Getting into Gear: Summer Scavenger Hunt

Spring semester is nearly over and we are getting into gear for our summer sessions here in the English Language Program. One activity that has worked well is the On-Campus/Off-Campus Scavenger Hunt. I developed this with my coworker, Tatjana Mulina, a couple years ago for a short-term summer course we were teaching. I modified it for last summer and it was a blast. In pairs or small groups, students are sent on a mission throughout campus and the surrounding community for about three hours to collect as many items and information pieces as they can.

Objectives: Practice scanning (signs and written information) and speaking skills (asking for information) in an authentic context; also, becoming more familiar with the campus and community

Results: It was fun to see the kids running back all sweaty from their labors in the summer heat, running around campus. They were really excited to show me all their documentation, including photos, brochures, and even an official printed estimate from the tire shop on the corner (one of the items asked how much a new set of tires cost). Apparently, the employees there were very friendly and helpful. Such a great experience to have our students interacting with native speakers outside an academic setting.

Download a copy of the scavenger hunt and adapt it for your campus.

Student Research Projects: Can I make it work?

I'm developing a new elective course for students who are in our ELP Pathways Program. This means that students are taking one or two ESL classes in our program concurrently with one or two mainstream university courses. Generally, these types of students are more advanced and need opportunities that challenge them.

The answer: Project-based learning. Specifically, a research project. Now, I feel like a lot of us tend to roll our eyes when the topic of research papers has come up in professional development meetings. It's just such a mammoth project, requiring a lot of hand-holding. High school students cringe at the thought of digging through "sources" at the library, feeling baffled at why they can't use Wikipedia for all of their material. Writing research papers largely invoke the feeling of unauthentic busywork that is simply not relevant.

But, then again, most of them want to go to graduate school. In my master's program, we had to write a thesis. Surely, there is some value in helping students to go through the process of inquiry, even if we do skip the official "paper" part of the research.

The Assignment
In groups of two or three, I had students take the following actions:

1. Select a topic within the general context of sociology/human behavior - altruism; collectivism vs. individualism; big data; cyber bullying
2. Synthesize background information from a video link I provided with an article they found online - Skill: Summarizing and synthesis
3. Formulate a research question - Skill: Embedded questions to state research purpose 
4. Produce a written research proposal, outlining their research plan - Skill: Writing a report, proposing action and defending decisions
5. Collect data through surveys and interviews - Skill: Grammar, listening/speaking
6. Analyzing data in order to reach conclusions - Skill: Critical thinking
7. Present results in a Power Point presentation - Skill: Appropriate grammar/writing to effectively convey research on slides; presentation skills
8. Critically evaluate other groups' project designs/conclusions - Skill: Critical thinking, speaking, grammar 

Results
As we worked over the course of six weeks, this project went turned out extremely well. It gave us the chance to work on and apply skills learned in other classes -- summarizing sources, embedding questions (The purpose of this research was to determine whether there was a difference in attitudes...), giving conclusions and reporting survey results, presentation skills with graphics ("As we can see in this graph,"), academic vocabulary (implies, suggests, concludes, etc), and group discussion skill.

What Students Said: Oral Reflection
At the end of the project, I had each student record a 4-5 minute reflection, answering these prompts:

1. What did you learn from this project, and how did it benefit you?
2. What did you contribute to your group's project?
3. What would you do differently if you were to do the project again?
4. How well did your group work together as a team? Discuss strengths and weaknesses.

I chose to have them do the reflection orally because it was one additional facet of language use - the monolog. I didn't grade it on pronunciation or grammar, because the object here was content. And I purposely did not give them a lot of time to prepare or script what to say. In this way, their reflection was more natural (as opposed to the report and presentation). Therefore, it made the assignment more authentic for the students.

Here is one excerpt, illustrating some things the student learned in general:

I learn a lot from this project. First, know the importance of cooperation. I had more ideas when I listened to my partner’s ideas. Second, I can ask Americans questions without bashfulness. And I improved my oral skills. Third, I learned that when I do a presentation, I need to face the audience instead of looking at the Power Point because it might make people think you didn’t prepare good for the presentation and it is not respectful.

A second excerpt shows the a more natural (and unscripted) summary of her project, as well as what she learned:

From this project, I’ve learned the internal and external reasons for deviant behavior, such as bad parenting, education, and social situations, and the teenage brain. Parents will influence their kids very well. However, from the project, I have noticed that the teenagers’ brains are active when they are young, so it is easy for them to do something wrong. I have learned how people think about youth deviant behavior. They think it’s annoying, but they can understand it.  Teenagers are still young. Everyone will do something wrong, so they can understand it. And I learned how to control youth deviant behavior, so they don’t do something wrong.

I have known the importance of teamwork. We finished this project together. I believe we could complete our project better with teamwork. Because when we have a problem, we can deal with that problem together, so it will be more easy for us to solve this problem than only one person.  In this project, I interviewed two young adults and sent out an online survey to twenty young people. We did the Power Point together and we did the questions together. If I am able to do this project again, I will interview more people because in this project, we only interviewed four people. Not only students, but teachers and professors. However, it was a little hard for us to interview older adults because all of my friends are students. In my opinion, our team worked well together because we could communicate with each other and share our own opinions.

Listening/Speaking Textbook Review

• Pathways (National Geographic/Cengage) - I am just looking at this as a possible replacement for Q. The topics are more academic and science-based. For instance, instead of talking about the dangers of fast food and consumerism, the chapter includes graphs and numbers to talk about how many servings of vegetables people should have. It's a lot more authentic, and engaging.
• Q: Skills for Success (Oxford) – We just switched to this series in January. So far I like the skill-building activities, vocabulary, student online practice that I can check, and variety of listening material. Not impressed with the assessment bank as much.
• Face the Issues, Consider the Issues (Longman) – I taught for four years from this book. Pros include authentic NPR listening material. Cons are vocabulary lists that are not important AWL words, topics a little dated (eg, radio call-in show for dating). Most importantly, the book lacks sufficient skill-building activities.
• Northstar (Longman) – I use Northstar Advanced occasionally as a supplement. The listening passages are very authentic, but I find that some of the topics are too difficult and far removed for my students (for example, Workplace Privacy, Tipping Point, etc).
• Contemporary Topics (Pearson Longman) – Great ESL note-taking book. I used this as a regular supplement. I like the variety of questions in the student book to assess students' notes, including an audio quiz, where the questions are recorded on the CD, requiring students to listen to the questions rather than read them.
• Lecture Ready (Oxford University Press) – Another good source for note-taking practice. The assessment questions aren't as developed as those in Contemporary Topics, though.

Resource: Favorite Authentic Listening Websites

Topic	Websites
Environment History Geography Technology Other	The Discovery Channel — www.discovery.com
Weather Geography	The Weather Channel — www.weather.com
Nature Animals Environment	National Geographic — www.nationalgeographic.com
Automobiles	Car Review Sites — Cars.com, CarTV, Edmonds
Dating Romance	Storycorps — www.storycorps.net New York Times "Vows" — http://video.nytimes.com/video/
Stories Personal Experiences	Storycorps — www.storycorps.net Radio Diaries — www.radiodiaries.org
Jobs and Careers	Job Profile Videos — http://web1.dol.state.nj.us/coei/CareerVideos/careervideos_list.html
Business	Entrepreneur.com — www.entrepreneur.com
How-to Health Auto care	About.com — www.about.com
Cooking	Martha Stewart — www.marthastewart.com Foodtube — www.foodtube.net Flavorshare — www.flavorshare.com
News	NPR — www.npr.org VOA News — www.voanews.com

A different kind of presentation... NGOs

I've seen a few presentations lately on "Digital Storytelling," basically putting pictures with voice.  I decided to try that in my advanced listening/speaking class.  Hearing my students' voices only, without the benefit of seeing their fact and body language brings out their struggles with pronunciation, as well as grammar.  I decided to use this as a way to hone those particular skills.

I had them choose an NGO to research, through watching videos mainly.  Then, we followed these steps:

1. Write the transcript (approximately 100-150 words), telling what the NGO is, what work it does, and why ELP students should donate money to it.
2. Review and revise the transcript for content and grammar.  I, along with their peer mentor, helped them with this.
3. Review the transcript, marking a) stressed words, b) thought groups that should be linked together, c) pauses.
4. Record Draft #1.  
5. Feedback from me. I listened and noted any major pronunciation issues, as well as key words that were being mispronounced.
6. Record Draft #2.
7. Create a video by adding photos and music.

Overall, it was fun, and helped focus on specific skills--sentence-level stress, linking, etc.  Here are a few of them, as an example:

Guest Speaker: Internships

A highlight this semester in my advanced listening/speaking class was having one of my former students, who is now a junior in the university, come talk about his upcoming internship to China. 

International Internship in China from Heatherct on Vimeo.

Guest Speaker: Graduate Student Instructor

Communications 114.  All undergraduates at my university are required to take this class, which is taught by graduate students and involves a lot of writing and public speaking.  Consequently, international students often anticipate this class with anxiety.  I invited one of the instructors to come to my study skills class and talk about it- the syllabus, major assignments, homework, class policies, grading, etc.  It was especially good for them to hear how this class would differ from their ESL listening/speaking class, in that there is a no-tolerance policy for missing presentations, no matter what the excuse.  No make-up work allowed, and required attendance.  I've had professors come and give presentations about various topics, but this was the first of just talking about a class itself.  It was really helpful. Students asked a lot of questions and kept him talking for the entire 80 minute period.  

Student-led Discussions

Here is an activity that I have implemented this semester into my advanced/speaking course. I had my students sign up in pairs on Thursdays throughout the semester.

Objective: Prepare my advanced listening/speaking students for mainstream classes where they will may have to lead a group discussion- either a study group or an in-class assignment.

Skills Practiced:

• Presentation skills
• Formulation of discussion questions
• Eliciting comments
• Responding to comments
• Asking follow-up questions
• Summarizing the discussion
• Synthesizing ideas from multiple groups

This semester, topics my students have chosen so far were engaging: Domestic abuse, environmental issues, robotics, to name a few. Below is the most recent video clip my students used (last week).

Level 3 Charity Contest

For the past few years of teaching Advanced Listening/Speaking, our semester project has been the "Charity Contest." After a listening activity on George Soros, the philanthropist (from our textbook, Consider the Issues, from NPR), I assign my students to create their own idea for a charity organization. Turning it into a contest to compete for a $10 million grant from the Soros Foundation makes it especially exciting for the students.

*I must give the credit to my colleague, Pamela Martin, for coming up with this idea and first implementing it in her classes.

Here are excerpts from my worksheets, which outline the project:

STEP 1: Which groups of people need help from charities? What else in our world needs to be fixed? Consider people, social institutions, animals, and the environment. Brainstorm in groups of 4. Write your ideas below.


STEP 2: With a partner—Now, design a charity with your group. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the problem that your charity would help solve?
2. Why would your charity be important or special?
3. What specific services would your charity provide?
4. What people would you need to provide these services? (Eg, volunteers, paid employees?) What kind of training would you to do?
5. What materials and supplies would your charity need?
6. How much money would your charity need for one year?

STEP 3: Presenting Your Ideas.
Homework Assignment-Due in class, Wednesday, March 24 Individually, create an outline for your presentation. Type your outline and bring it to class. (You will compare your outline with your partner(s) outline in class and combine them.)

Step 4: Get feedback from your classmates. In pairs, ask your partner about his/her project.

• What problem are you focusing on?
• Why did you choose this problem to solve? + Follow-up questions
• Why is this problem more of a priority than others? + Follow-up questions
• How important is this problem to other people/groups like George Soros? + Follow-up questions
• How would your organization go about solving this problem?
• What services would your organization provide?
• Where would your organization get people/workers from?
• Where would your organization get materials from?
• How would your organization manage the money ($10,000,000)?
• How long would your organization take to get results?
• How practical is your plan?

After your discussion, get back with your group and talk about areas you identified that need further planning.

Step 5: Finish your outline and create your powerpoint
Compare your outline with your partner(s). Decide together how to combine your ideas into one amazing outline.

Step 6: Presentation Skills Day

Give a Lecture Plan

• First we’re going to talk about…
• Then, we’ll go on to…
• And then we’ll move on to….
• We’ll
• tell you about…
• explain..
• discuss…
• show…
• After that…
• Finally, we’ll tell you…

Transitioning Between Speakers

Choose one transition.

____ Okay, now Johnny is going to tell you about…
____ I’ll take us through…. (the goals and objectives of our charity)…
____ Thanks, Jill. Let’s move now to….
____ Now that we’ve talked about….. I’ll explain…..
____ Okay, I’m going to let Jack tell you about….

Dealing with Q&A

1. Inviting Questions at the end of the presentation:

• Okay, we have about ___________ minutes for questions.
• We’ll take your questions now.
• Who has the first question?
• Now, what questions do you have?

2. Answering Questions

to a good question
• That’s a very good question. [+ Answer]

to a difficult question
• I don’t know that off the top of my head.
• That’s a really good question. I’m not sure I can answer that…
• I’m sorry… I’m afraid I don’t have that information with me.
• Can I get back to you on that?
• I’m afraid I can’t answer that.

to an unnecessary question
• I think we answered that question earlier.
• Well, as we mentioned earlier,….[repeat answer]

to an irrelevant/confusing question
• I’m afraid I don’t see the connection.
• Sorry, I don’t follow you.
• I’m sorry, I don’t understand your question.

3. Moving to another question:
• Okay, let’s move on to the next question.
• Who has the next question?
• Let’s move on to the next question.

4. Near the end of your Q&A time:
• We’re almost out of time.
• We’ll take 1 more question.
• We have time for 1 more question.

At the end of your Q&A time:
• Thanks for all of your questions and attention.

Contest Day!!!

This semester, we only had two sections of Advanced Listening/Speaking, so I had to find two different audiences for the presentations.

Section 1 - Panel of judges consisting of 2 other teachers and staff workers from the International Programs Office. To make it nice, I reserved a conference/board room for the presentations. The change of scenery was rather effective.

Section 2 - One of our Intermediate Listening/Speaking classes served as the audience and selection committee.

Debate: Gun Control

This is a video from my advanced listening/speaking class last semester. I need to credit my coworker, Katy Montgomery, for spearheading this actually. It was her idea to do a major debate with a lot of preparation and organization. Our two classes split into two teams each-For and Against Gun Ownership. On Debate Day, she led one debate, while I led the other. Here is a video of the highlights.

Spring 2011 - Making the Transition to Mainstream Classes

I just wanted to share some of my recent and ongoing efforts to help students prepare for mainstream classes after the ELP. Two activities that I am spearheading this semester are:

Class Visits - Three times during the semester, my students find a regular university class they want to observe, take notes, fill out an observation report, and then report back to the class. The assignment consists of:

• Navigating the online course schedule and evaluating possible options. I require students to get my approval signature before moving forward with this. I want to make sure that all my students aren't bombarding the same professor, as well as ensure that the class is an is appropriate for them to observe.
• Contacting the professor via email to request permission. Composing emails is always a challenge for ESL students. To help them with this stage, I give them a template they can copy. If the professors have any questions, they can email me. Occasionally, some do, but for the most part, professors at my university do not seem to mind.
• Visiting the class and completing an observation report. What I want them to look for is phrases and key language the professor uses in the lecture to introduce topics, give examples, definitions, signal topic changes, and so forth.
• Writing a reflection.
• Presentation to the Class. Occasionally, I like to have students report back to the class in the form of a mini-presentation, although this depends on time constraints.

Click here to see the observation report and material.

Level 3 Panel Discussion - This is something I am in the process of organizing at the moment. I have invited former ELP students, now in their mainstream undergraduate programs in the university, to come to a panel discussion for all our advanced ELP students. In my listening/speaking classes, we are compiling questions about how to succeed in academic courses outside the ELP. This is set for April 25, if all goes well.

Pronunciation Mirroring - EnglishCentral.com

A great online resource is EnglishCentral. I like to take this step-by-step.

1. Choose an applicable video from EnglishCentral's massive database.
2. If doing it together as a class, I print out the transcript with missing words and we do it as a listening cloze passage.
3. We listen line-by-line and mark stressed words and draw intonation arrows.
4. They practice with the video, and then alone.
5. For assessment, I have them record it and grade them.

Sample pronunciation mirroring from EnglishCentral:

Listening/Speaking Quiz - Asking Questions

My students struggle with asking basic questions. They've been studying English since they were kids, but somehow have developed some fossilization here. After a listening quiz on Voluntourism (NPR: "In S. Africa's Orphanages, Is Doing Good Really Bad?"), I gave them the following speaking prompt:

Imagine that you have the opportunity to interview Krystal Swen, an American volunteer in South Africa. Ask her 5 questions about her experience working in the orphanage.

We recorded the quiz on Voxopop. See screenshot below.

Listen to one of my students:

Recorded Native Speaker Interviews

This past semester, I've been requiring all my students to do a weekly interview with a native speaker. Here's the process:

1. Students write 5-8 main questions they'd like to ask a native speaker about our weekly topic (eg, diet & nutrition, study skills, technology, relationships, etc)
2. Students each meet with their peer mentor to review the grammar, vocabulary, and appropriateness of their questions.
3. Students find a native speaker to interview.
4. They RECORD the interview using a laptop, digital recorder, or cell phone.
5. They upload their mp3 or wav file to Blackboard.

Follow-up Activities
When I have the time in class, I like to do follow-up activities with these audio files. In the computer lab, students can access and listen to each others' interviews.

• Listen and take notes on the native speaker's answers
• Check for ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS -- self and peer evaluation for verbal responses, follow-up questions, clarification questions, and paraphrasing skills.

I've found that my students need a lot of work with active listening skills. They often go from question to question without really listening to what the person is saying.

For example, "My first question is what do you think about final exams?" -- "I hate them." -- "Oh really? Me too. Okay, next question. How do you study for your final exams?" -- "I don't really." -- "Oh. Ha ha. Okay, next question..."

Having students listen again to their interviews and analyze their responses can be helpful, especially if I give them a second chance to interview someone else using the same questions. And sometimes I find that their problems result in the use of too many closed questions, so I let the students re-write them.

"This I Believe" - Activities

I got the idea for this activity from my colleague Pamela, who's been doing this for quite a while. I adapted it slightly into more of a worksheet and selected some particular essays for my students to listen to and take notes.

Pre-listening Discussion Questions
Talk about these questions in a group

• What is the difference between believing something/someone and believing in something/someone?
• What are some things that you believe?
• What are some things that you believe in?
• Why do you believe in them?

Browse the Titles
(Together as a class, look at the website, http://thisibelieve.org. Let’s look at the titles of some of the feature essays. What do you think they’ll talk about?

Listening & Note-taking
Essay #1: In Giving I Connect With Others
http://thisibelieve.org/essay/11/

First Listening
Just listen and then answer the following main idea questions.
1. Summarize her belief in one sentence.
2. Describe her background experience that led her to realize this belief in one sentence.

Second Listening: Take Notes
Write key phrases. Use the Cornell Note-taking method. Focus on these main ideas:

• Her daughter’s life
• Her own life
• Reflections

Reaction
Discuss your personal reaction to the essay. Is your belief similar or different?

Essay #2: A Taste of Success
http://thisibelieve.org/essay/52984/

Vocabulary
Bronx
Harlem
*Places in New York City where a lot of poor people live.

First Listening
Just listen and then answer the following main idea questions.
1. Summarize his belief in one sentence.
2. Describe his background experience that led him to realize this belief in one sentence.

Second Listening: Take Notes
Write key phrases. Use the Cornell Note-taking method. Focus on these main ideas:

• Work at a summer camp
• His own childhood/growing up
• Beliefs

Reaction
Discuss your personal reaction to the essay. Is your belief similar or different?

Essay #3: Unleashing the Power of Creativity and Intelligence
http://thisibelieve.org/essay/5/

First Listening
Just listen and then answer the following main idea questions.
1. Summarize his belief in one sentence.
2. Describe his background experience that led him to realize this belief in one sentence.

Second Listening: Take Notes
Write key phrases. Use the Cornell Note-taking method. Focus on these main ideas:

• Past Experiences
• What computers can do

Reaction
Discuss your personal reaction to the essay. Is your belief similar or different?

Essay #4: Asking the Right Questions
http://thisibelieve.org/essay/42143/

First Listening
Just listen and then answer the following main idea questions.
1. Summarize his belief in one sentence.
2. Describe his background experience that led him to realize this belief in one sentence.

Second Listening: Take Notes
Write key phrases. Use the Cornell Note-taking method. Focus on these main ideas:

• Past experiences
• Work success
• Safety in Chemistry
• Son, John
• Beliefs/Reflections

Reaction
Discuss your personal reaction to the essay. Is your belief similar or different?

Now, have students record their own This I Believe audio essays.

Describing a Process: Mix 'n Mingle

Here's a funny mixer activity.

Step #1: Give everyone a slip of paper that has one of the following statements on it.

• I want to learn how to find a boyfriend / girlfriend. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to clean my apartment. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to write an essay. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to pass the iBT TOEFL. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to get from University Village to the CLO. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to get to downtown Chicago. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to plan a party. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to be a good video game player. What should I do first?
• I want to learn how to use a vending machine. What should I do first?

Step #2: Then, the student reads this sentence to a classmate and writes down the first step they're given.

Step #3: The student goes to another person for the second step. They use one of these phrases:

• After I ___________, what should I do?
• What’s the next step after I _____________________?
• What should I do after I _____________________?
• What do I need to do after ________________ing?

But they do not tell what the process is. (This makes it funny).

Phrases for giving instructions:

• The first step, the next step…
• After you…., you should….
• After you…., you need to….
• Next, you need to….
• Second,

Step #4: Student goes to a third classmate for the third step. Again, they just ask for the next step. Continue until you have a series of steps.

Step #5: Share them together in small groups or as a class. Everyone will think this is really funny.

Example:

Student A: "I want to learn how to use a vending machine. What should I do first?"
Student B: "Okay, well, first, decide what kind of candy to buy."
Student A: "Thanks."

Student A: "What should I do after deciding what kind of candy to buy?"
Student C (not knowing what the process is): "Well, next, you need to take the candy bar to the cash register."
Student A: "Thanks." (Writes it down)

Student A: "After I pay for the candy bar, what should I do?"
Student D: "The next step is to take your spare change and deposit it back into your bank account."
Student A: "Oh, okay. Thanks."

As you can see, the more creative students are, they will distort them to purposely develop interesting, irrelevant, and humorous directions.

Advice: Video Surveys

In my beginning conversation class, we were learning how to ask for and give advice. We made advice survey videos by recording each student giving a piece of advice. Here's one of them.