Monday, 15 May 2017
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Fun with Phonics in Putrajaya Part 1
It was an overcast morning at Perpustakaan Pusat Komunity in Putra Jaya. A big shout of thanks to Kakngah Shila for organizing the event to bring 21st Century Teaching techniques to the homeschool and kindergarten communities. The event was 10 am - 4pm on Saturday, the 11th of March. We had a delightful group of 14 educators present.
The event started with the History of English in 10 minutes. This led to the discussion of the dynamics of the language coupled with in the 1700s the attempt to code the language for the first dictionary. It is that very code that was created hundreds of years ago that phonics leverages into literacy.
We started the day by introducing the group to their new gang of friends ... Alphablocks. We began immediately learning the sounds and actions of the 26 letters. Phonics is the system based on the 44 sounds those letters and letter combinations can produce. There was some giggles from the group as we proceeded. It was long before they were given a CVC word and they had to use actions while the rest of the group guesses the sounds and blend them into words.
It led to a discussion on how to segment and blend words. We all practiced segmenting and blending some short vowel a words. Then the educators all took turns showing off their new skills.
It was near this juncture, the group decided to slow the ambitious tempo down and to make another part 2 session at a later date (13/5). This freed us from the speed racer pace. It allowed us to delve deeper into the next topic, CVC words.
CVC words are like the atoms in a molecule. They are integral part of the phonics code. We spent time refining our short vowel sounds. We did many tasks involving CVC words. It was lunchtime, time flies fast when you are having fun.
After the break, we watched a comical reminder of the importance of phonics and pronunciation with a funny Thai video about an English classroom. One of the educators shared a story about how their daughter faced a similar situation in her own classroom. It was time to introduce consonant blends and digraphs. We had a fun flashcard team-based game. There was lots of competitive spirit between the two teams as they applied their affinity towards consonant blends.
We continued our march on the phonics trail with diphthongs. These two vowel combinations produce a long vowel sound. We then played a round of diphthong bingo to drive the lesson home. It was a highly productive day with a group of hard charing educators. Since the training took place, one of the teachers has already incorporated phonics into her lessons and says the kids are loving it. Another educator said that her youngest was already picking up sounds she was teaching the other children. It was a smashing success, the code busting family continues to grow. Dynamite!
The event started with the History of English in 10 minutes. This led to the discussion of the dynamics of the language coupled with in the 1700s the attempt to code the language for the first dictionary. It is that very code that was created hundreds of years ago that phonics leverages into literacy.
We started the day by introducing the group to their new gang of friends ... Alphablocks. We began immediately learning the sounds and actions of the 26 letters. Phonics is the system based on the 44 sounds those letters and letter combinations can produce. There was some giggles from the group as we proceeded. It was long before they were given a CVC word and they had to use actions while the rest of the group guesses the sounds and blend them into words.
It led to a discussion on how to segment and blend words. We all practiced segmenting and blending some short vowel a words. Then the educators all took turns showing off their new skills.
It was near this juncture, the group decided to slow the ambitious tempo down and to make another part 2 session at a later date (13/5). This freed us from the speed racer pace. It allowed us to delve deeper into the next topic, CVC words.
CVC words are like the atoms in a molecule. They are integral part of the phonics code. We spent time refining our short vowel sounds. We did many tasks involving CVC words. It was lunchtime, time flies fast when you are having fun.
After the break, we watched a comical reminder of the importance of phonics and pronunciation with a funny Thai video about an English classroom. One of the educators shared a story about how their daughter faced a similar situation in her own classroom. It was time to introduce consonant blends and digraphs. We had a fun flashcard team-based game. There was lots of competitive spirit between the two teams as they applied their affinity towards consonant blends.
We continued our march on the phonics trail with diphthongs. These two vowel combinations produce a long vowel sound. We then played a round of diphthong bingo to drive the lesson home. It was a highly productive day with a group of hard charing educators. Since the training took place, one of the teachers has already incorporated phonics into her lessons and says the kids are loving it. Another educator said that her youngest was already picking up sounds she was teaching the other children. It was a smashing success, the code busting family continues to grow. Dynamite!
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Phonics-Toon Cam and Sam Part 1
Cam and Sam Part 1 is a short vowel 'a' story with sight words. It is aimed to be consumed by the digital generation. You can read the printable version below or
click on this link for the toon
click on this link for the toon
Tuesday, 11 April 2017
Brief Summary of IMELT Conference
The journey began with my flight to KL being delayed which caused me to miss my connecting flight. The Airlines arranged for me to spend the night at hotel inside the airport, past the check-in and customs, and put me on the morning flight. I arrived in Jakarta and made it on time for the opening ceremonies of the conference. It was held at Universitas Islam Syarif Hidyatullah (UIN) from 3/16-18. It was a collaboration between UIN and Universiti Putra Malaysia. The theme was Breaking Borders, Enriching ELT Experience.
It was a lovely event who was staffed by some outstanding volunteers (students). They had plenaries and breakout sessions they called parallels. There were many participants from far flung corners of Indonesia on some islands I've never heard before. No surprise considering the Indonesian Archipelago has 18, 307 islands. It has the fourth largest population in the word. It also is home to the worlds most populated island in the world... Jawa. Half of the countries population calls Jawa home. The Jakarta metro area is the 3rd largest in the world with over 30 million people. You can only imagine the crawl of traffic at times throughout the day.
The opening ceremony had some speakers high ranking people from the two collaborating universities and a minister of a governmental department. They mentioned there has been 60 years of cooperation between the academic communities of Malaysia and Indonesia; however, this was the first conference on English. At the moment 80% of the public universities of Malaysia are involved in IMELT. It was mentioned the shared history between the two nations, prior to them becoming nations. The Melaka Sultanate was formed by a prince from the ancient Srivijaya (Jawa and Sumatra) civilization. Many of the current royal families in Malaysia can trace their roots to Jawa.
Although the two languages (Bahasa Malaysia & Indonesia) share some words, they are divergent. Bahasa Indonesia has a stronger Arabic influence than Bahasa Malaysia, Arabic is its number one source of share words. The separate colonial occupations of the British & the Dutch contributed to more divergence. The historical shadow of the Dutch is the cause of the biggest challenge facing English language learning in Indonesia. Unlike Malaysia, where English is an official second language, Indonesia considers English as a foreign language. This impacts the prioritisation of funds and influence English learning faces from a national to a local level. Although in the job market, English speaking skills are highly desirable.
The conference was power packed. I learned lots of new things and met some new compadres. Most of the breakout sessions were dissertations of papers educators wrote and presented. A sample of some of the sessions I went to was Teacher Education: Preparation or Preparedness?, Text Driven Approaches to Text-Based Learning, Gender and Foreign Language Learning and Developing Effective Professional Program Based Teacher on Educational Effective Research.
I had a parallel session on Friday and a plenary on Saturday. The 25 minute session was on the Qualities of a 21st Century Teacher. A good question from one of the participants was how to handle a co-worker who does not want to update skills. My advice was always treat your co-worker respect, it is unimaginable everybody will update their skills and keep collaborating and grinding forward thinking methods with colleagues who do.
My plenary was based on the Role of the Teacher in the 21st Century classroom. My session was more like a training infused with motivation. As always, I struggle with time issues. We discussed the success and the applicability of the Shang Hai model in Malay educational world. In this part of the world teachers are burdened with many administrative responsibilities that detract from teaching. This growing burden is fueled by MoEs trying to juggle shrinking budgets. Shang Hai has posted some of the highest PISA scores in the world. Its student population is diverse in terms of socio-economic and urban/rural backgrounds. The effectiveness of their model is a teachers spend a third of their time in ongoing professional development or mentoring. Teachers get time and support to increase their skillset which correlates into a better education for the students. My mission was accomplished by the end of the session, the participants were pivoted to become awesome teachers.
This conference as opened my eyes and my concern to the growing demands for English language learning in Indonesia. It also reconfirmed my memory, Indonesian people are lovely and their food is tasty.
It was a lovely event who was staffed by some outstanding volunteers (students). They had plenaries and breakout sessions they called parallels. There were many participants from far flung corners of Indonesia on some islands I've never heard before. No surprise considering the Indonesian Archipelago has 18, 307 islands. It has the fourth largest population in the word. It also is home to the worlds most populated island in the world... Jawa. Half of the countries population calls Jawa home. The Jakarta metro area is the 3rd largest in the world with over 30 million people. You can only imagine the crawl of traffic at times throughout the day.
The opening ceremony had some speakers high ranking people from the two collaborating universities and a minister of a governmental department. They mentioned there has been 60 years of cooperation between the academic communities of Malaysia and Indonesia; however, this was the first conference on English. At the moment 80% of the public universities of Malaysia are involved in IMELT. It was mentioned the shared history between the two nations, prior to them becoming nations. The Melaka Sultanate was formed by a prince from the ancient Srivijaya (Jawa and Sumatra) civilization. Many of the current royal families in Malaysia can trace their roots to Jawa.
Although the two languages (Bahasa Malaysia & Indonesia) share some words, they are divergent. Bahasa Indonesia has a stronger Arabic influence than Bahasa Malaysia, Arabic is its number one source of share words. The separate colonial occupations of the British & the Dutch contributed to more divergence. The historical shadow of the Dutch is the cause of the biggest challenge facing English language learning in Indonesia. Unlike Malaysia, where English is an official second language, Indonesia considers English as a foreign language. This impacts the prioritisation of funds and influence English learning faces from a national to a local level. Although in the job market, English speaking skills are highly desirable.
The conference was power packed. I learned lots of new things and met some new compadres. Most of the breakout sessions were dissertations of papers educators wrote and presented. A sample of some of the sessions I went to was Teacher Education: Preparation or Preparedness?, Text Driven Approaches to Text-Based Learning, Gender and Foreign Language Learning and Developing Effective Professional Program Based Teacher on Educational Effective Research.
I had a parallel session on Friday and a plenary on Saturday. The 25 minute session was on the Qualities of a 21st Century Teacher. A good question from one of the participants was how to handle a co-worker who does not want to update skills. My advice was always treat your co-worker respect, it is unimaginable everybody will update their skills and keep collaborating and grinding forward thinking methods with colleagues who do.
My plenary was based on the Role of the Teacher in the 21st Century classroom. My session was more like a training infused with motivation. As always, I struggle with time issues. We discussed the success and the applicability of the Shang Hai model in Malay educational world. In this part of the world teachers are burdened with many administrative responsibilities that detract from teaching. This growing burden is fueled by MoEs trying to juggle shrinking budgets. Shang Hai has posted some of the highest PISA scores in the world. Its student population is diverse in terms of socio-economic and urban/rural backgrounds. The effectiveness of their model is a teachers spend a third of their time in ongoing professional development or mentoring. Teachers get time and support to increase their skillset which correlates into a better education for the students. My mission was accomplished by the end of the session, the participants were pivoted to become awesome teachers.
This conference as opened my eyes and my concern to the growing demands for English language learning in Indonesia. It also reconfirmed my memory, Indonesian people are lovely and their food is tasty.
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Phonics-Toons- Ed & Ted
Phonics-Toons is a pet project of mine. It is aimed at increasing literacy amongst the digital generation. Ed & Ted, Short vowel 'e' story with sight words. Young learners are more accustomed to pick up a phone or pad, so I have some phonics friendly toons for their consumption. Forgive the sound track vocals, I was a bit monotone for my first showing, lol. The pdf version is enrichment materials, meant for the reading corner in classroom. Read with a smile!
Click here for Ed & Ted toon
Click here for Ed & Ted toon
Sunday, 19 March 2017
American English, Update 3/15
What’s New from AE?
- American English for Educators and English Language Fellow Programs joined forces for a #MyClassroom photo campaign. We received nearly 100 photos from teachers in 42 different countries. Please share our final video to show the variety of classrooms and the inspiring messages from some of these teachers.
- In this week’s animated video, we teach how to use the prepositions “about,” “above,” and “like” to describe people.
- This month’s Teacher’s Corner is about promoting learner engagement in the classroom. This week’s “Beat the Clock” activity uses time to foster engagement in reading tasks.
- This month, we are posting graphics with commonly confused words in English.
- In case you missed them last week, there are graphics for upcoming days on our SharePoint site: March 17 (green idioms for St. Patrick’s Day); March 20 (International Day of Happiness); and March 22 (water idioms for World Water Day).
- The first facilitated session of our English for Media Literacy MOOC begins April 3. Registration opens March 20. Graphic to promote this MOOC is on our SharePoint site.
- The second facilitated session of our English for Career Development MOOC starts April 3. Registration opens March 20. Graphic to promote this MOOC is on our SharePoint site.
Social Media
Please feel free to use this language to disseminate AE content via your social media platforms.
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Facebook
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Twitter
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Link
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#MyClassroom Campaign – Final Video
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“My classroom is my inspiration.” What is your classroom like? We asked teachers around the world, and they answered. Watch this video to see their stories. |
What is your classroom like? See answers from around the world in this #video. |
Hashtags & handles
#MyClassroom
#AEforEducators
@ELFellows
Links
YouTube:
Facebook:
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Animated Videos:
About, Like, Above
(descriptions)
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Are you like your mother or your father? Learn how to use the prepositions “like,” “above,” and “about” to describe people. #AmericanEnglish #prepositions #video |
Need help with prepositions? Watch the latest #AmericanEnglish #prepositions #video. |
YouTube:
Facebook:
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Teacher’s Corner:
Promoting Learner Engagement
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Can your students “Beat the Clock”? Use this activity to motivate students to challenge themselves while reading. #AmericanEnglish #TeachersCorner |
Can your students “Beat the Clock”? Find the activity on the #AmericanEnglish #TeachersCorner. |
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Tuesday, 7 March 2017
AE Webinar 5.4: Using Visual Literacy Skills to Encourage Communicative Language Practice
It was a rainy night in KB town and we had a crowd of about 30 plus amazing teachers attend AE Webinar 5.4. The subject of the evening was: Using Visual Literacy Skills to Encourage Communicative Language Practice. It was another informative session to bring the latest 21st Century techniques alive in the classroom.
A brief summary is as follows: All students are already trained and familiar with using Visual Literacy in their first language. The goal is to transfer that skill to learning English. The host of the webinar was Eco-friendly Katie Subra from Minnesota and the moderator was your's truly, Khidar 'AB' Abdullah. Samples of Visuals include: photos, art, posters, illustrations, signs, advertisements, charts, diagrams, maps, timelines, comics, flags, symbols, brochures and etc.
What is Visual Literacy (VL) you ask?It is the ability to read and understand a variety of visuals in a given environment. Visuals can be categorized as simple or high. A non smoking sign is an example of high while a work of art would be a sample of a high visual.
The benefits of using VL in the classroom is:
One of the activities you can do you with your students is Show-n-Tell. Students can bring in an artifact or take a picture of one. They can share and show it to the class and tell all about it. You can employ productive skills like speaking and for more advanced students they can write paragraph.
You can assign the topic using the prompt, if this arifact was in a time capsule:
1. How would you explain it to someone in the future who is outside of your culture.
2. Include a description of the color and size of the object.
3. What is used for presently and what could be used for in the future.
Then ask the students to rewrite the questions using 2-3 full sentences for their answers. The students should write in the 3rd person (He, She, It, They). When the task is done, they have a nice short essay with a picture of the visual attached. You can blog it and have a nice record of the task.
You can also do small group or large group activities with signs and infographics. Each group can select one sign or infographic or you can provide one and do it as a class activity. Before you jump into the activity you should
A brief summary is as follows: All students are already trained and familiar with using Visual Literacy in their first language. The goal is to transfer that skill to learning English. The host of the webinar was Eco-friendly Katie Subra from Minnesota and the moderator was your's truly, Khidar 'AB' Abdullah. Samples of Visuals include: photos, art, posters, illustrations, signs, advertisements, charts, diagrams, maps, timelines, comics, flags, symbols, brochures and etc.
What is Visual Literacy (VL) you ask?It is the ability to read and understand a variety of visuals in a given environment. Visuals can be categorized as simple or high. A non smoking sign is an example of high while a work of art would be a sample of a high visual.
The benefits of using VL in the classroom is:
- Authentic & culturally relevant materials
- Incorporate intergraded skills
- Develop content based vocabulary
- Motivate visual learners
- Promotes critical thinking
- Promotes Communicative language practice
One of the activities you can do you with your students is Show-n-Tell. Students can bring in an artifact or take a picture of one. They can share and show it to the class and tell all about it. You can employ productive skills like speaking and for more advanced students they can write paragraph.
You can assign the topic using the prompt, if this arifact was in a time capsule:
1. How would you explain it to someone in the future who is outside of your culture.
2. Include a description of the color and size of the object.
3. What is used for presently and what could be used for in the future.
Then ask the students to rewrite the questions using 2-3 full sentences for their answers. The students should write in the 3rd person (He, She, It, They). When the task is done, they have a nice short essay with a picture of the visual attached. You can blog it and have a nice record of the task.
You can also do small group or large group activities with signs and infographics. Each group can select one sign or infographic or you can provide one and do it as a class activity. Before you jump into the activity you should
- Intro the new topic
- Pre-teach it
- Find culturally & authentic materials
- Help students with the task
Another fun activity is work in small groups and have students make their own infographic. The finished products can be displayed in the classroom or virtually displayed in a blog. This activity can be a bit time-consuming, but it is a fun creative exercise. You can go to the website www.canva.com
to create your own free account to make high quality info graphics.
The language used in this task would be an imperative statement like-Conserve Water. It would be followed 2 or 3 'I can statements." I can use less water when brushing my teeth. I can take shorter showers. Of course you would have a general visual attached to express the idea of conserving water. You should model a few samples before you begin the activity. Overall, it was another practical professional development webinar followed by a spirited discussion. Your students are already visual literate, why not apply this skill to learn English.
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