This week my focus was on vocabulary. I started out by having students learn to use the OPD (Oxford Picture Dictionary). Even though I am a seasoned teacher, I forgot that I can't expect students to know how to use it unless they have instructions. I was also introducing them to Padlet an electronic bulletin board. My instructions were to look at pages 22-25 and find one new word. They were then (using their phones) to search the internet for a picture that described the word and post it along with a sentence. I showed them how to access Padlet and had a model set up. Then I took them through the process of posting a new word, picture and sentence. At first it was very difficult because the students did not understand that they had to find the word first. In retrospect, I would have them search the word, write it on paper and then post it on the Padlet. However, with a lot of support from me, they were eventually able to see what to do. A few of my more advanced students told me that there was no no words on pages 22-25 so I instructed them to find another page in the book where there was a new word. Once they got the word, I helped them to post it on Padlet. What happened after that was incredible. They started posting more and then they started commenting (without prompting) on each others posts. They even tried to correct errors they saw in other posts. I had not enabled this so it was not possible for them to do. Two days later, I continued my quest to help them learn how to increase their vocabulary. This time I gave them the OPD and said pick a page any page. They were not used to this type of freedom, so it took a while before they understood what I meant by any page. After the wrote down all the words from the page (I had them do this in their vocabulary notebooks) then I had them create Quizlets with them. This is to help them learn how Quizlet is their best picture dictionary. Two students were able to post directly to the class and two students shared it with me in email and I edited their sets (they were in Spanish/English) to English + picture and then reposted them in our group with their names. I hope that next time we do this activity, I will get more sets made. Finally I sent them a text message to look at the Quizlet and play their classmates sets. Let's see if this happens. A great week of learning for both me and my students. You can see the Padlet here: https://padlet.com/susangaer/adjectives The Quizlet class is here:https://quizlet.com/class/3741546/
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Susan Gaer
A veteran teacher tackling the lowest levels of ESL instruction. Archives
August 2017
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