Week 10: The Games We Play

The strategies in the texts are wonderful for acquiring vocabulary and I especially like the Word Family Trees on pg 146 in Buehl’s book as it appeals to the word nerd in me. The strategies below are an alternative to the traditional vocabulary list.

I would like to introduce the idea of playing games for vocabulary acquisition because it keeps students active and you sneak in learning while they are having fun playing the game. When I was a Spanish and English teachers I used games and songs to help students with learning new vocabulary that first of all has to be relevant to students. I use technology to insert hyper links of definitions or images to help students to understand new vocabulary in word documents or on my wiki. Teachers do not have to create all these resources as students can create blogs with new vocabulary and teachers can make these available to other students on class blog. Sadly students told me over the years that I was the only teacher who played games with them. I was told by one student that regularly in one class he took 90 minutes of notes and was responsible for learning all the material himself. I don’t want to criticize the teaching of another teacher but the blood would run out of my ears in frustration if I had to learn like that.
These are a few of the games that I like to play with students and I have learned them in university, from other colleagues and I have invented some of my own.

Vocabulary Bingo
Give students lists of vocabulary and short definitions and they fill in a Bingo Card with 12 words of their choice on the list. The teacher calls out the definition of the word and the students need to scan their list for the definition and cross it off on their Bingo Card if they have it. I have students sit together in groups of four and they whisper the answers to each other and think that they were cheating but they were helping each other out. When a student has a line, she shouts out Bingo and then she has to define the words that she crossed out. You can also play this game with a Bingo Card full of images and have students cross out the object as they hear it.

Fly swatter
Separate the class into two teams and give a volunteer from each team a flyswatter. Place on the overhead projector, an overhead of vocabulary words or terms that you want to review with the students. Write the terms on the board if you don’t have a projector. This game is a great way to review concepts with students for a test and trains them to scan the overhead for the term they need. In an English 9 class, I put up an overhead of literary terms and say to the contestants “This is the term where something is being compared to something else with the word like or as”. The students run up to the board and the first one to gently hit the word smile on the overhead wins. The teacher also can create bonus marks by asking the students to give an example of a simile. This game can more cooperative by letting the students run back to their group to get help on what to hit. Students get very excited about this game and they don’t even realize that they are learning as they do it. ESL teachers can play on the overhead pictures with the vocabulary word underneath it. I use free clipart to create good overheads with the photocopier.

The Rules:
Everyone participates.
No yelling out the answer to your teammate or the other team gets the point.
No pushing the other student playing with you in fact no contact at all or we cancel the game.
The class needs to listen to the clues from the teacher.
If it gets too rowdy threaten to end all games in the future and then the students will settle down.

The vocabulary sticks in their minds and students who get restless from sitting down in class for 90 minutes enjoy the chance to get up and be active. The overhead can be filled with words or images. I use it a lot in Spanish and English classes and it can be modified for any class. The team that wins gets a small prize like a candy or a sticker.

Hot Seat
Separate the students into small groups of 4 and one student places their back to the teacher at the front of the room and faces their team mates. This student is now in the Hot Seat.The teacher reveals a term on the overhead or the board and the team mates have to define the term so that the student in the Hot Seat blurts it out. The teacher reveals a total of 4 terms or so and then the student rotate into the Hot Seat. The teacher can keep track to the teams to get the term first but I find that too much noise happens to do this. Explain to the students that they shouldn’t cheat by whispering the term to the student in the Hot Seat or giving lame clues like “It rhymes with memocracy” for the term democracy. It helps to have the terms written on an overhead so you can concentrate on spotting cheaters. Students criticize the student in the Hot Seat for not getting the terms but they then have to perform under the same pressure when they get in the Hot Seat. This game forces students to reach into their memory banks for clues or examples of the term to help out the student in the Hot Seat. Just make sure to warn the classroom beside you that you are going to play this game.

Scategories
Students enjoy playing this game and it helps them to add words to their vocabulary. Group students in small groups of 3 to 4 students and reveal on the overhead 5 categories to do with curriculum and students generate vocabulary e.g. emotions. The teachers then calls on each group and awards points for vocabulary words. Then the teachers reveals the next group of categories and on goes the game. You can also play this game by giving each group a large piece of newsprint with the vocabulary categories listed in columns. Then students are given a short time to generate as many words in each category in their groups. The teacher circulates and tallies up the totals. Students work cooperatively in this game and they help each other to build vocabulary.


I use these games to front load vocabulary for a lesson or a unit. This and many other games can place deposit words in the student’s memory bank and when the student comes across the word in the reading there is a “aha” moment of recognition instead of “ayy” another word to look up. The games also help in review for tests and to see what students already know about curricula. When a student teaches a concept or a vocabulary word to another student, new brain research shows that she will more readily retain the information. I teach the vocabulary games and then the students beg to run the games in the class and use them in their presentations to test the comprehension level of their classmates. Students also come up with new rules and variations of the games. A couple of students even told me that they played some of them games to study for final exams. Some teachers would not agree with my “fun” strategies but I want my students to enjoy learning and eject some joy back into learning. One of my colleagues was playing Fly swatter with her students and the principal came to her room to talk to her and the students asked the principal to come back later because they were so into the game. Imagine high school students excited about learning!

Week 9: Graphic Organizers in the Student Tool box

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
-Chinese Proverb

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
-Thomas Carruthers

One of the things that frustrates me to no end is the lack of consistency in what our students learn. This week I had a conversation with one of the teachers who is on the RAD team and she told me that our students are lacking in every area of literacy. How can that be? What have we been doing right and/or wrong to get to this point? There is no continuum for teaching literacy strategies to students. There should be a plan so that all teachers are on the same page to teach students strategies that students can put in their learning tool boxes that they use throughout their learning life.

Hyerle states that graphic organizers give students the tools to decipher text and transform it to information that they can use to manage "the relations of information". Students are currently drowning in information as they use Google to find information. Graphic organizers can help students to see the relationships between information and transform it to knowledge and eventually to wisdom. As the student constructs their graphic organizer, she constructs understanding as she works as an academic trades person, a word smith and an ideas smith. Once a student has learned to use a Story Map (Bruehl p.11), she can use this graphic organizer again and again in English and also in Socials to show the interdependence of historical events. A student can use the Character Analysis grid (Bruehl p.153) for a character in a short story, a movie, a historical figure, or to analyze their own behaviour for Planning Class.

Graphic organizers are especially useful for students to generate ideas before teachers challenge them to write. For some students writing is like climbing Mt.Everest and we have to give them crampons to dig their feet in and some ropes to support their climb up the writing exercise. Students are bombarded with so many visual images in their day to day life but they lack visual literacy skills. I like using variations of the strategy You Ought to Be in Pictures (Bruehl p. 149-50) to generate deeper reflections on historical events. The guided imagery helps students to place themselves in the historical period instead of having it be something that happened so long ago. I encourage Socials teachers to use excerpts of historical fiction to make historical events more vivid for their students. Instead of just pictures, teacher can show students scenes from films or documentaries with the sound muted and students can write and act out a script based on the scene.

Some teachers in my school are using Power Notes(Bruehl p.95-98) and concept maps to help students to organize relevant concepts and information. The challenge for ESL students is how to take notes when you are still trying to comprehend what the teacher is saying. I seriously do not know why more students don't run screaming from our schools screaming their head off in frustration. We as teacher natter away and give students no scaffolding for what we are saying. A Science teacher in my school gives students clear outlines when they have to take notes and she prompts students to essential information. Later she posts the notes and extra material to her blog that students can refer to. If I was an ESL student, I would want to kiss her for doing this. I am a visual learner and I find it challenging to listen to someone and take notes cold so I can only imagine how an ESL students feels like.

We have to be careful to make sure to use graphic organizers that meet learning objectives for students. When strategies like Think/Pair/and Share allow students to diversify their thinking by working with others this is a good educational fit. I would hate to see them become the new "worksheet". Even my five year old daughter knows how boring worksheets are when she asked me how many worksheets I have to do for this course. When I taught English, I would present several strategies to students for generating writing ideas. Students then could choose what strategy works best for them as a learner. I like to tell students that they wear different hats when they are writing: a brainstorm/generation hat and an editing hat. Students often edit as they are generating and they have to learn to not to listen to the editing/critical voice in their head in the fragile moments of a birth of an idea. We need to teach students how to learn and give them the skills to become autonomous learners.

Resource for Information Literacy Skills:
I love the Information Literacy Skills from Manitoba and IntegrationStation!
http://www.retsd.mb.ca/site/staff/staffmain.html

Excerpt form website:

Information Literacy Skills: Kindergarten - Grade 12

National award winner of The Canadian Association for School Libraries' Angela Thacker Memorial Award

Information literacy is the foundation of lifelong learning.This continuum was created to ensure that the students of RETSD acquire the skills necessary for lifelong learning and "to ensure students and staff are effective users of ideas and information" (Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning). When used in conjunction with “The Integration Station”, it provides the basis for effective library programming. Download the interactive pdf document (6.1MB).

Not sure how to navigate this resource? View the online tutorial (Flash 5 or newer).

Information Literacy

The IntegrationStation is a website providing support for teachers integrating technology skills into the information literacy process. The different steps involved in the information literacy process are explained as well as how technology can be integrated to facilitate each step of the process. Downloadable worksheets are available as well as links to other valuable resources. Go there now!

Week 8: The Power of Literature

Literature is language charged with meaning.
-Ezra Pound

The DTRA reading exercise this week showed me again the power of literature to transport me to see the world through the eyes of another. Literature allow students to take students to access other world, realities, and points of view. In the mainstream society we have lost our connection to the oral tradition of stories to teach, discipline and inspire so we need to turn to books. Many untold stories of history that have not been available are now being published. Students can read literature and also construct their own reality by writing their own stories. I truly believe in the trans formative power of literature and we don't challenge our students enough to read powerful literature. The DTRA exercise also got me thinking why do we not ask questions to "assist students as they learn" (Buehl)? Most questions are asked at the end of reading and not while the student is reading. We give little scaffolding to students as they read.

put in Sticky Lightning technique from Rad


The ESL teacher in my school is new to the position this year and she just finished doing a novel study of Copper Canyon with her ESL class. She integrated language and content learning and was not content to "just do work sheets" with her students. By doing the novel study, she modeled to the students what they will do when they are in mainstream English classes. The teacher read the whole novel with the students with her and the students reading out loud. This allowed the students to stop and ask for clarification be it with vocabulary or comprehension questions. The novel study was challenging to the students but they finally finished and some of them proudly showed me their final projects.

I particularly like to encourage English teachers to do Literature Circles with their classes as a strategy to inspire their students. Many students just read and don’t “ink their thinking” or don’t think at all! While students read, they need a process to own their reading and to create meaning as they don’t know they have to be aware of their thinking in order to create meaning.

I like to take the strategies from Reading Power by Adrienne Gear and get students to use stickies while reading to “Connect, Question, Visualize, Infer and Transform” what they are reading. The teacher introduces the concepts and models the strategy by reading the first couple of pages of a novel with the students to show how it works. The teacher stops each time in the reading to put a sticky on the page with C(=connect) and speaks her “thinking voice” out loud that she writes on the sticky “oh I have a bratty sister like this sister in the story”. The teachers models each step of Reading Power and asks students to ink out their thinking with sticky notes. Eventually this thinking becomes automatic for students and they make notes in their journals for their discussions in their literature circle. By using the stickies, students create a wealth of comments and ideas about what they are reading and their reading “in to” the text becomes more natural.

Often asking high school students for their reactions to a text is like pulling teeth as we hear “I don’t know” so many times. I heard about this useful sticky technique from a BC teacher during aUBC course and I have forgotten her name! This sticky strategy allows students to learn the complexities of learning both language and content. I find that we need to teach students how to think and this strategy forces students to "ink their thinking" until it becomes automatic. Students take the stickies and transform all the material into incredibly rich journal entries and other projects.

Some of my UBC colleagues this summer integrated web2.0 technology into the traditional Literature Circle in the blog that they completed for the Library 2.o course: http://litcircles20.blogspot.com/
Students love to video themselves and post their videos for others to see (can we say youtube?). I have been using my small video camera called a Flip that allows me to film and post video right away. Teachers can set up closed learning communities where students can safely post videos and only the class can view them. I especially like the web 2.0 application VoiceThreads also.

Web 2.O Application VoiceThread:
VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com/#home) is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world
Source: VoiceThread 4 Educators Wiki
http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/

VoiceThread is free for teachers but if they want to add on their students to a secure K-12 network then they have to pay either 10 dollars to be on the network or $60 dollars to have a whole class on the network.
More info at Ed.VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/pricing/k12/

Browse through some examples of educational VoiceThreads
( http://ed.voicethread.com/#q ) and see how students are using it to create stories, build understanding, and post their artwork. This site is like doing a gallery walk of students' projects but students can use a variety of ways to comment on another student's work and then they can have a dialogue about it. The VoiceThread “Many Voices on Darfur” made by a teacher consists of political cartoons about Darfur and it is amazing what students are inspired to write about this genocide happening in our time. http://ed.voicethread.com/#q+darfur

What is Reading Power: Teaching Students to Think by Adrienne Gear? Check out this excerpt!
www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/8203-ch1.pdf

What is a Literature Circle?
Check out this excerpt from the book Student Diversity: Classroom Strategies to Meet the Learning Needs of all Students by Faith Brownlie, Catherine Feniak, Leyton Schellert(2006)
Chapter 7: Literature Circles: The Basics, the Big Ideas, and Beyond
www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/8198ch07.pdf

Week 7: Teaching Diversity

I think that Anti-Racism and Multiculturalism are complementary. There are many ways of promoting cultural literacy just as we would not think of teaching our students using only one strategy. I guess it really depends on how you view the different approaches.

Many have criticized multiculturalism about being too shallow by presenting the mall version of culture: the festivals, food, and folklore. High school students are very savvy about the pat presentation of “other” cultures. Students always ask: “Why do I need to learn about this?”. Grade 8 students in Socials learn about the world's major religions and I always introduce this project as a good experience for them to learn about the spiritual beliefs of others as in the future they will be working with people of all faiths. Teenagers think that the world revolves around them so examples that link back to them hit home! I need to develop with the Socials teachers a more vibrant unit for studying world religions in the library.

Canada is a multicultural nation and ESL and monolingual students need to learn about what Canada is all the social experiment that our country is. I believe that here is not enough done in high schools to promote cultural diversity in its entire splendor. It can be a start to explore the four F’s [ fun, food, festivals, folklore] but that is not enough. It can’t stop there because that does not address the deeper need for respect for diversity and zero tolerance for racist attitudes. What I hear a lot about these days is promotion of “other” cultures as if they have just been jettisoned in from other space. “Other” cultures have been here as long as Caucasian cultures. We are living in the global village and this global village is in our schools. Many students do not know about the multi-cultural history of BC since its inception and why not? Do we not cover this in Socials? I loved it when my school finally began to diversify culturally because this is now the norm. Issues of race and culture at least are being talked about more these days. The "nice" racism of Canada is being exposed and shown for what it is: unjust.

What does multicultural education and anti-racist education mean for my classroom practice?

First of all, my classroom is the library and its collection needs to reflect the cultural diversity of the community. However, the collection also needs to challenge students and staff to learn more about their local and international communities. I buy resources to support the curriculum and to meet the reading needs of students and staff. Each year, depending on my budget I establish development goals for the collection to meet the learning needs and the cultural makeup of the school community. The displays in the library window give students a visual education about things they might not know about. An Indo-Canadian student was pleasantly pleased when I asked him to find out for me the date for Diwali last year. The library display case had never before featured his cultural background and it might seem like not much but students are excited to see their culture showcased in the display case. Also, students might see a book featured in the display case that challenges them to widen their outlook on their global village. Since I call our library “The Mall of Knowledge Where You Can Shop for Free”, the display case is like the ones students walk by in the mall but I am not selling jeans but access to information.

The library is the academic heart of the library and also the social justice heart of the library. The collection contains resources that reflect a diversity of voices of history and also challenges teachers and students to be responsible local and international citizens. As a teacher librarian, I am always looking for resources that promote cultural understanding. I want students to see them reflected in the books on the shelves and see books about their cultures. I loved the reading about the multi-lingual and multi-cultural kindergarten. I do hope that we can be more understanding and curious of each other someday soon. Change is very difficult for many and making room at the table for a diverse grouping of people makes our country stronger and more vibrant. What scares me is that there are people who promote hate still in our communities. The fact that we have a strong public school system forces children of all races to study together and hopefully form friendships with the "other".

What impact could such teaching have on the ESL learners?

The practice of honoring a variety of cultural practices creates an environment where everyone in the room is respected and honored. The teacher in the room sets the culture in the room. If a monolingual student makes a racist comment in the classroom and the teacher does nothing then the ESL learner knows right away that they are on shaky ground. We need to be more pro-active with students and deal with teachable moments like a racist comment from a student. We need to explore with our students about where racism comes from and it is often about a struggle for power and land. Our interventions should be thought out and calm as throwing around the term “racist” is a hot button issue that people react to. These explorations of race need to be in all levels of the curricula and not just explored in a separate course. Immigrant students have told me that they have learned a great deal about Canada through their Socials classes such as multiculturalism and democracy.

The election of Barak Obama is causing some in the media to say that we are in a post-race era but issues of race are still predominant in our society. We need to teach students that we can discuss issue of race calmly and learn what unites us human beings instead of just focusing what divides us.

Week 4: Treasure Assignment

What I Hold Close to my Heart

Treasures are things or memories that I care for deeply and that I hold close to my heart. My family came from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany and they all settled in the Canadian prairies. My father also told me that we are also descended from the Roma people and perhaps this is why I have moved around so much.


My personal treasure has to be my embroidery bag that I inherited from my grandmother Edith Layland. She taught me how to embroider when I was a child and I have continued to embroider throughout my life. My grandmother taught me that women could create beautiful things from nothing to decorate a home. I have a strong image of a community of women at quilting bees in the kitchen of my grandparent’s farm in rural Manitoba. My mom told me that lots of hot tea and cookies were consumed and much lively conversation took the chill off the winter afternoons. Women could talk openly about their feelings in this uniquely feminine space. I have one of the quilts that my grandmother did not finish and I hope to finish it someday soon so that her memory will live on. I am teaching my daughter to embroider and I hope that some day she will teach her daughter.

My family treasure has to be the china platters and silverware that have supported so many family dinners. We serve turkey for Thanksgiving, ham for Easter and other food for birthdays on the platters and they are lovingly passed around the table each holiday. Before family dinners, we polish the silverware that has been passed down to each new generation and I can imagine all the people who have cradled a fork in their hand while laughing, crying, or arguing around the table. Many of my family were farmers and family dinners are a celebration of the people who produce the food that sustains us.

My cultural treasure is the Potluck Dinner. The idea that everyone can bring a dish to a party or a dinner and share food together speaks to how my prairie upbringing is all about community. I have been to many amazing Potluck Dinners in United Church basements, in campgrounds, at my parents’ house and with friends. Every one brings what they can and we share food and fellowship with each other. Potluck dinners at the church and at my parents’ house are always blessed in prayer before we eat and then the consumption begins. There is always a kind soul who puts out more food as needed and a whole bunch of people join together at the end of the meal to wash the dishes. I love the culinary cooperation of Potluck Dinners so much I even had one organized by my mom, aunties and Mexican mother-in-law for my wedding.

Week 6: Possibilities and Hope

We must work to create classrooms where there is a discourse of possibility and hope... where we are much more attentive to using the text of students' lives in our work.
-Enid Lee

Enid Lee's quote evokes my idea of an ideal classroom where the focus is using the life "text" of each student for learning. There have been a universe of cultural perspectives this week and even my cultural junkie head is spinning. Again and again, I come back to the idea of questioning and inquiring instead of automatically forming assumptions and judgments. However, we are culturally hard wired to make judgments based on our cultural lenses that we inherited. It is challenging as the dominant culture, white, English speaking, middle class, educated to re-calibrate our cultural lenses to see the world the way others do.

I had a student from China who sobbed for an hour in my class when her mark in Spanish 11 went from 98% to 96.8%. I immediately thought give your head a shake but I needed to delve deeper into her reaction. The student had incredible parental pressure to do well in school and her grade would be part of the calculation for applications to universities and applications for bursaries and awards. I was looking at the big picture of life but she was overwhelmed by the stress of getting a bursary so that she would be able to go to university. If you have no relationship with the student then you do not see what is shaping the student. A parent teacher interview with one student might seem like a casual affair of just checking in to see how their son or daughter is doing in the course but an interview with the parents of the Chinese student was a serious and formal affair. I thought this student would crack under all of this pressure so I helped her to have some perspective and to schedule some fun into her hectic schedule.

If expectations and behaviors are culture specific, there is be a clash of cultures as
we ask students to transform themselves from being information "parrots" to become information "creators" and to advocate for their own learning. What happens when two different cultures come together? It reminds me of the Borg from Star Trek, "You must be assimilated". As the data-driven learning culture meets the creative thinking learning culture heads are going to roll. But are we really that creative thinking based in North America? Faced with provincial exam pressures, I have watched creative teachers transform into "Teach to the Exam" robots!

When students are required to do cooperative activities all students struggle as we expect them to magically work together when we give them no scaffolding to hold on to. This challenge of sharing information is even harder for some ESL students I have taught who keep their information and ideas close to their chest to get their "A". Some ESL students hate group work as they are used to the parrot method of teaching. The more that I unveil the complexities of ESL learners in this course and throughout my career; it is a miracle that students do not run screaming from the building everyday. The gestures of clenched fists may be from pure frustration and confusion.

We need to choose a variety of teaching strategies to need the multifaceted needs of all the learners in the room. The teacher sets the learning atmosphere in the room and she has the power to shape the culture of a classroom that promotes cooperation and mutual support. The challenge is showing students both ESL and monolingual that we are not just in the classroom to get a mark but to learn how to work together. Our attempts to do this are fraught with challenges as our Western tendencies of direct communication, assertiveness, and disclosure can come into direct conflict with other cultural beliefs. At least by being aware of some of the differences can inform and enrich our teaching and meet the needs of all of our students.


Week 6: Five Continua

Most of my personal ratings did not move much after the reading but the readings made me realize how much I change or modify my behavior based on the circumstance and cultural group I am in. I worked for so many years overseas that I had to learn to “fit in” as much as I could to get things done.

assertiveness <---X-------------> compliance

I would have to say that I am much more assertive than compliant however this totally depends on the circumstance that I am in. If I am working on a committee and we are trying to work on consensus then I am much more compliant but if I want to get my point across to a student who is being disrespectful then I am much more assertive. I also change when I am with family in Mexico and I become one of la familia and I go along more with the crowd.

dominance <-----x--------------> submission
I
n Canada, I am definitely more in the dominant side of things. I like to get things done and others call on me for leadership. My cultural awakening as a feminist allowed me to see my power as a woman but my “assertiveness” is sometimes seen as by others as something negative. Sometimes women in other cultures are viewed as others as being submissive but they are quite the opposite. I have seen many women in macho societies using their intelligence in creative ways to get what they want done. My mother in law in Mexico runs her household finances and the finances of the businesses of her son but when someone sees her serve her husband food before she eats she might be viewed as submissive. Let me tell you that she is the least submissive person I know.

disclosure <---------x----------> privacy

I definitely rate myself in the middle. If I feel like I can trust the person that I am talking to then I will disclose more but overall I am quite a private person. I disclose a bit more of myself to my students because I want to show them that I am a human being and to get to know me. There are many parts of me that people will never get to see unless they become close friends or family. I have many acquaintances but a few close friends. The readings made me think of North American TV programs like Jerry Springer and Oprah were people bare their souls for others to see. I can see these programs and Canadian classrooms now more through immigrant children’s eyes where they are asked to show parts of themselves that they consider to be “private” and only discussed with close family.

direct communication <--x-------> indirect communication

I am usually very direct in my communication and I do not fear dealing with conflict and misunderstandings. However, I am getting better at “reading the room” and adapting my communication to my audience. I can be quite diplomatic at times but sometimes I wish we could just talk more openly to each other. In my first years in Latin America, I used to get so frustrated with everyone talking around a subject but I soon realized the cultural politics at work in the room. Conflicts that come up in communication sometimes look like the fun mirrors in the PNE when we find each other saying, “Did he really mean that or what is he trying to say?” I am so intrigued about how people communicate and I loved in the reading how we fall into traps on misunderstandings when we judge others instead of looking a bit deeper.

flexible time <----x--------------> time as commodity

Oh I fear that I am starting to sound like a cultural chameleon but the clock controls me at work and getting my daughter to soccer or dance but in my home we exist in Latino time. My sister calls it being caught in the “Suarez family vortex”. Relationships are held more important than the clock and if we are talking together at home then we often arrive “late” in the North American idea of being late. Things are more fluid at home and things just organically happen. When I am with Mexican family members then time as a commodity is thrown out the window. Things get done and we all have clear work schedules but time is more flexible and I have never heard people complaining about not having time to do things because they make time. Family get-togethers happen on the spur of the moment and people spend more time together sharing stories and chisme/gossip. This Latino idea of flexible time has also influenced my way of being in my job as I always have a moment to share a conversation in my office with my colleagues and students. I probably could get more work done if I did not do this but my job would be way less fun.

Learning Styles:

I believe that learning styles have a great deal to do with our ability to learn. The challenge is how to address the diversity of learning styles in our classrooms. I agree with others that as teachers we need to present information in a variety of ways. The message also sometimes chooses the medium. I would not give notes to students if I want to challenge them with new ideas. Film, music, art or photography along with text communicates ideas with more impact then just notes on an overhead. I talk a lot about learning in my classroom and now as a Teacher Librarian I work with teachers to help them present information in a myriad of ways. How do we educate youth who are used to multi-tasking and creating original content on a variety of technology? This generation’s brains are being wired differently than former generations and this is already having an impact on learning styles. The new technologies of web2.0 applications on hand held devices such as ipods, cell phones, laptops, and video cams give teachers a variety of ways to present information. ESL learners can find much content on the internet to augment their learning and teachers can use wikis to provide resources to support the learning that is happening in the classroom. However, content needs to be at the centre of the use of technology and perhaps technology is one way of giving students choice on how to learn.

Again, I must return to the reality of teaching and how we can possibly meet everyone’s needs. I think of it like a multicultural buffet. If you just eat mash potatoes all the time you will get stagnant. This week the readings were useful to be aware again of my learning style and to see how it shapes and/or limits my teaching style. The more that I learn about learning styles helps me to become a better teacher. I am mostly a visual learner but I really enjoy hands on task to make learning more concrete through experience. However, I can’t let my learning style shape everything I do as a educator as I have to meet the needs of others. My job as a teacher librarian is to introduce teachers to strategies on how to meet the diversity of students’ learning styles. Some teachers are flexible and open and some others are more set in their ways.

However what do you do if your personal learning style clashes with your cultural upbringing and/or where you find yourself now? It is a big culture shift for immigrant children to come into a Canadian classroom and to be expected to jump into the conversation when dissension, creativity and original ideas are encouraged. First of all, students need to discover their own learning style either through experimentation or a survey like we took this week. Hopefully, in a good high school environment a student will find a variety of teaching styles in all their teachers and they will learn how to adapt material to their own style. I took Biology 100 at UBC a century ago and I created mini-dramas with hand puppets and went for walks in the woods to experience flora and fauna to get through the course. I tell a lot of stories about learning for students to get the idea that they can be advocates for their own learning and that the process is often messy.

Week 5: The Murky Depths of Communication

Since a small percentage of the message that we give to others is through our spoken word then we will fall into a morass of misunderstandings if we do not examine how we speak volumes with our non verbal communication and co-verbal behavior. I spent some time observing students and staff this week and I would like to marry these observations with my years as a student at the school of cross cultural communication. First of all, I have to admit that I often feel like an anthropologist observing people because I have since I was a child felt like an outsider. Being the “fat” girl who moved often from province to province gave me that unique position of being on the outskirts of communities. As a Spanish teacher, I always taught about language and culture simultaneously as I could not teach students on how to greet each other with out addressing culturally differences of proxemics, haptics, time, kinesics and paralanguage. Often monolingual students never have a chance to explore how they communicate unless they travel with their families, study a second language, or have a teacher who introduces them to complex process of communication. Immigrant students do not have the luxury of going back home after a 2-week holiday as they are often here for life.

In the last couple years, I have started to hear students referring to how someone is too far into their “personal bubble”. Probably, a movie or TV program used this to set up for a joke but now students are aware that they have a “personal bubble”. With the reality now of larger classes, there is a lack of space in classrooms. Teenagers are really big and they struggle to get around desks and bookcases to get up to the teacher’s desk to hand in work or to ask a question. Students are reacting negatively to the “lack” of space and it causes conflict in classroom. My friend Julia teaches in a high school in Lima, Peru with 40-50 students to a room so I guess it is a matter of context. Canadians do have bigger personal bubbles than Peruvians so conflicts arise when a student can get by another student or if a student has no room to work on a desk built for fewer students. One of my colleagues talks to everyone way too close for a Canadian comfortable level and it is interesting so many people comment about it. She is perceived as being “way too intense” and “in your face”. Well, she is in your face because she is very close to you! Another teacher in the school always carries a clipboard that she holds horizontally in order to create some space between her and this teacher. I think I will bring it up to her in the context of teaching her ESL students about proxemics.

When I came back to Canada after 3 years in Ecuador, one of my friends put her hands on my chest and pushed me back an arm length away from her and said to me, “OK! That is better. You were way too close”. I had not adjusted the distance between others and myself to the Canadian context as I was still in the Ecuadorian personal bubble mode. Now my friend was comfortable enough with me to physically move me but usually people just make mental judgments about others instead of questioning why people act the way that they do. Over the years, I have gotten better at living bi-culturally and I automatically shift my mode of communication when I get off the plane in Mexico or when I get home to my family each night.

Non-verbal communication and co-verbal behavior are part of the unwritten rules of a culture and they are often brought up in conversation when there is a perceived “violation” of the way of doing things. So how can I as a teacher bring immigrant students into the “cultural loop”? Obviously we need to teach about non-verbal communication and co-verbal behavior as we teach about English but how can we get students to critically look at their communication styles and what it takes to adapt to Canadian culture? Perhaps we need to survey students in their home language and elicit from them their questions or comments about Canadian culture and communication. Place the questions in a box and pull one each week to openly discuss as a class. This way, students can ask questions anonymously and they can honestly ask the questions that are potentially embarrassing. Invite other staff members or students into the class to give their feedback or ideas about the questions. These conversations perhaps will be the forum inter-cultural understanding. ESL students could also ask the questions to students in the hallways and video their responses. I am using my Flip camera with my students and they love using it to to make mini-movies and videocasts. There are a lot of ESL teachers using video to help ESL students learn more effectively and ESL students could make mini-videos about an aspect of non-verbal communication or co-verbal behavior and the teacher could make up a bank of these videos to show future students.

Example questions:

• Why do Canadians always wait for the other person to stop talking before they add something?
• Why do Canadians get uncomfortable if I sit beside them on the bus?
• Why do other students get mad if I budge in front of them in line for the cafeteria?

I also think we need to educate teachers about the communication myths about ESL students. Perhaps at my school we will do a workshop at a professional day and place teachers in a language class like the one in the video Listen with Your Heart. Afterwards, we can debrief the experience by taking about non-verbal communication and co-verbal behavior and brainstorm strategies to talk about communication in the classroom. It is a challenge to see the messages we are giving out to our students, as we can’t watch ourselves as we communicate but we can learn more about the complexities of communication and become better educators.