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IDIOM New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Table of Contents Collaborative Conversations 1 Conversations in Support 3 Acting 4 Resources for the Common Core 6 Talking is learning 10 Small Talk 14 Conversation Table 24 Regular Features / Special Announceents Promising Practices 8 Book Review 12 SIGs and Regions 17 Members Only Website 18 Editorial Notes 22 Upcoming Idiom emes 22 Calendar and Announcements 22 NEW Membership Form 23 Vol. 41, No. 3 http://www.nystesol.org Fall 2011 NYS TESOL Annual Conference Oct. 28-29 Marriott Hotel Melville www.nystesol.org/annualconf/ at effective collaboration benefits students (and teachers alike) is affirmed by the well-deserved attention it has received most recently in the professional literature (see, for example, DelliCarpini, 2008, 2009; Honigsfeld & Dove, 2010; NACTAF, 2009; NEA, 2009; Pawan & Ortloff, 2011) and in the TESOL educa- tional community (e.g., themes of 2011 New York State and Kentucky TESOL conferences). Acknowledging the importance of collaborative exchanges among teachers is not a completely novel idea, though. Close to three decades ago, Judith Warren Little (1982) examined the differences between more and less effective schools and found that the more effective ones had a greater degree of collegiality. She noted four unique characteristics of collegiality (or collaboration) in suc- cessful schools, where teachers participate in the following activities: • Teachers engage in frequent, continuous, and increasingly concrete and precise talk about teaching practice. • Teachers are frequently observed and provided with useful critiques of their teaching. • Teachers plan, design, evaluate, and prepare teaching materials together. • Teachers teach each other the practice of teaching (pp. 331–332). Consider what Warren Little’s (1982) frequently quoted four key ideas could mean for ELLs in today’s schools. What if we translated her seminal findings into a contemporary framework of four Cs, in which “collaborative” serves as a defin- ing adjective, followed by a key activity or desired teacher behavior necessary for improved student learning? • Collaborative Conversations: rough enhanced communication, all teachers have the opportunity to develop ownership and shared responsibility for ELLs’ learning. • Collaborative Coaching: rough an encouraging school climate and support- ive framework, teachers offer and receive feedback on their teaching practices. • Collaborative Curriculum Development: rough curriculum mapping and alignment and collaborative materials development, teachers match both their longterm and day-to-day instructional goals and activities. (continued on page 20) Collaborative Conversations* by Andrea Honigsfeld This Issue’s Theme: Conversations Vol. 41, No. 3 (Fall 2011) 1 NYS TESOL Idioms NYSTESOL.indd 1 6/19/12 11:03 AM

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Page 1: Idiom layout

IDIOMNew York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

Table of Contents Collaborative Conversations 1Conversations in Support 3Acting 4Resources for the Common Core 6Talking is learning 10Small Talk 14Conversation Table 24

Regular Features / Special Announceents

Promising Practices 8 Book Review 12SIGs and Regions 17Members Only Website 18Editorial Notes 22Upcoming Idiom Th emes 22Calendar and Announcements 22NEW Membership Form 23

Vol. 41, No. 3 http://www.nystesol.org Fall 2011

NYS TESOLAnnual Conference

Oct. 28-29Marriott Hotel

Melvillewww.nystesol.org/annualconf/

Th at eff ective collaboration benefi ts students (and teachers alike) is affi rmed by the well-deserved attention it has received most recently in the professional literature (see, for example, DelliCarpini, 2008, 2009; Honigsfeld & Dove, 2010; NACTAF, 2009; NEA, 2009; Pawan & Ortloff , 2011) and in the TESOL educa-tional community (e.g., themes of 2011 New York State and Kentucky TESOL conferences). Acknowledging the importance of collaborative exchanges among teachers is not a completely novel idea, though. Close to three decades ago, Judith Warren Little (1982) examined the diff erences between more and less eff ective schools and found that the more eff ective ones had a greater degree of collegiality.

She noted four unique characteristics of collegiality (or collaboration) in suc-cessful schools, where teachers participate in the following activities:

• Teachers engage in frequent, continuous, and increasingly concrete and precise talk about teaching practice.

• Teachers are frequently observed and provided with useful critiques of their teaching.

• Teachers plan, design, evaluate, and prepare teaching materials together.

• Teachers teach each other the practice of teaching (pp. 331–332).

Consider what Warren Little’s (1982) frequently quoted four key ideas could mean for ELLs in today’s schools. What if we translated her seminal fi ndings into a contemporary framework of four Cs, in which “collaborative” serves as a defi n-ing adjective, followed by a key activity or desired teacher behavior necessary for improved student learning?

• Collaborative Conversations: Th rough enhanced communication, all teachers have the opportunity to develop ownership and shared responsibility for ELLs’ learning.

• Collaborative Coaching: Th rough an encouraging school climate and support-ive framework, teachers off er and receive feedback on their teaching practices.

• Collaborative Curriculum Development: Th rough curriculum mapping and alignment and collaborative materials development, teachers match both their longterm and day-to-day instructional goals and activities.

(continued on page 20)

Collaborative Conversations*by Andrea Honigsfeld

This Issue’s Theme:

Conversations

Vol. 41, No. 3 (Fall 2011) 1 NYS TESOL Idioms

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From the President’s Desk

by Nanette Dougherty, NYS TESOL PresidentDear Colleagues,

I hope you have been enjoying a happy, healthy and restorative summer. I would like to update you on some changes and challenges facing educators. On July 13, I attended the Bilingual/ESL COP (Committee of Practitioners) meeting at Teachers College, Columbia University. Th e most major changes include the New Evaluation Law for K-12 teachers and principals:

1. Annual evaluations for all teachers and principals2. Clear, rigorous expectations for instructional excellence, prioritizing student learning3. Multiple measures of performance4. Multiple ratings: Four performance levels to describe di� erences in teacher e� ectiveness5. � e new system should encourage regular, constructive feedback and ongoing development6. Signi� cance: results are a major factor in employment decisions.

You can view all documents discussed at the COP Meeting at the following link: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/bilinged/BilingualESLCOP.html. For more information about the Common Core Standards, please consult the website at: http://www.corestandards.org/ and see the article in this issue. Th ough it was not considered at this meeting, the 14 Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Centers (BETACs) across New York State closed permanently onJune 30, 2011. Th is puts both our schools and our LEP/ELL populations at risk of not hav-ing the appropriate resources to meet their educational and programmatic needs over the next fi ve years.

Our new Commissioner of Education, Dr. John B. King, Jr., may not be familiar with the importance of the resources off ered by the BETACs. You may e-mail him directly at: [email protected]. In addition, you may email the NYS Board of Regents on this issue at: RegentsOffi [email protected].

At the Melville Marriott October 28-29th, I will be passing the gavel to our incoming President, Rebekah Johnson. I would like to thank the many wonderful members of my Executive Board and the many SIG and Region Leaders for their service to the organiza-tion. Special thanks to Cornelia Randolph, a constant support and inspiration, and Fran Olmos, for her guidance.

You will be receiving ballots for the Executive Board slate in the mail shortly. Th anks to our Nominating Committee, led by Cornelia Randolph and Terri Brady-Mendez, for their time and eff orts. Members, please do not forget to vote for your new leadership in our organization by returning your ballots. As always, please continue to keep in touch with issues, concerns, and ideas on how our organization can best serve you. Best wishes for a great school year to all.

Peace and blessings to you,Nanette Dougherty, President, NYS TESOL

P.S. We’re so very excited to be launching our new Members Only website - please read more about it in this issue and log in soon to check it out. Please contact us with ideas!

New York State Teachers of Englishto Speakers of Other Languages

Offi cers and Executive Board 2010-2011

President, Nanette DoughertyNYC Public Schools

First Vice President, Rebekah JohnsonLAGCC, CUNY

Second Vice President, Christy BaralisSouth Huntington School District

Second Vice President Elect, Olivia LimbuPace University

Past President/TESOL Liaison, Constance Dziombak

Mount Vernon City Schools

SIG Coordinator, Laura Van TassellSouth Huntington School District

SIG Assistant Coordinator, Jennifer ScullyConsultant

Regions Coordinator, Tina VillalobosHicksville Public Schools

Assistant Regions Coordinator, Lynn Ellingwood

Brighton Central School District

Membership & Marketing Chair, Patricia Juza Baruch College, CUNY

Assistant Membership Chair, Drew FaganTeachers College, Columbia University

Curriculum and Standards Chair,Maria Dove Molloy College

Assistant Curriculum and Standards ChairPosition Open

Professional Concerns ChairPorfi rio Rodriguez, East Ramapo CSD

Professional Concerns Assistant ChairPosition Open

Publications/Technology Chair, Fran OlmosYonkers Public Schools

Idiom Editor, Cara Tuzzolino WerbenNassau Community College

Dialogue Editor, Sue PetersonSt. John’s University

Webmaster, David HirschNew York City

Business Manager/TreasurerL. Jeanie Faulkner, Cornell University

Certifi ed Public AccountantJim Stotz

NYS TESOL Executive Board Meetings and General InformationMembers are welcome to attend Board meetings. For information, contact:

NYS TESOLBox 185Teachers College, Columbia University525 W. 120th Street, New York, NY 10027Tel./Fax: (212) 678-3074E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.nystesol.org

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Conversations in Support of High School ELLs

Adolescent ELLs are second language learners who are still developing their profi-ciency in academic English. Moreover, they are learning English at the same time they are studying core content areas through English. Thus, English language learners must per-form double the work of native English speakers in the country’s middle and high schools. At the same time, they are being held to the same accountability standards as their native English-speaking peers (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007, p. 1). Conversations with ELLs and colleagues are viable ways for ESL teachers to help their students navigate academic chal-lenges. My short time at Jamaica High School has been filled with conversations that have driven my instruction to best support the ELLs in my charge.

Curriculum Experiments Based on Conversations with ELLs At Jamaica High School, an ESL support class is offered zero period, 7:22 to 8:06 a.m., to provide intermediate ELLs with additional targeted interventions. September 2011 will be the third year I am teaching zero period, and each year is an ongoing curriculum development ac-tion research experiment. I conduct the course as combined resource room and advisory class model. Based on daily conversations with my students about their challenges, I provide home-work help; teach problematic topics in mathematics, science, and social studies; and assess and teach diverse skills necessary for academic success. The first year of the experiment, my cur-riculum included mathematics symbols and word problems; the living environment topics of scientific method, evolution, and organ systems; social studies topics of feudalism, estates, and analysis of political cartoons; English language arts topics of idioms, formal versus informal language, and dictionary/glossary skills; and academic readiness in test-taking strategies, study skills, time management, notebook organization, public speaking skills, and computer skills. I also taught graph skills across the disciplines. This class was one of a select few Jamaica High School English and ESL classes that benefi ted from TeenBiz3000 (Empower3000), a Web-based individualized reading program by Achieve3000.

Conversations with ELLs form part of the data collection that drives my curriculum changes. Several first-year students (participants in Experiment I) reported the lessons and ac-tivities helped them pass content-area finals and New York State Regents examinations. When asked how the support class could be improved for the following year, ELLs suggested that I allot more time to science, continue teaching math and social studies, and retain computer instruction on TeenBiz3000. One student, who was particularly resistant to my teaching any-thing but ESL all year, later admitted he benefitted from content-area instruction by his ESL teacher. All students expressed a deep appreciation for the bilingual content area glossaries I provided.

In the second year (Experiment II), I spent less time on dictionary/glossary skills; did not teach idioms; and, upon careful review of recent living environment Regents exams, added an ecosystem unit, a lesson on pH, and group activities on bar and line graphs. I replaced the formal versus informal English lesson with daily academic English and everyday English expla-nations and definitions. Students assessed their multiple intelligences(Gardner, 1983; Gardner, 1993, 2996; McKenzie, 1999), and learning styles (Dunn & Dunn, 1993; Dunn & Griggs, 2003, 2004, 2007; Missere & Dunn, 2005). I added native-language translations of key content vo-cabulary to my student notebook grading rubric. Groups researched continents and explorers an presented their PowerPoint slide shows to ELLs in other classes. TeenBiz3000 was replaced by Study Island, Web-based instruction built on New York State standards, that provided all Jamaica High School students practice for English, mathematics, science, and social studies Regents exams; and for national Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) and Advanced Place-ment (AP) exams. Based on requests from Experiment I participants for Internet resources for speaking practice, I created lists of Web sites and links with podcasts and speaking exercises. As I gear up for Experiment III in the 2011-2012 school year, I plan todevote more time to dictionary skills, such as alphabetizing, and content area textbook structure, with specialatten-tion to textbook glossaries and indices; the participants in Experiment II were lacking in dic-tionary/textbook research skills and did not make optimum use of these resources. I provided a list of Web sites and links for Regents practice and bilingual glossaries, and will again provide copies of bilingual glossaries in Experiment III. I have decided to step up test-taking strategies and content writing practice in the zero period support class beginning in September.Vol. 41, No. 3 (Fall 2011) 3 NYS TESOL Idioms

Conversations with Families

Individual writing conferencesoften involve reinforcing the

student’s strengths and discussing specific areas in need of improve-

ment (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001). I had conversations with each

student about his/her multiple intelligences and learningstyle

profiles generated from the Dunn

(continued on page 26)

by Victoria Pilotti

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All the World’s a Stage: Ways in Which Teaching Is Like Actingby Elizabeth Fonseca

Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your refl exes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear; the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy.

—Clive Swift

Good teaching is one-fourth prepa-ration and three-fourths theater.

—Gail Godwin

If “acting is energy,” teaching is many things: a combination of knowledge, experience, awareness, expertise, and care. It is also the energy we, as language instructors, bring into the classroom that absolutely affects the order of the day. As a theater lover and past occasional per-former, I have often thought about the parallels between teaching and acting. Here are a few that come to mind.

You’re on stage. All eyes are on you. You’re the initial focal point of atten-tion. Your presence shifts the energy in the room. Sometimes, you literally have a podium, with desks arrayed in rows before you like patrons at a theater. There is noise, chatter, laughter, shuffling in the room until the lights dim. Curtain up! Enter stage left, the professor. Cell phones get put away, or at least discreetly placed to the side. Chitchat dies down. The room is hushed a moment, the pause of anticipation before the first words of dialogue are spoken.

All eyes are on you. An actor uses her body to convey information about her character before she even speaks. So do you. How are you dressed? Does what you wear convey some message about your position in this play, your role, your persona as teacher, leader, or facilitator of the energy in the room? How do you

walk in? Are your eyes downcast, reflect-ing your students’ spent energy at the end of a long week, or do they sparkle? Do you walk in the room with pizzazz, transmitting vital energy to them, to cre-ate the cycle of give-and-take necessary for effective language learning? Do you use gestures, winks, and nods to convey information, emotion, even comedy? These are things worth thinking about, because one of the most important ways you are like an actor is in this all-impor-tant function. Your energy and presence set the tone.

Just as audiences must have faith in actors and suspend their disbelief to fully enter into the world the actors are creat-ing, your students must agree to the un-spoken contract of trust that bonds them to you in a vulnerable learning situation. Your ability to create that atmosphere of trust is important; your dynamism helps your class generate energy that in turn feeds you and helps the learning envi-ronment be dynamic. This is important for learning as well as for the teacher’s ability to sustain energy and passion both within a class and over her entire run.

Actors use their voices as tools, rely-ing on not just word choice but inflec-tion, intonation, varying volume, and the judicious use of pauses to capture the audience’s attention, rivet them, spell-bind them, draw them forward in their seats wondering “What’s next?” You too can use your voice itself as a tool that weaves the bewitching spell of energy, dynamism, and trust that makes for a lively and effective learning environment. The show must go on. There are days when you can’t imagine generating that energy at all. On those days, you have to “act as if ”: put on your teaching persona as an actor dons a mask or stage makeup, preparing herself to go before the lights. If you don’t show up, or show up without energy, you might flop.

This leads us to the all-important teaching persona. As an actor slips into a role through preparation, curiosity, and

the desire to share emotion and infor-mation with an audience, you can slip into your teaching persona, comprised of your sincere and genuine self with a soupçon of public-role poise, strategic sass, and teacher’s tools you’ve learned throughout your teaching days that help you on the way.

Is your persona the classic scholar? Do you have a little playful clown thrown in? Are you the compassionate guide, leading students to the knowledge they already possess? Can you switch hats to that of the taskmaster, pushing for and demanding the very best? It can be useful to think of the teacher role as composed of these different personae that serve useful functions in the various processes of learning, including enabling you to reach students of different backgrounds, needs, and learning styles. Even if you are not like that, your alter ego, “Pro-fessor Picky”, can be. Although you are more lenient, “Scholar Strict” can be called upon as necessary to whip an underachieving class into shape. Being a teacher is a public role that requires daily public speaking; why not train for it and find useful tools and approaches that may aid in maintaining your interest, creating a positive learning environment, and aiding in efficient classroom man-agement?

If you think some training might help you focus your body as instrument and help you channel energy more efficiently and effectively in the classroom, here are some suggestions to get you started:

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• Take an acting class. Learn how to use body language, breath, and voice to create energy and atmosphere.

• Take a public speaking class. Learn relax-ation techniques, visualization techniques, and tips for effectively conveying a mes-sage.

• Join a group such as Toastmasters Inter-national, where you’ll learn tips for public speaking.

• Listen to and read poetry aloud. Learn about cadence, rhythm, and volume to use your voice more effectively—and to save it from too many of those hoarse, raggedy, “I’ve-spoken-too-much” days!

• Similarly, take a vocal or voice training class. Learn specifi c breathing exercises to strengthen your voice and to become expert in effectively and effi ciently using and saving your voice. Here is a website to get you thinking about your own parallels between acting and teaching: http://www/ jbactors.com/actingphilosophy/ acting-quotations.html

References

Godwin, G. (1974). The Odd Woman.New York: Ballantine Books.http://www/jbactors.com/actingphiloso-phy/actingquotations.html

Elizabeth Fonseca is an avid travelerwho has taught ESL/EFL in such countriesas Italy, Turkey, and the United Arab Emir-ates. Her work has been published in the Arabia Review and the Traveler’s Tales series, among others. Her interest in acting stems from high school and community theater days, as well as more recent poetry readings. She currently teaches at Nassau Community College in New York.<[email protected]>

NYS TESOL Remembers Jeanette D. Macero

The field of ESOL has lost one of its most revered members, Jeanette D. Macero, who died May 9, 2011. Jeanette was passionate in her dedication to non-native speak-ers of English as exemplified by her teaching, mentoring and participation in profes-sional organizations.

Jeanette, one of the founders of NYS ESOL BEA (now NYS TESOL—see note below), was a leader in that organization nonstop until her retirement from Syracuse University in 1998, as associate professor of English and TESOL coordinator of lan-guages, literatures and linguistics. She moved to Medfield, MA to be near her family.

Many NYS TESOL members will testify to the mentoring they received from Jea-nette, who held leadership positions in the organization for her entire career. Jeanette graduated with a BA in English from Barnard College, an MA in linguistics from Co-lumbia University, and did doctoral study in linguistics at the University of Michigan. She was president, second vice president twice, and chair of various TESOL commit-tees: publications, paper selection, awards and nominations. Twice, she received the NYS TESOL Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to Jeanette’s full-time teaching at Syracuse University, she published skill books for beginners of English through Laubach Literacy (now known as ProLit-eracy), as well as a number of scholarly papers and addresses, edited books of read-ings, and acted as consultant to many groups.

All those who knew Jeanette are aware of her many accomplishments in professional organizations and her skillful teaching, but those closest to her will remember most her kind and compassionate manner to all she met and worked with, her hearty laugh, and her engaging personality. Jeanette’s friends and colleagues have lost a treasure.

Vel Chesser, retired from Syracuse University, can be reached at <[email protected]>

Editor’s note: With thanks to NYS TESOL historian George Morris: The very first organization was called NY TESOL (No “S” for State), then NYS ESOL BEA. The founding date is 1970 (hence our 40th anniversary in 2010). The split into NYS TESOL and NYSABE was in the early 1980

by Vel Chesser

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Resources for Implementing the Common Core for ELLs

The Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) have been adopted by dozens of states. The NYS Board of Regents adopted the new P-12 CCLS for ELA, Literacy, and Mathematics in January 2011; it will be phased in over the next year. Beginning in school year 2012-13, NYS assessments for English Language Arts and Mathematics will measure student achievement of the P-12 CCLS. Find New York State’s complete CCLS timeline at www.usny.nysed.gov/rttt/docs/ccsstimeline.pdf. The initiative began in the spring of 2009 and was coordinated by the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Offi cers (CCSO). The advisory group for the initiative comprises Achieve, Inc., ACT, the College Board, the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEO). The Common Core State Standards Initiative released a draft of the math and language arts content standards for public comment in September 2009, and the individual K-12 grade-level content standards in these subjects were released for public comment in March 2010. Both sets of content standards were finalized in 2010.

by Diane Garafalo

Criteria for Development This process differed from past standards initiatives because it was state led and had the support of educators across the country as well as prominent education, business and state leaders’ organizations. The standards were developed by the fol-lowing criteria:

• Aligned with expectations for college and career success;

• Clear, so that educators and parents know what they need to do to help stu-dents learn;

• Consistent across all states, so that stu-dents are not taught to a lower standard just because of where they live;

• Inclusive of both content and the appli-cation of knowledge through high-order skills;

• Built upon strengths and lessons of current state standards and standards of top-performing nations;

• Realistic, for effective use in the class-room;

• Informed by other top-performing countries, so that all students are pre-pared to succeed in our global economy and society;

• Evidence and research based (Quay, 2010);

Criteria for Development• Application of the Standards for English Language Learners. Common standards can potentially provide a greater opportunity for states to share experiences and best practices within and across states that could lead to an improved ability to serve ELLs. The K-12 English-language arts and mathemat-ics standards do include information on the Application of the Standards for English Language Learners, located at http://www.corestandards. org/assets/application-forenglish- learners.pdf. One segment of the Application of ELA Core Standards recommends that to help ELLs meet high academic standards in language arts it is essential that they have access to:

• Teachers and personnel at the school and district levels who are well prepared and qualifi ed to support ELLs while tak-ing advantage of the many strengths and skills they bring to the classroom;

• Literacy-rich school environments where students are immersed in a variety of language experiences;

• Instruction that develops foundational skills in English and enables ELLs to par-ticipate fully in gradelevel coursework;

• Coursework that prepares ELLs for post secondary education or the work-place, yet is made comprehensible for students learning content in a second language (through specifi c pedagogical techniques and additional resources);

• Opportunities for classroom discourse and interaction that are designed to enable ELLs to develop communicative strengths in language arts;

• Ongoing assessment and feedback to guide learning;

• Speakers of English who know the lan-guage well enough to provide ELLs with models and support;

• Need for English Language Proficiency Standards. The Common Core did not spell out how the standards applied to specific levels of English proficiency.

It was left up to states to create English Language Proficiency Standards that align with the Core Standards or to explain how specific standards can best be taught to students depending on their level of English proficiency.

In her July 12 blog at Education Week, “Learning the Language,” Mary Ann Zehr recognized this need by reporting that Stanford University has received a $1 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to create English Language Proficiency Standards for the states’ Common Core Academic Standards.

Dr. Kenji Hakuta, a professor of edu-cation at Stanford University, a member of the Common Core Validation Com-mittee, and a long-time expert on ELLs; and Maria Santos, the former director

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advantage of this opportunity;

• Even though the Common Core says nothing about the English Language profi ciency expectations of ELLs, there is a requirement that English language profi ciency be aligned to the Common Core;

• There will be more commonality across states in the identifi cation of students because there will be more common profi ciency tests;

• The Common Core has the potential to move ELL performance/ profi ciency both across schools and across the coun-try (Hakuta, 2011)

of programs for ELLs for the New York City school system, are co-chairs of this national effort to write standards for ELLs to parallel the Language Arts and Mathematics Standards of the Common Core, as well as the Science Standards that are expected to be developed. This grant award fi lls the gap in the process of implementing the Common Core for ELLs (Zehr, 2011). The grant, which lasts for two years, is called “Building on Common-Core Standards to Improve Learning for English-Language Learn-ers.”

Preparing ELLs for the Common Core—A Webinar

On May 5, 2011, Dr. Hakuta presented a webinar at www.teachscape. com called “Research to Practice: Preparing ELLs for the Common Core.” He offered his thoughts and ideas during the webinar under the topic of planning for the Com-mon Core, including:

• Recognize that language is necessary to teach, learn, and demonstrate under-standing in school subjects, and that this is true for all students, but especially for ELLs;

• Engage in the idea that excellence in in-struction and assessment around content revolves around the idea of rich language use;

• Build the professional development around the idea that language instruc-tion is the domain of all teachers, not just English Language Arts and ESL teachers;

• Identify your objectives, assessments, and best practices in classrooms and en-sure that you’re making progress toward those objectives;

• Use the Common Core to recognize and amplify the opportunity for rich language development for ELLs and for all students (Hakuta, 2011). According to Dr. Hakuta, there are some key elements for ELLs regarding the Common Core, including:

• The Common Core provides a strong incentive to examine the role of language in content instruction and in assessment; there is a role for leadership to take

Criteria for Writing Common Core Curriculum Materials

Last summer, the nonprofit group Com-mon Core issued a set of free curriculummaps. The maps are designed to give an understandable sequence of thematic curriculum units that connect the skills provided in the ELA

Some Helpful Resources

• Common Core Curriculum Maps:www.commoncore.org/free/

• Common Core Standards andEnglish Language Learners:

www.colorincolorado.org/educators/common_core

• Common Core State StandardsInitiative Web site:

www.corestandards.org

• Common Core Standards Workfor ELLs: The Importance of

Linking English Language Profi -ciency Standards to the Common

Core Standardswww.colorincolorado.org/

powerpoint/ELLELPStandardsPPT%20Slide.pdf

• K-6 Units in ELA Aligned withCommon Core Standards:

www.elementarytests.com/blog/k-6-ela-common-core/

• P21 Common Core Toolkitwww.p21.org/images/p21_

toolkit_final.pdf

• www.thejournal.com/arti-cles/2011/08/02/

common-core-toolkit-aligns-standards-with-21stcentury-

skills-framework.aspx

Websites of the members of the advisory board to the Common Core Initiative:

Achieve, Inc.: www.achieve.org

ACT: www.act.org

The College Board: www.collegeboard.com

National Association of State Boards of Education:

www.nasbe.org

State Higher Education ExecutiveOfficers: www.sheeo.org

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Promising Practices

This is an ongoing column, featuring advice for effective teaching. Please send article submissions to the column editor, Ann C. Wintergerst (contact information on page 22 of this issue).

Piece of Cake! Idiom activites and the importance of proper intonationby Andrew Edison Schneider

Idioms pop up everywhere in English media, often met with confused looks by our students. Even more advanced stu-dents have difficulty using them with any degree of competence, especially if the idioms are culturally different from their own (Irujo, 1986). Given their impor-tance, more attention should be paid to teaching idioms in ESL settings (Cooper, 1998). It is up to teachers to help stu-dents not only learn idioms, but also to encourage their usage in an intelligible manner. How can we incorporate idioms into classroom settings in a relaxed, communicative, and student-centered way? More important, how can we teach the intonation of idioms to achieve students’ maximum intelligibility? I have found the following three activities to be helpful for my students.

BYOI—Bring Your Own Idiom

Each student chooses one idiom to “teach” the class. They may choose from any source, and learn it well enough to be able to explain it in front of their classmates. This is a great warm-up; it’s student-centered and exciting, since they have chosen these idioms themselves based on their own interests. Don’t be surprised if a number of idioms come from Gossip Girl or Glee, American television programs centering around high-school students, so idioms relating to dating and shopping tend to surface quite often (i.e., It’s on me; She’s into him; Those shoes are totally you). During the students’ explanations, I stay off to the side and will assist only if the situ-ation calls for it; I have even done this activity remotely via Skype when I was home sick in bed. Having the students in

charge of this activity made it quite man-ageable. It can also act as a springboard for all kinds of culturerelated discus-sions.

Where Is the CHAnge?

A major obstacle facing our students is intelligibility, especially when using idioms. While pronunciation may be a factor, an equally important factor is proper intonation. As the pitch in our voices rises and falls, these changes in intonation are processed by the listener (Cruttenden, 1986). If you have ever studied Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese, you may be familiar with the inextri-cable link between the proper tone and communication. In English as well, when language is given the correct intonation, communication can be greatly enhanced. To emphasize this point with my stu-dents, I imitate the “wa wa” teacher from Charlie Brown. I walk around the class, lock eyes with a student, raise my hand, and slowly say “Wa, wa wa Wa?” What I am actually saying is “Hi, how are You?” Students inevitably guess correctly and are quite surprised that they can under-stand what I am saying. Once they have caught on, we can then create contextual situations and apply the proper intona-tion. A mini-dialogue I might have with a student in front of the class, in which my role would be B, is as follows:

A: What are you doing this weekend?B: This weekend? Nothing special.I’ll probably just hang OUt.A: OK. Give me a call.sB: Alright.

After the classmates have heard the dialogue, I will ask them, “Where is the change?” Hopefully, they will hear “OUt” on the first try. I will then mark it on the board. The rise in pitch at the beginning

of “OUt” rather than on the word “hang” is essential to the intelligibility of the id-iom as well as to the rest of the dialogue. Teachers play a vital role here. Once an idiom is presented, either the students or the teacher should provide/elicit the proper intonation and then mark it. This marking system is especially important for non-native-English-speaking teachers who may be unfamiliar with the proper intonation of idioms.

The good news regarding idiomatic phrases is that there are general intona-tion patterns. In an emphasized two-syllable word, such as “brainer” in the ex-pression “no-brainer,” the word tends to receive a higher tone or pitch on the first syllable. It’s a no- BRAIner. In the case of a one-syllable word, such as “cake” in the expression “piece of cake,” there is a higher tone on the first half of the word: It’s a piece of Cake. In either case, the rising intonation at the beginning is then followed by a falling intonation. Saying the idiom in front of your students in slow motion can really help to clarify this, and it is also good for a laugh. When students know the proper intonation, communication can be achieved even with less-than-perfect pronunciation. This is good news for our students, as it is generally much easier to change the pitch of a word than to pronounce the word properly.

Mini Dialogues

The mini dialogues written bythe students, followed by an in-classrole play, are not only a lot of fun butpractical and effective exercises forESL students (Nunan, 2003; Scott& Ytreberg, 2000). They could bedone as homework or in class individual-ly, in pairs, or in groups. These dialogues supply the context necessary to achieve

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natural usage and effective communica-tion (Nippold & Martin, 1989). The task is to write mini dialogues, where each dialogue contains at least one idiom from class, either from our text or from one ofthe students’ BYOI. There should be just enough context (4-6 lines) for the exchange to be meaningful (Nippold & Martin, 1989).

Make sure the students understand that even though these dialogues are being written down, they should be striv-ing for spoken and not written English. I also ask them to consider the roles of the speakers as in the following student dialogue (the professor is putting on her coat as her student enters the office):

A: Excuse me. Professor? Are youbusy?B: I’m running Late, actually. I’ll behere tomorrow.A: Ok, thank you.B: Alright.

This exchange meets the criteria in that it is a spoken dialogue, the roles are defined, at least one idiom is used, and the idiom is marked with the proper intonation. Once their dialogues are done, I collect, correct, and return them. Afterward, I circulate, taking student questions on my corrections. Then, I have each pair practice and perform at least one of their dialogues in front of the class. Eye contact, body language (students must sit facing each other), and voice management should be empha-sized during practice time. Be sure to circulate, as some students will simply read the dialogue together. I walk around with a blank sheet of 8½ x 11 paper, which I use to cover up the dialogue they are working on. This forces them to look up and, hopefully, at each other. The students then perform at the front of the class. I act as the director, yelling “Ac-tion!” and opening/closing my cell phone like a director’s slate. The class listens for the idiom used in the dialogue. This is always fun, as students enjoy watching their classmates perform. I like to supply props/wigs to spice it up. Be prepared for the cameras to come out! I also quiz them on the idiom and the intonation right after each dialogue.

Conclusion

English continues to be a global language. Proper knowledge and usage of idioms are powerful tools for anyone re-quiring English in daily communication.

By focusing on the proper intonation for our students to achieve maximum intelligibility, we are better equipping them for the English-speaking world. It is important for us as teachers to go the extra mile.

References

Cooper, T. C. (1998). Teaching idioms.Foreign Language Annals, 31(2),255-266.

Cruttenden, M. (1986). Intonation.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Irujo, S. (1986). Don’t put your legin your mouth: Transfer in theacquisition of idioms in a secondlanguage. TESOL Quarterly, 20,287-304.

Nippold, M. A., & Martin, S. T. (1989).Idiom interpretation in isolationversus context: A developmentalstudy with adolescents. JournalSpeech & Hearing Research, 32,59-66.

Nunan, D. (2003). Practical Englishteaching. New York: McGraw Hill.

Scott, W. A., & Ytreberg, L. H. (2000).Teaching English to children. NewYork: Longman.

Andrew Schneider has been teachingESL/EFL for 20 years, having taughtin Japan, Spain, and the United States.He currently teaches medical studentsin Kanazawa, Japan.<[email protected]>

Introduction from the new Idiom Editor, Cara Tuzzolino Werben

I am delighted to combine my background in publishing with my love of TESOL as the new editor of Idiom. Thank you to my predecessor, Julie Dziewisz, for her great work and help with a smooth transition. I also thank the column editors, copy editor, NYS TESOL leadership and members for the warm welcome. My career began with a B.A. in journalism from NYU. After I switched to marketing, and later fundraising, I volunteered in an ESOL classroom and loved it. I enrolled in Teachers College, Columbia University, graduated with an Ed.M. in TESOL, and began work-ing as an adjunct at Pace, CUNY, and Columbia. Presently, I work in an intensive English program at Nassau Commu-nity College. We focus on improving students’ skills through an integrated, holistic approach, so that they can exit our program and be prepared for college-level work. I also instruct and mentor aspiring TESOL teachers at the Literacy Assistance Center. I welcome the chance to meet with interested writers during the Annual confer-ence in October. See you there! --Cara <[email protected]>

Greetings Idiom readers,

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For ELLs, Talking Is Learning

ESL teachers employ a variety of instructional tools in the classroom. Conversa-tion can be used to help students practice pronunciation, to prepare and develop a well-thought-out paragraph, and to enhance listening skills. Most important, conver-sational activities tap into students’ schema to help them fully develop critical think-ing skills in English. Below are several activities I have used with my students.

To introduce the concept of students’ origins, I show students how to use the Reporter’s Questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How) to gather infor-mation. Students partner with one another to ask these questions and record the answers. When the class comes together again, I ask the group, “Who has a partner coming from a country whose name begins with the letter A?” Students might answer Argentina. Th e class then identifi es which continent Argentina is on. Students check the map in the classroom to know more about their partner’s home country. Th is is repeated until the end of the alphabet. Students work with their partners to see what they already know about these countries. Th is prior knowledge helps students realize that they know more than they think about geography and other topics.

Next, the class discusses the variety of languages spoken by the students. After obtaining this information, students put the names of these languages on the board. Th is fi rst conversation in class provides information needed for the fi rst writing as-signment, which is the biography of a class member. Th e fi rst draft begins in class and is peer reviewed for content by the student’s conversation partners. Th eir homework is to review the draft and to rewrite it at home on the computer. Th e next day, I review the homework with students and focus my comments on a grammatical topic, such as verb tense usage. I choose to focus my feedback on one or two aspects of the writing assignment so that a completely marked-up paper does not increase students’ writing anxiety.

Th e next assignment involves reading a biography about a famous American. It might be a commonly known American like George Washington or someone from a particular fi eld. After forming groups and prior to reading, students discuss what they already know about the person and what they expect to see in the article. I introduce the concepts of topic and main idea as well as vocabulary specifi c to the story. After reading the biography, students individually answer the Reporter’s Questions from the article, and then share their answers with their conversation group.

In groups, students generate their own questions using the Reporter’s Questions. When the class comes together, one student from each conversation group writes one question on the board—the questions should not be duplicates of other groups’ questions. Students read each question aloud. I ask the whole class for grammatical corrections to the questions. After completing the exercise, students write a summary of the biography—they can use these questions or the ones from the conversation group—and show this to their conversation partner for feedback. Th eir homework is to create a revised version of the in-class written summary that incorporates their partners’ feedback. Th ey staple the draft to the top of the rewrite.

Using conversation sheets, such as those available at www.bogglesworldesl. com, also provides opportunities for interaction. Each conversation sheet centers on a theme such as seasons, media, habits, and customs. Th ese can be used to talk about the topic in conversation groups, to learn vocabulary specifi c to a topic, and to prac-tice pronunciation. I ask students to look up defi nitions of highlighted words on the sheets. As an instructor, using these sheets is a way to determine students’ familiarity with American culture and to plan class trips. Students can also conduct research to enhance their knowledge about media.

I used these conversation activities with levels 3 to 7 students (as measured by the Best Plus) enrolled in non-credit ESL CUNY courses for a semester or more. Stu-

by Elaine Caputo FerraraCome to the

Annual ConferenceOctober 28-29, 2011

New York State Teachers ofEnglish to Speakers of

Other Languages

41st Annual Conference

“Enhancing EnglishLearning: ConnectingCommunities Th rough

Collaboration”

Marriott HotelMelville, NY

For further information,go to

www.nystesol.org

and check your e-mail on theNYS TESOL Listserv

If you are interested in volunteeringor have questions, contact

Conference Chair

Christy Baralis [email protected]

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dents ranged from 18 to 60 years, were from all over the world, and spoke a wide variety of languages. Some were recently arrived professionals who had university degrees; others had a basic education in their native country.

Students developed a sense of com-munity because of the shared conversa-tion exercises. Many good friendships began in class and continued after graduation. These friendships made it more enjoyable for many to attend class on a regular basis and did lead to fewer absences. By the end, students learned how to express their ideas more clearly in English and how to formulate questions for future educational use. Their critical thinking skills were used to evaluate the new information and to compare it to what they already knew.

Elaine Caputo Ferrara received a Master’s degree from N.Y.U. in educa-tional psychology, with a specialty in reading and special education. At the College of Staten Island, she teaches reading and writing to college students in ESL classes. Recently, she developed a citizenship class for students. <[email protected]>

CALL FOR AWARDS

Exceptional Professionals

To honor contributions made within our field, NYS TESOL presents severalawards annually, including:

James A. Lydon Distinguished Service AwardOutstanding Teacher Award

Recognition AwardLifetime Achievement Award

James E. Weaver Memorial AwardSpecial Award

Year Award Honoree

2010 Recognition Award Dr. Anita Batisti Outstanding Teacher Dr. Maria Dove

2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Estee Lopez Recognition Award Dr. Walter Sullivan & Saul Cohen Outstanding Teacher Barbara Suter

2008 James E. Weaver Memorial Award Alison O’Neil Recognition Award Sam Hoyt Outstanding Teacher Donna Bove

2007 James A. Lydon Distinguished Service George Morris Recognition Award Maria Neira Outstanding Teacher Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld & Caryn Bachar

2006 James A. Lydon Distinguished Service Dr. Frank Tang Outstanding Teacher Patricia C. La Rose

2005 James A. Lydon Distinguished Service Diana Segovia Praus

2011 Award Winners will be presented at the41st Annual Conference

October 28th & 29th, 2011

Please review our available awards and criteria for submission atwww.nystesol.org.

Submit all nominations and supporting documentation as attachmentsvia e-mail to:

Meredith Van Schuyler, [email protected] submissions due September 23, 2011.

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Book Review

This is an ongoing column, featuring reviews of booksand other materials for ESOL teachers and students. Please send article submissions to the column editor,Nanette Dougherty (contact information is on page 22)

More Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective and Movement Activities for EFL Students. By Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. UK. (2010).176 pp. ISBN: 978-0-521-46630-1

Reviewed by Kathryn North

Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis’ More Grammar Games: Cognitive, Af-fective and Movement Activities for EFL Students provides a revamping of their earlier work Grammar Games, which was originally published in 1984. The authors designed the text to provide EFL/ESL teachers with a framework for games that can be modified to be appropriate for different age groups and varied English proficiency levels. There-fore, while the usefulness of the book as a supplemental text in the adult ESL classroom is the main purpose of this re-view, its utility can be applied to various teaching scenarios.

The text is divided into nine sections including “Competitive Games,” “Cogni-tive Games,” “Feelings and Grammar,” “Listening to People,” “Movement and Grammar,” “Meaning and Translation,” “Problem Solving,” “Correction” and “Presentation,” for a total of 81 games, or mini-lessons. As the titles suggest, many lessons are rooted in the principles of well-known English language learning methodologies including the Silent Way, as well as Counseling-Learning/Commu-nity Language Learning (CLL). The book begins with a table of contents noting the games and page numbers. This is fol-lowed by a detailed map of the book with the game titles, grammar topics covered, and levels and time needed. The intro-duction also includes commentary from the authors on how the book can be used and their rationale for the methodologies utilized by section. Each game begins with the title of the

game and a box restating the details from the map of the book. If the game can be adapted for other structures and levels, a sub-box states this. To start the main portion of the mini-lesson, the authors note any preparation required before class. This is followed by a breakdown of the in-class procedures of the game. The authors also include examples, varia-tions, a rationale overview, and notes or acknowledgements when neces-sary. Lastly, any required handouts are provided. On a minor note, the examples and handouts are written using British English vocabulary. In the case of classes in the United States, instructors will need to rewrite these in Standard Ameri-can English. The first section includes competitive games, which are designed to increase motivation by fostering collaboration within groups while creating a safe, spirited environment. Many of the games in this section focus on the correction of material provided by the teacher. This, of course, means that the instructor must devote time to the preparation of the game. For some this could be less than ideal. The cognitive games in section two are unique in their structure as, according to the authors, the exer-cises are mostly open-ended ones: this differs from many grammar exercises that require one correct response. The flexibility of the activities allows stu-dents to discover various aspects of the language without the direct influence of the instructor. While these types of

activities can be very creative and have their place in certain contexts, giving students unlimited control over the types of sentences produced can cause the direction of the lesson to be diverted. For this reason, although this section follows the Silent Way method in its purest form (Larsen-Freeman, 2000), the lack of final language destination does not follow the integrated and pragmatic way that the Silent Way is often practiced in the classroom. Sections three and four, which deal with feelings and listening to others, respectively, are arguably the strongest chapters. Here, games are designed to promote healthy interpersonal discus-sions, which require speakers to make use of a specific grammar structure. Many teachers can attest to the positive influence that mutual understanding, respect and personal investment in the classroom can have on productivity (e.g., Counseling Learning and Community Language Learning—see Larsen-Free-man, 2000). Section five is made up of games that incorporate grammar and movement. While there is a modicum of Desugges-topedia inherent in games throughout the text, this section explicitly focuses on the usage of movement to instill language concepts. The rationale seems to be that students are more open to language learning when the precon-ceived mental and emotional barriers to learning are “desuggested” through lighthearted activity (Larsen- Freeman, 2000). In the meaning and translation games found in section six, the miniles-sons focus on having students develop a deeper grasp of the nuances and root meaning of language by linking English with their mother tongue. While the debate over the use of translation in the ESL classroom continues, using native

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languages as a resource in the foreign/second language classroom can help to build linguistic abilities in both lan-guages, bridge existing knowledge to the acquisition of the new language, and give validity to the first language (Baker, 2006; Gibbons, 2009). Therefore, if instructors use these mini-lessons, they may find that when properly administered, deep learning can take place during games that use translation. The last three sections are less substantial. Section seven deals with problem solving. Section eight offers techniques for self, peer and teacher corrections. Finally, section nine recom-mends alternatives for the presentation of new grammar topics to a class.

Both students and teacher have much to gain from More Grammar Games. The authors offer ideas for games that appeal to many different learning styles. With the exception of musical and natural intelligences, this book contains games that promote all the multiple intelligences (Gardner, 2006). The book also lists games specifically designed to strengthen receptive skills to help stu-dents become more active listeners and readers. Furthermore, utilizing grammar games, an instructor can adeptly intro-duce grammar topics without the use of overt grammatical language. Although the discussion of teaching grammati-cal form vs. focusing on communicative interactions is still very predominant in the ESL teaching field, research has shown that the integration of grammar with contextualized language creates the most efficient mode of learning (Larsen-Freeman 2001). To offer some criticism, the orga-nizational structure of the text can be challenging. For those who normally organize lessons in a progression of scaffolded topics, the division by under-lying pedagogical approaches may be less intuitive. In addition, the organiza-tion within the sections is unclear and finding a game for a specific grammar topic or level requires some hunting within the map of the text. Further, many of the games, especially in sections one and two, require a fair amount of setup. While an instructor may hope to use a book of games as a quick reference for lesson ideas, the time required for finding an appropriate lesson and setup prevent the book from being used in that manner. Finally, while one would assume that all of the games are related explicitly to grammar, some have a more semantic focus. This does not deter the student

from gaining knowledge but should be noted.

References

Baker, C. (2006). Foundations ofbilingual education and bilingualism(4th ed.). Toronto: MultilingualMatters.

Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple intelli-gences:New Horizons. New York:Basic Books.

Gibbons, P. (2009). English LearnersAcademic Literacy and Thinking:Learning in the Challenge Zone.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Teachingand Principles in LanguageTeaching (2nd ed.). New York:Oxford University Press.Larsen-Freeman, D. (2001). Teachinggrammar. In M. Celce-Murcia(Ed.), Teaching English as a Secondor Foreign Language (3rd ed.)(pp. 251-266). Boston: Heinkle &Heinkle Thomson Learning.

Rinvolucri, M., & Davis, P. (1995).More Grammar Games: Cognitive,Affective and MovementActivities for EFL Students. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

Kathryn N. North is a recent graduateof New York University’s Master’sProgram in TESOL. An ESOL instructorwith the New York Public Library,Kathryn also tutors writing and develop-mentalreading at the Borough ofManhattan Community College.<[email protected]>

2011 NYS TESOLStudent Essay Contestby Laura Van TassellNYS TESOL SIG Coordinator

In coordination with the 2011 NYS TESOL annual conference, “Enhancing English Learning: Connecting Com-munities through Collaboration,” the topic for this year’s student essay con-test, “How has your community helped you learn English?,” revolved around communities and the role that liv-ing, working, and interacting in them plays in the English language learners’ (ELLs) acquisition of English. The essay contest was held for students who are current or former ELLs within three categories: students in grades four through eight; students in grades nine through twelve; and students enrolled in a university or an adult education program, including students enrolled in Intensive English programs, community colleges, degree-based programs, and ESOL programs. The student essay contest was very successful, with 113 essays received from throughout New York State. A winner and an honorary mention were chosen from each of the three catego-ries. The names of the winners and honorary mentions will be announced during the Friday luncheon at the an-nual conference and their essays will be printed in the conference booklet. The winning essays will also be included in the winter edition of Idiom as well as be posted on the NYS TESOL Special Interest Group (SIG) Student Essay Contest page.

Please join me in thanking all of the students who submitted essays to the sixth annual student essay contest! Watch for news about the 2012 contest in an upcoming issue of Idiom, as well as on our website.

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Small Talk: A Meaningful Conversation Tool

Engaging English Language Learners (ELLs) in a few minutes of small talk pri-or to the start of ESL class can be a very useful strategy. The purpose of small talk is not about gauging how grammatically correct my students can speak in English -- although I do make mental notes of students’ grammatical difficulties for subsequent lessons. It provides the op-portunity for my students to be heard in a very relaxed setting, while allowing their English to emerge. It certainly can be a challenge to insert those few min-utes during the fast-paced schedule of a typical school day, but I have found it to be a source of valuable information.

I often begin the small talk session with an informational “wh” question such as “How was your appointment at the dentist?” or “What did you do after school yesterday?” The responses are quite revealing. Some students, espe-cially those in middle school, are initially guarded, while others seem surprised that I want to know more about them. Gradually as they learn to trust me as well as their classmates, the students slowly open up. It is gratifying to see a once painfully shy kindergarten student now coming to class with daily an-nouncements such as, “You know what? Yesterday, I lose (sic) a tooth.”

There are other times when students express more sensitive issues, which we discuss further in private. One example of this occurred when an ELL in third grade told me during our small talk session that one of the other students in the mainstream class made fun of his speech and called him “stupid.” Neither his classroom teacher nor I had noticed any tension between these two students. The fact that the ELL who mentioned this incident had always felt self-con-scious about his ability to speak English prompted my immediate arrangement of a meeting with his teacher and the other student. Fortunately, we were able to resolve the situation, but it taught me

to become more vigilant when working with ELLs in the mainstream classroom.

It is impressive to listen to a student retell a story or incident, but the most gratifying part is when he or she is able to connect it to a new concept. When studying the concept of cause and effect during a reading lesson, I sensed that only a few students understood this con-cept, while many did not. Suddenly, one student announced, “Do you remember when I told you the story about how I accidentally spilled water on the kitchen floor?” He proudly continued, “That was an example of cause and effect. The cause was when I spilled water on the floor. The effect was when my mom be-came angry.” His classmates nodded their heads in agreement. It was as if a light bulb had been turned on! I could not have provided a better example of cause and effect!

As ELLs become more confident in speaking English, more of their person-alities emerge. During one of our small talk sessions, I asked a beginning ELL in the first grade, “Where does your brother go to school?” Without hesitation, she stated, “My brother go (sic) to Sleepy Hollow School. Zzzzzzzz. Sleepy School. I am soooo sleepy!” as she put her head on the desk and pretended to sleep. Prior to that comment, I had not seen that humorous side of her. I noticed how thrilled she was that she had made me laugh. I then decided to follow her quip with another “wh” question. I tapped her on the shoulder as her eyes snapped open and her head bobbed up from the table. “What does your brother like to do at school?” I asked.

She smiled and impishly replied, “He like (sic) to sleep.” How clever this little girl was! I realized several things dur-ing our small talk exchange. This stu-dent demonstrated that she understood the word “sleepy”, she connected that understanding to a different context, and

she found a way to make it humorous. None of these is easy to do, especially at the beginning of the language acquisi-tion process. Later in the day, I had this student retell the joke to her teacher and some of her classmates. This small talk session was a pivotal moment for this student because she was clearly pleased to see that she could be funny in English.

I have noticed that ELLs have the capacity to dissect words in interesting ways, especially when these words are spoken. When native English speak-ers think about words, we tend to focus on the sum and not the parts. When a student was beginning ELL in second grade, I recall his reading a passage out loud. After encountering the two-syllable word, “awesome”, he pronounced it as if were a threesyllable words, “a – we—some”. Prior to that day, I had never realized that the word “awesome” is com-prised of three smaller words: “a”, “we” and “some”. That was a revelation for me. How awesome!

I am sure that many ESL teachers utilize small talk or some variant of it in their classrooms. It is not a novel concept, but I find that it is valuable dur-ing a limited amount of time. Conversa-tions, which on the surface may appear superfluous, are in actuality a gold mine of enriching and relevant information.

Joy Scantlebury is a graduate of Smith College. She received her M.A. in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia Univer-sity. Joy currently teaches ESL at Pocan-tico Hills Central School in Sleepy Hollow, NY. <[email protected]>

by Joy Scantlebury

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B. Ahmed El-Habashi, Egypt; Tomoko Kihira, Japan; Ufualè Afola Amey, Togo; Osiris Romero, Dominican Republic and Elena Lyumanova, Russia, come together in anticipation of their panel presentation.

A. Everyone listens as Ufualè Afola Amey talks about learning English from her teacher Dave, a Peace Corps volunteer.

C. Sonia Portugal, Peru, performs Floating Words, a dance she choreographed to portray the spirit of Eng-lish language learning.

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Resources for Implementing(continued from page 7)

Examples of these thematic curricu-lum units include: Grade 1: Th e Amazing Animal World; Grade 3: Th e People, the Preamble, and the Presidents; Grade 6: Folklore: A Blast from the Past; Grade 9: Literary Elements of a Short Story; and Grade 12: European Literature: Renais-sance and Reformation. Common Core is working with schools and districts in diff erent states to implement the maps. Arizona and North Carolina are using them statewide to help districts put the standards in place (Gewitz & Robelen, 2011). Two writers have recently crafted documents outlining Common Core curriculum criteria. Working under a contract with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a strong supporter of the standards, David Coleman and Susan Pimentel, co-authors of the Common Core Standards for ELA/Literacy, wrote two documents highlighting the key ideas of the standards and describing the qualities of instructional materials they consider an accurate refl ection of them (Gewertz, 2011).

Common Core Assessments and PARCC

According to the National Governor’s Association/CCSSO, the Common Core State Standards will also ultimately be the basis for a system of high-quality assessments. New York State is a gov-erning member of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which was awarded Race to the Top Assessment funds in 2010. Th e PARCC Web site can be viewed at http://parcconline.org/. Over the next few years, New York and 25 other states will develop a set of English Language Arts and Mathematics assess-ments, which will be fi nalized in 2014-15 (NYSED, 2011). Common Core Stan-dards Assessment Resources are located at http://education northwest.org/re-source/1331.

Idiom will work to keep readers aware of all the upcoming changes.

ReferencesAugust, D., Cortese, A., La Fonde, S.,

Leos, K. (2010). Making CommonCore Standards work for ELLs:Th e importance of linking EnglishLanguage Profi ciency Standardsto the Common Core Standards.October 21, 2010. AFT Educa-

(continued on page 21)

NYS TESOLSpecial Interest Groups (SIGs) and Regions Leadership Directory 2010-2011Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Regions Leadership Directory 2010-2011

TITLE NAME EMAILSIG Leaders / SIG Coordinator Laura Van Tassel <[email protected]>Assistant SIG Coordinator Jennifer Scully <[email protected]>Applied Linguistics Andrew Miller & Lindsay Wells <[email protected]>ESL in Adult Education Tamara Kirson <[email protected]>ESL in Bilingual Education Co-Chair Lydia Gutierrez <[email protected]>ESL in Elementary Education Co-Chairs Susan Goldstein & Diane Howitt <[email protected]>ESL in Higher Education Co-Chairs Dafna Ben Anath & Lisa Kraft <[email protected]>

ESL in Secondary Education Lan Ngo <[email protected]>ESL in Special Education Co-Chair Patty Barry <[email protected]>Teacher Education Co-Chairs Soonhyang Kim & Joanna Labov <[email protected]>Teaching English InternationallyCo-Chairs Claudette Oliveras & Melissa Duquette <[email protected]>

Regions Leaders / Regions Coordinator Tina Villalobos <[email protected]>Assistant Regions Coordinator Lynn Ellingwood <[email protected]>Buff alo Elena Dokshansky-Zelfond <buff [email protected]>Capital Region Co-Chairs Liz Allen & Roman Kumar <[email protected]>Hudson Valley Co-Chairs Katie Werner & Rebecca Horwitz <[email protected]>Long Island Vicky Giouroukakis <[email protected]>New York City Co-Chairs Joe Tillman & Elaine Roberts <[email protected]>Rochester/Syracuse Co-Chairs Gloria Dancause & Elaine Ferlicca <[email protected]>

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Check out the New Members Only website! We’re very excited to announce the launch of the new Members Only website for NYS TESOL. We are just gearing up, but hope this will become a major resource and networking site for our members. Current members were sent an email alert in early September containing their username and password. Of course, your email system may have fi ltered our message into a spam folder if you are a current member and did not receive a notice with your login information, please contact us at [email protected].

With annual conference registration already

under way, please act quickly to login and verify

your profile data and networking preferences.

What’s There:

• Your profile page

• Membership Renewal

• Discounted event registration

• Members Only: online publication, Dialouge

• Discussion boards

Coming Soon:

• Networking options

• SIG / Region E-lists

• Job Coach / Career Mentoring

• Service opportunities and awards

This site is viewable only by active members. And, because this is new, we have also blocked your contact in-formation from members. So, unlike Facebook, where you decide what to set as ‘private,’ we’ve already done this. The only information visible to other members is: your Name, Member Type, Region and SIG preferences. You can privatize these, too, if you wish, by updating your profile.

However, for those of you who want to network with other members, there are 2 optional fields – an “email to share” and a “website/blog address” both set up as viewable by all members. And you can upload a photo. You control the privacy settings for these fields and can edit them at any time.

Your PRIVACY

We’d like you to tell us! Please look around the site, update your profi le, join a discussionboard, and send us ideas for additions and improvements.

What’s Next?

NYS TESOL is committed to providing members with the most up-to-date resources, news and educational tools. To enable access by all members of our field, NYS TESOL offers discounted memberships. Recently, we revised the documentation policy for discounts to align with other non-profit organizations as well as to create greater consistency and transparency. Please check the new requirements when you prepare to renew. For ques-tions regarding membership status and discounts, please contact us at [email protected].

Discounted Membership Update

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Collaborative Conversations*(continued from page 1)

• Collaborative Craftsmanship: Through conscious efforts for continuous improvement of the craft of teaching, teachersexplore ways to enhance instructional time, language development, and content area resources, and offer supportfor each other.

Table 1 shows how the concept of collegiality and collaboration may offer a system of support in a linguistically andculturally diverse school context by including the four Cs with ample examples.

Table 1: The Four Cs of Collaboration

Collaboration may start out as a small, grassroots effort, involving only two or three teachers who share the responsibilityfor some of the same ELLs and are concerned about their students’ progress. It may involve an entire grade level. Some examples include grade clusters working together to develop or enhance curricula in elementary schools; an interdisciplinary team of math, science, social studies, English, and ESL teachers (sharing responsibility for a cluster of classes in middle schools); or a discipline-specifi c department (focusing on preparing all students to meet graduation requirements of high schools). Regardless of the local context, all these collaborative efforts start with professional conversations, through which teachers collaboratively explore their students’ needs and responsive practices.

Collaborative Conversations

Talk about• Students’ needs• Students’ lives• Students in and out of school work• Curriculum and instruction• Teachers’ own struggles`• Teachers’ own successes• What matters to you, the teacher

Collaborative Coaching

Use Peer coaching to improve• Lesson planning• Lesson delivery• Unit deisgn• Use of supplementary materials• Adapted content• Modified instruction• Assessment practices

Collaborative Curriculum Development

Align• Lesson objectives (language objectives and content

objectives)• Unit goals• Primary and supplementary instructional materials• Adapted texts and materials• Resources

Collaborative Craftsmanship

Explore• ELLs’ background knowledge• ELLs’ prior learning• Peer coaching• Planning instruction collaboratively or in the context

of co-teaching• Effective methods for aligning curriculum and objec-

tives• Using time more effectively• Making the most of collaborative efforts

References

DelliCarpini, M. (2008). Teacher collaboration for ESL/EFL academic success. The Internet TESL Journal, 14(8). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/DelliCarpini-TeacherCollaboration.html

DelliCarpini, M. (2009, May). Dialogues across disciplines: Preparing English-as-a-second-language teachers for interdisciplinary collaboration. Current Issues in Education (Online), 11(2). Retrieved from http://cie.ed.asu.edu/ volume11/number2/

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Honigsfeld, A., & Dove, M. (2010). Col-laboration and co-teaching: Strategies for English learners. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NACTAF). (2009). Learning teams: Creating what’s next. Retrieved from http://www.nctaf.org/documents/ NCTAFLearningTeams- 408REG2–09_000.pdf

NEA (2009). NEA reiterates collabora-tion as key to keeping teachers. Retrieved from http://www.nea. org/home/31477.htm

NEA (2009). NEA reiterates collabora-tion as key to keeping teachers. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/31477.htm

Pawan, F., & Ortloff, J. H. (2011). Sustain-ing collaboration: English-asa-second-language and content-area teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 463-471.

Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld is associate dean and professor in the Division of Educa-tion at Molloy College, Rockville Centre. She is the co-author with Maria Dove of a recently published book, Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners (Corwin Press, 2010).

<[email protected]>

*Sections of this manuscript havegrown out of the author’s collaborativeconversations with Dr. Maria Doveand are featured in their coauthoredbook, cited above.

Resources for Implementing(continued from page 17)

tional Policy Forum. http://www.colorincolorado.org/powerpoint/ELL-ELPStandardsPPT%20Slide.pdf

Colorin Colorado (2011). Common Core Standards and English Lan-guage Learners. Reading Rockets. WETA Learning Media. http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/com-mon_core/

Gewertz, C. (2011). Common Core Writ-ers Craft curriculum criteria, July 22, 2011. Education Weekly. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/07/21/37curriculum.h30.html?tkn=UPSFLpcFv4ebJmsg2qZx2C7B8rKm7AL%2FiacG&cmp=clp-sb-ascd

Gewertz, C., & Robelen, E. (2011). Curriculum maps aim to bring ELA Standards to life. July 25, 2011. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curricu-lum/2011/07/the_nonprofit_group_common _cor.html

Hakuta, K. (2011). Webinar: Research to practice: Preparing ELLs for the Com-mon Core, Teachscape, May 5, 2011. http://marketing. teachscape.com/K12Kenji ELLMay2011WebinarAccess.html

Lopez, E. (2010). ELA Standards: Shift-ing the focus to the Common Core comments, standards and curriculum, NYS TESOL, October 2010. http://www.nystesol.org/ curriculum-stan-dards/standards. html

Nagel, D. (2010). Feds award $330 mil-lion to fund alternatives to high-stake bubble tests. The Journal, September 2, 2010. http:// thejournal.com/articles/ 2010/09/02/feds-award-330- million-to-fi nd-alternatives-tohigh- stakes-bubble-tests.aspx?sc_ lang-en

NYSED (2011). FAQs—Common Core learning standards. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_stan-dards/faq.html

NYSUT (2011). Educational Resources for English Language Learners. http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/k12_13765.htm

Quay, L. (2010). Higher standards for all: Implications of the Common Core for equity in education. Civil Rights Research Roundtable on Education, Berkeley Law, April 2010. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/fi les/Education_Roundable_Standards_Brief_ 4_10.pdf

Washington State School Board (2010). Common Core Standards—Pro-cess FAQs. http://www.sbe.wa.gov/documents/FAQ%20Common%20Core%Standards%20Process.pdf

Zehr, M. A. (2011). Conference: Imple-menting Common Core Standards for ELLs, Learning the Language Blog, August 11, 2010. Education Weekly. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-thelanguage/2010/08/confer-ence_implementing_common.html

Zehr, M. A. (2011). Stanford to lead cre-ation of ELL standards for “Common Core” Learning the Language Blog, July 12, 2011, Education Weekly. http://blogs. edweek.org/edweek/learning-thelanguage/2011/07/stanford_to_lead_creation_of_e.html

Diane Garafalo is a former ESL teacher at Oswego City School District. She was also a secondary English teacher, with a total of fifteen years of public school teaching experience. Diane’s previous positions include working as an adjunct professor of written communications for ITT Technical Institute and a human re-sources and training manager for a vari-ety of Fortune 500 companies. Currently, Diane is an HR and workforce literacy consultant for DRG Associates.

<[email protected]>

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Idiom is a quarterly publication for members of NYS TESOL. The editors welcome articles as well as reactions to articles. All copy (maximum 1000 words, typed, double-spaced, with word count provided ) should follow APA guidelines and be submitted via e-mail (MS Word). Please include your name and address (including telephone number and e-mail address), as well as a brief (3-4 sentences) biographical statement. Please visit idi-om.nystesol.org for links regarding APA guidelines and to view a sample article. Idiom’s editorial goals are to be ac-curate, to maintain the writer’s message, content, and style, and to fit the work in the space allotted. Idiom reserves the right to edit all manuscripts for clarity, brevity, and style; the editors will consult with contributors on substantive revisions. Articles from Idiom may be reprinted with proper acknowledgment of the source.

Editorial Notes

Editor:Cara Tuzzolino WerbenLINCC-Nassau Community CollegeOne Education Dr.Garden City, NY 11530(516) 573-0165E-mail: [email protected]

Editorial Consultant:Ceil GoldmanPrinting and Mailing:The Coughlin Printing Group, Watertown

Column Editors:Book ReviewNanette DoughertyEmail: [email protected]

Culture NotesElisabeth Gareis257 Crest DriveTarrytown, NY 10591Tel.: (914) 524-7915E-mail: [email protected]

Promising PracticesAnn C. WintergerstDept. of Languages and LiteraturesSt. John’s UniversityQueens, NY 11439E-mail: [email protected]

Calendar and Announcements

October 28-29, 2011

February 11, 2012

March 28-31, 2012

NYS TESOL 41st Annual Conference“Enhancing English Learning: Connecting Communities Through Collaboration” Mel-ville Marriott in Melville, Long Island. See http://www.nystesol.org

33rd Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference“Connections: TESOL and Applied Linguistics in a Global Context” We’ll continue to keep you posted! Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo“A Declaration of Excellance” Philadelphia For more information: www.tesol.org/s_te-sol/convention2012/index.html

Upcoming Idiom Themes

Annual Conference

Please submit articles based onpresentations at the NYS TESOL

conference(Oct. 28-29, 2011)

“Enhancing English Learning:Connecting Communities

ThroughCollaboration”

at Melville Marriott

Submission Deadline: December 1

TBD

Deadlines and themes for 2012will be published in

the Winter 2011 issue of Idiom.

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Please omit my name from mailing lists provided to other organizations.

New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other LanguagesMEMBERSHIP FORM (effective 9/1/2011)

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1st SIG. Th is is your primary interest group with NYS TESOL. You may hold offi ce and vote in this SIG.2nd SIG. You may receive information from this SIG.

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