come visit the 5301 blog!

Hi all -

Just letting you know that the 5301 class for the summer has posted a number of things on their new blog - feel free to stop in anytime and check it out, offer your comments, make suggestions, and find some new friends!

You can find that blog here.

Assessment?

Well after a couple of sessions with learners with virtually no English, I believe this is how an assessment would pan out. Hope your summers are off to a great start.

USA learns

http://USAlearns.org/

This appears to be a "non-cost", funded by department of education site. Although one does have to register, there is a video about registering in Spanish as well as English.

comparing a british and american commercial for lang. use

I thought these two would be interesting to compare because they are both the same mac commercial but the language for relaxing on vacation is quite different.
Here it is for american:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsvJefWOUYE

And britain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1bYVV4rD24

Leaving the Blog open...

I'm glad to see that you guys like the idea of continuing with the blog! I know that in the settings we can add a list of email addresses that get emailed anytime there is a new post. I'll see what the other options are as well.

I'll leave the blog open and all of you listed as authors for now, and if anyone wants to be added as an administrator, that's easy to do as well!

Keep on going- by Ruby

I would like to let you guys know that I love to learn from you and I love to share whatever I know and I feel to you. Therefore, I am for KEEPING ON GOING!!

However, where shall we move next?? Any genius got any idea? Shall we have a new blog only belonging to us?? Anyway, I am looking forward to our new world together spiritually. Haha....

Concerning my previous post

I'm glad so many of you are interested in keeping in touch and keeping this going! Does anyone know how to get blogger to send you emails when someone posts or comments on a post? It would be nice to have reminders sent to our inboxes.

The History Channel

Hi Everyone,

The History Channel's website includes a lot of interesting, fast-paced videos of 3 to 4 minutes called History of the Holidays.

I've linked the title of this post to the material on Independence Day; you will see the Search bar there if you'd like to peruse other topics.

Even if your students can't understand all of the spoken content, as the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

(By the way, some proverbs are really hard to translate into other languages. You've been warned!)

Clint T

microsoft lesson plans

Microsoft is advising using live essentials movie maker to make lesson plans. I linked the title to the site but it actually includes lesson plans (although some of questionable content). I thought some might be interested in this. I used iphoto on the mac in class for my lesson. However, I will probably try live essentials as well this summer.

Keeping it going

While I have not posted as often as I should have, I have read everyone's posts faithfully and have really enjoyed this chance we have had to share our discoveries and experiences. While the internet is ripe with resources for us as teachers I was wondering if any of you would be interested in keeping this thing going. This one stop spot to share ideas, activities, articles and to ask for advice from other teachers and friends is something I would not like to lose.

Anyone interested?

Anyone else have their own blogs? (We could become friends. *giggle*)

-Kari

Fun with puctuation and spelling

If you haven't visited this site (click on the title), you're missing an off beat look at common misspellings and assistance with punctuation. You do need to preview it before use because it can be somewhat off-color for certain age groups.

http://theoatmeal.com -- main site

punctuation and spelling .....
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

Importance of manual proof reading

A little tip, when depending on technology.
While recent net browsing I saw a very interesting poetic way of bringing attention to an important issue, important because it may turn out to be embarrassing. When we run spell check while making a document on an unreliable software package and you have typed ‘then’ instead of ‘than’, it will not be filtered as it is not a misspelled word, so my point is pretty much related to writing skill that student must have an ability and habit to proof read their written material instead of totally relying on the technology, following is a short poem which is very nicely written carrying instructions regarding the relevant issue. It is taken from a site named ‘Funny tips’.

Spell Checker

I halve a spelling checker,
It came with my pea see.
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I dew knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait aweigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the era rite
Its rarely ever wrong.

I've scent this massage threw it,
And I'm shore your pleased too no
Its letter prefect in every weigh;
My checker tolled me sew.

Though in office 2007 it gives suggestions, for some words in the poem above.

Humor and fun in ESL classrooms
I read an interesting and useful article titled ‘effects of humor in the language classroom’ written by Lance Askildson, which suggests humor to be the most dominant feature in an ESL class as the study has shown a very supporting outcome.
Humor which is often ignored in the classrooms stands as one of the few universals applicable to all people and all languages throughout the world (Kruger, 1996). It does not mean that element of humor causes improvement in ESL proficiency directly rather it creates an environment which facilitates teacher-student relationship, because of light and fun environment students are psychologically charged and participate more enthusiastically in their classes.
The effect of such a class as relaxing, comforting and tension reducing device has effects on teacher image. In my learning experience, I improved a lot because of the fun activities, in the following I would like to mention few activities which could be help.
Skits
Dramatizing short skit was my favorite activity and very useful as these short skits were written, directed and acted by students, in front of their classes or even the whole institute and judges who are usually the teachers, decide the best performers, theme and so on, sometimes students come up with very creative, interesting and fun ideas. In the process of writing dialogues, rehearsal and directions the learners get ample opportunity to listen, read, write and speak in the target language.
Press conference/ Court martial
In this activity the class is divided into three, four, five groups depending on the total number of students in class and each group is asked to choose a celebrity (dead or alive) and then the groups represents that celebrity, the remaining students in the class play reports or journalists and the groups that chooses the personality defend the personality and answers controversial issues in defense.
Alibi
Two students are chosen from the class and then the class decides a charge form them e.g. they committed any crime on a specified time and date, then these students go out of class and decide an alibi for that particular day and time, one of the students is called in the class the other remains out of class, the first students is interrogated by the class and then the second student is called and asked the same questions, if there is difference in their statements they are guilty otherwise innocent.
These few games are just an example there could be many activities which could be interesting, humorous and fun.

Building Pronunciation Skills

While I have been able to teach my student many grammatical principles and vocab items this semester, the most fulfilling part (besides growing a relationship) has been to help her strengthen her pronunciation skills. She let me know at the beginning of our time together that she wanted to sound like native speaker so I have kept that in mind as I teach my lessons, adding pronunciation practices in where I see issues. We have learned how to pronounce the past tense /-ed/. It gives me such joy to see her stop in the middle of a reading and remember to feel for vibrations in her throat to know whether to end her word with [t], [d] or [ed]. I can see her improving and having to use that technique less and less.

This Monday there was a particularly high amount of st-, sp-, sc- words in our reading. As a native Spanish speaker she is always tempted to add a schwa to the beginning of these words: eschool, she says, or estop. While babysitting a sweet 4-year old with a speech impediment over the summer, I saw her mother stop her while she was having troubles with her S's, have her drag her finger along her forearm as she pronounced the S in snack and then finish the word when she reached her palm. Ssssssssssss nack. Every time she was made to focus on the S she could easily say the word afterward and had less trouble with similar S words for at least a few minutes. I tried this with my student. "You may feel silly trying this but as a Spanish speaker you are not used to starting a word with S and another consonant. This will help you think about the S!" She loved it! She tried one word (Ssssssssss top), sat back and said "Wow! I can do it!"

Have you guys had any interesting pronunciation teachable moments this semester?

esl students sharing cultural difficulties

this is an interesting idea, however, it does seem limited in how much activity they put on it:

http://tesl.engl.iastate.edu/510/F02/finalculturalgapfile/Homepage/frameset1.htm

I found these recored comments from some students interesting about there not being enough clerks in the supermarket to ask questions to (esp since we as esl teachers might suggest they find a clerk which to ask their questions - come to think of it, i have the same difficulty, it is not as easy as it sounds)

It wasn't easy shopping in the supermarkets, especially with no attendants standing at every aisle, like back home. All the items being so different from what I was used to definitely through me the first few times. But a few wonderful, kind people helped me out with picking out the best products and brands for the items I needed and showed me how to make the best deals. I couldn't have done it without them.
A student from Kenya

It is very difficult to find a attendant in a US supermarket. In China there are so many attendants around that you can easily find where the thing you want is, by asking the attendant. But in the US supermarket, I rarely see an attendant and I have to spend a longer time looking for what I want.
A student from China


I especially like the ability to search for shared issues/concerns which might be a limitation of a blog for keeping student comments.

This came from iowa state's project links which are at the very bottom of this page:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/%7Eapling/projects.html

There are also some pronunciation activities on the same project page.

A business writing example from Steve Job

To follow up my thought in the previous blog post...

This is a quote from the same web page I linked in which a point presented by a CEO I consider to be quite enlightening:

The survey found that advanced technology in the workplace plays a significant role. "With the fast pace of today's electronic communications, one might think that the value of fundamental writing skills has diminished in the workplace," said Joseph M. Tucci, president and CEO of EMC Corporation and chairman of the Business Roundtable's Education and the Workforce Task Force. "Actually, the need to write clearly and quickly has never been more important than in today's highly competitive, technology-driven global economy."


To illustrate Tucci's point, I couldn't think of a better example than the one just been released by Steve Job. He elaborates the reasons why he does not allow Flash software to run on all Apple's mobile platform. Without taking side with either Adobe or Apple, I feel Job made a compelling case for an important business decision -- all in writing. The article can be used as a good reading and writing material for business and technology students too. For most of you, please pardon me for being quite technical this time; I won't do it again :-)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20003742-264.html?tag=rtcol;inTheNewsNow

Writing: A Ticket to Work... Or a Ticket Out

http://www.writingcommission.org/pr/writing_for_employ.html

This report documented the result of a survey of 120 major American corporations in 2004, unequivocally underscores the importance of writing in the corporate world. My own experience in business can both confirm and validate the findings in the report, especially in the context of managing people, or products, or relationships, or technology, etc. In think I could use this report to motivate target students to be serious about developing writing skills. When they see the value down the line, their action would likely follow.

Wei-Fan

Last conversation class tonight ..

Kinda sad.  Tonight was my last 'conversation club' class, and a bunch of students who had missed the last couple of sessions while prepping for the iTOEFL showed up.  I know this will shock everyone, but I made some snacks and sneaked them into the room and we just sat around a table and talked.  Actually, it bore out something I had suspected all along ... that speaking/conversation practice classes do best when things are casual, and, well, cafe-like.  One student had some really wonderful, but hard questions about the American revolution and the Civil War ... another put on a YouTube clip of a woman speaking in 21 accents - very funny - and another, a rather salty, but hysterical cartoon clip of an Italian man on a vacation, and the trouble his English pronunciation caused ... things about sheets on the bed, and peas, etc.  (I'll go no further), but everyone sat around and talked with each other ... and we ran over by half and hour.  I think we got all the crumbs off the floor.  This was just a really great experience.  Would that they will more often be like this than not, and for all of us!

response to Managing a Volunteer Program

Sharon, first of all, you had done a magnificent job with all the agencies you've been serving this semester. Wow! Way to go!

I understand your frustration with lax agencies. I guess I think of it and try to deal with it in a calm and patient manner. Ha! It's hard and frustrating, but we're here, working with their agency, doing what 'we hope' they want us to do. And I think that's really all they want, and they appreciate it if we're there at all. We may have all sorts of suggestions and recommendations for the program, but (when they're not looking for suggestions) I just try to keep those things in mind in case I run my own program one day :) Or at least now after working with a lax agency, I now have a much better idea of what I want when looking for an agency to work with. You know, we kinda gotta go with the flow when we're there, and we just can't control things they way we'd like to (or I know I'd like to) when we're gone. Sad, but true.

So glad Lori's student is taking over the class, by the way!!

sign difficult to ESL readers

I know this is an orthography one but I suspect the following sign would be difficult for ESL students.
https://mavspace.uta.edu/xythoswfs/webview/_xy-1159089_1
It might be an interesting puzzle for an ESL learner since the words involved are fairly simple. The puzzle being, what is this sign saying?

Also, this is one of Justin Timberlake that I saw on mtv.com today that reminded me of doing an ESL lesson over the camera where you reach you hand out to nowhere to pretend as though you are shaking the other persons hand when teaching "Hello, How are you?".
https://mavspace.uta.edu/xythoswfs/webview/_xy-1159090_1

That is what I did teaching EFL at NOVA in Japan.

Managing a Volunteer Program

Friday, 4/30 was my last conversation class at ArlingtonReads! Luckily, an undergraduate student from Lori's linguistics class, who had come to my ELI conversation group last Monday to make up some service learning hours because her student had cancelled some classes, and I invited her to come to Friday's class. The great news is that she is going to continue with the conversation group - which is now a constant turn-out of 4 people each Friday - so there won't be any interruption for the students.

As delighted as I am to leave 'my' students in good hands, I would be less than honest to say that I was a bit disturbed by what seemed to be a bit of a 'whatever' attitude on the part of the program organizers. Likely my inexperience is showing here. I have finally gotten comfortable with stepping and stepping up in terms of organizing the class and making simple lesson plans ... but I keept looking over my shoulder to check with those in charge of the program ... is this how they have forseen the program? am I operating within the bounds of the services they offer? I know that a program like ELI, or Intensive English at UT Austin is quite differently organized, and highly structured ... but it is comforting to know what the inclement weather policy might be, and, if students want a field trip, it is possible to arrange that and notify everyone ... instead of wondering if this is the week that 16 new people will show up between 10:40 and 11:20, expecting a teacher and a class at the library. Worst was the computer class that was scheduled, still don't know by whom, in the room where the conversation class is held. The teacher basically, unpleasantly, and almost physically, tossed us out. The students launched a discussion on manners that day: is this how you do things here in the US? What should we say to people like that, etc.? It was wierd. But, I have to admit ... it WAS good for conversation!
Now, I sense that the organization I describe may be more than a bit lax, but I'd like to hear from you what you feel is a reasonable expectation for working in volunteer ESL programs.

Thanks! This happened a couple of weeks ago, and it has been a little hard to talk about.

GoogleScholar and subscription Electronic Databases

I have had occasion over this semester to meet with Jody Bailey, our reference Librarian at the UTA Library. In addition to having a MLS, she also has an MA in Linguistics. And she is a tech whiz. Another class (Pragmatics) had an entire class session with Jody at the Library, and she covered the subject of the varied databases and other research tools available thorough the Library ... It is an amazing array.
One of the most amazing things to have come out of that session was, certainly, her tour through the various subject searches across databases, and the search strategies she set up in individual ones. She also discussed how the subscriptions to these databases work: there are fare more out there than UTA subscribes to; there are levels of subscription within a particular database, say, LLBA, or MLA, or EBSCO, or ERIC ...; but most stunningly was how expensive subscriptions to these little suckers can be.
Also of note was her endorsement of GoogleScholar as a worthy research tool - because it will give info on whether, and how many times an article has been cited, it will allow you to play with search terms and strings, it will/may find quality articles for you (not everything coming off the sub databases is guaranteed to be perfect, either), and, best of all, it is free to use and many of the articles cited are available free in .pdf format!
It is its basic quality plus this last item - being free to use - that interests me. Even if we are doing service learning tutoring and teaching at a program with a limited budget, by virtue of our UTA association, we do have access to all of this wonderful stuff, plus InterLibrary Loan and TexCat for free. Our program with the limited budget cannot affored these services, but they sure can - if they have computers - utilize GoogleScholar.
It was good to know that Jody thought well enough of GS to discuss it and analyze its searching capabilities and functions.

BTW, if you have not had an opportunity to work with Jody and benefit from her help and knowledge on a research project, you really owe it to yourself to do so.

my efl scholar experiences

I can understand the general position of the class regarding google scholar and I appreciate the input. In fact, I rarely use google scholar due the resources the university provides, but this discussion has given me the motivation to look into possible pedagogical methods in which to use google scholar.
Nonetheless, I am reminded of my experience in the EFL environment I was in, where numerous times the student one was speaking to might have been famous or fairly often a scholar with high merits or credentials (of course classes were expensive so that sometimes set your audience). In such cases of scholars, I usually think of the individual who might appreciate a statement such as this is a good research tool but scholars often use …. (a statement that is fairly simple if they have studied habitual actions). Even if their conversational ability places them at a lower intermediate level. Therefore, I sometimes consider not only what gives the student the most bang for their time but also what gives them the most sense of value for their dollar (not always the same in ESL I suppose). (mixing the idea of being principled with also being product orientated).
On one side to this, one observation I had made was that if sometimes a student appeared particularly happy at the end of a lesson to have someone as a teacher, that might be indicative of the student not being satisfied with the lesson (not that I had many complaints, but everyone got a few after several years and that was generally agreed upon as a good indicator). Looking back, I wonder if this is due to ‘focus on emotion’ similar to when we as speakers are focusing on form. That is, I don’t want my emotion of being highly dissatisfied to show through so I am focusing so much on that emotion that it displays as an over exaggeration. Sometimes I want to give them tidbits they will enjoy (such as above) and might learn from if their background is appropriate even if their displayed English is not.

A “nuts and bolts” article for a technology-based ESL writing course

Click on the title for a “quick read” which provides a starting point for effectively implementing the use of computers in the ESL writing classroom. It’s short, to the point and includes an outline of activities including preparing students to use computers, having them conduct interviews via e-mail, monitoring progress, peer editing, using student papers projected on the screen to teach various compositional points. Native speakers are paired with ESL students. The study finds that the students writing improved, with the greatest improvement in those who corresponded regularly with their partners. Electronic copies of all correspondence were forwarded to the instructor (that could be burdensome) who was able to track their progress.

Cassidy, J. A. (1996). Computer-assisted language arts instruction for the ESL learner. The English Journal, 85(8), 55-57.

Reporting your service learning hours

Hi all -

As you finish up your service learning, please make sure that you turn your form in to me indicating your total number of hours. In addition, please click on the title to this post, which will take you to http://www.uta.edu/ccsl/students where you can log your hours through UT Arlington's Service Learning Center.

A couple notes on reporting your hours:
(1) For class, you should have separate forms for different agencies.
(2) Please report total hours if you exceeded the required number.
(3) The exception to (2) is if you are taking more than one class that requires service learning hours. In that case, please do not double-dip; separate the hours by class, rather than reporting the same total for both. For instance, if you taught a total of 40 hours, and you were taking both 5302 and 5110, don't report 40 for both, or we will think that you taught 80 hours total. Instead, split them somehow, so that when we add the totals for the two classes, we get 40. If you are still unclear on this, please talk to me!

Reliability & Validity- by Ruby

Have you even encountered teachers who ask for one thing before you write and turn in your reports and require for another thing which has never been mentioned before? How do you feel about that? Have you even taken any exam which have nothing to do with what your teachers have been teaching you? How do you think about that?

Recently, in Arlington Reads, they gave the students a post-learning test which was similar to the one they took as the placement assessment three months ago. However, what we have been teaching them during the past several months really had very little to do with the English proficiency test. Guess what? Only two of the test takers got improved. Two of them even stepped backwards. My supervisor felt very frustrated and disappointed about that. She showed us the results and asked for our opinions. None of the co-workers said anything. I asked my supervisor, "Was the test relevant to what we have been teaching them?" She pondered and she replied, "No." Then, I said, "Then, this test is not valid to measure the efficiency and result of our teaching." She thought about it for a while and then she agreed with me.

The other possible reason for students not making obvious progress might be: my supervisor and co-workers seldom correct students' errors. Although I raised that issue for several times in our teaching meetings, they did not see eye to eye with me on that issue. They believe we should just let things (language learning) happen naturally and automatically. However, the students are adults; some of them are over 50!! I guess we do not agree with each other on the differences between language acquisition vs. language learning.

As ESL/EFL teachers, if we want to measure our students' progress as well as our own teaching efficiency, maybe we should consider more about validity beforehand. I think if we keep on giving students not-so-valid tests, students will consider us not reliable gradually, which is not what we expect or want. In addition, language-focused learning, recast and error treatment are also very important. Communicative approach is very good, but communicative approach without error correction at all can be very risky.

Technology in ESL classrooms

There is no doubt that the use of technology in ESL classrooms does not only facilitate and updates the learning process but makes it more lucrative, beneficial and interesting. The use of technology is so common almost in every career and profession e.g PowerPoint, projector, Internet, cassette player and so on, so in a way it can prepare students to handle the technology in their future professions and serves like a bonus knowledge besides their ESL learning.
The use of technology e.g Internet, in this age when people are studying, working and taking care of their families brings ease and comfort as assignment could be submitted electronically in no time.
On the other hand like any other neutral device, technology could also be misused and cause distraction especially in the use of Internet, as it becomes difficult to resist your curiosity when you have a window open to almost all the universe in front of you and you only focus on one thing. Another problem which I personally experienced when I was doing my masters in Pakistan, where we have severe power shortage and often people are without electricity for twelve to fifteen hours in a day and we were required to type and submit assignments on computer, you can imagine how frustrating the situation was. Same was the case when trying to use cassette player for my students listening practice, Even for this blog sometimes you type a long answer and try to post it vanishes, so I think when using any kind of technology one should always have a plan B, which could be used if technology does not work.

Response to ‘Penmanship becoming a lost art?’

I think that’s an interesting video clip, Clint. Thanks for sharing. We’ve talked a bit about this issue in class, and while I see the importance of learning to use a keyboard, I highly value the ability to hand write in general. I think it’s still important to teach our ESL students how to hand write their letters and words and sentences and essays. There are still numerous uses for having good hand-writing, including applications, medical forms/paperwork, and even the joy of journaling. This is a tough issue, though, because there are many applications online and doctor’s offices going to computer use but I’ll be honest, I keep a journal about Cason typed up and saved in my computer.

Does anyone know if ESL computer/keyboard classes are offered or required? I might be way behind the times in asking that question. Didn’t most of you have a keyboarding class in junior high or high school? My ideas on the issue boil down to the fact that I think we need to keep hand writing around, but I also think students should be taught how to type as well.

Response to ‘Manners as a Part of our Methods and Materials’

I’m with Sean…I don’t remember the in-class discussion, so maybe it was the day we were both absent.

As far as the article goes, I’m not totally sure yet what I think about it. I agree that respecting your teacher and peers inside (and out of) the classroom is extremely important, but I don’t, however, see the importance of teaching general etiquette to a group of college students. My idea of correct etiquette (as a girl) is using the right fork or spoon and making sure you send those personal hand-written ‘thank you’ cards when you get wedding gifts, but I’m also one to somewhat rebel (or at least cross the line) when it comes to ‘correct’ etiquette. I don’t know which fork to use and frankly, I don’t care J.

So, maybe this sociology teacher’s definition of etiquette in this context is simply teaching or reminding college kids to respect their authority as well as each other. If this is the case, then I’m totally fine with that. Kids do need to learn to respect their teachers and their classmates.

There is one more thing that I want to mention in the article. The article quotes, “Ideally, parents and family should be responsible for teaching good habits in early childhood, Moon said. What a child learns at the dinner table, the supermarket and during holiday visits will translate into the classroom and the world at large, she said. “ She does say ideally here, but come on….How many kids these days are really learning manners from their parents? I’m guessing the percentage is quite low. So, she makes a valid point in wanting to teach respect in her sociology classroom.

And I completely agree with Sean that cultural manners should be taught in an ESL classroom. I also think that manners can be addressed as they come up as well. If a student does or says something that is offensive (inadvertently), I think it should be ‘coached.’ As a shift manager at Starbucks, we are taught to coach in the moment, meaning when something happens that shouldn’t happen, try to address it (maturely) sooner rather than later b/c people will learn a better lesson this way. I think this can also transfer to the classroom as well. We as teachers might be able to pull a student aside and give them a little ‘mini lesson’ on manners.

Penmanship becoming a lost art?

Another real-world story related to our course--this time from CNN.

Approaches to scoring in writing.

Between the two major types of scoring in ESL writing, Holistic and Analytic, I prefer the Analytic scoring, because in my experience as a student our writings were assessed using Holistic approach, where usually students were unable to find out the specific areas of their weaknesses and usually the students got impression that they have some problem with the linguistic features such as grammar, structure and vocabulary.
If Analytic scoring approach is used the learners and the teachers both get a pattern where they can analyze all the features involved in writing, e.g content, idea, format and grammar, which will also make clear that writing is not only about grammar but there are many elements involved, like the audience it is written for, how are the ideas presented, clarity, cohesion, and argument.

Manners as part of our Methods and Materials

You may recall our recent in-class discussion regarding the things we should (or should not) teach as instructors of English as a Second Language.

If you click on the title of this post, it should take you to a relevant article.

Any other further comments or observations?

Portfolio Grading Solutions

I am intrigued by the use of portfolios. I decided to explore further methods of solving the grading dilemma. There are numerous articles in publication. I explored three from the National Council of Teachers of English from 1990, 1997 and 2005. There are great suggestions in each article and all are accessible through the UTA Library JSTOR database.

• Krest (1990) outlines a system by which, based on the level of the class you are teaching, you can adapt the grading system. There are two grades, one for the portfolio itself and one is a paper grade for the quality of the compositions. The portfolio grade can be weighted more heavily to encourage fluency through risk taking and serious revision attempts, normally in lower level situations. In a higher level classroom, where accuracy is the emphasis, the paper grade for the quality of the individual components is stressed. A sample of a portfolio grade sheet is included in the article.
• Burch (1997) provides detailed information on creating a rubric for a portfolio. She provides a sample of two-tied rubric where one tier grades on the contents of the portfolio and the second on the quality. Again, the weight can be adjusted depending on the rationale behind the portfolio and goals of the students. She stresses the fact that the rubric should be constantly reviewed and revised. It should be continually evolving.
• Finally, White (2005) finds fault with the typical holistic portfolio rubric and recommends a phase 2 of grading, namely the addition of two items: a goals statement and a reflective letter. The goals statement is developed by the instructor or the department to outline the purposes for which the portfolio is being compiled. What is the expectation of the collection? What should it reflect? What is its purpose? The reflective letter is written by the student. The student presents his/her case for why the items included in the portfolio were selected and how they fulfill the goals as outlined in the goals statement. Samples of goals statements are provided in the appendix. I was disappointed in the lack of a sample of a reflective letter.
  
  Burch, C. B. (1997). Creating a two-tiered portfolio rubric. The English Journal, 86(1), 55-58. Retrieved from http://libproxy.uta.edu:2055/stable/820782
  
  Krest, M. (1990). Adapting the portfolio to meet student needs. The English Journal, 79(2), 29-34. Retrieved from http://libproxy.uta.edu:2055/stable/819095
  
  White, E. M. (2005). The scoring of writing portfolios: Phase 2. College Composition and Communication, 56(4), 581-600. Retrieved from http://libproxy.uta.edu:2055/stable/30037887

Taking a class out of the room and into the day to day world

My AR! conversation did two classes on food and shopping.  One student works in the prepared foods department at Whole Foods Market in Arlington.  Another two students had several questions about how to shop in an American grocery store, so agreed to meet at WFM in Arlington for and intro to one type of food store, what & where things were, and how to locate items, ask questions of staff (do you have?  where can I find?  and, most importantly, May I have a sample of that, please? - this one was a big hit).

Ever trying to slip a reading/writing component into the class, I asked them to prepare a shopping list of items they needed to purchase or that they had questions about.  I also prepared a pretty standard shopping list - giving items and quantities - with spaces for them to add info, questions, notes, etc.

Our WFM student had to work that day, but it proved to be a benefit:  she took some time  to come out of the kitchen and give a 'tour' of the prepared foods case (and got to point out which items she had made), and the other students got to ask questions, ask for samples from the counterman, and make notes about the food on their sheets.

It was a great conversation class ... but I found that I could give a short answer to a question about a product, and then, depending on student level and product container prose, let them read the product label or info card.  They made notes on their lists, and could ask questions about words they did not understand, or things they were not familiar with (organic cat food was high on that list, as were the prices on some items).  WFM also has an array of brochures and recipe cards available for customers, and placed by the entrance for easy reach.  These materials provided provided more on the spot reading exercises, and, since many of WFM's customers appear to be neophyte cooks, these materials are written in simple phrases with a rather limited vocabulary.  That makes them easy for ESL learners to understand.

The other unexpected benefits were the array of free samples (go Fridays, about 10-11 am, when they are fresh and plentiful!), and the opportunity to ask counterpeople for tastes, but another unexpected benefit was interaction with other customers.  One student wanted to know why everyone was saying "Excuse me!" and wanted to know why they were saying it.  We got to have a great discussion about how intonation could change meaning - from "I'm sorry if I bumped into you with my cart." and "I am squeezing through here." to  "Would you get out of my way?"

Though this is a conversation class, I asked the students to write their thoughts about the store, the customers, and their shopping experience.  I did find out on Saturday that one student had gone back to WFM with their own shopping list, and bought things for dinner.

I am thinking that a hardware store, or drugstore, or maybe Walmart might be a good choice for a next visit.  I was also pleased to find ways to incorporate reading and writing into the lesson.