Mainstreaming ESL

April 10, 2013

Common Core State Standards are putting more pressure on all teachers to help English learners achieve literacy proficiency, so here are resources designed to lighten the load

Blake eLearning
Reading Eggs & Reading Eggspress
Grades Pre-K-6
Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress make learning to read an enjoyable, rewarding, and exciting experience for pre-K- through sixth-grade students.

Edmentum
ESL ReadingSmart
Grades 4-High school
ESL ReadingSmart is a standards-based English language learning program for 4th through 12th grade students.

Edmentum
ReadingMate
Grades 4-High school
ReadingMate is a web-based individualized reading intervention program that prepares students in fourth through twelfth-grade to read at grade level and develop the necessary reading skills for college and career readiness.

Edmentum
Study Island
Grades K-12
Study Island’s high-impact, high-value state standards mastery and test preparation program is specifically designed to help master the content specified in state and Common Core Standards.

Edmentum
EducationCity
Grades Pre-K-6
EducationCity is an online instructional and intervention solution that provides fun, engaging, research-based lessons and activities for pre-K- through sixth-grade students in language arts, math, and science.

MindPlay
MindPlay Virtual Reading Coach
Grades K-Adult
Provides both core curriculum and supplemental reading instruction, and is a complete reading solution. Covering all of the National Reading Panel’s recommendations for reading instruction, as well as including grammar and meaning, MVRC gets students reading at grade level in only 30 minutes a day, four days a week.

The ESL Makeover

April 8, 2013

Danny Brassell gets over himself to make learning fun for all ages

When I first began teaching elementary school, my principal asked me if I knew any Spanish. After I replied, “Un poquito (a little),” he said, “Good. You’re our new bilingual coordinator!”

Mind you, my school had over 950 students, and over 85 percent of them were English language learners. Handed a classroom filled with primarily ESL students, I turned to my new posse and congratulated them on knowing Spanish so well. I knew English, and I bragged that all of us were going to learn two languages that year.

This was my introduction to working with ESL students.

For more about Danny Brassell, click here.

Spanish Fiestas

April 4, 2013

Salamanca may be famous for its tradition of educational excellence as well as the fun-filled fiestas that ignite the city in February

Salamanca is renowned for its university, which was granted a royal charter by Alfonso IX of León nearly 800 years ago in 1218. Soon, it became one of the most significant and prestigious academic centers in Europe. Now, Salamanca is probably the most important seat of learning in Spain and attracts one in six of the country’s overseas students of Spanish language, creating a wonderfully diverse academic environment.

However, residents of the city and its local region also know how to celebrate, and every year, Salamanca offers a considerable calendar of events, including the Muestra Nacional de Jazz (National Jazz Festival) at the beginning of March, the Holy Week festivities at Easter, and the Corpus Christi festival in June — which is based around the Old Cathedral.

Another local event is the Romeria de la Virgen del Castanar in September, which is held in El Castanar and attracts thousands of visitors from the Salamanca area.

Somewhat surprisingly, the most popular festivals in Salamanca are the lively carnivals held in February. The events include parades, fancy dress, and open-air dances. Everything is street-based and suitable for any age, but it is best appreciated at night, when the stylish Casino de Salamanca and the bars in the Gran Vía or Calle Bordadores put on entertainment, allowing everyone to give free rein to their imagination whether or not they are in fancy dress.

Events include:
• Las Candelas — early February, major folk celebrations in nearby Candelario, which stands around 72 km / 45 miles from Salamanca, with many local festivities, including a charity auction, gastronomic events and a vibrant atmosphere.
• Carnaval del Toro (Carnival of the Bull) — early February, a range of festivities involving young bulls, fancy dress and parades, in nearby Ciudad Rodrigo, around 89 km / 55 miles from Salamanca.
• Carnaval — early February, the popular Salamanca Carnival consisting of numerous parades and festivities in various regions of the city, together with concerts, dancing and plenty of evening entertainment.
• Las Calendas — early February, annual celebrations held in nearby Ciudad Rodrigo.
• Fiestas de San Juan — early February, with a varied program of events in and around Salamanca, including performances by magicians and general street entertainers, culminating in a fireworks display and evening bonfires.
• Muestra Nacional de Jazz (National Jazz Festival) — mid-February / early March, an impressive and extremely popular jazz event with concerts taking place all over the city. It features many international jazz musicians and attracts large crowds of visitors.

Schools in Salamanca
Mester
Founded in 1991 and located in the center of Salamanca, Mester’s mission is to develop students’ communicative and intercultural competency in Spanish so that they can express themselves in any Spanish-speaking country. Most of the students come to the school via recommendation from their Spanish teacher or from former students. Their enthusiasm and satisfaction is the best image of the school.

At Mester, education does not finish in class. The school organizes activities which offer the opportunity to see different aspects of Spanish life, such as visits to historic monuments, weekend excursions, salsa or guitar classes, and tapas tours. Staff are trained to help students find the most suitable program depending on academic, professional, or personal needs and objectives.

Tía Tula Colegio de Español
Tía Tula is a lovely Spanish school in the historical university center of Salamanca and accredited by the Instituto Cervantes as a centre of high-quality Spanish teaching.

Just like Salamanca — the city which is always referred to when talking about Spanish teaching throughout the world — Tía Tula combines its classical framework and facilities with the modernity of its people and their methods. Inside there are pretty and comfortable classrooms with views of the city monuments. Tía Tula also has excellent teaching staff with high qualifications and lots of experience and an amazing administrative team.

April 2013

March 31, 2013

Ladino
Bryan Kirschen is working to revitalize the Judeo-Spanish tongue that was exiled long ago from the Mediterranean

Mainstreaming ESL
Common Core State Standards are putting more pressure on all teachers to help English learners achieve literacy proficiency, so here are resources designed to lighten the load

The ESL Makeover
Danny Brassell gets over himself to make learning fun for all ages

States of Spanish
Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau explain why the U.S. has its own, recognized variety of Spanish

Family Storytelling
Nile Stanley and Brett Dillingham offer a powerful parenting strategy for developing intellect, language, literacy, and values

Costa Rica Tuanis
Franny Brogan on the pura vida of Costa Rica

Reviews Carving Words

Last Writes Richard Lederer is a Man of Letters

Colombia

March 20, 2013

Destinacíon Fantastico

Colombia is a fantastic destination for students wanting to experience South America. Although it is still working to shake a bad reputation from its tumultuous political past, policies implemented over the last two decades have made the country very safe. Now is the time to discover all Colombia has to offer.

Students who come to Colombia can choose to study in the hustle and bustle of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, or in one of its smaller cities, like Cali, Medellín, or Shakira’s hometown, Barranquilla. Colombian Spanish is often considered to be clear and easily understood, crucial for students hoping to improve their linguistic skills. Colombia has rich cultural traditions and a growing economy, which makes it an attractive place to study for students of all majors.

Colombia also boasts impressive ecological diversity. From the rugged peaks of the Andes Mountains to the pristine beaches of the Caribbean Sea to the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest, there is no shortage of natural beauty to explore. After their time outdoors, students can dance the night away to the rhythms of salsa or vallenato.

For students looking to study in Latin America, Colombia offers an ideal mix of urban sophistication, colonial charm, and natural wonder.

Barranquilla
The Universidad del Norte, accredited by the Colombian Ministry of Education, is known for its academic excellence, its contribution to scientific progress, and its role in the development of the country.

Its Instituto de Idiomas offers a Spanish program characterized by its innovative methodology and its well-qualified instructors, who are also accredited by the Instituto Cervantes.

“Colombia is a country of diverse regions renowned throughout Latin America for its excellent Spanish. The Universidad del Norte is located in the city of Barranquilla, on the Caribbean coast — a magical region full of beaches, pretty historic sites, and the epicenter of Colombia’s art and culture movement. Home to Shakira and Sofía Vergara, this is the place that inspired Nobel Literature Prize winner García Márquez to write many of his masterpieces,” enthuses the university’s Karen Sánchez Reyes.

Bogotá
The Language Center at the Universidad de La Salle offers flexible schedules and competitive prices, as well as four locations in the capital — including historic downtown and the commercial hub, so students can make the most of the city.
Spanish World Institute offers personalized Spanish classes (20 or 30 hours/week), DELE preparation, Business Spanish, Spanish with Colombian history and culture, Spanish with Salsa classes, and Spanish with Excursions.

Intensive courses are accredited by the German professional education body, Bildungsurlaub. Using the latest academic tools, programs are based on the guidelines of the Instituto Cervantes.

The school is located in Chapinero Alto, a quaint residential area of Bogotá, in a restored colonial house which offers an academic atmosphere without compromising its originality and style.

Medellín
The Universidad EAFIT offers Spanish classes vibrantly taught according to a well-based curriculum, approved by the Instituto Cervantes and accredited by ACCET.

Their program is the only one to use their own materials — the Maravillas del español series (for more information, visit http://issuu.com/menujyc/docs/libro), which takes a panhispanic view of Spanish and presents the key elements of language in a multicultural context, taking into account all Spanish-speaking countries so that students can develop their Spanish locally with a global outlook.

Medellín has an urban infrastructure to rival any city in the world — in fact, it is considered, along with New York and Tel Aviv, to be one of the most innovative cities in the world.

Not only is the climate welcoming but so are the people. It is the ideal setting for language learning, with hi-tech labs and modern methodologies in small, personal groups (max. eight students), with air conditioning and soundproofing, in a vibrant university filled with warm people as well as impressive sports and cultural facilities.

Understanding Language

March 19, 2013

Kenji Hakuta and Martha Castellón present the challenges and opportunities
for English Language Learners

If you were a surfer, the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards would comprise something like an enormous wave generated by a perfect storm of conditions. The education policy environment at the national level combines decades of effort at standards-based reform, attempts to link academic content development with second language development in English, and political gridlock over the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Whether you like it or not, here comes the wave, and the choice that faces you and your school and district colleagues is how to ride it.

The Understanding Language initiative, co-led by Kenji Hakuta of Stanford University and Maria Santos of Oakland Unified School District, has been investigating the particular demands on language use that are inherent in the new standards, with serious implications for ELLs. In this article, we will address what the new standards might mean for teachers of English Language Learners — both teachers of English Language Development (or English as a Second Language) as well as the many teachers of academic content, such as literature, history, science, or math, who teach ELLs. We will also address what this new wave would mean for school and district leaders and how educators can best capitalize on it.

To read the full story, click here.

Mathematically Speaking

March 18, 2013

Gisela Ernst-Slavit and David Slavit explore the linguistic challenges created by calculations

Do you speak math? Not sure what we mean? Well, math can be thought of as a language filled with vocabulary, symbols, and sentence structures. These can make things difficult for students who wish to relate math to their everyday language and experiences. For students learning English as their second language, learning the language of mathematics may seem as though they are simultaneously learning yet another language. And like any language, students have to speak math proficiently in order to use it efficiently.

Although there are many similarities among number systems across the world, mathematics (particularly as taught in schools) is far from being a universal language. English language learners (ELLs) have to learn new words (hypotenuse), concepts (pi), and expressions (3y + 6 = 10(x)), and, in some cases, relearn different procedures (e.g., long division).
English number names are highly irregular. For example, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. Shouldn’t we also say oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, and fiveteen? In counting by tens, we have a similar discontinuity. There are forty and sixty, which resemble four and six. But there are also twenty, thirty, and fifty, somewhat related to two, three, and five. If we keep counting up, the numbers above twenty will have the tens first (e.g., fifty-six), whereas for the numbers below twenty we put the ones first (e.g., thirteen).

To read the complete story click here.

Report Supports Quebec’s ‘Tough-love’ Approach to French

March 13, 2013

The Quebec government must adopt a hardline approach if it intends to make French the common language of all Quebeckers, a report to the Parti Québécois government by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française (CSLF), concludes.

Entitled “Reinvigorating the Linguistic Policy of Quebec,” the opinion was made public by Robert Vezina, president of the Conseil, on the eve of hearings at the National Assembly on Bill 14, which seeks to reinforce Bill 101, the French language charter, first adopted in 1977.

The report supports the government in its efforts, particularly on making French obligatory in businesses with 25 to 49 employees. The use of French in workplaces in Quebec is steadily declining and needs to be addressed immediately, according to the province’s language advisory body.

The advisory body also expressed concern over the increase of bilingualism in the workplace, which, according its president, Robert Vézina, is becoming a “problem” in promoting the use of French, especially among immigrants.

“If we want neo-Quebeckers to be able to work in French, because that is what we ask them to do … and they go to the workplace and are being asked more and more to work in English, that’s a problem. That is what we are seeing now,” Mr. Vézina said during a news conference.

The Conseil points out that the prominence of French in the workplace rose from 1971 to 1989 but has declined since then. For instance, the percentage of employees in private companies who generally use French dropped to 59.7 per cent in 2010 from 70.8 per cent in 1989.

“We have to be careful in the way we analyze the data,” said the group’s vice-president, Martine Hébert, noting that the increased use of English in the workplace coincided with the NAFTA free-trade agreements and the expansion of the Internet. “Is it because English is progressing that French is regressing? That’s the problem. English is being used because of the changing business environment,” she explained.

Ms. Hébert also expressed concerns that the administrative red tape involved in enforcing the language regulations will become a burden . She said several of her members fear that government inspectors will use a heavy-handed approach in enforcing the law, which could hurt small businesses.

Another recommendation is to improve the knowledge of French among all Quebeckers, because about half of the adult population does not have adequate French skills to perform their jobs. “About half the population of Quebec is not well tooled … to be effective in the workplace,”. said Vézina.

The report recommends imposing tougher standards on anglophone students to ensure that they master French before graduating from college. However, the report stops short of making it mandatory for students who attend an English-language college to pass a French-language proficiency test to obtain their diploma.

Now, the National Assembly is holding public hearings on Bill 14, which proposes an overhaul of the French Language Charter, commonly known as Bill 101. Several of the recommendations in the advisory body’s report support the changes proposed in Bill 14.

The main opposition parties have threatened to defeat the Parti Québécois minority government’s bill if it refuses to introduce significant changes.

Spanish Fiesta

March 7, 2013