Teacher Discussion Forums

I am looking for suggestions on a book that I would find useful, with strategies, ideas, etc. The book is for me, not the students. I am afraid that I am in a bit of a rut. I usually start out with a couple of pages from a bilingual picture dictionary, and then go on to my own material, which covers verbs, words that sound alike, etc. Most of the material that I have developed is bilingual. My spouse, a retired teacher, says that I have improved over the five years that I have been teaching ESL, but I am sure that there is room for more improvement.

I teach ESL to adults in an unusual environment, a homeless shelter. The vast majority of my students are spanish-speaking. The motivation varies from none to pretty good. I speak semi-fluent Spanish, but try to avoid speaking Spanish. My class size varies from 1 to 7 or so, and is often around four students. One challenge is that the students come in and out. That is, some students I see once, some I might see for a few weeks or a couple of months. In any event, I don't have a consistent group of students. I don't even know how many will show up day to day. I generally have a range of abilities in the class, sometimes a very wide range of abilities. I copy a couple of pages of handouts for each class.

Recently, I seem to see fewer beginners and more intermediate and up students. One of the most popular things that I do is a series I call "Words that sound alike". (IE Four, Fore, and for). The more advanced the student, the more that they like that activity, they can get really engaged and enthused. I define the word, we work on pronunciation, then we use it in a sentence in English and in Spanish. The students often come up with words that they think sound alike, but which only sound similar; I always work with any words that they come up with, in addition to what I have on the handout. If anyone is interested, I could email you a copy.

Occasionally I substitute in a regular evening class with 10 students of the same level, and higher motivation, a nice change from the homeless.

I will take all kinds of suggestions, from books to strategies.

Richard

Have a look at the following:

Lessons from nothing: Bruce Marsland, Cambridge University Press
700 Classroom Activities: David Seymour & Maria Popova, Macmillan
Grammar Practive Activities: Penny Ur, Cambridge

These are all excellent books - top tips, clear easy instructions so that you can teach effectively, yet without a course book. Can't believe you managed to get by for the last five years without them! :-)

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

K
karennejoy (at) yahoo (dot) com

I wonder if you have thought about exploring the tremendous resource you have in your students? These are people who are resourceful in living without the things most of us take for granted. They often don't have much say in the world and having someone listen to them and record their stories and experiences might be a bit empowering to them and would certainly be interesting to people who are trying to plan for those that choose or just "are" outside the institutions.

There has been quite a bit written about adult literacy and you might want to read in that field as well. There usually is a section in the library for adult literacy and you can read everything from individual stories to a more general study.

I would imagine that the students would like to hear you read stories of others who were in their situation and the more advanced students might want to read something more challenging about homelessness that they might be able to discuss or dispute.

Here is one link to stories:
http://www.homeless.org.au/people/rebecca.htm