Teaching Without Textbooks Look Ma, No Text! Fmethodologies, such as Community Language Learning...

Teaching Without Textbooks

winter/spring 2005

Look Ma, No Text!By Alexis Johnson............................1

The Best of Both Worlds: StudentPortfoliosBy Cynthia Zafft..............................4

Making Plates to Honor Women inHistoryBy Susan Hershey........................... 5

Dancing the Meringue: Partying to Promote Conversation in ESOL ClassBy Peggy Rambach.........................6

Inspiring ABE Writers Using Objects and ImagesBy Janet Fischer, Andrea O’Brien,& Jane Schwerdtfeger.......................8

Playwriting in PrisonBy Iris Broudy.................................11A Voice for ImmigrantsBy Karen Oakley........................ 13

Using Fables in the ESOL ClassBy Mary Ann Sliwa........................15

Listening: A Powerful ESL Editing ToolBy Mary Jo Moore.........................16

A Taste of CultureBy Lisa Garrone.............................19

Spice Up Your Day With PurposefulDictationBy Joy Tubman & Laurie Hartwick...... 21

Beyond Textbooks, Without TextbooksBy Sally Gabb...............................24

Funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education

System for Adult Basic Education Support

Look Ma, No Text!By Alexis Johnson

or 20 years people have asked me "What text do you use?”I've learned not to say "We don't use texts!" right away, as

that is sometimes seen as arrogance, ignorance, or a com- bination of the two. I now try to begin with something like "Well,

although we have many books and use class sets from time to timein the classroom, and certainly as reference, we prefer not to use aspecific text for a specific course. We don't want to set up thedynamic of “It's Tuesday, we must be on page 56."

Viewing the use of one specific text as constraining and as notnecessarily meeting the students' varied needs, InternationalLanguage Institute (ILI) uses an organic curriculum. Of course,every level has a guideline and general structural hierarchy forlanguage acquisition. For example, we teach the present tensebefore the past tense since this is how we learn our first language.

We have had to train students in adapting to the organic cur-riculum concept. Sometimes at the beginning of a course studentssay that they would feel more secure with a text. At times we givethem a text to use as a reference. Wealways, however, give them anotebook that we have dividedinto categories: grammar,vocabulary, pronunciation/intonation, readings, writ-ing and misc. Thisbecomes their text asteachers give them hole-punched handouts and theytake their own notes. ILI'steachers share this philosophy

Continued on page 3

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Field Notes

2winter/spring 2005

F o r e w o r dField NotesMission Statement and Editorial PolicyMissionField Notes is an adult basic education (ABE)quarterly, theme-based newsletter. It is designedto share innovative and reliable practices,resources, and information relating to ABE. Weattempt to publish a range of voices aboutimportant educational issues, and we are espe-cially interested in publishing new writers, writ-ers of color, and writers who represent the fullrange of diversity of learners and practitionersin the field.

Field Notes is also a place to provide supportand encouragement to new and experiencedpractitioners (ABE, ESOL, GED, ADP, FamilyLiteracy, Correction, Workplace Education, andothers) in the process of writing about theirideas and practice. Editorial support is alwaysprovided to any writer who requests it.Teachers, administrators, counselors, volunteers,and support staff are welcome to write for FieldNotes.

Our FunderField Notes is published by the System for AdultBasic Educational Support (SABES) and fundedby Adult and Community Learning Services(ACLS), Massachusetts Department of Education.The Central Resource Center (CRC) of SABES islocated at 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA02210.

Our Editorial PolicyUnsolicited manuscripts to Field Notes are wel-come. If you have an idea for an article or wishto submit a letter to the editor, contact LenoreBalliro, editor, by phone at 617-482-9485, byemail at <[email protected]>, or by mail at44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210.Submission deadlines for upcoming issues arepublished in each issue of Field Notes.

Opinions expressed in Field Notes are those ofthe authors and do not necessarily reflect theopinion of the editor, SABES, or its funders. Wedo reserve the right to decline publication. Wewill not publish material that is sexist, homopho-bic, or otherwise discriminatory.

Our Reprint PolicyArticles published in Field Notes may be reprint-ed in any publication as long as they are credited to the author and Field Notes.

Field Notes Advisory BoardEllen Bourne, Lisa Garrone, Tzivia Gover, SusanHershey, Karen Oakley, Mary Ann Sliwa, DavidStearns

Editing and Layout: Lenore BalliroProofreading: Deb Liehs

Most teachers agree that it’s impossible to teach an ABE or ESOL classbased on one or two textbooks. Even if we start out with the intention of fol-lowing a book, our students bring real-life language and literacy questions,needs, and interests into the classroom, and these topics catapult us intounplanned lessons or curriculum units. A cousin’s funeral, a terminationfrom work, a car accident, a television show, anything can provide motiva-tion for language and literacy learning. While moving away from a pre-designed text is liberating and responsive, it is also a lot of work, and can beintimidating and confusing to new teachers. How do you structure this kindof teaching? How do you pull it all together? I have found over the last twen-ty years that teachers who are the most successful at veering away from thetext have in place—implicitly or explicitly—a framework for guiding theirteaching. The ABE curriculum frameworks, for example, give teachers a scaf-fold for using real-life content while integrating language and literacy struc-tures and behaviors. The Equipped For the Future (EFF) frameworks alsoguide teachers by providing standards and activities while still allowingteachers to choose authentic materials as a basis for teaching and learning.

This issue of Field Notes drew such a large number of submissions wehad to expand it to 28 pages, and even then, some articles have spilled overto the summer issue. The articles printed here offer a glimpse of the ways ABEand ESOL teaching can reach far beyond the text. Alexis Johnson shares aframework for using authentic materials while systematically attending toall aspects of language learning. Lisa Garrone describes how her programties advocacy to language learning, community building, and confidencebuilding. The use of drama, fables, family trees, pottery, and scavengerhunts are explored as rich sources of teaching material. Cynthia Zafft pro-vides a glimpse into the use of portfolios as a way to document students’work and progress— an important element when diverging from a prepack-aged curriculum.

Learners and teachers often express the need for an anchoring text— agrammar book, reader, or skills builder. Providing students with a text neednot prevent teachers from drawing from the wealth of real-life topics andmaterials around us, from survival skills “realia” to discussions about cur-rent events. We are lucky to live in a print-rich and culturally-rich location,an area where speakers will readily come into our classrooms, where muse-ums welcome us with educational guides, where the internet provides uswith late breaking content on issues that critically affect our students, wheretelevision shows, films, and DVDs promote laughter and glimpses into popu-lar culture. In fact,I miss having my own class just so I can teach,using ,say, an episode from The Simpsons or Six Feet Under. So go ahead...usewhat’s out there!

Lenore Balliro, Editor

Field Notes

activities can help solidify anddeepen a student’s understandingof a particular point in grammar orstructure.For example, at ILI, wehave found that Grammar in Contextand Grammar Dimensions (Heinle

and Heinle, 1996)are useful gram-mar workbooks when grammarpractice is solidly based in content.

At ILI, we have found that wecan use authentic materials 100%of the time for classroom activitiesand still cover all the modalities oflearning. We can also address thevarious learning styles of students.

By basing instruction inauthentic materials, not only willstudents end up learning and usingnew grammar structures andvocabulary, they will be also able todiscuss important events that arehappening around them.

Alexis Johnson is cofounder and exec-utive director of InternationalLanguage Institute and a mastertrainer for School for InternationalTraining TESOL Certificate Program.She can be reached at <[email protected]>.

3winter/spring 2005

Intermediate: If ________won,s/he ______Advanced: If ____ hadsaid/done ______, s/he _______ VVooccaabbuullaarryy: Political termi-

nology, basic to sophisticated.

PPrroonnuunncciiaattiioonn: You can get alot of mileage out of terms likepledge, politician, and even thenames of the candidates so stu-dents understand what peopleare talking about. CCuullttuurree: Compare our electoral

process to the one in students’own countries.

Using speakers and authenticmaterials helps bring the commu-nity into the classroom.

The Place of TextsWhile studying a particular

grammar point (conditional ismentioned above, but a teachercould introduce or help studentspractice the simple past, future,comparative, etc., students can usetexts to practice a structure. Whilethere is no need to rely on a text tointroduce a structure that arisesthrough the content of the lesson,extra practice through text-based

of learning. We have monthly in-service workshops to keep ourselveson track.

Using a WheelSo what does it mean to teach withouta text? At ILI we use a wheel thatshows the components of language—the four skills (speaking, listening,reading, writing)— surrounded by thetools (grammar, vocabulary, pronun-ciation/ intonation) based in contentand context on a bed of culture. If alesson addresses all the categories inthe wheel, we feel we are doing inte-grated activities in the classroom.Content-Based Instruction (CBI)operates on this principle. Othermethodologies, such as CommunityLanguage Learning (CLL) and SilentWay, also incorporate integratedactivities.

Theme-Based Classes at ILIHere's an example of the wheel

applied to the classroom. Taking thetheme of the elections, October's classes often revolve around upcom-ing elections. The four skills revolvearound the theme. For example: SSppeeaakkiinngg:: Debates, group opin-

ions, paired discussions LLiisstteenniinngg: Invited speakers can

talk about candidates and refer-endum questions; taped radioreports, videos of news reports orspecials. (The movie Thirteen

Days works for advanced classes) RReeaaddiinngg: Newspaper articles

(headlines work for lower levels,News for You articles, mock bal-lots, candidate profiles; WWrriittiinngg:: Sentence opinions (I

like____ because _______ ;politicalads and essays. GGrraammmmaarr:

Lower Level: If ______ wins, s/hewill ______

At ILI, we have found that we canuse authentic materials 100% of thetime for classroom activities and stillcover all the modalities of learning.

LLooookk,, MMaa,, NNoo TTeexxtt!! .. . Continued from page 1

For another way of looking at frameworks while teaching withauthentic materials, check out Equipped For the Future’s (EFF) content standards, role maps, classroom activities, and purposesfor learning at their Web site:

http://eff.cls.utk.edu/fundamentals/default.htm

ne of the major drawbacks tousing workbooks alone is thatthey do not address local cur-

riculum and instruction needs.Portfolios can be tailor-made tofocus on a wide variety of importantstudent outcomes. For example,take a look at the Transition StudentPortfolio Model, one of thePromising Practices on the National

College Transition Network (NCTN)Web site (www.collegetransition.organd “click” on Promising Practices).

Promising Practice 2, by PatFina of the Community LearningCenter in Cambridge is created foradult students in the ABE-to-col-lege transition program. The port-folio created during the coursebecomes the transition “book” andcontains copies of key documents,such as the student’s college appli-cation, acceptance letter, and finan-cial aid form, as well as assignmentsthat demonstrate their math, com-puter, and writing progress.

While 65 percent of GED exam-

inees are getting the credential inorder to pursue further education,only 30-35 percent obtain anypostsecondary education. NCTNsupports ABE staff, programs, andstates in establishing and strength-ening ABE-to-college transitionservices through technical assis-tance, professional development,collegial sharing, advocacy and

increased visibility for this criticalsector of the adult basic educationsystem. Visit our Web site for awide variety of resources and con-sider joining this free network.Keep college in your students’future.

Cynthia Zafft is the coordinatorof the National College TransitionNetwork at the New England LiteracyResource Center located at WorldEducation. She can be reached at<czafft2worlded.org>

The Best of Both Worlds: Student PortfoliosBy Cynthia Zafft

Field Notes

4 winter/spring 2005

Portfolios can be tailor-made tofocus on a wide variety of importantstudent outcomes.

Sample of Items From College Transition Portfolio

Here is a partial sample of the cate-gories and items found in the CollegeTransition portfolio described by PatFina on the ABE College-to-TransitionWeb site. Find more at <www.college-transition.org>.

College Preparedness■ Library card from city where stu-

dent lives■ Diplomas/GED certificates ■ Photocopy of application(s) to

college(s) ■ Recent course catalog from col-

lege of student’s choice ■ College acceptance letters■ Photocopy of scholarship

applications■ Copies of letters of recom-

mendation

Computers■ Computer skills inventory■ Resume■ Email address■ Budget■ Data project and graph■ Business letter

Math■ Study notes and exam from

each unit: numbers and numera-tion, arithmetic, fractions, etc.

Writing■ Personal/Reflective Writing ■ Summary of Short Story ■ Descriptive Writing ■ Expository Writing■ Research Paper ■ Oral Presentation ■ Copies of all tests and quizzes

For more information on ABE-to-college transitionsand portfolios, go to <www.collegetransition.org>.

O

The students are given fourweeks to write the paper. Oncethe paper is completed, the funbegins. One afternoon of class timeis

set aside to roll out the clay anddo the decorating. Another is forpainting the plates. And the finalpart of the project is the Womenin History luncheon when thestudents and faculty of the pro-gram gather to share a meal. Eachstudent talks about the womanabout whom she wrote and showsher plate.

Foundations, a 17-week educa-tion and training program forlow-income women in Glou ces-ter, runs twice a year, once in

Field Notes

he room is quiet except for an occasional plea for help

and a brief discussion aboutdesign. The women in theFoundations class are busily rollingout clay, imprinting clay with rubberstamps, or in some cases fash-ioning shapes by hand. Theassignment is to write aone-page paper on awoman fromAmerican historyand then tomake a ceramicplate to honorthe womanand heraccomplish-ments.

The classis made up of12 women,ranging inages from 19 to50. The courseis Women inLeadership:Remembering thePast. The teacher isNancy Schwoyer, executivedirector of Wellspring Housein Gloucester. Students have cho-sen, among other notable women,Sakajawea, Clara Barton, Rosa Parks,Georgia O'Keefe, Mary Cassatt,Susan B. Anthony. . .You get theidea. Women in Leadership is a two-part course. The first part focuses onwomen in society today. The stu-dents learn about government andhow it can affect their lives. Theylearn that they can have a voice andmake a difference. The second partof the course teaches about extraor-dinary women in American history;this is where the plate project comesinto play.

September and once in February.It is a part of Wellspring House, anonprofit organization that pro-vides housing for homeless fami-lies, education, social action

opportunities and affordablehousing. Foundations

teaching techniques arebased on Popular

Education asdeveloped by

Brazilian edu-cator Paulo

Freire Eachstudent'slife expe-rienceplays animportantpart inhow shelearns and

constantdialogue is

critical to thelearning

process.Because every

student has a differ-ent learning style,

teachers in the Found-ations Program make every

effort to reach all students byusing different methods of teach-ing. One very successful way iskinesthetic-tactile learning orusing your hands.

Susan Hershey, a potter, is the ,pro-gram coordinator for Foundations atWellspring House in Gloucester, Shecan be reached at <[email protected]>

5winter/spring 2005

Making Plates to Honor Women in History By Susan Hershey

T

Field Notes

cork and put myself out of my mis-ery.

But not one to rely on suchmeans to solve a crisis, I had tofinally face the fact that culturalholidays, what you do on the week-ends (sleep, buy groceries), whatyou do in the summer (sleep, work,and buy groceries) and how youlike your supervisor (very nice,fine) were not going to evoke thekind of conversation I was after.

So I had to ask: What exactlywas I after? Indeed, what was agood conversation? Answer: Afree-flowing, spontaneous, ex-change of ideas. And why, Ithought, is making good conversa-tion often referred to as an art?Answer: Because it’s really hard.It takes imagination and skill. Weeven identify those who have theskill as “good conversationalists”and invite them to our dinner par-ties. So I asked: What makes a con-versationalist good? Answer:Confidence, lack of self-con-sciousness, and the ability to askquestions and convey genuineinterest in the answers.

So, I concluded, the key tomaking good conversation was notin the choice of the perfect topic,

as the textbooks would haveyou believe, but

in creating aclassroom

atmosphere thatresembled a really

great cocktail party(minus the cocktails,

of course). That is,I had to design

activities that did what cocktails do,that would make my students relax,shed their inhibitions, make themwant to ask questions and want tohear the answers. Most important,I had to create an atmosphere thatmade them have fun. Because ifthey were having fun, everythingelse would follow.

And, yes, I agree, culturalexchange is important in an ESLclass, but there are ways to do itthat are a lot more lively than ask-ing someone, “What do you do onNew Year’s in your country?”Instead, I asked the Dominicans inmy class to teach the Asians themeringue dance. I asked the Asiansto teach the Dominicans their tra-ditional dance – all in English ofcourse and so the classroom was infact filled with music and laughterand a lot of talking and dancing. Infact, it sounded, not like a class, butsuspiciously like a party.

And rather than force my stu-dents to dredge up their past con-tinually by demanding that they tellan autobiographical story, weplayed make-believe. My studentsassumed fictional roles, but alwaysin pairs and sometimes in responseto a fictional situation. For in-stance, they witnessed a crime(“This is a crime,” I said and stole astudent’s purse.) Then, one studentplayed “witness,” one the “inter-rogator.”

I gave the witness a 3 by 5 cardwith the “criminal’s” name writtenon it, which was the name of anoth-


Dancing the Meringue: Partying toPromote Conversation in the ESOL ClassBy Peggy Rambach

t’s hard enough to makeconversation in someone else’s

living room, let alone in someoneelse’s language. I mean, invite anynumber of adults into a small,enclosed area and the first thingone of them might say will be,“Anybody got a beer?” After all,what makes for lively conversation,but loud music and a free bar?

Which was something I began toconsider after about the fourth weekof attempting to get my ESL 2 classto talk. Instead, I sweated it out (lit-erally), placing them in my “inno-vative” circle configuration andhoping against hope that at somepoint, one of my brilliant topicswould hit like a slot machine. Butno. It was more like:

Me: So, what holiday do you likemost in Vietnam and Cambodia?

Most of Class: Shrug.Me: New Year’s? Do you like

New Year’s?Most of Class: Nod.Me: When is New Year’s in your

country?All of Class: Silence.Until, of course I’d long for it to

be my New Year’s so Icould pop a

Continued on page 7

I

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Field Notes

er student in the class. The witness,in response to the interrogator’squestions, had to describe the stu-dent whose name was written on

their card, and describe that studentwell enough for the interrogator toeventually be able look around theclassroom and identify who it was.

This gave the student/witness areason to talk, and the student/interrogator a reason to ask ques-tions. I realized that if students had apurpose for speaking, other than,because-the-teacher-asked-me-to,students will actually want to speak.

More common to ESL classes, Ialso had my students play real-lifesituation roles like interviewer/jobapplicant, grocery store checkoutclerk/ patron, eye doctor/patient,always in pairs and always precededby a demonstration and list of neces-sary vocabulary.

And then one day, when I wasintroducing a unit on car buying, Ithought, I’ve never bought a carwithout agreeing to a deal I regret forthe full seven-year term of the loan,so how can I, in good conscience,teach this subject to my students? Ithought then, why not just import

the real thing? So I asked a carsalesman to visit my class and sellmy students assorted models ofnew and used Matchbox cars.

Sure enough, I found an affablecar salesman (most of them are)willing to donate his time, and the

whole exercise produced that sameparty atmosphere. In this casemuch of the class playing the spec-tators who called out suggestions tothe pretend buyers, everyonelaughing, and everyone having fun,including the salesman, who, ofcourse, left me with a stack of busi-ness cards.

Next came a friend who taughtmy class CPR. And now I’m think-ing of asking one of those friendly,techie guys who work at my localRadio Shack to come in and sell mystudents a DVD player. There areany number of possibilities.

And how has my role changed?Well, as you can see, I just play thehost, wandering around the noisyclassroom like I’m carrying a tray ofhors d’oeuvres offering a canapé of avocabulary word here, a Swedishmeatball of encouragement there.And I always lead the celebratorytoast.

Peggy Rambach the author of FightingGravity, a novel published bySteerforth Press, has compiled andedited three anthologies of writingfrom the Asian community inLawrence. She lives and writes inAndover, and teaches ESOL inLawrence, at the Asian Center ofMerrimack Valley Inc. She can bereached at <[email protected]>.

7winter/spring 2005

So, I concluded, the key to makinggood conversation was not in thechoice of the perfect topic, as the text-books would have you believe, but increating a classroom atmosphere thatresembled a really great cocktail party(minus the cocktails, of course).

TheMassachusetts Adult LiteracyHotlineWant to volunteer to tutor in anadult basic education program?Need to link an adult learnerwith ABE or ESOL services?

800- 447-8844

DDaanncciinngg tthhee MMeerriinngguuee ...Continued from page 6

Call the Hotline! Referrals in English and Spanish.

Field Notes

s ABE teachers, we are excited by the possibilities that

art-images, objects, photographshold to inspire learners to write.Art is a wonderful prompt for writ-ing, because we all have uniqueexperiences that come to mindwhen we write, and each of them isvalid, valued, and personal.

The Power of PersonalPhotos

For Andrea, the power ofa personal photograph forevoking writing cannot bestressed enough. At ourNetwork 2004 workshop oninspiring ABE writers, Andreaillustrated a powerful tech-nique. She began by sharing avideo clip of a midwesterntown taken after a tornadohad passed through anddestroyed many homes andbuildings. We saw an auditoriumfilled with tables, covered withhundreds of photographs, scat-tered remains of the tempest. Asthe townspeople walk up and downthe aisles trying to recover theirmemories, viewers were leftwondering, what would hap-pen if our own personal pho-tographs were lost or de-stroyed? Andrea stopped theclip; she then shared photo-graphs of her parents andgrandparents. Using anintriguing photograph takenbefore her parents married,Andrea led the group into anexercise of observation, ask-ing:

Where are these two people? What are they doing in the

photo? Who took this picture?

As she shared the story behindthe photos, Andrea modeled a guidedwriting exercise she has used with herESOL learners. Using their own per-

sonal photos, learners begin byanswering questions in a graphicorganizer (see chart below). The charthelps students focus on specificinformation to questions that can

then be expanded upon for moredetailed writing.

Pre-Writing: Gatheringthe Details

The questions below provide aframework that allows even theshyest writer to respond, and

reduces students'fear of having tocome up withsomething com-pletely "out of theair" to write about.Andrea then mod-els a first draft ofher favorite photo-graph, sharing withus the writing sheshares with herlearners.

By taking theresponses to thequestion in the

first chart, the information can beturned into complete sentences thatform the foundation for the writer's

8

Inspiring ABE Writers Using Objects and ImagesBy Andrea O'Brien, Jane Schwerdtfeger, & Janet Fischer

When was the picture taken?

Where was it taken?

Who took the picture?

What do you think they canhear?How do you think they feel?

Pre-writing: Gathering the Details

My favorite photograph is a picture ofmy mother and father.

It was a warm day in the summer. Thewind was blowing and the sun wasshining.

My aunt took the picture at her house inthe summer of 1942.

They look very happy, but I think theywere a little sad, too.

My aunt was having a party because itwas the day before my father left tofight in WWII.

My mother did not see him for fourmore years. They were sad and lonelyfor four long years.

My mother and father are sitting together on the grass.

The picture is always in my mother’sbedroom next to her bed. When shelooks at it she remembers when shewas happy and sad.

First Draft of Favorite Photograph

Continued on page 9

winter/spring 2005

A

Field Notes

ideas, while providing lots ofopportunity to add extra detail andinformation in the writing revisionstage.

For our learners, personal pho-tos invite them to "tell their story"and start from something familiar.Students can choose to includeinformation that they feel is rele-vant and "safe" to share.

Every Object Is Full ofStory

Jane's background as a museumeducator is the inspiration for usingobjects (both familiar and unfamil-iar) to inspire writers. At theNetwork conference, she began byasking participants in our workshopto think of a special memory-onethat evokes our senses-and askedWhat do you see? What do you hear?What do you smell? What does it feellike? Does it have a special taste?

These questions framed ourcuriosity for the object she broughtout to the audience. We began byexamining the object closely. As wepassed the object through the audi-ence, we had a chance to feel it, playwith it, try to open it, look inside,see if it made a sound. Throughreflection and responding to aseries of questions about the object,we learned that the object Janepassed through the audience is abarn lantern that was used in theearly 1800s, and we came to under-stand the design and functionalityof the lantern for its original users.

For Jane, questioning strategiesare a great way to engage studentsactively in the learning process. The teacher facilitates a dialoguebetween the student and the object.The questions posed to students canhelp build skills in critical thinking,writing, and reflection.

Different questions have dif-ferent purposes, depending on theresponse you intend to elicit. Forexample, asking questions that useone's senses elicits descriptiveinformation about the object.Asking students questions thatbuild on the descriptive, as well asprior knowledge), and applyingthat information for other purpos-es, encourages student to processinformation, make inferences,summarize, and organize what theyknow. Finally, asking questionsthat have students using higher-order thinking skills encouragesstudents to develop new ideas,make predictions, formulatehypotheses, or support an opinionabout the object.

These questioning strategiesrepresent a hierarchy of question-ing roughly based on Bloom'sTaxonomy, but there are other lev-els of thinking skills that can bedrawn upon, too.

(Editor’s Note: Jane has devel-oped a detailed chart illustratingher questioning strategies. You canexamine it online at<www.sabes.org>. Click on FieldNotes and then Lantern Chart.)

The Truth of a PhotographTo illustrate her use of photo-

graphs in teaching writing at theNetwork conference, Janet hung avariety of pictures from magazinesand newspapers around the room.She began by asking participantswhat they noticed as they enteredthe workshop room; what caughttheir eye? Everyone noticed thecollection of pictures on the wall,aware that the room looked physi-cally different from most of theconference rooms. She then askedthem to stand by a nearby photo-graph on the wall, and to begin bysimply describing what they saw inthe picture. She reminded partici-

pants that simple observation mustprevail at that initial observationpoint, and to beware of the tempta-tion to leap into judgments andspeculations about who the peopleare, what they are doing, why theyare doing it, or how they are feel-ing.

As participants began to shareinformation about their pictures,Janet asked them to reflect on whatstruck them. and asked: Did thepicture remind you of anything inparticular? In what ways does itrelate to your own experience? Asparticipants shared this informa-tion with a partner, the roombecame abuzz with conversation. Aspark had been lit, interestincreased, and excitement flowedas people eagerly engaged in dis-cussion and reflected on theirobservations and experiences.

Using PicturesIn the ABE/ESOL classroom,

photographs can serve the samepowerful purpose as they did withteachers at the Network confer-ence. They provide a starting pointfor rich discussion and many activ-ities. The rich imagery of a pictureevokes not only students' interestbut also provides a stimulus forwriting in response to it. A picturecan catch us in the moment andstill allow us to transcend it. Usingpictures also encourages studentsto think creatively and critically.

Using pictures students can:●● tell the story behind the pic-

ture;●● give the picture a title and

explain it; ●● write from the perspective of a

person portrayed in the pic-ture; prepare a debate on a themeevident in the picture.

Using pictures, teachers can

9winter/spring 2005

IInnssppiirriinngg AABBEE WWrriitteerrss ...... Continued from page 8

Continued on page 10

Field NotesAndrea O'Brien is the staff developerat the Lawrence Public Schools AdultLearning Center. She can be reachedat<[email protected]>.

Jane Schwerdtfeger is curriculum andassessment development specialist atthe Adult and Community LearningServices Massachusetts Department ofEducation.S he can be reached at<<[email protected]>

Janet Fischer is associate coordina-tor/curriculum and assessment coor-dinator at Northeast SABES. She canbe reached at <[email protected]>.


In addition, pictures can beadapted for many activities, includ-ing pair work, small group and wholeclass cooperative learning, makingthem particularly suitable for multi-level classes.

Objects and pictures,can pro-vide a common or shared experiencefor adults to explore together. Theyare easy to collect and transport,they can reflect the individual inter-ests of teachers and students. Theyare free or low cost, and they can beused over and over again!

teach compare and contraststrategies using more than onepicture;

teach simple vocabulary anddescriptive words;

teach letter writing skills byencouraging students to write aletter to one of the characters inthe picture or write a letter to theeditor about an issue depicted inthe picture.

Scavenging in Multi-Level ESOL

On page 23, Suzanne Speciale and Sr. Nancy Simonds offer a lesson plan for aneighborhood scavenger hunt. Here are some other ideas for adapting a scavenger

hunt activity for a multi-level ESOL class. Teachers need to do a little research first bywalking around the neighborhood where classes are held to discover what businesses,

found items, services, graffiti, etc. are likely to be found nearby.

1. Create a list of items and information you think students are likely to find in a clearlydelineated area near your program For example: a gum wrapper, the price of a load of laun-

dry, the price to rent a trailer, a feather, a pine cone. Spend time explaining what you want stu-dents to do, and give them a simple map of the area they should search.

2. Put students in pairs, give them the list, and give them a timeframe. Tell them they can ask people forinformation (for example, if they do not know what a pine cone is or what it looks like, they can askanother teacher in the program or they can look it up in a reference book or on the Web if they areadvanced enough).

3. Send them out to collect the information and objects.

4. When each pair comes back, check their work.

5. The first pair to find everything gets a prize.

6. Review the answers and findings together. Turn some observations into questions and points for further discussion about the neighborhood.

Lenore Balliro

Inspiring ABE Writers ...Continued from page 9

Field Notes

his beautiful and movingstory begins in a small

town in the DominicanRepublic called El Rincón de laSoledad, or A Lonely Spot. In thistown resides a humble family madeup of José Fercarelu (the father),Refugio (the mother), and two sons,Chelo and Ramón. . .

So begins Act I of The FamilyFercarelu, a play produced by mywomen’s ESOL class at the Ham-pden County Correctional Centerlast year. When the selfish, abusiveJosé isn’t around, explainsthe narrator, the Ferc-arelu house is peacefuland harmonious. Butwhen he comes home, itbecomes a small hell.

Now Irma C., adiminutive Mexicanwoman, staggers onto the“stage” wearing a strawhat and an embroideredvest over her orangeprison suit. The womenscream with laughter asher gray faux-fur mus-tache keeps slipping intoher mouth. José! shouts atthe long-suffering Refugio:

Where are you, you good-for-nothing useless person? Is my din-ner ready, and my clothes, becauseI’m going back out with my friends—and with better women, not like yougood-for-nothing!

Yudelka R., a level-one studentwearing an apron and head scarf,responds:

Here I am, pancho! I was justmaking dinner. I knew you’d behome soon, and I wanted to have itready.

These few lines are difficult forYudelka, who resists speaking

English and finds pronunciationchallenging. Am comes out ang,and just comes out hoost. Herclassmates gently model correc-tions. The scene continues. Joséyells at his two sons, then Chelo,the elder, ends the scene with abrief soliloquy:

You are the most despicableman I have ever met . . . I’m gonnago very far away from here andmake money to help my mother andbrother, and I’ll leave you to rot inpoverty!

I am running the video camera,

and a few minutes later I play backthe tape. The women hoot withdelight. I hear random commentsabout how they might improve thescene.

A Diverse GroupMy women’s ESOL class was a

small group with widely diversebackgrounds and language compe-tence. The two Yudelkas, both fromthe Dominican Republic, had cometo the facility more than a year ear-lier with zero English but had takendifferent paths in language acquisi-

tion. Yudelka R., 38, whose educa-tion is limited, tended to seekinstant translations from herfriends, rather than make the effortto learn. Yudelka L., 26, who hadcompleted three years of dentalschool in the D.R., was bright anddriven: Her SPL in English hadleapt from 1 to 6; she loved to dis-cuss grammar points, and shesought opportunities to practiceEnglish.

Except for Irma C., the otherswere Puerto Rican. Omayra C., 30,could speak and write rapid, though

fractured, Englishpicked up on the streetsof New York. Ana Ana F.,a 62-year-old great-grandmother was com-fortable in English inlimited contexts butneeded to stretch bothher vocabulary and herconfidence. Irma, 45—mentor, counselor, andclass clown—was theEnglish star untilJacquelyne S. came in

partway through the proj-ect. Jackie, 31, who is

bilingual, enrolled in the class onlyto work on developmental readingand writing.

It was a constant challenge todesign classroom activities thatcould serve such diverse needs.When a role-play activity went overespecially well one Friday, I sug-gested that the students mightenjoy writing and acting out a skit,a little telenovela. A brainstormingsession elicited topics around fam-ily issues, love relationships, andlife in jail.

11winter/spring 2005

Playwrighting in PrisonBy Iris Broudy

Students at Hampden County Correctional Center act out the play they have written in Iris Broudy’s class.


T

Field Notescollected hats, shawls, vests, andjewelry that would suggest variousroles. We cut out a lot of mustaches.I brought in two old sheets to coverone wall of the classroom. Thewomen created “scenery” with

sim ple drawings on easel paper,which we taped to the backdrop witheach scene change.

For our audience, we invitedsome staff members from thewomen’s unit to the performance.On the big day, the women werenervous and excited. The play lasted30 minutes. It wasn’t perfect, ofcourse, but the audience cheered.They laughed at the comic anticsand grew teary at the rightmoments. Even if they didn’tunderstand every word, the effectwas powerful.

What They LearnedThe women worried afterward

if they had been good enough. Thepoint, of course, was how they hadgrown from the experience. Ourplaywright, who had the demandinglead role, vastly improved her pro-nunciation; she developed naturalrhythm and intonation. The otherYudelka gained self-confidence andcomfort using English. After theplay, she became more engaged inclass and has made remarkableprogress.

Ana, the grandma, improvedher reading skills. Irma acquirednew vocabulary and thrived in her

mentoring role. Omayra becamemore a part of the classroom com-munity. Afterward, she wrote: “Ifeel so happy everybody work hardin the drama. I never imagine isgood experience in the classroom.”

Yudelka L. wrote, in part, “Fuecomo un sueño realizado porque fuealgo que salió de mi misma, y ver laspersonas actuar algo que tu excribistete da una satisfación muy agrad-able.” [It was like a dream come truebecause it was something that cameout of me, and to see people bring tolife something that you wrote gives yougreat satisfaction.]

I had wondered what Jackie,who really didn’t need to learnEnglish, would gain from the proj-ect. Her comments spoke for themall: “[This play] gave me the oppor-tunity to share in a different waywith the other girls . . . I am proudof participating in this dramabecause it was totally produced byinmates, and it gave us the oppor-tunity to express one of the ways webecome criminals and drug dealers.It’s not always because we want tobe bad. Sometimes poverty andmisery take us to do the wrongchoice. But there is always a goodside inside of us . . .”

Iris Broudy teaches ESOL at theHampden County House of Correction.She can be reached at <[email protected]>


Budding PlaywrightThe following Monday, Yudelka

L. showed up with a five-act play—in Spanish—that she had writtenover the weekend. It was called TheFamily Fercarelu—the name was acomposite of the surnames of theclass members. It was a moralitytale about a Dominican man ofhumble origins who immigrates toAmerica, becomes a rich and arro-gant drug dealer, then finds deepfaith while he is incarcerated.Yudelka was telling her own story,but it resonated with all the womenin the class.

It’s wonderful, but this isEnglish class, I reminded Yudelka.The resourceful playwright thenfound someone in her living unitwho could translate the play intoEnglish. A few days later, I foundmyself with a 23-page handwrittenscript. It could be a great project—one with enormous potential forlearning-but also, I feared, for dis-appointment. If we took this on, itwas essential that we see it through.

Thus began a three-monthprocess that ultimately would buildcommunity and trust in the class-room, produce great leaps in lan-guage acquisition, and foster muchneeded self-esteem. We began“rehearsals,” taping and correct-ing, taping and correcting. At firstthe readings were flat and labored,but as the students became com-fortable with the language, theybegan to use more natural intona-tion.

Adding “costumes” allowed thewomen to let go of inhibitions. Bytaking on new personas, they couldtake risks; they could sound“English.” For security reasons, wecouldn’t use makeup, and costumescould not be too concealing, so I

PPllaayywwrriigghhttiinngg iinn PPrriissoonnContinued from page 11

Fue como un sueño realizado porquefue algo que salió de mi misma, y verlas personas actuar algo que tuescribiste te da una satisfacción muyagradable.

Field Notes

People come and they have tolearn not just the language, butalso all of the systems, all the cus-toms, all of the things that you andI just take for granted. Then thereare also culture clashes, and deal-ing with being condemned orjudged for being different, forexample, Muslim women wearingscarves, and trying to maintain acertain sense of your own identity.Another important theme wasbreaking through barriers, reach-ing through to get people tochange their attitudes.

Karen:What are some of the methods youuse in class and how are thescripts developed?

Kathleen:All of the stories were based onvery specific true incidents in stu-dents’ lives. In the first month ortwo, we did a lot of talking andwriting about their experiences. Itook the experiences they talkedand wrote about, as well as othersthat I knew about from formerstudents, and for the first produc-tion, I wrote the scripts and theylearned them. It’s difficult work-ing with immigrants and theaterbecause pronunciation is such ahuge obstacle. In theater, it’spointless if people can’t under-stand you, so we do a lot of workon pronunciation and voice pro-jection. Since the class hasevolved, we developed a lot of dif-ferent types of activities and proj-ects. For instance, we watchedsome of the scenes from the videoand we analyzed expression andbody language and saw how muchwas communicated without words.That led to them getting together


young couple says good-byeto their extended family,

leaving their children behind asthey prepare to move to the UnitedStates. A father worries that hisyoung son won’t remember himafter a two-year absence. A newarrival to the United States strugglesto understand a nurse’s questions.

These are some of the situationsthat students in the ImmigrantLearning Center’s ESL Theater classchose to explore and include intheir first production If You CouldHear My Voice. This ESL theater pro-gram was created by playwright andESL teacher Kathleen Klose. Theirfirst live performance took place atthe Malden Public Library in August2003, and their first video was pro-duced at the Malden Public AccessTV station in October 2003. Thevideo has since aired on Malden TVand has been made available tocommunity cable channels aroundthe country. Other productions fol-lowed, and the class continues towork on learning English and pro-ducing theater that inspires andinforms audiences about the expe-rience of immigrants in the UnitedStates I recently interviewedKathleen about her experience cre-ating the theater class, her methods,and her plans for the future of thisunique group.

Karen:How did you get the idea to start atheater group for immigrants?

Kathleen:One of the inspirations was a play-writing class that I took, which justgot me into the whole frame of mindof using theater. The other motiva-tion came from working with adultimmigrant students for four or fiveyears and becoming familiar, as weall do, with a lot of the issues in

their lives, and a lot of the diffi-culties they experience. I thoughtit would be nice if students coulduse theater to express some partsof their lives that Americans whoare not immigrants aren’t awareof. Most of the students whosigned up originally were initiallyjust interested in another way topractice conversation. But oncewe got started, they became veryinvolved in using theater toexpress their experiences, andthat became a driving force forthem. Then, after the first pro-duction, there was a sense thattheir self-esteem was strongerand that it had been very thera-peutic for them to express whatthey were going through. Thesewere things that many of them hadbeen holding inside, trying just togrin and bear it and get through.

Karen:What are some of the themesyou’ve explored with the class?

Kathleen:One thing I really wanted Amer-ican audiences to understand wasthat people don’t leave theirhomes, families, countries, andcultures for frivolous reasons.Some people may be going on anadventure, but to really pull upyour roots and start over fromzero requires a strong reason. Ifpeople had good choices in theircountries, most would stay there.They’ve made tremendous sacri-fices coming here, and one of thethemes was the pain of going awayand leaving family membersbehind, and then the difficulty oftrying to maintain relationshipswhen you’re separated by such adistance for so long. The otherthemes all revolved around learn-ing how to cope and survive here.

A Voice for ImmigrantsBy Karen Oakley


A

Field Notes

in small groups where they toldeach other about first-time experi-ences such as first job interviews.They then developed pantomimesportraying these situations. Onestudent acted out her experience atthe airport where she was carryinglots of heavy luggage and sheencountered her first escalator.She did a wonderful job with it, andthere were lots of other great silentperformances as well. I realizedright away what a huge differencethere was between giving them ascript that was written and lettingthem act something out withoutwords because all their energy andcreativity could go into the expres-sion of what was happening. Theydidn’t have to worry about Is thisthe right word? Am I pronouncing itthe right way? and all those things.We added words to some of them,and the difference was like nightand day. That’s what we chose todemonstrate at the MCAE Networkpresentation our group gave thispast October: how to go fromimprovised silent pantomimes toscripted vignettes. When studentsperform my scripts for the firsttime, the result is usually very flatexpression with no intonation anddreadful pronunciation, so I’velearned how important it is to havestudents working on developingscripts all the way through.

Karen:How do you think this class differsfrom the typical ESL class or fromother classes you’ve taught in thepast?

Kathleen:I think the main difference is thatwe’re using language as opposedto studying language. After about amonth in the class, after the classhad whittled itself down to thosewho had decided that this wasreally a good way to learn, theybegan to work very well together.Students are speaking much moreto communicate, to accomplishsomething, rather than to practicetalking about their families for theumpteenth time or things likethat. What I found is that theybecame very comfortable withoffering their opinions and mak-ing suggestions. Duringrehearsals there were a lot of sug-gestions about where peopleshould stand or other sorts ofdirectorial things. Of course, in atheater production, it’s possible tohave too many directors, but as ateacher it was wonderful. We wereworking together as a team, and Ididn’t feel so much that I wasteaching as that I was facilitatingthis interaction. The creative sug-gestions were coming from all ofus. Another great thing about the-ater is that, if your group has theright chemistry, you develop avery trusting, cooperative envi-ronment. You can talk about emo-tions, which after all, are the toolsyou need to use in theater. Ineveryday life, you may have toswallow your anger or ignore yourfrustration, but actors are onlyeffective if the audience under-stands the human emotions beingportrayed.

Karen:Can you talk a little about the

social action aspect of the theater

group? What are some of the proj-ects planned for the future, andhow do they fit in with theImmigrant Learning Center’s mis-sion of educating the public aboutthe realities of immigrants’ livesand their contributions to US soci-ety?

Kathleen:In December 2004, we’re doing apresentation that shows some oftheir experiences, but it starts andends showing some of the commoncomplaints that you hear if you lis-ten to AM talk radio programsabout those awful immigrants.Immigrants don’t pay taxes andthey don’t want to learn English.But the play has scenes showingthat actually immigrants pay a lot oftaxes and they want very much tolearn English. They’re cleaningbuildings at night, they’re deliver-ing our newspapers, they’re work-ing in nursing homes taking care ofour elderly, they’re paying a lot ofSocial Security taxes that also helpsupport our elderly. In the springwe’re planning to work with stu-dents from Social Studies classes atMalden High School to develop adialogue between Americanteenagers and immigrants. We alsohope to develop an oral historyproject with some nursing homeresidents in the area. We’re alsoplanning to make another videoproduction through Malden TV tokeep getting our message out to thecommunity.

Karen Oakley has been teaching andworking with ESOL students for about20 years. She can be reached at<karen [email protected]>.


AA VVooiiccee ffoorr IImmmmiiggrraannttssContinued from page 13

If You Could Hear My VoiceThe Immigrant Theater Group’s video described in Karen’s article is available from the ALRI library or theNortheast SABES library. Copies can also be purchased for a small fee through the Immigrant LearningCenter. Contact Marcia Hohn at 781-322-9777 for details.

Field Notes


he three levels ofstudents at the Norwood

Adult ESOL Program where Iteach responded enthusiastically to aunit on fables. I secured the easyreader version of Aesop’s Fables,retold by Tana Reiff,with an audio-tape from the Minuteman LibraryCatalog. (See details at the end of thisarticle for locating resources.)*

Using Fables: Step by StepFirst, we read the fable aloud and

worked out any new vocabulary. Thenwe listened to the tape. The next timewe listened to the tape, the studentsspoke the words with the narrator asa language lab activity. Since fablesare told about the past, we learnedabout irregular past participles andthe different pronunciations of thefinal “ed”.

In the initial lesson, we tooktime to reflect on individual learningstyles; students raised their hands to fillin a class chart on “How I Learn Best.”

I then asked each student to tella traditional tale from his or

her own country.

This was a great exercise because itallowed different talents to shine.One of our timid students sharedthree Russian folktales that shetold to young children in her coun-try.

Writing Our Own FablesAs a group, we wrote our own

fable. Each student contributed asentence or two. The advancedbeginning class created a new storywith all the elements of a tradi-tional fable. The intermediate classdecided to tell the Cinderella storyand commented on how much of itwas from the Disney version! Ouradvanced students modified sometraditional tales: they substitutedthe names of family members orgroups of people who use the “rab-bit/hare” or “turtle/tortoise”approaches to life. We ended upwith a philosophical discussion ofthe variations and similarities inhuman nature and the possiblecauses of these. We ended up won-dering if we are really that differ-

ent from one another, despiteour different cultural back-

grounds, in

grounds, in the end. Next, we wentto work writing our own individualfable-like stories in the advancedand intermediate classes. Studentseither wrote a story they had heardas a child or told their children, orcreated an original tale. Again, itwas a great pleasure because oneintermediate student, who agonizeswhen she writes (mostly phoneti-cally), put her pencil to the paperand didn’t stop for 25 minutes! Shewas so absorbed and proud of herwork.One advanced student usedthe opportunity to parody this liter-ature form.

Students WorkingTogether

I then worked with the inter-mediate teacher, Marie Kelley; Wehad intermediate students readtheir writings to the advancedbeginners. This was a very dynamicclass as many stories, such as “Jackin the Beanstalk,” are commonacross cultures. We heard divergentways Jack aquired the beans andvery different ideas about therewards at the top of the beanstalk.Rewards varied from afeast-

Using Fables in the ESOL ClassBy Mary Ann Sliwa


Fable Writers atthe NorwoodAdult ESOLProgram

T

Field Notes

have been teaching a high-intermediate to advanced ESLwriting class for about five

years. During the first year or so, Itried to persuade my students thatpeer editing in the form of readingeach other’s writing was a verygood thing . . . but they were skep-tical. So I developed a form of“guided group editing” in which Ipresented small groups with copiesof one group member’s writingalong with a suggested list of edit-ing points specific to that piece ofwriting. These small peer editinggroups looked wonderful from adistance, and for a brief but goldenmoment, I thought I had stumbledupon the Holy Grail of ESL writingactivities. Eventually, however, mystudents let me know, gently butfirmly, that they had been sufferingthrough “guided group editing” toplease me . . . but had not felt itwas particularly helpful to them.For one thing, most of my studentsfelt vulnerable about letting theirclassmates see their writing. Andguided group editing was more orless walking all over their vulnera-bility with muddy boots. So I letgroup editing go and began to focuson self-editing.

But ESL students need help toself-edit. During a year or two oftrying various ways of helping mystudents self-edit, I began to real-ize that they didn’t seem to mind ifother people heard their writing aslong as they didn’t actually see it.It’s so simple. “Read aloud tosomeone or to yourself,” I mighthear myself say. “See if you like theway your writing sounds. Your earshave been listening to English for

quite a while now. Maybe it’s timeto trust them.”

“Read aloud with a pencil inyour hand,” I might also hearmyself say. It is quite common forthe ESL writer reading aloud to useher pencil before she gets to theend of her first sentence. “I’ve gotto fix that,” I hear my students say.“I’ve got to come back to that

later.” Since she is the one bran-dishing the pencil, the writer is incharge whether she is reading tosomeone else or to herself.

Reading aloud to another per-son does seem to heighten thepower of listening, maybe becausetwo people are involved in the edit-ing process instead of one. But it isalso productive to read one’s writ-ing aloud to oneself. Either way,listening has become the editingtool of choice in my class and thefirst line of defense.

In-Class OfficeI have begun to set up an

“office” in the corner of the roomwhen we have writing and editingsessions. My office consists of twochairs (or desk-chair combina-tions) facing each other. A student

can come over and read his writingto me, or he can come over to ask aspecific question or two about hiswriting. When you’re listening tothe writing but can’t see it, you arelimited to checking pronunciationand responding to content and per-haps occasionally an aberrant verbtense or word choice. This is won-derfully different from a student’s

writing a rough draft and thenhanding it to me to fix. It’s veryimportant, I think, to keep the stu-dent in charge at this stage . . . andthe fact that the teacher is simplylistening (without seeing) orresponding only to specific ques-tions the student has asked aboutgrammar, punctuation, or vocabu-lary helps keep the power in thehands of the writer. I would recom-mend that ESL teachers not worryabout whether the editing thatresults from listening to studentwriting or responding only to spe-cific questions about the writing istotally accurate or wholly compre-hensive. It’s a viable goal, particu-larly at the rough draft stage, sim-


Listening: A Powerful ESL Editing ToolBy Mary Jo Moore

When they read to me, I record anywords they mispronounce on a Post-itand then go over these words withthem. I also give them the Post-it sothey can practice the words later.


I

Field Notes

ply to observe and rejoice that theprocess of editing is actually goingon.

Since every language has itsown set of pronunciation issues forthe learner of English, and our stu-dents tend to come from all overthe world, a difficult sound for onemight not be difficult for another.So whether they are reading theirwriting aloud to the teacher or toanother student, getting help withmispronounced words is likely tobe part of the process. When theyread to me, I record any words theymispronounce on a Post-it andthen go over these words withthem. I also give them the Post-itso they can practice the wordslater. In this way, reading one’swriting aloud to someone else


becomes a way to get a pronuncia-tion check, which helps motivatethe use of listening as an editingtool. Everyone seems to feel posi-tive about pronunciation checks.

Writing offers ESL students anopportunity to look at and listen totheir own grammar. And editingbecomes a second chance to get itright. Whether our students edit alittle or a lot, when they listen totheir own writing they are involvedin a process that conjoins writtenand spoken English. Listening asan editing tool blurs the distinctionbetween pronunciation and gram-mar, rendering it a welcome alter-native to the unnatural butinevitable separation of pronuncia-tion and grammar that accompa-nies textbook learning.

Someone wise once said,“Writing is rewriting.” Well, editing

encourages rewriting to happen.And listening encourages editing tohappen. Listening not only bypass-es the vulnerability that seems to berampant when ESL students peeredit each other with their eyes. Italso activates the passive knowl-edge their ears have accumulatedover the many years they’ve beenlistening to English. All this listen-ing can’t help but deepen the lan-guage learner’s awareness of his orher own pronunciation. Andbecoming a better “pronouncer” ofEnglish is what our students seemto want more than anything else.Thus listening is quite possibly anESL student’s most powerful edit-ing tool.

Mary Jo Moore is on the faculty of theFramingham Adult ESL Programwhere she teaches a high-intermedi-ate to advanced ESL class with an

Wiki: A New ABE Online Resource Excerpted From Literacy Resources Rhode Island<www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/bulletin1.html>.

LLiisstteenniinngg ...... Continued from page 16

Wiki-wiki, a Hawaiian word meaning very, very, quickly, refers to a Web site where you canimmediately and easily add to or change text. The best-known application is the Wikipedia, amultilingual encyclopedia, created and modified daily by thousands of people across the world. .. The Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki is not a replacement for electronic lists. It is a com-plement to, and we hope an enhancement of them. Because a wiki is an easily edited documentenvironment, current or past electronic list discussions can be selectively copied to the wiki,continued at any time, and referenced (and linked) in future e-list discussions. For each wikidiscussion topic a summary, glossary, and list of research and other references can be created.We hope the ALE Wiki will become a handy electronic reference shelf of definitions andresources for discussions that take place on adult literacy e-lists, . .

A wiki, by design, is a participatory environment. We invite you to work on the ALE wiki withus. We are trying to organize this so that lots of people from the field are involved inadding/changing and editing text, but also so that in each of the areas there is a topic manager tohelp keep things organized. The ALE Wiki is online at <http://wiki.literacytent.org/ index.php/ Main_Page>

To set up an account, and add to the Wiki, go to <http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Special:Userlogin>Please e-mail David Rosen ([email protected] ) if you have technical questions.

Field Notes

I had been meaning to put together a program cook

book of students’ recipes formonths and had come as far asgathering recipes from the learnersin all six classes of our program,ABCD South Side Head Start inRoslindale. But I never found thetime to edit, organize, and bindthem into an attractive finishedproduct. The project was put on aback burner until I started pursu-ing the idea of hosting Roslindale’sfirst annual Adult Literacy Daythrough the Roslindale AdultLiteracy Community PlanningGroup. A Taste of Culture was thename of the featured event at theLiteracy Day; it also became thetitle for the compilation of studentrecipes completed in time for theevent.

Community NeedsOur comprehensive communi-

ty assessment had clearly indicatedthat providing additional freeESOL classes was Roslindale’sgreatest ABE need. Given thestate’s current economic recession,it was time to seek alternativefunding sources to provide theseclasses. In order to move beyondthe traditional public fundingarena, we needed to target pub-lic awareness

efforts beyond the circle of adulteducators and human serviceproviders and into the privatebusiness domain. We had alreadydone some of the groundwork byrecruiting business representativesfrom the community to participatein focus groups. Out of these repre-sentatives, a prominent businessleader stepped forward to becomean active member in our communi-ty planning group. Now we had afoothold in the private businessdomain, and with a day-long eventdevoted to raising awareness andfunding for adult literacy, we couldreach other businesses by invitingthem to our celebration and byenlisting their support as well.

The group tossed around someideas about what such a day wouldlook like. Given the size of ourcommunity planning group, allwere reluctant to bite off more thanthey could chew; ABCD South SideHead Start Adult ESOL is the onlyDOE-funded program in Roslin-dale with a community planninggroup of about eight to ten mem-bers. However, we somehow movedfrom the idea of a single event to aday full of events with one featuredcelebration, A Taste of Culture.

International food and enter-tainment were the big attractions atour event. The luncheon featured

dishes provided by local restaurantsand bakeries and a full menu ofperformances that showcasedmusic and dance from Cape Verde,Venezuela, Albania, Puerto Rico,and the Caribbean, representingthe cultures of our students andtheir community. Other events thatday included an exhibit of “Art as aReflection of Culture” at the nearbygallery, a rhythm and blues band atthe park in the center of Roslindale,and a slide show, lecture, and booksigning by a popular local author atthe Roslindale Branch Library. Theday was jam-packed. A cookbookwas frosting on the cake.

Learner InvolvementWe started laying the ground-

work for Roslindale Adult LiteracyDay months before by marching inthe Roslindale Day Parade. Weneeded to heighten our presence inthe community, so people wouldknow who we were when we askedthem to participate in RoslindaleAdult Literacy Day. Learners creat-ed banners they carried whilemarching along the parade route.One banner read, “We AreRoslindale Adult Learners ofESOL.” Students signed theirnames and wrote their countries oforigin on the banner. Another ban-ner read, “We Are Waiting to LearnEnglish in Roslindale.” On this

banner, the initials of all thoseon our wait list were writtenalong with the countries rep-resented. One additional sign

read, “We Are the Graduatesof the ABCD South SideHead Start Adult ESOL


A Taste of CultureBy Lisa Garrone


Roslindale ESOL students participate in A Taste of Culture.

I

Field Notes

Program.” Members of our alumniclub marched with this banner.Others passed out bookmarks toonlookers and asked them to supportEnglish language classes in Roslin-dale.

The PR work intensified as thebig day drew near. Reporters fromthe local papers came to our classesand asked students to volunteer to beinterviewed about the program.Some learners found a one-on-oneinterview to be too intimidating, butenjoyed speaking in a group. Othersviewed the one-on-one interview asa good opportunity to practice theirspeaking skills.

On the big day, learners took onvarious responsibilities They greetedguests, sold tickets and cookbooks,transported and served food fromrestaurants, set up food, and cleanedup after the activities.

The ESL of CookingRecipe writing was easily inte-

grated into our ESOL curriculum,and this activity can be adapted toother classes as well. Lessons on“count” versus “non-count” nouns,giving directions (i.e., commands),and vocabulary for measurements,ingredients, cooking verbs, andtastes naturally evolved from thisproject. Recipes can also be a startingpoint for creative writing. Food, like

language, serves as a window intoour cultures. Certain dishes areserved during specific holidays ortimes of the year, and we oftenassociate them with different timesor people in our lives. Teachers canask learners to write about the foodfeatured in a recipe they’ve shared.When do they eat this food? Who

makes/made it for them? Why didthey choose to share this particularrecipe? Do they have any memoriesassociated with this food?

This project also tapped intothe artistic talents of one of our stu-dents who illustrated the cover.

Art as a Reflection ofCulture

Four of our learners displayedtheir artwork at the exhibit, includ-ing embroidered wall hangingsdepicting Mayan women in tradi-tional dress, a beaded picture of aSyrian Saint, and various watercol-ors and embroidered linens. Aswith recipes, artwork can serve as astarting point for creative writing ora glimpse into one’s cultural her-itage. At the opening, our studentswho displayed their work wereamong those artists who spoke togallery visitors. Speaking abouttheir own creations gave learnersconfidence and comfort when con-versing with native English speak-ers whom they had never met. Intheir dual roles as artists and stu-dents, our learners inadvertentlyserved as program advocates. Their

conversations with visitors to thegallery inevitably included talkabout their ESL program. WhenSenator Marian Walsh walked intothe gallery and started talking toone of our program representative-artists, I decided this was a verygood omen and Roslindale AdultLiteracy Day would be a hit.

Thank You Letters toSponsors

A show of appreciation tosponsors and other supporters ismuch more meaningful when itcomes from those who benefitdirectly. With this in mind, eachlearner was asked to write a thank -you letter to a sponsor or othercontributor whose efforts helped tomake Roslindale Adult Literacy Daya reality. Teachers laid out the basicstructure of a thank- you letter andthen instructed students to person-alize it by writing a little bit abouttheir backgrounds and how learn-ing English would help them toreach their goals. These lettersserved as the basis for lessons onthe components of writing that areoutlined in the REEP writing rubric(i.e., content and vocabulary,organization and development,structure, mechanics, voice).

A week or so after the lettershad been mailed, I waved my usual,“Good morning” to a local businessowner. He waved back and cameover to speak to me. He said he hadreceived a thank -you letter from astudent and then proceeded tocompliment our program and thesuccess of Roslindale Adult LiteracyDay. Actually, I encountered this anumber of times with other localbusiness people. The learners’ let-ters had made much more of a last-ing impression than mine.Lisa Garrone is the director of theABCD Southside Head Start Programin Roslindale. She can be reached at<[email protected]>.


These letters served as the basis forlessons on the components of writingthat are outlined in the REEP writingrubric

AA TTaassttee ooff CCuullttuurreeContinued from page 18

Field Notes


to a golden egg, even in the twoBrazilian versions.

Marie also read the beginningof “Little Red Riding Hood” andasked if any one knew the ending.Another student had written theKorean version, which also includesthemes from several other tales,and I read it without the ending.Here was another reason for cele-bration. A beginning student, whonever speaks unless spoken to, fin-ished the story for the two classes.

Language SkillsOf course, we were able to

practice the vocabulary needed toanalyze similarities and differencesamong the fables so we could dis-cuss the tales read by the students.Also, we gave students a “listeningfor a purpose” activity: We askedeach student to generate one ques-tion based on each story he or shelistened to. We then had the stu-dents listen to the stories intentlybecause we asked one question foreach story. So, we were able topractice asking questions, using thepast tense.

Later, we illustrated our sto-ries. All of this became the materialfor a beautiful “story quilt.”A cou-ple of students volunteered to cre-ate a bulletin board from the print-ed stories and illustrations.

UUssiinngg FFaabblleess .. .. .. Continued from page 15

Mary Ann Sliwa is the technology coor-dinator and computer teacher at theNorwood Adult ESOL/Blue Hill ABEPrograms. She can be reached at<[email protected]>.

Everyone participated; students whodidn’t want to draw made collages.

Using fables was a really heartwarming unit and the “buzz” wasgreat with students bragging abouttheir stories and art work to othersduring break. The students alsovoted to continue listening to morefables and traditional tales. Thereare tall tales, adventures, myths,love stories, and legends in the NewReaders Press series Timeless Tales.I did use the “Johnny Appleseed”tall tale with great success in theadvanced class.

I was thrilled to see several ofthe quieter students blossom. I alsodeeply enjoyed the universality ofthe myths and morals threadedthroughout what we sometimes seeas “different” cultures.

SABES Launches Math Initiative

Resources For Fables http://www.newreaderspress.com.Timeless Tales (including

Aesop’s Fables by Tana Reiff Audiotape available.

http://www.mln.lib.ma.us/virtcat.htm (virtual library)http://library.minlib.net/ and through the Virtual Catalog (The

Virtual Catalog allows library cardholders with an online PIN to request items not held by a Minuteman library. Items will be transferred o your local library.)

http://www.umass.edu/aesop/ant/index.html

http://www.aesopfables.com/

http://www.alri.org/lessonplans.html

http://www.darsie.net/talesofwonder/

Watch for a stronger math presence in staff development opportunities in all SABES regions over the next

three years. Starting this spring with a series of workshops integrating writing and math, SABES will be

devoting resources to an intensive, theme-based math initiative. Intended to help ABE teachers develop

confidence in and deeper understanding of math teaching, the initiative will include mini-courses, work-

shops, intensive training, and other opportunities. SABES is working closely with the nationally recognized

organization TERC to implement the project. Contact your regional SABES office for more details.

Field Notes

hey seem to love it! That was the conclusion we came to in

the lunchroom one day last spring. We had been talking about ourexperiences using dictation at theLawrence Adult Learning Center forour adult ESOL students who haveranged in proficiency over the yearsfrom beginning literacy through lowadvanced. Both of us had had the sameexperience: we would say, “Okay, let’sdo some dictation,” and students wereimmediately engaged and jumping tothe task. We asked ourselves why? Wehad both used dictation more as a sup-plement to other tasks or for five-minute “fillers,” but now we werebeginning to think we could andshould use dictation more effectively.

Why and How?In the past eight years that we’ve

taught together at the Lawrence AdultLearning Center, we’ve had classes ofall levels of ESOL and classes of mixedproficiencies. And of course, we’ve hadmixes of educational experiences, lan-guages, cultures, ages, and interests. Ifwe could integrate dictation activitiesmore purposefully and consistentlyinto our classes, what could we learnthat would drive our instruction? Wealso asked ourselves if there were a waywe could develop dictation proceduresthat would result in students beingable to use their dictations for reflec-tion about their own learning anddevelop self-awareness about whatthey need to learn.

But what to use if not a textbook?

We decided that both of us wouldinclude dictation as an integrated

component of our classroom in-struction. Joy opted to use a dicta-tion journal. She would give dicta-tions that used material from thenewspaper and then develop sub-sequent activities resulting in dis-cussions, expressing opinionsorally and in writing, grammarmanipulations, and vocabularydevelopment. Another methodwould be to have students givepeer dictations. Laurie had beenconcerned about her students’pronunciation and auditory dis-crimination along with spellingand punctuation issues. Becauseher students seemed to be unfa-miliar with literature, she chose touse selections from popular fic-tion. Laurie decided that studentswould keep a dictation portfoliowith a continuously updated logthat would reflect problems mani-festing themselves through thedictation process. Both of us alsowrote our own material in order tofocus on problematic pronuncia-tion. In any case, our selections,whether found or written, are rel-evant, meaningful, and interest-ing, and exhibit a range of vocabu-lary, sentence structures, andEnglish sounds.

Implementing theProcess

Once or twice weekly we givedictations. We read the selections,not emphasizing words, but read-ing strings of words or phrases sothat connected speech is main-tained. After reading the selec-tions, we give students several

moments to “share and compare”with their neighbors. Discussion isoften lively. While students aredoing this, we write a punctuationkey on the board. The punctuationkey gives all the necessary punctua-tion (such as the number of com-mas, question marks, etc.) Duringthe sharing and comparing time,students check their own work forpunctuation and discuss it with theirneighbors. They can make anychanges they want to at this pointbut after a few moments we askthem to put all writing instrumentsaway – no more corrections!

Next, we call on students ran-domly to go up to the board. Eachstudent must write five dictatedwords sequentially. We settled onfive words because students don’tbecome overly concerned that theyhaven’t written a complete sentence.Five words also doesn’t let anyoneget bored – they’re never sure who’sgoing to be called next, so they needto follow along and maintain focusfor each group of five words.Theyhave to interpret what the fifth wordis thatthey


Spice Up Your Day With PurposefulDictationBy Joy Tuman & Laurie Hartwick


T

Field Notes

now have to follow – often a chal-lenge!

Students are not allowed tocorrect on the board or call outcorrections to those writing on theboard. Again, there is a lively dis-cussion during this time, alongwith some laughter, as studentsbegin to see some of the words orentire sentences they completelymissed or “reinterpreted” with avery different meaning. We remindstudents to compare what is beingwritten on the board by their class-mates with what they have writtenon their own paper.

Color CodingOnce the completed dictation

is on the board, students are askedto take out a different colored penfrom what they originally used.Sometimes we help out by passingout red pens. They’re not allowedto erase. Starting with the title we

elicit “suggestions” for corrections.As we go, we discuss the vagaries ofthe English sound and spelling sys-tems, the meaning of unfamiliarvocabulary, and any grammaticalfunctions that come into question.We prompt for punctuation correc-tion. Usually, within a class, thestudents can correct the entire dic-tation with only a very rare correc-tion by the teacher.

Extension ActivitiesAt this point Joy, who is pre-

dominantly using newspaper snip-pets, gives an additional activity.Sometimes students are asked towrite the end of a story or speculateabout what happens next. Or theymight have to write their opinionabout an issue posed in the dicta-tion. They may be asked to changeall the verbs to past tense or changeto negative and interrogative sen-tences. After these extended writ-ten exercises, they share their ideasis small groups, thus promoting

interesting discussions. Laurie,who is more concerned with thepronunciation, spelling, and punc-tuation, asks students to reflect ontheir errors and then collects theirpapers. She circles their “criticalerrors,”returns the papers, andstudents then enter their criticalerrors in their dictation logs. Aftera couple of months, students goback and review their folders,reflecting on their progress.

What Else Have WeObserved?

During a dictation students arecompletely engaged. They’re think-ing, listening, writing, imagining,discussing, and becoming aware ofwhat they know and what they don’tknow about life, current events,issues, grammar, and vocabulary.In addition to the language learningthat’s going on, students are build-ing confidence to talk about lan-guage. There’s a lot of laughter anda sense of community building as

students realize that noone is perfect in dictationand that each has individ-ual strengths and weak-nesses. Dictation engagesstudents at both a cogni-tive and emotional level.They develop a prideabout what they can grap-ple with. It’s like havingan individual self-assess-ment going on whilebeing a part of a big groupencounter. We all lovedictation!

Laurie Hartwick and JoyTuman have been teachingadult basic education and

in higher education pro-

22

Get Out of Class! If you have a small class, take students out for coffee to

practice social English. With a mug in her hands, the shyest student often opens up. Coffee is a good subjectfor conversation, too, since many students prepare it dif-ferently in their home countries, or have a different tra-ditional beverage,like tea.

If you have a digital camera, send students out into the neighborhood nearyour program to take photos. Download, print out, and have students disscuss,then write about what they saw. Issues and concerns can arise from this project,and it can lead to other activites, like letters to the editor or inviting people intoclass.

If you are near a T stop, go to Haymarket (open air market near Fanueil Hall)on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, have students explain the fruits andvegetables common to their countries and cuisines. Buy a few samples, take themback to class, and discuss their preparation. Let students be the experts!

SSppiiccee UUpp YYoouurr DDaayy ......Continued from page 21

<[email protected]><[email protected]>

Field Notes


A Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt Submitted by Suzanne Special, Taught by Sr. Nancy Simonds

This lesson is intended for:Any level. We used this activity in an ESOL level 5-6 class.

The main goal of this lessonStudents will be able to recognize and describe the neighborhood around their school and the neighborhood they live in.

Materials:Teacher-made handouts of vocabulary words with pictures to accompany words.

Teacher-made list of things to find outside in the neighborhood.

Step by step:1. Teach students a list of vocabulary words – in our case, we focused on nouns, adjectives, and opposites (library, businesses, churches, schools, parks, streets, parking, handicapped, clean, dirty, safe, unsafe, etc.

2. Show pictures to accompany vocabulary words. After vocabulary words are taught, take students outside and lead a tour around the neighborhood. Teacher can ask individual students specific questions about the neighborhood to see if students understand and can recognize their new vocabulary.

.3. On the following day, pair off individuals to work outside together.

4. Give students a list of things to find, and tell students they have a three-block radius to look in. Examples: How many churches are in the neighborhood? What street are they located on? Is there handicapped parking? What businesses are in the area? What services do they provide?

5. Have students return to the classroom and have each team write their findings on the board under categories such as buildings, churches, etc Have the whole class compare their findings in a discussion facilitated by the teacher.

Follow-up: Students can be given a homework assignment to answer questions about their own neighborhood.

. For example, what kind of buildings are there? Who lives there? Is the neighborhood safe? The following day, ask students to use this information to write a paragraph about their neighborhood. Have them explain if it is a good neighborhood to live in and why. After students complete the writing assignment, they can share their information with their classmates. On the following day, students can type up their paragraphs on the computer.

This lesson was taught by Sr. Nancy Simonds, a teacher at Notre Dame Education Center in Lawrence, whereshe has taught for six years. She can be reached at <[email protected]>.

For additional ideas on using scavenger hunts, see page 10.

Field Notes

doesn’t have anything to do withyour lives. Here’s a chance to lookat a topic in the book, but do aproject that will focus on what istrue for you.

I made each student a posterboard with an outline of a big treeon it. To identify the concept of afamily tree, including the levelsand lines that identify how peopleare related through time, we lookedat the illustration in the book relat-ed through time. We also read thedefinitions of family in the diction-ary.

Deep and Wide“I can’t go deep, but I can go

wide,” one of my students stated.She explained: she couldn’t go very

far back in time with her tree,but she could diagram allkinds of relationships—blood and not blood.

At first, the posterswere simply names on

charts and diagrams. Thenone student brought in pic-

tures, and the project exploded.The posters blossomed with

maps, photos, even cloth andbuttons. My role became

finding other resources forreading and discussion. I found avariety of short selections (maga-zines, children’s books, etc.) thatprovided examples of ‘non tradi-tional’ families. For example, weread obituaries and weddingannouncements to trace connec-tions in peoples’ lives.

We also connected the “family”members on various posters to


Beyond Textbooks, Without Textbooks:Teaching From the Lives of Our LearnersBy Sally Gabb

n my early days of teaching GED, I was reluctant to set

aside the ubiquitous GED prepara-tion texts. Of course, for GED stu-dents, the prep and practicesafforded by the texts is very impor-tant. The students often complain ifwe bring in other kinds of material.But I remember well one class earlyin my GED teaching career thattaught me how “escaping the GEDtext” can be possible, and in factturn the “test prep” drudgery into areal learning adventure.

I was an instructor with a spe-cially funded women’s program inProvidence, Rhode Island in 1981at the then-flourishing adult voca-tional institution, Rhode IslandOpportunities Industrial Council.(OIC ).The stated mission of ourprogram was to support women ingaining occupational skills thatwould enable them to movebeyond the public welfare sys-tem to “living wage” employ-ment. For most, this meantbasic skills education, includingpreparation for the GED test bat-tery.

My class included 25 or soeager, restless, and impatientyoung women. Despite my bestefforts to get them interested inlearning, their only interestseemed to be plowing through thebooks and practice tests. A constantcomment, however, went some-thing like this: “Why do I have toread this old stuff anyway?” Whenam I ever gonna use algebra orbiology? Why do I have to learn thisgrammar stuff— nobody talks likethat anyway!’

I was cajoling the class throughthe lessons when I hit the socialstudies prep text: finally somereading that I could connect insome ways to the lives of my learn-ers. One lesson focused on theconcept of family and provided anexample of a traditional familytree. I was only too aware that myclass included many women withnontraditional families. After weread the selection one student stat-ed loudly: My family don’t look likeany of this – I have a whole differ-ent kind of tree!

Suddenly the whole class wascommenting: Yeah, mine too – Icall people family who ain’t evenblood, but they’re more family thensome of my blood kin!

I was thrilled – finally a topicthat excited the class. How could Ihold on to it?

Okay, I said to the class, You’realways saying that the GED stuff Continued on page 25

I

Field Notes

places and times: who has someoneon their tree who was alive in

1964? What happened that year?(Civil Rights Act, for example).Every time we identified a year, Itried to find some historical eventsthat happened during the timeperiod, and copied a short readingfor the class. We read about elec-tions, about weather catastrophes,about music fads and musicians,about sports events. (This projectwould be much easier today withGoogle!)

We talked about personal andpublic history, about who gets tosay what history is. We talked abouthow in earlier times, history waspassed down by word of mouth.More than one student talked abouthow Great Aunt so and so is ourfamily history teller—we have tolisten every holiday to those oldstories.

This revelation gave rise to thefinal stage of the project. Throughfamily discussion, the women inthe class talked about the strongrole of women in their families. Iasked each to interview a strongwoman family member (blood ornot) and write the interview down.(We practiced interview skills andnote taking as well.) We publishedthese writings in a family treenewsletter, and completed theproject with an open house forfamily members complete withbaked goods identified as familyspecialties.

I didn’t abandon the GED dur-ing the project: we had four two-

hour classes a week, and we devot-ed one hour (on two of the days) tothe project. I found that once wegot into it, students wanted to get

through the GED prep material towork on the project. They told me :This makes me want to come toschool’. I also made an effort toconnect other GED topics to theconcept of family and family histo-ry, including biology (genetics) andeven mathematics (for example,looking at the ratio of male to female

children , or the percentage of familymembers living beyond 65).

With every GED class after thatI attempted to develop an activeGED learning project relateddirectly to lives and interests of thestudents. I learned how to listen tomy learners, and I found I coulduse GED topics as a jumping offplace if I paid careful attention tostudents’ comments and respons-es. In GED preparation, the “textfor the test” was a must, as it isnow— but moving beyond the textenabled the learners to celebratewhat they knew as well as to gainand practice new skills, insight andknowledge.

Sally Gabb is the coordinator of SABESSoutheast. She can be reached at<[email protected]


The posters blossomed with maps,photos, even cloth and buttons.

BBeeyyoonndd TTeexxttbbooookkss ...... Continued from page 24

Ditch the Text, Turn on the TVWant a break from the books in ESOL class? Turn on the television orpop in a video or DVD. Students get to hear English from someoneother than you; they also get to explore culture and to reflect with oth-ers on social issues.Humor, as we know, lowers the “affective filter,”which Krashen tells us is a must in learning language. So you can evenjustify watching The Simpsons, or I Love Lucy. Even the most beginninglevel students can watch silent films (try Chaplin) and generate lan-guage from the scenes. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Preview by establishing a context and reviewing new vocabulary. Use trailers on the internet, lyrics from an opening song,movie reviews, anything to set a scaffold for viewing.View in very short segments so you don’t overwhelm students.

Postview with comprehension activities, reflection questions, discussion, and writing activities.

Check out the following Web sites for more ideas

◆ http://eslcafe.com/search/Movies_and_Screenplays/TIf I◆ http://www.cal.org/caela/civics/AAmon.htm◆ http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Davis-CaptionedVideo/◆ http://lavender.fortunecity.com/banzai/80/◆ http://www.script-o-rama.com/snazzy/dircut.html◆ http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Tatsuki-Video.html

Field Notes


Quilting as a Second LanguageStory quilts, made from paper or fabric squares, allow students in a multi-level ESOL class to work together on a project, share information about one another, and create a beautiful product. Before approaching the activity, it is a good idea to establish a contextby explaining quilts and drawing from students’ experience with quilting in their home countries.

Each student creates a quilt square by cutting and assembling an image around a theme: family, immigration, home country, etc. The teacher can supply different textures of paper and glue sticks; origami paper works well against a solid background. Avoid construction paper, which feels too childish. Fabric can also be glued with craft adhesiveto create fabric squares or stitched.

Each student can explain the square to the class to practice speaking skills and learn new vocabulary.

More advanced students can also write a paragraph about their squares.

The teacher or volunteers from the class can assemble the quilt; paper squares can bemounted on poster board sheets or foam core, while fabric squares can be stitched by hand or on a machine.

The final project can be displayed in the classroom or lobby of the ABE program.

For a description of a successful project using story quilts, see Judy Water’s article Putting thePieces Together in a Multi-Level Class at:

<http://hub1.worlded.org/docs/connections/waters3.pdf>

Watch for the Summer Issue of Field Notes!The summer issue of Field Notes has no specific theme, and this openness has prompted some interesting articles.Watch for the following:

● An Interview With Christine Taylor of Framingham Adult ESOL Plus by Ellen Bourne

● Communiques From a Cold Country by Linda Werbner

● Contributing to Your Profession: Three Ways to Share Your Teaching Ideas by Barbara Ash

● How Learning Spanish as an Adult Helped Me as an ESOL Teacher by Joanne Mason

● A Model GED Program by Andrea Perrault and Tom Mechem

Get back issues of Field Notes on line at <www.sabes.org>.

Field Notes


Mark Your CalendarApril 25-27, 2005

National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), National Conference, Literacy Changes Lives Location: Louisville, KY Contact: NCFL. Web: <www.famlit.org/Conference/index.cfm>

May 4-7, 2005 Commission on Adult Basic Education (COABE), National Conference Making Dreams Come True Location: Anaheim, CA Contact: CCAE, 916-444-3323. Web: <www.coabe05.org/>

May 18-19, 2005 Workforce Alliance, 2005 National Conference, What's the Big Idea? Workforce Development Policy for the Next Four Years (and Beyond) Location: Washington, DC Contact: Carla Ward, 202-223-8891, Web: <www.workforcealliance.org/conference/twa-conference-200502.htm>

May 26, 2005 Connecticut Adult Training and Development Network (ATDN), 13th Annual Conference on Serving Youth and Adults with LD Location: Farmington, CT Contact: ATDN, 860-524-4048. Web: <www.coabe05.org/>

May 29-31, 2005 Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE), 24th Annual Conference Challenges of Adult Education in the Twenty-First Century Location: London, Ontario Contact: CASAE, 613-241-0018. Web: <www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/cnf2005/cnf2005.html>

June 3-5, 2005 Adult Education Research Conference (AERC), 46th Annual Investigating the World of Adult Education Location: Athens, GA Contact: Tom Sork, E-mail <[email protected]>Web: <www.gactr.uga.edu/conferences/2005/Jun/02/aerc.phtml>

June 27-29, 2005 Centre for Literacy of Quebec, Summer Institute 2005 ABE & Literacy, Media and Technology: Points of Entry, Points of Connection Location: Montreal, QuebecContact: Centre for Literacy, 514-931-8731, x1415, Web: <www.centreforliteracy.qc.ca/>

July 14-17, 2005 Alliance for Nonprofit Management/National Council of Nonprofit Associations, Joint Conference The Communities We Serve: Building Capacity for Impact Location: Chicago, IL Contact: The Alliance, 202-955-8406. Web :<www.allianceonline.org/annual_conference/2005_conference.page>

Field Notes

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Upcoming Issues of Field Notes

Summer 2005Open IssueSubmit by April 30

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System for Adult Basic Education Support

New Discussion List for ABE Teachers

re you interested in exploring the connections among literacy teaching, research, and policy? If you are an ABE, ESL, GED, orASE teacher, you may be interested in participating in an online

discussion on these issues. The California Adult Literacy ProfessionalDevelopment Project (CALPRO) and the Outreach and TechnicalAssistance Network (OTAN) are cosponsoring the new LPRPConnectionsdiscussion list. This discussion list is open to all adult educators inter-ested in exploring the connection of literacy teaching practice, research,and policy. TheLPRPConnections discussion list is facilitated by ErikJacobson, veteran practitioner and research analyst atCALPRO/American Institutes. To subscribe to the LPRPConnectionsdiscussion list,send an email message to<[email protected]> and type “subscribe” inthe body of the message.

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