Are your students creating things?  Are you?

There is so much pay off when we create something.  You can download this episode wherever you get your podcasts or just listen to it right here:

Why Should We Create?

To get a sense of why we want our students creating, just consider when YOU create something.  It takes more out of you.  Analysis, application, reflection… so much cognitive heavy lifting happens when we create.

I want to thank you for reading this blog or listening to the podcast.  The show and this website are a great example of what I’m talking about.  Creating blog posts or podcast episodes actually forces reflection.  It is one of the main reasons I do it.  I know that I will be reflecting on my craft or my philosophies whenever I put a show or post together.

How Does This Look in a Classroom?

My friend, Shilpa Palawat gave me permission to use a recent conversation we had as an example.  Shilpa is a 2nd-year teacher.  She, like many of us, feels that she is not doing enough for her students. She expressed to me that she wishes she were more seasoned in her practice so she could be helping the students learn more.

WELL!

I’m so glad Shilpa came to the Long Island ESOL conference so that we could spend the rest of the day chatting and sight-seeing in New York.

Still fangirling over this meeting! So happy we got to connect IRL! Thank you again for everything 💗 #PLN friends are real friends! #LIESOL #BoostingAchievement @MsSalvac pic.twitter.com/Yzsebw8N6t

— Jacqueline Zacarías (@ESL_Adventures) March 23, 2019

Long Island ESOL 2019

Before I go further, I want to mention that we were at The Long Island ESOL Conference and it was AMAZING.  Put that on your calendar for next year.  It is a 1/2 day conference at Molloy College that happens this time each year.  Andrea Honigsfel and the other organizers are determined to keep the conference affordable and accessible to teachers.  I was honored to serve on the opening panel and share in the break out sessions.

My sessions are summarized right here if you were unable to attend and would like to hear most of what I shared. I have two sessions geared to students who are older or adult learners.  I shared techniques that are proving successful to help accelerate language acquisition and literacy for these learners.

I’m excited to tell you that Emily Francis was also presenting a session in North Carolina on this same day.  I am always sad not to get to hear Emily present.  But guess what!  Emily is ALSO blogging about her breakout sessions so she ALSO has a blog post with videos and links for those of us who could not be in her session.  It is right here.

Building Our Students Up

So during our outing in NYC, Shilpa and I talked about what kind of things she was doing in her classroom.  She was very humble and described how she adapts text for her students and works with them in different ways.  She sounds very dedicated.  One of the most impressive activities, in my opinion, was what she calls Monday Melodies and Tuesday Tunes.  Shilpa is adapting a project I borrowed from Noa Daniel.  PLEASE follow Noa for great ideas about building outside the blocks.  (blocks of time, blocks of curriculum silos, blocks of grading periods, etc…)

Shilpa’s students are delivering a modified version of the project and she reports that they love it.  OF COURSE they love it!  The project asks students to reflect on songs that describe them.

This video is an example of this “Personal Playlist” project one of my newcomers presented last year.

I learned from following Noa that these projects can be built outside of our blocks of time.  Students chose this or another project and these only take 5 minutes of class time on the date the student indicates that they will be ready to share.  So many of my students said these presentations were their favorite part of our year.  They reported that they felt seen and heard. And that they learned so much about each other.

I hope Shilpa realizes that helping students feel seen and heard is one of the MOST important things we can do for young people.  If you think this kind of thing is not as important as academics, I would argue.  Helping students feel important should be at the front of every teacher’s mind.

Consider these messages.  Don’t you agree that if a student believes these four messages, they will eventually find success in what they are trying to learn?  Our founder, John Seidlitz, makes sure that all of our trainings help teachers convey these messages to their students.  I can clearly see how Shilpa is helping her students get these messages from her.

Another way you can help students feel important, in any class, is how you honor them for what they are able to learn and contribute.  We can do that by the way we question.  I again mention the QSSSA questioning strategy.  You might like this article that describes the process.It is a great blogpost by Valentina Gonzales.

The planning pages for the Personal Playlist project are right here.  You can also download them here:

Don’t forget to follow Noa Daniel and check out her website BuildingOutsidetheBlocks.com.  I absolutely love her Personal Playlist Podcast and I think you will too!

Hope this show gave you some things to reflect upon.  It certainly did for me.  I very much appreciate that you dropped by!

Thank you again, Shilpa and thanks to Andrea Honigfeld and everyone at Mulloy college.   Here are a few more LIESOL2019 photos just for good measure.  So happy to connect with all of these EduHEROES!

 

 

Hope to see you soon!  Don’t forget that I’m the keynote speaker for #MABEMI19 coming up in May.  Join us if you can!

Thursday & Friday, May 9-10, 2019
The Dearborn Inn
 20301 Oakwood Blvd  
Dearborn, MI 48124
(313) 271-2700