Highlight 1: Presidential Inauguration
The semester began the week before the inauguration of President Barack Obama. So, we spent time learning about what the a presidential inauguration looks like, and trivia about past inaugurations. A week later, several students said they watched the inauguration and were able to understand its significance.
Highlight 2: Introductions
The students were paired off. Each one was supposed to interview their partner (using first and second person). When we came back together as a class, the students asked a different student (other than their partner) a question about that student's partner (using third person). We got to practice our speaking as well as learn more about the students.
Highlight 3: The News
Each student received a different news story from a local news station's website. They read the article, making sure they understood all the words in it. If they wanted to, they could paraphrase the story (esp. if it was a long article). Then they presented the news story to the class, as if they were a news reporter on TV.
Highlight 4: Guilty!
"A crime was committed here last night. All the forks in the church kitchen were stolen and replaced with chopsticks."
The students were divided into 3 groups. Each group had to create an alibi for where they were the night before -- and be cross examined by the other two groups. This was a very fun night, as we got to see how creative our students are!
Highlight 5: Legos
That's right. We played with Legos. We divided into 3 teams. Each team went to a different room. Their mission: To create something with a pile of Legos -- and write step-by-step instructions. They would then have to trade instructions with another team, and see if they wrote their instructions well enough for the other team to recreate their object.
Highlight 6: Reading Nonsense
As a class, we read a story in which key words were replaced with nonsense words. Since no one knows what a "wuipit" or a "pogtry" are, we had fun using our imaginations and the context clues to figure it out.
Highlight 7: Origami
I became the student as Kay, my student from Japan, taught us how to make Origami. Here we are with our paper cranes:
Highlight 8: Talent Show
The final week of the semester, we had a special ELL semester closing program. All other Wednesday night activities were cancelled in support of the ELL program. We started with a ice breaker -- having everyone do the Hokey Pokey.
Each of the 3 levels of classes had a presentation. Level 1 sang "Jesus loves me" in Chinese, Spanish, and English. Level 2 had a "game show" with citizenship questions. It was students vs. tutors. (Three of the Level 2 students took and passed their citizenship tests this spring.)
Since my class, Level 3, is made up of students from China, Taiwan, and Japan, we prepared a "tour of Asia." Each student told a little bit about his or her home country and/or town. This included some pictures, a video, a song, a reading from the 23rd Psalm in English and Chinese, and even a puppet show depicting a Chinese proverb! I really enjoyed letting my students teach me about their homes.
Thanks to Bill Selvidge & Don Pluff for sharing these pictures with me.
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