AIIS, Fun with Phonics, Day 4

Going back to yesterday's analogy of a LRT system, Phonemic Awareness was the tracks and Phonics was the stations. We are almost complete with building the system. Day 4 was the session to add the trains. The trains and coaches are a indispensable part of the set-up. In this case, Sight Words are the trains and coaches. 

Choo Choo, all aboard! We started the morning with a laugh by watching a short Thai parody of an English classroom after our morning round of feedback. It relayed the importance of proper pronunciation. Please note, don't make fun a person who mispronounces words, it is usually an indicator they taught it to themselves via reading. That is a commendable feat and an easy fix. Consequently, the greater the understanding a person has of phonics, the less likely this will occur. 

As I climb down from my soapbox, the moment had finally arrived to introduce the amazing Sight Words. They are also known as high frequency words or Dolch words. Even though they number only about 220, the Dolch words comprise approximately 60-75% of what is printed in almost any piece of children’s literature. Many of the Sight Words do not follow the convention of phonics, they require explanation and demonstration. Sight Words are meant to be repeated and practiced for automatic recognition. Therefore, Sight Word acquisition is an essential building block in helping a student become a fluent reader. 

We jumped into the subject by exploring one of my favorite Sight Word teaching aids. It is a set of flashcards with succinct pictures conveying meaning to some abstract words. We discussed different methods to teach sight words in the classroom. We gave a couple examples on how to explain Sight Words who don't follow the rule of phonics. Let's take the word 'be' as a sample. 'Be' should be pronounced with a short vowel by the rule of phonics, not a long vowel. Let's break it down. The 'b' is behaving according to phonics, but the 'e' is not. The 'e' should be short, but it is acting long. Due to its irregularity and high frequency, we must use automatic sight recognition for this word.

Lists were distributed with all the Sight Words. The list of words were divided into groups by grade level. They are the benchmarks for student's mastery of Sight Words. Sight Words are meant to be practiced often. So we played 2 amusing rounds of Secret Sight Words. Teachers were shown a list of pictures. Each picture in the list represents a letter. They must identify the picture and use the first letter from the picture's word in making a new word. Guess correctly, you'll have gotten a Sight Word for an answer.  The teachers got a kick out of the task.

We explored a resource that doesn't just isolate the sight words, but puts them in a context. When you present sight words in short sentences rather than in isolation students are more likely to remember them because they develop an understanding of the word’s significance and meaning. This eye-catching resource is printed on multi-colored paper and is accompanied with recording sheets to track student progress.

We managed to squeeze in a little theory on Day 4 by discussing 5 Myths of English Language Learners (ELL). Our understanding of a second language acquisition has developed significantly over the years and it continues to be refined. Unfortunately, they are a few outdated ideas still floating around in the field and lingering in the literature. We had a healthy discussion on some of the facts of language development. It concluded another productive day with a dynamite bunch of teachers. 

I was fortunate to run into a former student Aziz at the end of the day. Man, time sure does fly when you are having fun with phonics.

AIIS, Fun With Phonics, Day 3

AIIS is conveniently located one block away from a new LRT station named Wawasan, USJ 19. When I taught at AIIS, I witnessed the construction of the elevated tracks of the new Putra Heights line. It was reshaping the landscape of Subang Jaya. The station was no way near complete then; moreover, it was not recognizable. After a few years with effort and progress, I was enjoying the fruits of that labor by riding the new LRT line daily. The teachers development was similar. The first two days we spent laying the track, today was the day when we were going to build those stations. Our target was to get the Phonics line operational for passengers by Friday.

It just so happen that this day (21/12), 20 years ago, Malaysia opened its first LRT line. The Ampang line was debuted for public use. They continued to develop the system by adding new lines and expanding existing ones. Till 20 years later, the new USJ line interconnected the Ampang line with the Kelana Jaya line. Nowadays, the LRT extensively covers KL and the Klang valley. This analogy can be applied to teacher's professional development. 

Through continuos professional development, teachers can acquire new methods and expand existing ones. They can become a developed system, instead of a meager line. Students are like passengers, with their mixed abilities they get on at different stations. They all want to be transported to their goal. The goal of the students is: accuracy, comprehension, fluency and expanding vocabularies. With continuos development, teachers will be able to shuttle thousands of students onto the destination of academic success regardless of their mixed abilities starting points.

The teachers began the morning with a quick round of feedback. There were lots of positive comments on the training. A couple of the teachers EBI turned into a discussion about the possibility of this methodology being applied to learning other languages. By the start of Day 3, the teachers were fully recruited into the Phonics family. The effectiveness and appeal of this approach was glaringly apparent.

We started this morning with a toon and a message from Kid President. Before we listened to the presidential address, teachers had to select one word to describe what kind of teacher they wanted to be. They came up with many good answers like: effective, skillful, inspirational and others. After the fireside chat with Kid President, we all agreed we want to be 'awesome'. Hail to the Chief for the inspirational message.

Next, we couldn't avoid an interruption by bossy 'r'. He had postponed his activity from the day before. We played NCAA inspired hoops game called March Madness R - Controlled Vowels. It is a board game. This is a game with 5 game mats for R-Controlled Vowels AR, OR, IR, ER, and UR. Each mat has a spinner. The goal is to spin the spinner and read the words you land on. If you can’t read the word, you have to go back to the space you were on. It was a delightful and surprisingly challenging way to review r-controlled vowels.

We reviewed blending digraphs and diphthongs with Stretchy Snakes. The teachers proficiency in long vowels continued to increase so the Magic 'e' phase began. Magic 'e' is also known as Silent 'e'. The letter 'e' is the most occurring vowel in the English language. Magic 'e' appears as the last letter in word preceded by a single vowel and consonant construction. Magic 'e' is never pronounced, it impacts the single vowel by making it go long. Here are a few samples of Magic 'e' in action: rake, ride and wrote. 

We used a few Hooked on Phonics Videos as a demo to practice the concept. We also had a visit from the cheerful Alphablocks to reinforce the idea. Teachers were given a activity to sort words according long and short vowels. The recognition of long and short vowels is vital to phonics. The Phonics line was almost complete, soon the train will leave the station.

AE Webinar 5 at UNITAR, Registration Deadline 1/5

This is a cordial invite to all teachers in the KB area. Free professional development for SK, SMK, SMA, prospect teachers and university professors. Registration Deadline is 5/1/17.

The American English Team is pleased to offer American English Webinar Series 5. The 6 online seminars of the course cover a variety of topics and are intended for teachers of English or future teachers of English around the world.  Participants who attend 4 out of the 6 webinars will receive e-certificates. Participants are encouraged to join the associated Ning (http://www.americanenglishwebinars.com) to participate in discussions, view or download video and other materials from the sessions, and access recordings of the webinars.

AE Theme	Webinar Topics	Time and Date
Grammar Games	Fun with Grammar-Bringing Language Learning to Life through Games Presenters: Kate Bain and Lauren Whitaker	Wednesday, January 18, 2017 8:00-9:00pm Malaysia Time
Journalism	Using New Sources to Enhance Learning in the EFL Classroom Presenter: Eve Nora Lit	Wednesday, February 1, 2017 8:00-9:00pm Malaysia Time
	Voice of America: Current Event Activities in the English Language Classroom Presenter: Phil Dierking	Wednesday, February 15, 2017 8:00-9:00pm Malaysia Time
Increasing Learner Engagement	Using Visual Literacy Skills to Encourage Communicative Language Practice Presenter: Katie Subra	Wednesday, March 1, 2017 8:00-9:00pm Malaysia Time
	Learner Training-Developing Student Autonomy to Increase Engagement Presenter: Maggie Steingraeber	Wednesday, March 15, 2017 8:00-9:00pm Malaysia Time
	Photography in ELT: Engage, Inspire, Create, Learn Presenter: Crystal Bock Thiessen	Wednesday, March 29, 2017* 9:00-10:00pm Malaysia Time

AIIS, Fun With Phonics, Day 2

Day 2 began with some additional teachers joining the group. Those who attended the first day were asked for feedback. One of the goals is to create a culture of feedback in the school and the classroom. We had a discussion on the differences between assessment vs. evaluation. These two terms are not synonymous, the 21st Century classroom is based on the former.  The teachers who attended Day 1 self-assessed their first day with WWW and EBI.

Our warmup activity was a short clip on the worldwide mania for learning English. It was another indicator on how important these teachers' subject is to students. English teachers play a pivotal role in the student's academic career. It also cast its shadow of influence over post-graduation job search. Through English proficiency, our students will have more numerous opportunities in the local & international job market. Not to mention, most of their classes in university will be conducted in English. There's an international trend, English teachers are in vogue and English is a hot subject critical to a student's future success.

We kicked off this session by defining two Phonemic Awareness terms: onset & rime. These terms are very helpful when applied to blending. They also help peel back another layer of the code. It was at this moment we introduced digraphs as an addition to our 26 sounds from the previous day. We learned actions associated with a few of the most popular digraph sounds. Flashcards were used to practice all the digraphs. Teachers became experts at identifying the onset & rime of every word. The technique of blending onset & rime words became second nature. The concept of word families was also explored.

The teachers had a task associated with onset & rime. This task was based on group work. They were given a chart of digraphs with the rime 'ack'. The object was to make as many sensical words with the word family 'ack'. Each group came up with over 21 words. The code was revealing its usefulness. These 21 words will not slow down young readers when encountered in text. Instead of spending time on trying to pronounce the word, they are free to allot that valuable time to comprehend the sentence they are reading.  This task can be duplicated in the classroom with all the word families.

Now with digraphs out of the way, it was time to tackle the remaining sounds in the form of diphthongs. When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. Diphthongs are scary looking to young readers, they see them and wonder, "Which vowel do I pronounce?"

Luckily, phonics trains the reader how to pronounce them. It creates a long vowel sound. Of course, there are a few tricky ones like 'oo' and 'ou' then can get sorted via explanation and demonstration. Yahooo! We just completed all the 44 sounds in phonics. It was a milestone, but it was not our final destination.

To get the party started right, we played 2 rounds of diphthongs bingo. To make the game more challenging, we showed a picture of a word and the teachers had to find the corresponding diphthong related to that word. Each participant had a unique combination of diphthongs on their playing card. The first to get 5 in a row ... BINGO!

Review was made of the differing sounds between long vowels and short vowels.  This is a delicate point that phonics smooths over with the code. We had a chance to introduce r-controlled vowels. 'R' is a total control freak when placed in an 'er', 'ir' or 'ur' combination. Thankfully, that bossy 'r' did not dominate us, we left his activity till the next day. Phonemic Awareness was permeating throughout room by the close of Day 2.

At Tamimi International Islamic School, Fun with Phonics, Day 1

I don't have a history of burning bridges, but I do have a solid reputation of building them. From December 19- 23, I spent 5 days with the sensational English teachers of AIIS. It was a trip down memory lane, as I went back to the friendly confines of AIIS. I taught there for 4.5 years, there were lots of improvements to the school's campus since my days. The school has expanded and it also has changed its curriculum. They went from using KSSR and Singapore syllabi to a Cambridge syllabus geared for IGCSE.

CELTA is highly acclaimed TESOL credential. It gives you a toolkit of skills for teaching. A CELTA course will touch on Phonemic Awareness with the Phonetic Chart, but they don't delve into phonics. My experience with phonics was developed in the field. I had great mentor, Niamh Dunne. With her help, I had ample chances to ply my phonic skills in multiple Year 1-3 classes and with numerous English proteges. The majority of textbooks today use a phonics approach, but the bulk of teachers have not been trained in phonics. The solution is simple, let's spend some time coaching in phonics.

I'll be the first tell you phonics is not a perfect system, but it's a complete and effective system. Using Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Sight Words, you increase your students success rate in reading and fluency. It is a proven system for first and second language learners. UK and most of the US schools have adopted this methodology for instruction in their lower primary classrooms. The results have been improved literacy scores across the board. While reading, students who know phonics and sight words can spend more of their precious time on comprehension instead of pronunciation.

Dr Fauzi and Pn Suzana are the heads of AIIS. They have a long history of trying to give their students the competitive edge in education. It was an easy sell to arrange a 5 day training event called Fun with Phonics for their fine English teachers. We would meet daily for 4 hours over 5 consecutive days. The goal was to boost the teachers' skills in Phonemic Awareness and give them practical resources to apply the above mentioned skills.

As soon I as entered into AIIS, I ran into a few familiar faces like Khairy and Saiful. Plus there were a whole lot of new faces, I had the good pleasure to meet. The Year 5 classroom on the second floor was selected as the site. After a little setup, the show began.

We started with a quick survey of the teachers about their backgrounds in phonics. All the teachers present had a range of experiences with phonics. Some had formal training while others were using phonics in lessons. Next, we had a warmup activity that was well received. We came to the conclusion that English is a dynamic language that for the most part follows a code that might pose a challenge to our students. This set the stage for our journey into Phonemic Awareness. The positive bunch of teachers humoured me with learning first 26 of 44 sounds of phonics with their actions accompanied. There we were, a group of professionals making sounds and gestures like a roomful of eager youngsters.

It turned out to be fun. We practiced methods to distinguish sounds from letters. A quick couple of rounds of phonics charades drove the lesson home. We spent some time on the short vowel sounds. Afterwards, we added the art of segmenting and blending to our talents. We did a drill using short 'a'. It led way to the official introduction to CVC words, (Consonant Vowel Consonant).  Subsequently, we applied blending and segmenting to a CVC words review.

Throughout Fun with Phonics, there was a constant thread of professional development woven into the program. I want to motivate teachers to achieve awesomeness in their craft. Not a tall order, especially with this talented lot. We listened to Ted Talks' Rita Pearson, "Everybody Needs a Champion." We put an end to the blame game and started to take off with the train game. By the time we reached 1pm, the teachers were so involved they didn't realize the session passed so rapidly. Like the saying goes,"Time flies when your having Fun with Phonics."

At Tamimi International Islamic School Day 4 toon

American English Update- 9/12

What’s New AE from   ? 

• International Anti-Corruption Day is December 9^th. English language learning content for this day is attached to this email.
• We have selected the winners of our 4^th annual Create Your Own Board Game Competition! The winners will be announced on the American English website (here) and Facebook pages later this week. The winning board games will be available to download from our website.
• This month’s Teacher’s Corner is all about teaching phrasal verbs. Each week will include an activity to use in the classroom and help learners to master phrasal verbs.
• This week's Teens Talk is an interview with a high school student who talks about being bilingual. 

• This week's American English video is about making requests using the modals can and could. 

	Facebook	Twitter	Link	Graphic/Picture
Teacher’s Corner:  Phrasal Verbs	Phrasal verbs can be difficult to teach and learn. This month, the #AmericanEnglish Teacher’s Corner will explore phrasal verbs. Each week, we will present a new activity for students to practice phrasal verbs through inductive learning. This week, try our Phrasal Verb Game!	How to teach phrasal verbs in a fun way? Find out in this month’s #AmericanEnglish #TeachersCorner.	http://bit.ly/TCphverbs	Picture is attached to this email and was made by OELP.
American Teens Talk: Brian	What is a typical day for a U.S. teenager? Teach about U.S. culture in your classroom with the #AmericanEnglish American Teens Talk. In this week's interview, a U.S. high school student talks about his new baby brother, being bilingual, and plans for summer vacation.	Learn about the lives of US teens with #AmericanEnglish American Teens Talk.	http://bit.ly/TeensTalkBrian	Pictures are attached to this email and are CC0.
Animated Video: Requests using modals	Is it easy to ask for help? Learn how to use modal verbs to ask for help and make other requests. Watch this short video to learn more. #AmericanEnglish #ModalVerbs	Learn to ask for help and make other requests with this #AmericanEnglish video!	Facebook: http://bit.ly/AErequests YouTube:  http://bit.ly/AErequestsYT	Picture is attached to this email and was made by OELP.

Review of I'm All In SMKTTDI

It was a hazy Thursday morning in KL, when I arrived at SMK Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. Morning Assembly had begun and I introduced myself to the whole school. I was there for a one day event to motivate 100 plus Form 3 students in the use of English. It was designed in a fun way to review and synthesize the language to increase understanding. The lead teacher Nor Zahida had participated in an earlier USEKL event and she requested the program. Cikgu Shah was remarkably helpful in assisting me in the program as well.

Traditionally, these last weeks post PT3 (Form 3 national tests) are filled with increases in truancy and empathy. School's can experience 50% or higher truancy rates from Form 3 students during the end of the year. Teachers have finished their syllabi by this time so some students behave as if the term has ended. Having this fun English day was aimed at reversing this alarming trend and reward the students who do show up. The Co-Curricular Weeks at he end of school provide a great opportunity for teachers to explore a wide range of activities. If teacher's don't seize this time, the students become rudderless. I'm All In was a fun interactive program based on individual, paired and group work.

We met at the outdoor Dewan after assembly. We watched the I'm All In Powtoon to get everyone psyched and on the same page for the day's schedule. The students had to practice the battlecry ("I'm All In") a few times before we continued with the day's edutaiment. We then viewed a short inspirational video on Ibrahim Hamadtou. We concluded that learning English is easier than playing pingpong without any hands. By this time, this keen and clever group of students were all in. Next, we reviewed Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. There were a few quick partner based tasks after the review of each part of speech. 

The next activity was Judge Jody. It began with a review what makes a complete sentence. Collectively we passed judgement on different samples whether it was a sentence or a fragment. Students had fun indicating their answers with a thumb gesture. It was a fun way to reinforce sentence structure based on a review.

Master Pone is a kung fu type panda. He is the main character in game we played called, Using Quotation in Dialogue. Before we started, we watched a funny commercial on "Never Say No To The Panda." The group got a kick out of it and were eager to follow the instruction of Master Pone. He taught us how to properly write the Pone First Form, Pone Last Form and Broken Pone form of using quotations in dialogues. This activity was essential to get all the students up to speed for station 2 The Living Sentence.

Douglas Black from the USEKL made a cameo appearance. Douglas is the one who spearheaded this project. The students were charged when he was asked, "Are you in?" He replied emphatically, "I'm all in!"

The highlight of the day was a 4 station rotation activity which broke the students into roughly 4 groups of 25 students. The first station was a speaking role play to encourage conversation with prompts. The second station was a game called The Living sentence. Students had to arrange words and quotation marks in the proper order. Each team was given a placards with one word or one punctuation mark on it. One placard per person, then must arrange themselves properly to make a correct sentence. Making thank you cards was the third station. A few students chose to make me cards, I was flattered. The final station was a small group activity of charades inspired game. Big thanks to all the fine teachers who help me the stations. 

The final activity was a parts of speech water balloon toss. Students paired off and lined up in the field. They were given a part of speech and a letter. For example, An adjective beginning with the letter 'b': big, blue, bouncy and etc. It was a lively way to review the day's main concepts. We were able to play a couple of rounds.  In short, the students were inspired to continue to learn in English in the Co-Curricular weeks and throughout their life's journey. We ended our day in the way we began it with the battlecry, "I'm all in!" 

American English Webinar 4.6- Classroom 2.0: Tools for Digital Learning

American English Webinar Series 4 was a worldwide internet based professional development course for English teachers. The course was divided into 6 sessions, alternating Wednesdays from September to November at UNITAR KB. Prospect, SK, SMA, SMK and university teachers alike attended. There was a total of 28 teachers who participated, 10 of which qualified for certificates. Compliments to all the teachers who took part. My role was as the moderator of the lively 30 minutes long discussion that proceeded after each 60 minutes long webinar.

The final instalment was Classroom 2.0: Tools for Digital Learning. One of the takeaways from this session was the idea of not to expect technology to do the teaching, rather use technology as a tool to teach. It was an informative session which shared many free internet based resources for the classroom. Most of the teachers had some experience with the blended approach previously, but they all found it useful. 

The session revolved around Carol Chapelle's, Choosing the right tools (2000):
1. Language Learning Potential
2. Learner Fit
3. Meaning Focus
4. Authenticity 
5. Positive Impact
6. Punctuality 

The last discussion was a brief reflection on the entire series and a 10 minute demonstration on SCORM  packages accessible through FrogAsia. The demonstration was upon request of the teachers. Since the SCORM packages met Chapelle's 6 criteria and were tailored made to the Malaysian syllabus, I thought it an appropriate use of time.  The teachers were pleasantly suprised of the list of all the SCORM packages available to them on spp.moe.my.  They were hooked and found them to be an awesome tool in making their classrooms more blended. Utmost respect to all theses super teachers who sacrificed their free time to voluntarily improve their skills sets. Huge thanks to all the partners involved: Douglas Black USEKL, Tn Hj Ramlan Awang UNITAR KB and Mohammad Aswari Japar UNITAR KB.

Here is the link to webinar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCj-hHSnuqk&list=PL7BlTIDdOgZJ63fcD0WsatBODvNCeHA0t

American English Update- November 16, 2016

What’s New from AE? 

• Celebrate International Games Day on November 19^th by playing Activate Games and encouraging others to create an original board game for our 4^th annual Create Your Own Board Game Competition! Deadline: Nov 25. Winners announced: Nov 30. 
• It’s International Education Week! Attached to this email are new graphics created by OELP for IEW. You can use the hashtag #IEW2016
• Post fun facts about English with these five “fun facts” graphics created by OELP. (Attached to this email.)
• This week in the Teacher’s Corner, we explore using a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach to help incorporate technology into classroom practice without the need for every student to have a personal computer.

Social Media

Please feel free to use this language to disseminate the new AE content via your social media platforms. 

Create Your Own Board Game Competition Do you use board games in your classroom? Do you ever create your own board games for your students? Enter the 4th annual #AmericanEnglish Create Your Own Board Game (CYOBG) Competition! Submit your original board game to americanenglish@state.gov  by November 25. Winners will be announced on November 30. Learn more and see past winners here: http://bit.ly/AEboardgame #AEforEducators #WeLoveAE  Do you like games? Are you creative? Enter the 4th annual #AmericanEnglish Create Your Own Board Game (CYOBG) Competition! Submit your original board game to americanenglish@state.gov by November 25. Winners will be announced on November 30. Learn more and see past winners here: http://bit.ly/AEboardgame #WeLoveAE	Like board games? Enter the 4th annual #AmericanEnglish CYOBG competition!	https://americanenglish.state.gov/create-your-own-board-game-competition Shortened Link:  http://bit.ly/AEboardgame
Teacher’s Corner: Trends in Education Looking for internet-based tools to use in your classroom? Check out this week’s #AmericanEnglish #TeachersCorner!	Looking for internet-based tools to use in your classroom? Check out this week’s #AmericanEnglish #TeachersCorner!	http://bit.ly/TCdevice