Frame It

Purpose: This activity encourages students to think about how they make decisions and to explain those decisions to others. Explaining decisions is a form of critical thinking.

Prep time: 5 -10 minutes

Materials: pens and paper

Prep: Choose an easy topic for the example that you will show to students and another topic for students to try. Ideally the topic the students write about should be related to today’s lesson.

Procedure:

I do it:

1. Write the name of a topic that is easy for your students on the board and draw a circle around it. For example, the word food.

2. Draw a larger circle around the first circle. Think out loud about associations you have with the topic. Then write these associations in the space between the two circles. For example, you could say Food makes me think about shopping, cooking, and being healthy and then write shopping, cooking and being healthy in the outer circle.

3. Draw a third very large circle around the other two circles. Think out loud about factors and people that influence your decisions about the topic. For example, you could say I think about what my family likes to eat when I buy food. Then write family in the outer circle. Continue giving a few more examples.

We do it:

1. Write another easy topic on the board and draw a circle around it. For example, write the word English.

2. Draw a larger circle around the first circle. Elicit associations that students have with the topic. You might ask them, What does English make you think about? Write their associations in the circle.

3. Draw the third circle around the other two circles. Elicit ideas from students about factors and people that influence their decisions about the topic. For example, you might ask students Why do you read in English? Why do you come to English class?

You do it:

1. Now assign a topic related to today’s lesson. Tell students to write it in their notebooks with a circle around it.

2. Instruct students to write what the topic makes them think in the next circle.

3. Instruct students to write people and things that help them make decisions about the topic in the last circle.

Extension:

• Students can share their answers with a partner or in a small group and discuss decisions they make (related to the topic) and why they make them.

Celebrating the New Year

Purpose: To share cultural information about New Year’s celebrations around the world and to encourage students to set goals by making resolutions.

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes, not counting food preparation, which is optional

Materials: 2011 calendar, copies of chart for conversation activity, envelopes, greeting cards for New Year’s (if desired)

Prep: Prepare chart, if you intend to hand it out to students; think about specific vocabulary you’ll want to pre-teach and how you want to illustrate it; think of examples of resolutions to share

Procedure:

I do it (Part I):

1. Find out what students have observed about New Year’s celebrations in the U.S. This conversation could include reviews of top news stories from the past year on TV, as well as foods typically eaten in certain regions, such as black-eyed peas, a southern tradition. (A recipe for New Year Peas is included at the end of this tutor tip.) New Year’s Eve celebrations, in modern times, often involve fireworks, music, alcoholic beverages, and noisemaking, with a countdown at midnight. New Year’s Day tends to be quieter and more family-oriented.

2. Ask: When do you celebrate the New Year in your country or culture?

What kinds of food do you eat on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day?

Do you go out or stay at home to celebrate?

Do you decorate your homes?

Do you wear special clothes?

Do you give or get gifts?

We do it:

1. Draw a simple chart on the board or on a piece of paper if you’re working with one student or a small group. The chart should look something like this:

Name	Country	When do you celebrate New Year’s?	What are two things you do to celebrate?

2. Interview a single student and fill in the chart.

3. Now ask that student to interview another student in front of the class and fill in the chart, with your assistance if needed.

You do it:

1. Give your student or students a copy of the chart or ask them to reproduce it on a piece of blank paper.

2. Now ask them to interview four other students and fill in their charts. If you only work with one student, you could share information about different traditions, for example Persian New Year, Chinese New Year, Jewish New Year, etc. and have the student take notes to fill in the chart.

Note: Emergent readers and writers may be able to do the first three columns after lots of modeling. They can interview two students instead of four and ask the fourth question orally.

Wrap-Up:

Ask for volunteers to report on what they’ve learned. Now encourage students to find some commonalities amongst all the traditions. Make a list together.

I do it (Part II):

1. Using a calendar, point out that January 1 is the day that marks the beginning of a new calendar year in countries that use the Gregorian calendar. New Year’s Eve or Old Year’s Night is always observed on December 31. The image of a new baby is sometimes used to represent the New Year.

2. Find out which calendar students use and are familiar with.

3. Explain the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions. Be prepared to share examples.

4. Find out if other cultures do this, too.

We do it:

Elicit examples from students. What might they encourage their friends, family members or classmates to set as goals for the coming year? Why? What resolutions might they set for themselves? What would help them keep those resolutions?

You do it:

1. Students talk in pairs and share at least one resolution with their partner.

2. Give each student an envelope. Depending on literacy levels, each person writes his or her name on the envelope, then writes his/her New Year’s resolution on a piece of paper and places it in the envelope. Alternatively, one student dictates to the other and the higher level student writes for both or the tutor/teacher assists.

3. Seal the envelopes and put them in a safe place. Agree on a date in the future when you will bring out the envelopes and see how people are doing with their resolutions.

Wrap-Up: Wish everyone a Happy New Year. Share expressions that are used in the U.S. or show examples of greeting cards and talk about images and words associated with the holiday. Eat some black-eyed peas!

Recipe for New Year Peas:

· 1 pound dried black-eyed peas

· 1 pound link sausage, or your favorite

· 1 small onion, chopped

· 3 tablespoons brown sugar

· 1 tablespoon prepared mustard

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 cup prepared barbecue sauce

Preparation: Rinse, prepare, soak, and cook peas in about 3 cups water, following directions on the package. Drain and reserve half of the cooking liquid. In a skillet over medium heat, brown sausage and onions; drain off excess fat. Place peas in a 3-quart casserole; add sausage and onions. Stir in reserved liquid, brown sugar, mustard, salt, and barbecue sauce. Bake at 300° for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Serves 6.

Odd one Out (Which One is Different?)

Purpose: This activity can be used at all levels to review vocabulary. It also works well in one-to-one tutoring situations.

Materials: board and marker

Prep: Based on the theme or unit you want to review, make groupings of 6 words in which one of the 6 doesn’t fit with the others. There may be room for debate about which one doesn’t fit, and that adds a layer of complexity and interest to the activity.

Procedure:

I do it:
The tutor writes 6 words on the board, reads them to the class, then circles the word that doesn’t belong and explains why.

Example: chair table window sofa desk shelf

T: In my office at home, I have a chair, a table, a window, a desk and shelf, but no sofa, so I’m going to circle “sofa”.

We do it:
Ask learners what they would choose in the above example and why. One might circle “window” because it’s the only item that is both inside and outside. A key idea here is that there’s not always one right answer, but learners need to be able to explain their choices.

Write one more set of 6 words on the board and ask members of the class to indicate which word they would circle and why.

You do it:
Write sets of 6 words or numbers (or 4 for lower level) on the board (unless you decided to make a handout ahead of time). If you want learners to practice writing, ask them to copy the words, then circle the word or number in each group that they think doesn’t belong, knowing that they will need to justify their choices.

To wrap up, ask volunteers to come forward, circle the word in each list that doesn’t belong, and explain their choice. If other students made different choices, ask them to share those and justify their choice.

Extension: If everyone agrees on a particular word that is the “odd one out”, erase it and ask students to choose another one in the same group that doesn’t fit. When you have two words left, ask the learners to come up with ten ways that the two remaining words are different.

Using a Written Text to Practice Multiple Skills

Purpose: To use listening, speaking, reading and writing in working with a written text

Preparation Time: depends on time needed to gather materials for pre-teaching vocabulary (see below)

Materials: Selected text, plus copies for learners, markers, white board

Preparation: Plan to spend a little time thinking about how you will create context for the reading. What questions can you ask to elicit vocabulary and student knowledge about the subject? Decide which vocabulary words you need to pre-teach. What pictures, definitions, or examples do you need?

Procedure:

I do it:

1) Create context related to the story.

2) Teacher/tutor reads out loud while students listen. At this point, students do not have a copy of the text.

3) Go back to the beginning and read the first sentence. Ask students to name a key word from the sentence. Write that word on the board. Continue until you have one key word from each sentence on the board.

Note: Be sure to write the words in sequence on the board.

We do it:

1) Ask the class to refer to the key words on the board and retell the story.

2) After the retell, depending on the content of the story, ask students to express an opinion about it, share additional information they may have, infer meaning, suggest solutions to a problem, etc.

3) Encourage students to ask questions about the topic or story.

You do it:

1) Now pass out the story. Students read independently.