Through several levels of miscommunication, I thought I was going to have a visitor today. I did a ton of prep last night (which I would have/should have/needed to have done anyway) for an activity that I thought would be at least interesting to watch. My visitor was a no-show, but the activity went well anyway. It was the classic information gap activity with a load of scaffolding; the topic was states of matter. The good thing is that the activity was a good one, and it's one I'll use again next year. The not-so-good thing was that it took A LOT of work to get ready. And after I had gotten it ready, I realized that I'm not doing enough of this kind of speaking activity with my students. Must do more.
But where does inventing the wheel again come in? I'm wondering if I'm doing that. Am I missing something? I've done a lot of searches, but I'm not finding enough stuff out there that integrates content and academic English in a way that would work for a group of mostly semi-literate middle schoolers. Yes, I'm looking for a very specific curriculum. Maybe I should just write one and then sell it. There's an idea.
It would have to integrate technology. I haven't seen any sort of curriculum that successfully does that. I got my hands on an iPad today, and the technology is incredibly promising.
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I am at TESOL in sunny Philadelphia this week. I seldom find myself nodding my head while listening to a speaker, but I've nodded my hea...
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The first chapter of this book is called, "A Pedagogy of Promise" followed by the subheading, "Helping Students Become Wha...
Kim,
ReplyDeleteReinventing the wheel is a terrific way to get around studying and jump right to learning. Don't worry that it's been done before; it hasn't been done 'til it's been done by you.
And you're right, the iPad's terrific. Just bought another one, so now I have two to use in the classroom!