Does anyone else just have the worst time getting their class motivated during deep winter? At least here in Iowa where the temperatures have been steadily dropping (no warm spring temperatures in sight) and everything is covered with a layer of ice, my students' motivation (and mine, frankly) has dropped to nothing.
So what can we, as teachers do, to reinvigorate our ESL reading classroom while still sticking to the curriculum and making sure students are practicing their reading skills? Here are a few things that I do during February and March to try and drive away the winter blahs. Sometimes we just have to stick our nose in the book and get things accomplished, but other times we have a little flexibility to go off the beaten path with our class activities! (Note: some of these activities are geared towards instructors at university IEPs who have some independence and flexibility on taking their class on outings). 1. Get up and get moving! This seems kind of obvious to me, but I find that a lot of reading classes end up silent and motionless. You would be very surprised at how just moving around the room will add a lot of excitement and vigor to your class. Think about activities you are already doing in the classroom, and figure out ways to have them move around. For example, if you are doing pre-reading discussion questions, have students rotate partners every minute. I do this sometimes as a form of musical chairs...I put on music, let it play for about one minute, and then pause it. When I pause the music, students have to rush to find a new partner! 2. Do a puzzle or word problems! Every so often, just to switch up what we're reading in class, I give students an activity where they have to use their close reading skills to end up with a certain result. This includes doing logic puzzles (where students are given story-like clues and have to figure out the missing information), or following a written instruction to create something. One popular close-reading activity I do is give them instructions for an origami creation, but without pictures. Students have to pay very close attention to the instructions, or their creation will not come out correctly. I usually start everyone with the same origami creation, just to get into the practice, and then after that give each student a random, different one, so they can't look at a partner's work to get help. Afterwards, we all share our creations and talk about what in the directions was easy or difficult to understand. 3. Visit the library! You might be surprised at the number of ESL students who have never visited a library before, but my students always enjoy a nice trip to the local public library. With my lower levels, I usually try to focus our trip on learning how to browse and reading for fun (we visit the city's public library for this, which is luckily a five minute walk from campus). With my higher levels, I focus our library trip on using the online catalog to find resources, and learning about the different services at the library (we visit the university's library for this). Either way, students are usually surprised by all that the library has to offer, and for free! If you contact the library ahead of time, they will probably set up a tour for you. I have been working with one local librarian for about five years now, and she is always excited to give my ESL students tours of the public library, and at the end of the tour she helps them all get library cards. For some fun library activities, check out my lesson plan section for a library visit Bingo and photo scavenger hunt! 4. Read with a local preschool! This is something a colleague started doing a few years ago when their daughter was in preschool. The preschool welcomed outside guests to come read with the kids, and my colleague would often take her reading class to break up the monotony of their weekly routine. Reading students enjoyed it because it was a very low stakes way to practice reading out loud, and they loved answering questions from the kids. The kids liked it because it was new people to talk to, and they love stories! If you can find a local preschool that's not too far away, this might be a fun activity! (Or, check and see if you can help out with a toddler story time at the local library). If some of your students are shy or hesitant about reading to/interacting with children, put the students into groups or pairs to interact with the kids. 5. Bring a guest to class! This is always fun and interesting. Most of the time I try to focus the guess on some aspect of our reading class, but this class period almost always ends up more communication-skills oriented. In the past, we have invited the author of the novel we are reading to class (she was a local author and willing to drive an hour to meet us), and this was met with GREAT success. Students had a nice time, there was lively discussion, and we all took the author out to eat lunch afterwards. Another successful guest speaker I've had is a local musician who teaches ukulele lessons. This started with a summer reading class when we were reading the novel Stargirl, and the main character plays a ukulele. For a fun Friday activity, I invited the local musician to give us a beginners lesson on playing the ukulele, and the activity was SO POPULAR that I've done it every semester since then in at least one of my classes (although it usually works best for a communication skills or listening class). Whoever you want your guest speaker to be, try and find a way to tie it into what your students have been reading in class, or see if you can have them do a pre-reading to prepare. If you think the guest speaker session will be heavy on the listening, have students prepare questions ahead of time so they stay active and interested in the discussion. If you have a more interactive guest speaker, feel free to just jump in! 6. Try some creative writing! I'm always a bit surprised by how often we exclude creative writing from our ESL curriculums. In my IEP (and likely most IEPs) we focus mainly on academic writing, but over my years of teaching many students have requested creative writing activities, and really excel at them. To tie creative writing into reading class, have students do some creative writing activities based on the class novel you're reading. Some examples include:
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AuthorWritings from an ESL instructor at a Big Ten university in the Midwest. Archives
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