ESL Newcomer Program Everything You Need And How To Teach It Right

1. ESL Newcomer ProgramEverything You Need And How To Teach It Right First Hour I Say, You Say Dolch Sight Words I Say, You Say Grammar 15 Minute Break Second Hour SRA Individual Reading Folders Science Readings Joe Riggs, 9-15-2011, joseph.riggs. . .

2. Advantages of Dolch Sight Vocabulary Sentences Dolch Sight Words K-3 are well-known among educators, and the context sentences frame the high-frequency target words to enhance retention. Completion of the 218 sentences as prescribed allows the teacher to make meaningful ability statements like, “Tung got a score of 97% on the final exam over Dolch Sight Vocabulary K-3.”

3. I Say, You Say Dolch Sight Words K-3 • These 218 Context Sentences include the sentences themselves, a comprehensive multiple-choice test, and a comprehensive cloze test to be used for making shorter, review, cloze tests. Just remember to scramble the sentence order (or not). • The target word in each sentence is bold. However, nearly 100% of the other surrounding sentence words also come from the Dolch lists. Ten sentences a day is plenty to do. A few students may require fewer. Ten is usual.

4. What Activities Will We Do? To get started, we will use the first day’s lesson, sentences 1-10. Done properly, students will Speak, Listen, Read, and Write every lesson, every day, with frequent review cloze tests. The first day’s lesson is somewhat different because there has been nothing taught to test yet. Subsequent lessons will begin with the ten sentences that were drilled the day before and daily testing, which is essential to learning. Let’s practice.

5. What do I do first? Train your students to repeat after you by (you) robustly saying, “I Say, You Say!” and then they will say, robustly, “I Say, You Say!” Then you say “Number One,” and they say, “Number One.” You say, “I see a big bird.” They say, “I see a big bird.” Then again, you, “I see a big bird,” and they, “I see a big bird.” Circulate; keep up the momentum! Stay on the repetition of the sentences!

6. Continuing 1-10 You: “Number Two.” They, “Number Two.” You: “My dog and my cat are here.” They: “My dog and my cat are here.” You: “My dog and my cat are here.” They: “My dog and my cat are here.” You:“Number Three.” They:“NumberThree.” You: “The rabbit ran away.” They: “The rabbit ran away.” You: “The rabbit ran away.” They: “The rabbit ran away.”

7. Keep it rolling! You: “Number Four.” They: “Number Four.” You: “The big fish can jump.” They: “The big fish can jump.” You: “The big fish can jump.” They: “The big fish can jump.” You: “Number five.” They: “Number five.” You: “The bird is blue.” They: “The bird is blue.” You: “The bird is blue.” They: “The bird is blue.” Keep going with 6-10 just like this.

8. What Not To Do, and Do Once you begin the “I Say, You Say” with the ten daily sentences, do not interrupt the momentum or stop for anything short of a fire drill! Go through 1-10, repeating each sentence twice. When you finish, do it all a second time. When you finish that, do it for the third time. Remind them to look at the words as they read. Do not read so slowly that each word is isolated.

9. Make it sound natural with a lively tempo. “My doggin my cat’re here.” This is what sentence two sounds like at normal speed. If you don’t practice saying it for them just as you would in a normal conversation, they will not understand English when they hear it at normal conversational speed.

10. Time to demonstrate and practice the DICTATION TEST . Students need one sheet of clean paper. You need your timer. Set the timer for 20 seconds countdown.Tell the students and write it on the board, “Dictation test tomorrow over 1-10.” I read, you write. You will have 20 seconds to write each sentence, so practice them many times. I will only say the sentence two times. If you miss it, you did not practice enough.

11. Give the dictation test as prescribed. To practice for the dictationtest, they must writethe sentence--not just say it--and know what every word means. Also, but you don’t have to tell them this, give a cloze test on the same—but in scrambled order—sentences tomorrow. Give them a scrambled cloze test every day over the sentences for that day, and it is necessary to review prior sentences by including “old” sentences, all in scrambled order. USE THE DOLCH CLOZE TEST TO MAKE UP YOUR OWN DAILY SCRAMBLED CLOZE TESTS, AND SAVE EACH ONE. JUST COPY FROM THE CLOZE FINAL AND PASTE THE SENTENCES YOU WANT TO TEST ON A NEW DOCUMENT. YOU CAN DELETE THE NUMBERS TO MAKE THE SCRAMBLING EASIER. THIS IMPROVES RETENTION.

12. Timed Reading Of Sentences After practicing for the dictation test tomorrow, it is time to hear some students read individually, if they want to. Set your timer to count up. You can give it to a student to time you as you read sentences 1-10, without saying any numbers, at a brisk clip; “I see a big bird. My dog and my cat are here. The rabbit ran away. . .”

13. How Fast Did You Read? Ask the timekeeper to announce your time. Respond to your own time, and then ask what anyone thinks about it. Too Slow? Too Fast? Just Right? Record your time on the board. Ask if any student wants to try reading all ten, and if someone volunteers, throw out some big praise and cheers.

14. Who wants to read? Keep time? Another student can start and stop the timer. Usually students like to volunteer to read for speed, and you can have both a student timekeeper and a student recorder at the board to jot down times and names. Accept only volunteers the first few days, and keep things positive. Encourage students who are reluctant; they will usually begin to participate in a day or two.

15. Finishing up The Day’s Lesson Wrap up with How To Teach The First Day’s Lesson Of “Big Bird”1-10. Let’s review what we learned how to do today. We Read Three Ways: Echo, Choral, and Timed Individual. We Practiced Dictation For Tomorrow’s Test. We Learned How To Put Together Daily Cloze Tests For Review. (By the way, students should not attempt to make new sentences by themselves at this point in English acquisition. That could reinforce or imprint some misinformation.) After the daily dictation and cloze test on Day Two, move into sentences 11-20 and repeat the whole process. If time remains, individual students can time-read 1-20 without numbers. This should be your unfailing daily routine.

16. Life After “Big Bird” Sentences Mastering the content of all 218 sentences requires about five weeks at ten sentences per day. Administer the Multiple Choice Dolch Test Final the day after completing 211-218, or do an organized review of all sentences on the day immediately after finishing 211-218. A score of 95% or above on the MC test indicates mastery, or about 85% on the cloze. Grammar and SRA Individual Reading Folders are next. Although both should run concurrently, we will first learn about ISYSG, then about SRA Reading Folders.

17. I Say, You Say Grammar There are advantages of I Say, You Say Grammar: It teaches with examples, not explanations. Only a single grammar point is illustrated and practiced in each lesson, so the success rate is usually 100%. Topics are presented in the correct order for maximum efficiency in developing internal grammar rules. Please do not skip around. “Cheat Sheets,” pages with lists of Singular Subjects, Plural Subjects, Adjectives, and others, assure that the student will follow the correct pattern by simply picking from the choices of the categories.

18. Another Advantage of “ISYSG” Because the word lists become learned from constant use, vocabulary is expanded daily. To further contribute to vocabulary growth, most lessons should advise students that each of the elements in any list, such as Singular Subjects, can be used only one time in the sentences assigned for any given day.

19. Use A Word Only One Time For example, consider an assignment of making sentences with a formula of: {Singular Subject} + is + {Adjective} . Let’s say a student makes this sentence, The teacher is good. That studentcannot use {teacher} for a subject in any other sentence, nor can {good} be used in another sentence for that day. Why not?

20. Because it actively forces students to use and learn different vocabulary words. Students whose primary language is not Spanish should receive Cheat Sheets that are English Only, and they can then write down the meanings of the words on all their sheets. How did this rule evolve?

21. Here’s why! The teacher is good. The teacher is bad. The teacher is rich. The teacher is poor. The teacher is young. The teacher is smart. The teacher is tricky...

22. Getting Started In Grammar Introducing the first lesson of the I Say, You Say Grammar. Give students a copy of the lesson, or put the lesson on the board. Also hand out a copy of the Singular Subject and AdjectiveCheat Sheets to guide them in creating new sentences. Subjects and Adjectives can only be used once. The formula is: Singular Subject + is + Adjective > Singular Subject + isn’t + Adjective Change {is} to {isn’t}. Examples: It is cold. > It isn’t cold. The girl is tall. > The girl isn’t tall. Change these five from {is} to {isn’t}. Five minute timer. Circulate. 1. He is sick. > 2. Tony is fat. > 3. Tina is tall. > 4. Lee is strong. > 5. She is smart. >

23. Continuing And Ending Lesson One In “I Say, You Say Grammar” Work Due For Tomorrow: Make 20 new sentences like these. Know what every word means and write the meanings on your Cheat Sheets. All lessons in “I Say,You Say Grammar” illustrate with examples and specify Work Due for next class. {Some are better than others.}

24. OK, So How Do I Score These Sentences? In the first place, there should be few mistakes because of the way the lessons are designed. But let’s say in the future you assign 20 new sentences using past tense with passive voice; here are some errors you might find: The mailman delivered the mail yesterday.> The yesterday mail is delivers by mailman.

25. The yesterday mail is delivers by mailman. Is should be was. (-2) Delivers should be delivered. (-2) Yesterday is misplaced. (-1) The is misplaced. (-1) Holistic scoring = Fatal errors with verb, but message is still conveyed. Diagnostic scoring = Student was absent, texting, or asleep during this lesson. Prescriptive scoring = Reteach the lesson. Student is totally lost.

26. My scoring, I think, would be a (-4) for that sentence. I have tried and abandoned various parameters and techniques of trying to score work when there is an almost infinite number of errors possible for a group of 20 elaborated sentences. What helps to reduce errors is the original sentence, The mailman delivered the mail yesterday, carefully written to test specific mastery of certain grammatical rules. May you find the best method for you to work with.

27. Closing Out How To With “ISYSG,” Opening Training In “Individual Reading Folders” There is a final test over ISYSG, and it is rare for a student to score below 80% on it. The next section deals with the proper use and management of Individual SRA Reading Folders, which rely exclusively upon SRA Specific Skills Series and SRA Multiple Skills Series, Picture Level through C Level. You might recall that SRA Reading Folders should be begun and worked into the class routine as soon as possible after beginning the ISYSG. What are some advantages of these reading folders?

28. Advantages of Using Individual SRA Reading Folders Every student is working in a reading book at an appropriate instructional level. There is no “group instruction.” These materials and this method are widely respected throughout schools everywhere. Scoring is fast, easy, and immediate. Upward progress is easily quantifiable and descriptive; viz., “Juanita scored an average of 94% on the fourteen books she has completed, moving from Picture Level to Level B in one semester.” Showing progress (or not) is easy. Enough said.

29. SRA Specific Skills and Multiple Skills In Individual Reading Folders To review, students beginning work in “ISYSG” or who are at a corresponding proficiency level, should concurrently receive a Reading Folder and instructions with emphasis on DO NOT WRITE OR MAKE ANY MARKS IN THESE BOOKS! When you are ready to deploy Reading Folders, use simple, but new, manila folders.

30. What goes in a Reading Folder? Prepare folders before you plan to deploy them. Leave the outside of the folders all blank so students can decorate them to make them their own. On the inside front cover, fasten with tape (at bottom of the page and top of the page) a Reading Log Sheet. On the inside back cover, tape a fresh sheet of copy paper (top only), nothing on it. This will be the “standard answer sheet” for students’ answers. When it is time to hand out folders, call each student up individually and write the student’s name on the folder, top center front, with a marker.

31. What goes on the Log Sheet? On the Reading Log Sheet, notice that you have a printed Title of every book in the Specific Skills and Multiple Skills Series. When you assign a book, say, Drawing Conclusions Picture Level, you will make a notation like this: Drawing Conclusions Picture 3-23 Now you have a record of which book and when you issued the book to the student. Go ahead to see what you write on the other page.

32. What goes on the blank page? DC Pic At the top left of the blank page, which will become the answer sheet for the book selected, make a notation like the one at the top left corner of this slide. It is very important that you yourself do this, for if it is omitted, it is very time-consuming to discover what book the answers belong to.

33. What is the layout of the answer pages? DC Pic 1_____ Most books are organized around either 25 or 50 units. Drawing Conclusions Picture Level has 50, and there is only one answer per unit. I start the numbering and lining like this: I open the book to Unit 1. I write the unit number and a line, then ask the student what the answer is for number one.

34. Where does the answer go? DC Pic 1_____ I read the answer choices to the student as we stand at my work area for reading folders, asking, “Is the answer A or B?” When the student says B, I write that answer on the line and move to the next unit.

35. Building the Answer Page For Any Book DC Pic 1.B 2.A Then I write the unit number and a line for the answer. I read the answer choices, then have the student write in the correct answer, and write the number and line for Unit 3 and the rest of the units. But there is one more thing I have to do.

36. Skip the Language Activity Pages! Show the student the first set of Language Activity Pages (pages 18-19 in DC Pic). Every book has some of these. Tell the student to skip those pages when they appear and go ahead to Unit 13, and skip the other such pages later in the book, because they occur after every 12 units in DC Pic. Do only the Unit Questions. Then the student is to take a seat and proceed alone.

37. Who checks the answers? You do! At least as much as possible. The student shall return the book and the folder as soon as the book is completed, and wait for you to check the answers using the appropriate checkbook, either SS or MS. When you have checked the answers and calculated the percent correct, enter the new data for DC Pic.

38. How do I enter the score data? After I check and circle errors, I count how many are wrong and subtract that from the total number of answers. That result tells me how many are correct. Then I divide the number correct by the total number of answers to yield the percent correct. I then write that % on the same line as the date. Would you like an example?

39. Student missed 9 on DC Pic.How do I enter that? OK, the total number of answers is 50.The number wrong is 9. • (Total number)-(Number Wrong) = (Number Right) • (Number Right) divided by (Total Number) = % Correct • 50-9=41. 41/50 = 82%. • Write 82% on the line after the log sheet date. • Drawing Conclusions Picture 3-23 82% 6. Now what?

40. Evaluate the score and the student and decide what’s next. Generally, if a student gets 80% or more correct, I go to the next book, same skill, Drawing Conclusions Prep. But if the score were 65%, I would select a different picture book in Specific Skills, such as Finding Details Picture Level, tape in a new page for answers, record the date on the log sheet for the new book, and do three units with the student to be sure it is understood. OK, but Finding Details Picture Level has three questions in each unit. How do I set it up on the answer sheet?

41. Set Up Answer Sheets With Multiple Questions Each Unit In a nutshell, do everything the same as you did for a single question per unit, only expand the number of lines to match the number of questions. For example, in Finding Details, Picture Level, there are three questions for each unit. If students put the unit number, and then put numbers by the answer lines, there are too many numbers and it is very hard to check the work. Can I show you?

42. Multiple Items In Each Unit Finding Details, Pic Make several columns on one sheet. • ___ ___ ___ 2. ___ ___ ___

43. You will develop your own system with the SRA Reading Folders. What I have shown you is how I do it myself. Your way will be better for you, and it will come naturally as the days pass with daily Reading Folders for at least 30 minutes. From here we will move into the reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, and vocabulary of science passages.

44. Science Passages, the Three-Page Science Suite, & Reading Tricks The science passages are carefully written to present generic science concepts and to foster reading fluency and acquisition of hundreds more sight words. This is done by echo reading, choral reading, and timed reading. A “Three-Page Science Suite” refers to the work to do (usually) in a five day week. They are Question-And-Answer Page, Art Page, and Paragraph Page.

45. What are Three-Page Suites? If the new lesson is introduced on a Monday, then: The 5Q & 5A Page is due Tuesday; The Art Page is due Wednesday; The Paragraph Page is due on Thursday. On Friday we put the 3 pages together like this: 5Q&5A goes on top; the bottom of the 5Q&5A page is taped to the top of the Art page; the bottom of the Art page is taped to the top of the Paragraph Page, and the 3-page suite is ready to hang and display.

46. Five Questions-Five Answers Page If a new lesson is introduced on Monday, the 5&5 is due Tuesday, the Art Page is due Wednesday,and the Paragraph Page is due Thursday. For example, in the first science passage, the topic sentence is “Plants are important to you.” Demonstrate on the board how to make that into a Q & A, like this: What are plants to you?Plants are important to you. Then I point out the words in the question that come from the original sentence. I continue like this until I have demonstrated 5Q and 5A, all from the same short passage. Anyone who cannot yet write their own questions and answers can use my examples until they can. Go ahead to see all five examples for Lesson One.

47. All Five Q and A For Lesson One 1. What are plants to you? Plants are important to you. 2. Where do many foods you eat come from? Many foods we eat come from plants. 3. Name three grains. Three grains are wheat, oats, and corn. 4. Where do carrots grow? Carrots grow under the ground. 5. Why do many people think potatoes are roots? Because they grow under the ground, like roots. Suggestions: Start your questions with wh-words: Who, What, Where, When, Which, Why. Make questions that cannot be answered with YES or NO. Answers should be complete sentences.

48. What is the Art Page? The Art Page is a visual representation of the content of the current reading. For example, in lesson one, pictures of wheat, oats, carrots, corn, other grains, lettuce, potatoes, and apples can be drawn and colored. Standards: WRITE the main idea of the lesson on the top of the art page; for example, “We need plants for food.” LABEL each of the colored drawings with the name of the plant. COLOR each of the drawings. Every art page is beautiful.

49. Paragraph Page The Paragraph Page has a paragraph with a Topic Sentence that tells what the paragraph is about. After the topic sentence come Developing Sentences that give examples or information on the topic. The Ending Sentence may be similar to the topic sentence. See the space in front of the first word in the first line above? That is called INDENT. Always INDENT the first word of the first sentence. The others should be all the way to the left, like these. Look now at a sample paragraph. If you cannot write one by yourself, copy this one for your Page Three, the Paragraph Page. It is a good example of a good paragraph.

50. Plants And Me All of my food comes from plants. I eat lettuce, carrots, and apples every day. I also eat grains, like wheat and oats every day, but not rice. Besides these fruits and vegetables, I also eat onions, regular beans, soybeans, tomatoes, beets, and celery every day. And don’t forget nuts, like peanuts, almonds, and walnuts. That is why plants are so important; I love to eat, and they are so good for me.