Monday, October 20, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
Timeline:
Childhood
(87-2000) High School (’01-’07) College (’07-’10) Adult (’10-Today)
___________+___________________+________________+______________+
Where the Red Fern Grows Sula Not very much Reading Ekart Tolle
Nancy Drew Native Son newspapers Depak Choprah
Lord of the Flies Wuthering Heights Textbooks
Spiritual
Books I loved as a child:
Where the
Red Fern Grows, Lord of the Flies, Nancy Drew series
Memories I have of seeing somebody read:
My mom would read books like the Celestine Prophecies, Ismael, and other
books about religion, and discuss them with my grandma at the coffee table. I
also watched a lot of Oprah, so I followed her book club, even though I never
fully read her book club books.
People I remember who loved to read:
Friends, in AP English class loved to read and
discuss books.
People who read to me when I was little:
I remember, mostly, my teachers, and grandma would
read to me.
Books I loved reading in school:
I loved American literature, like Mark Twain, The Awakening, and The Great
Gatsby, Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and Sula. I like any book that discusses
history and social change controversy.
Books I hated reading in school:
I hated to rush through books. A lot of times I
would read for class, and have a few chapters to cover in a night. I never
thought that was a fair amount of time to read and process what I was reading.
But I did not like reading Albert Camus books, I am not a fan of existential
writings, too negative.
Books I have read on my own and enjoyed:
Ekhart Tolle, Depak Chopra books, on life, ego,
relationships, interpersonal healing. These authors have a lasting influence on
how I want to show up in the World.
Literary characters I connect to:
I loved Emily Bronte’s, Wuthering Heights, it took me forever to read. I wrote my high
school senior paper on there work. The book was gothic, and depressing, but
dissecting the themes within her writing was fascinating. Her diction, and
imagery in writing is impeccable. Also, Memoirs
of a Geisha, was another book I really connected to. I guess, I have a
preference for book with strong female characters experiencing social strife,
along with strong imagery.
Books that have captured my imagination:
The
Awakening, Wuthering Heights, and Memoirs of a Geisha. With each
of these books, I imagined what I would do and how I would feel in these
women’s shoes. Today, I will go to the beach and imagine how much going into
the ocean symbolizes renewal, new beginnings, creativity, artistic inspiration,
and liberation, like in the book The
Awakening. I read this book when I was 16, I am now 26.
Books and/or writers I am interested in, but
haven’t yet read:
I pretty much know what I am interested in, books
that are spiritually, and mentally inspiring.
Books I pretended to read or understand:
I tried to read Fifty
Shades of Grey, and Hunger Games.
I did not like them, they are trendy books, that do not inspire me. In fact, I
think it is stupid certain school districts required students to read the Hunger Games because the message and
theme of that book is terrifying.
Other types of reading materials I read and enjoy:
I like to read magazine articles; celebrity gossip
is a guilty pleasure of mine. I like drama, when I am not involved in it, and
it is light.
Other memories I have about books and reading:
I remember that I did not like to read when I was a kid. The
materials did not interest me. Until, I read Where the Red Fern Grows, in 3rd grade. I was literally
crying at my desk, and when reading block was over, I asked my teacher to let
me finish the last chapter, or else I couldn’t go on with my day. It was in
this moment, that I realize now, that I like to be emotionally connected to what
I read. Everything I spend time doing, especially reading, I want it to teach
me something about the World, how it works, and give me perspective on life
events, that people overcome.
Websites to Build Vocabulary
Using Content Clues to Build Vocabulary: 
http://www.loveyourpencil.com/index.php/learning-activities/128-using-context-clues-to-build-vocabulary
High Frequency Words in Languages: http://www.reall-languages.com/Reall_Languages/High_Frequency_Words_and_Sight_Words.html
Word Families: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/wordfamilies/
Academic words – 570 Core Words: http://www.uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm
Root Words: http://www.learnthat.org/pages/view/roots.html
Homophones: http://www.homophone.com/
Idioms/Figurative Language: 
https://www.ocps.net/cs/services/cs/currareas/read/IR/bestpractices/GL/Idioms.pdf
The Language Instinct
Examples of Strategies
Presented in the PowerPoint
Fry Word Lists
First 100 words: http://people.sju.edu/~cspinell/pages/source/fry_word_list.pdf
English Vocabulary for Academic Success
Reading Strategy & Assessment:
ELEMENTS OF FLUENCY
- Automaticity
- Accurate, fast word recognition
- A brief test for automaticity:
- Select a reading passage of 50 -250 words.
- Ask the student to read it outloud.
- Begin timing (watch/stopwatch) when the student reads the first word and stop timimg when the student reads the last word.
- If the reading has taken several minutes, convert the minutes into number of seconds. Then add the number of additional seconds used.
- Multiply the total number of words in the passage by 60, then divide this number by the student's reading time in seconds.
Example
The student read a 250-word passage in 3 minutes and 23 seconds.
3 minutes x 60 seconds each = 180 seconds
180 + the remaining 23 seconds = 203 seconds
(250 number of words x 60) ÷ 203 seconds = @ 74 words per minute
3 minutes x 60 seconds each = 180 seconds
180 + the remaining 23 seconds = 203 seconds
(250 number of words x 60) ÷ 203 seconds = @ 74 words per minute
Calculating Fluency
FOX & FROG
It is hot. Frog sits on a pad.
Frog sits still in the hot sun. He does not hop.
He does not jump. Frog is just too hot.
Fox is very sad. He wants to jump with Frog.
He wants to hop with Frog. But Frog just sits
still.
Fox sits on a log. Fox comes up with a good plan.
Fox gets a very big fan for Frog.
Now Frog hops and jumps again.
Frog and Fox hop and jump together.
Fox is very glad.
Word Count: 86
Errors: IIIIIIIIIIIIIII/ 15
86-15= 71/86=.82
82% Accuracy in fluency.
- Word Count
- Tally errors
- Subtract errors to get total of correctly read words
- Divide correct total by word count
- Decimal amount equals percentage of fluency
Monday, October 13, 2014
Friday, October 3, 2014
Websites that teachers of ELLs might use to teach grammar:
Sponsor: The TESOL Internet Journal. This website offers activities, including grammar lessons, vocabulary practice, quizzes, and crossword puzzles, beginner, intermediate, and advanced ESL levels. I like this website because it is an open forum for TESOL instructors to share ideas, and lessons with each other. Its strength is that it offers entertaining, internet-based, assessments for multi-cultural ESOL students. Its weakness, is, it is backed up by volunteer submissions, so it is not exactly up-to-date.
Talk about organized DML based ideas for TESOL. This website is sponsored by BrainPOP, all rights reserved. But when you go to the website, you will see so many grammar lessons, intended for school age students. However, I think the ESL section can transfer for adult ELL instruction, most likely beginning to intermediate courses. The strength is free movies, which include social stories, history, and entertaining lessons on cross-cultural exchange. The weakness is that some of the links are under maintenance, for instance, right now the lesson guide for teachers will not open.
This website, sponsored by Craig Shrives, is so organized. The links to what you need for your grammar lesson are straightforward and easy to navigate. It covers the eight parts of speech, confused words, and common mistakes. I like how clear they explain the grammar rules, students should know. There is not a specific age range for the information on the website. It could improve, by adding more interactive DML activities. Also, it is .com, so there are a lot of advertisements.
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