ECL310 Burwood

[kathelyntan-blog]

Week 9

When I was reading a week 9 post I was reminded of this great spoken word poetry that I saw seven years ago by Sarah Kay titled "If I should have a daughter" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQgz2AhHaQg).

I was mesmerised by the way she performed this piece, it was just so engaging! I would use this to show students that pauses, hand movements, tone, and volume can add depth to the story that they are telling.

Actually, during placement the students in my class had to prepare a public speaking piece. So one of the things that the teacher did to help them prepare and feel confident was showed them TED talk videos of kids giving speeches so that the students would know what they have to practice and work towards. I think I would use this video as an example to show kids what they should include in their presentation to help engage the audience and convey their message across better. For example, the use of p a u s e and VOLume is very effective in convey a sense of suspense or urgency.

[kathelyntan-blog]

Week 8

In this podcast I discussed about an assessment that I did when I was in primary school. It was an assessment that my school used to determine whether or not a student who came from overseas should go to a language school first before they enter a mainstream school. Essentially it was a assessment that was used to grasp my current understanding of English in terms of my speaking, listening and writing skills.

[kathelyntan-blog]

Week 7

As I was reflecting upon all my placements, I realised that the number of ESL students in the class are increasing. During my most recent placement, my mentor teacher had an ESL student in the class who was really struggling with English. She told me that because there is only one language school around the area, students usually only get to study half to one year in the language school before they have to enrolled in a mainstream school. Before this, the parents or the child had the choice and power to choose when they are most comfortable to leave the language school. However, due to the increase of ESL students, it is very common that the language school is only able to provide one year of intensive language education before they have to "kicked" the student out. 

Therefore, one of my goal is to learn ways to help the ESL students in the classroom. I want to accelerate their process of learning a new language so that they feel more comfortable and confident in the classroom.

One of the resources I found was a website called ESL Gold (https://eslgold.com/) that offers a wide range of resources for teaching all aspect of English (such as grammar, vocabulary and reading skills) to a variety of age group and levels.

Another resource that I found was another website called Randal’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (https://www.esl-lab.com/) that provides a range of audio clips and pre/post listening activities for learners. I think this is extremely helpful because understandably, ESL students struggle with speaking and listening skills as they feel nervous and unfamiliar with the new language.

[kathelyntan-blog]

Week 3

Link: http://www.bigbooklittlebook.com

This is a website that suggests and reviews children's literature from foundation level to year twelve. The review of each picture storybook or novel is also accompanied by a plot summary. The website also includes interview with authors on their latest novel. I think that this is a relevant and special feature as some students may want to know more about the author of their favourite book and learn where or how the author got the inspiration of their book from.

[kathelyntan-blog]

Week 2

This is a poster that my mentor teacher had on displayed in her classroom. I think that this poster is very effective as students use the word "said/say" too often in their writing. Thus this poster helps to remind them that there are much better and more interesting words to use than "said/say". I believe that by constantly reminding students to refer back to this poster will help them to expand their vocabulary and break their habit of using "said/say" to much.

I also think that students can create their own version of this poster in their writing book. For example they can have a page for "said/say", or "firstly, secondly, lastly" in their book and add on synonyms, phrases or new words that they discover throughout the school year. This will make the activity much more personal too and students will be more likely to remember new words and use them if they were the ones who came up with that word. It will also be a good opportunity for teachers to observe how much a child has progressed in their literacy skills.

[kathelyntan-blog]

Week 1

My family and I migrated to Australia when I was in grade four. When I first started school here I remember being fascinated by the school library. This is because I could not believe that a school library could contain such fun, colourful and interesting books, I was in shocked!

Thus I was always excited to go to the library, more so because we were given the choice to choose our own novels. The first book that grabbed my attention and began my love for reading was a book series called “The Tiara Club”. Each book focuses on a different princess and the stories are told from their perspectives. This book series focuses on teaching readers about good values and attributes to have such as kindness, perseverance and friendship. I loved this series because I enjoyed looking at the illustrations that was in the book because it helped me to imagined the story better.

From my own experience, I understand how important it is to allow students the freedom to explore and choose their own book as that is how we spark their love and joy in reading. Furthermore, it is also beneficial for EAL students because they will be more inclined to practice their literacy skills and read in their own time, outside of school hours if they get pick a book that they are interested in.