “Are you ready to move on?” “Do you need more time with this?” “Should we practice this some more, or is this enough?” When we remember to do this, our classes stay in that exciting “challenge zone” where students are

neither bored nor overwhelmed.

WOW! Stories From Real Life:

A Low-Beginning, Multi-Skills Textbook

Who is this textbook for? Low-beginning ELL students, upper elementary, teens, and adults

The stories: Students love these eight stories because

they are true

they are surprising

they resonate with students’ own experiences, hopes, fears, and dreams.

The exercises:

· We’ve provided more exercises than you’ll find in most other books! Use them all, or skip the ones your students don’t need, or use some as a warm up or review .

· Many ways to use a single page. The student pages look simple – as they must, for low beginners. But our teaching suggestions will help you get the most from every page. Beginning students need plenty of re-cycling and practice – and these exercises provide that, without ever being boring!

· Lots of interaction, both student-student and teacher-class. Teachers tell us they didn’t know their low-beginning students could say so much!

· Plenty of basic words

· “Act It Out!” for kinesthetic learning

· “About Me” to activate students’ own ideas and experiences

What’s unique:

· “On Our Own’: Carefully designed activities that students can do independently – even at this low-beginner level! This gives you a chance to monitor, think, and relax.

· Progressive Cloze: a fun, highly engaging way to learn vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation – unique to this book. And students can do it on their own!

· More exercises and activities – and the pictures without captions – as a free download on ALTA’s website

How many hours of instruction? About 40, for most classes -- 5 hours for each of the 8 units

The exercises in WOW promote

DEEP LEARNING from Simple Pages

Here is one example of how you and your students can make the most of every page in a student book:

Picture Story (I) marks steps that students can do independently.

1. Students look at the story to get the general idea. (I)

2. Read the captions aloud; students point to each picture.

3. Read the captions aloud; students say each caption after you.

4. Read a caption aloud. Students read the next caption.

5. A student stands and reads the first caption, then calls on the next reader. (I)

6. A student stands and reads a random, out-of-order caption, then calls on a classmate to read the next caption. (I)

7. Read key words; students point to them (a scanning exercise).

8a. Read key words; students circle them.

8b. In pairs, students take turns reading aloud what they circled (they can read just the word or the whole sentence it’s in). (I)

9. Reading with Mistakes: Read the story, making a few factual mistakes. Students hold up their right hand for a correct sentence or their left hand for an incorrect one. Students tell you how to correct the false sentences.

10. Find the Picture: Students cover the captions. Demonstrate first: say a caption, then say, “Find the picture!” Students point to that picture. Pairs continue the activity, taking turns with roles: A says, “He pays for books. Find the picture!” B points to the correct picture. . (I)

Two Application Exercises from WOW

About Me

1. Steven is a student at New York University

I am a student at ______

2. Steven pays for books.

I pay for ______.

3. Steven drinks orange juice.

I drink ______.

4. Steven eats crackers.

I eat ______.

5. Steven washes his clothes in the library bathroom.

I wash my clothes ______.

6. Steven is a good writer.

I am a good ______.

7. Steven likes his new life.

I like ______.

Read the sentences and your answers to a partner.

Talk With Your Classmates (a mingle)

Write about yourself here: I eat ______.

Stand up. Tell your sentence to one classmate.

Talk with other classmates. Say the same thing, and listen to them.