Common Core and ESL = thin ice

I am watching the Presidential Inauguration 2013, on Martin Luther King Day, and I hope my ESL students are watching this historic event.  But, I know that it is not the same for them.  This is not their home country, and many do not even know the words to the Pledge of Allegiance.  Most are grateful for what the U.S. has given them and their families, but they still do not fully accept the U.S. as home. Would you?

In Teacherland these days we are being inundated with the Common Core.  Students must be College ready and read more rigorous texts...  When I hear this, I agree that students should be held to high standards, but then I think of my students and how hard they struggle with their work now and that sometimes they are happy to get a D because at least it is not an F.  So now, they will be expected to read harder texts and make arguments and claims and so on and so on, and I hope my students can stay afloat. What can I do, in an ESL class, that will give them skills to help them walk over this Common Core thin ice without falling in?

My first thought is reading, the more they read the more they get comfortable with reading different texts.  Their motivation often wanes second semester so I introduced - The Amazing Reading Race - to my classes that I hope will motivate them to read different types of books independently.  I did not make this, I got this from the following website, Unique Teaching Resources.  http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/reading-passports.html.
This resource has some great projects and are very affordable.

 

Students are to read and report on 7 different genres and when finished with a book they can color in a continent.  I have seen it motivate even the most reluctant reader and as of now they all are reading!  Here is the display in my room.

 





The second thing I thought would be difficult for my students was research and using the internet.  I always have technologically-driven projects going on because I believe students need to be able to use technology to help their learning.  But, the major difficulty is finding reliable information on the internet and how to cite sources.  I decided to move slowly and create small projects throughout the year that would give them skills for research. 

 

We use an online program called Noodletools, that students use to cite their sources.  As long as my students know what information they need to cite a source it should be easy, right?  Not so much.  Here is a simple task that helps them find facts and cite sources - Wacky Winter Facts.

 

Wacky Winter Facts

 

 

 

Students had to find two interesting facts about winter on the internet, write down the source information from the web page, enter it into NoodleTools, and make a poster to display the fact with the source citation.  This was the first time many students even knew where to look for copyright dates, how to make a text box, or what a citation should look like.  I think they learned alot and it introduced them to some skills they would need in the future.

 

This is a page I made to guide them as they found information.  The second page had more specific instructions about NoodleTools Citing and making the poster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step is being able to decipher all those informational texts they will be flooded with and already are flooded with.  I have yet to plan this out but I have found a great website that gives many links to websites with non-fiction articles.  http://helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2011/02/sources-of-short-web-based-text.html#  Check it out!  I will post my projects as soon as they are completed!

 

 

 "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Amy