How to "Float" in a "Lab Classroom"

Assisting in a multi-level classroom involves many different types of activities. One of these is “floating”, or moving around and helping students while they are working independently. If you are volunteering in a drop-in center or “lab”, you may be assisting many different students, each of whom is working on a different level and/or topic. This could also include a computer lab.

1) Circulate around the room.

Observe students as you circulate, checking to see if their understanding of the assignment is accurate. Ask students if they would like help. If they do, ask students to show you their work and explain it to you.

• Find ways to help students become independent learners. Resist the urge to give them the answer. Suggest other resources, like a dictionary, that students could use for assistance. If an answer is incorrect, ask them to go back and look at the problem or text again.

2) Assist.

Give hints. Don’t correct an error or give a student an answer immediately – facilitate the detection and correction of their own errors and/or help them find the answer themselves. For example:

• Ask the student to go back and look at the reading again.
• On a page with 8 questions, where 2 are incorrect, ask the student to look at those again.
• Ask the student why he/she chose that answer.
• Go over the instructions again and, if necessary, do an example together.
• Ask a student to explain something to you, either the directions or the problem, to help figure out the source of their confusion. Students often forget to read directions thoroughly before starting an assignment.
• Try to provide real-life, concrete examples before moving on to the abstract ones. For example, in math, make a paper pizza and cut it into equal parts to demonstrate fractions.
• Check for the student’s prior knowledge of a subject. Perhaps some context is missing and needs to be filled in.

3) Don’t linger.

Assist a student with a couple questions/corrections/clarifications/etc., and then move on. After helping a student with a couple of problems, they should be ready to try again on their own. Encourage the student to continue with the rest of the activity, and tell them you’ll return to check on them or to find you if they need further help.

4) Continue to circulate, so that you can help as many students as possible.

Thanks to Kara Rotramel, ABE Instructor and Site Coordinator for Forest Lake Adult Education Center, part of Metro North Adult Basic Education Consortium, for suggesting the need for this tip and for providing valuable input.

Three Similarities and a Difference

Purpose: This activity gives students speaking and listening practice, as well as allowing them to discover their commonalities and unique qualities. Since some students may be uncomfortable telling falsehoods, something that is required if you play Three Truths and a False, why not try this variation?

Prep Time: For intermediate level and up, little prep is required. For beginning level, you’ll need 5-10 minutes to create a short list of questions.

Materials: paper and pencil or pen; beginning level questions

Prep: Think about how you want to explain or model the activity. Decide if you want students to focus on a specific theme, like jobs, or if any theme is okay. The first time around, the theme will be the learners themselves. For beginning students, write out 6 questions that they can ask their partners so they can more quickly find similarities without getting bogged down by the language practice. For example:

What is your favorite color?

What is your favorite food?

Do you have children?

How do you come to school every day?

How many languages do you speak?

Do you have a job?

Where are you from?

Where do you live?

Practice the questions together before continuing.

Procedure:

I do it/creating context:

1. Pre-teach or review the words similarity and difference (or same and different for beginners).

2. Provide examples and elicit examples from students.

We do it:

1. Choose several examples to do as a group. For example, how are a car and a plane similar? What is one difference? How is working in a restaurant like working in a hospital? Find three similarities. How is it different?

2. Ask a student to partner with you and do the activity again, this time looking for your own commonalities and unique qualities.

You do it:

1. Students choose partners and do the activity. Encourage them to work with someone who speaks a different first language.

2. Repeat the activity several times, so students have the opportunity to interact with more than one classmate.

3. Ask students to report what they’ve learned about each other.

Adaptations: For beginning literacy level, try giving partners two pictures which are similar, but have some differences. Pre-teach or review “same” and “different”. Plan on providing lots of examples of “same” and “different”, using objects. Now look at a picture together. Model how to circle things that are the same and put an “X” on things that are different. You may need to demonstrate with several pictures before asking students to work on their own. Make sure the pictures are very basic.

Alternatively, use objects. Ask learners to sort or categorize objects based on what they have in common. One object should not “fit”. For example, place three objects of the same color or shape in front of the students, along with one that is a different color or shape. Model the activity, using few words, moving the items around, and separating the items that are the same from the one that is different.

Three Bean Salad

Purpose: This logic activity can be used to help learners work in a visual, concrete way with multiplication, fractions and percentages.

Prep Time: The first time you do the activity, allow time to go through the worksheet yourself.

Materials: dried lima beans, red beans and black-eyed peas; copies of the worksheet

Prep: assemble dried beans needed; plan to give each student, or pair of students, about 10 of each kind of bean

Procedure:

1) If you want students to work in pairs, ask them to find a partner.

2) Give each student or pair a set of beans.

I do it:

3) Using the beans, pre-teach the following vocabulary from the worksheet. Refer to the worksheet to see how the vocabulary is used in the various “recipes”. Model, using beans, then have the students demonstrate comprehension by configuring their sets of beans.

twice as many

half (1/2) as many

half (1/2) or half (1/2) of

double

¼ of

3 times as many

5 more _____than _____

4) Hand out the worksheet and ask a student to read #1 aloud. Talk through your logic as you figure out the recipe. If necessary, do several of the problems this way.

We do it:

5) Ask students to join you in figuring out several more. Ask them to explain their logic.

You do it:

6) Once students understand how the activity works, ask them to work on their own, alone or in pairs. Once they feel they have the correct answer, they check with the tutor/teacher or with another pair. The teacher or tutor can circulate and assist as needed.

Extension:

• Students could re-write the recipes, converting fractions to percentages.
• Students write their own recipes and challenge other students to solve them.

Thanks to Jennifer Boe Mesojedec, teacher, Minnesota Correctional Facility at Moose Lake, for sharing her worksheet and activity idea.

Techniques for Classroom Volunteers: How to "Float"

Assisting in a classroom involves many different types of activities. One of these is “floating”, or moving around and helping students while they are working independently.

First, ask the teacher you are assisting what the focus of the lesson is. If you know what the objectives are, you can concentrate on those as you circulate and assist students. The teacher may ask you to monitor for student progress in:

· a particular aspect of pronunciation (word stress, the “s” sound at the ends of words, etc.)

· accuracy in a particular point of grammar

· reading comprehension

· comprehension of activity directions

Follow these steps, once you have clarified your focus:

1) Circulate around the room.

Observe students as you circulate, noting if their understanding/language use is accurate (according to focus). Ask students to show you their work and explain it to you.

2) Assist.

Give hints. Don’t correct an error or give a student an answer immediately – facilitate the detection and correction of their own errors and/or help them find the answer themselves. For example:

• ask the student to go back and look at the reading again
• on a page with 8 questions, where 2 are incorrect, ask the student to look at those again
• ask the student why he/she chose that answer
• go over the instructions again and, if necessary, do an example together

3) Don’t linger.

Assist a student with a couple questions/corrections/clarifications/etc., and then move on. After helping a student with a couple of problems, they should be ready to try again on their own. Encourage the student to continue with the rest of the activity, and tell them you’ll return to check on them.

4) Continue to circulate, so that you can help as many students as possible.

8 Things You Can Do In A One to One Class

1. Guess the news story

Collect a week’s worth of newspapers (in any language) and cut out pictures of news stories from each one. Aim for a selection of five or six topical news pictures from that week. Then take a letter size sheet of paper (or cardstock). Cut a small square out of the middle of this card. When you come to class, place a picture from the news under the card so that only some of the picture is visible. The student must 1) speculate about what the picture is about, and 2) tell you as much as they know about the news story.

2. Written conversation or role play
Conduct a conversation but only in written form. Take a piece of paper and write a question to your student and give him/her the paper to write an answer on. Go back and forth like this until you have a good sized sample of writing. This can be used as the basis for correcting written mistakes and planning further classes.

3. Sticky-note mania
Bring a pack of sticky notes to the lesson one day. Look around the room and write a word of something that is in the room on a sticky note. Give it to the student and ask him or her to stick the note on the correct object. Do this until you have labeled many things in the room. At the end of the lesson call out things and ask the student to bring you back the sticky note (unless they would like to leave it on the object as a memory aide!).

4. Get out of the class
One-to-one classes are often extremely mobile, and teachers can take advantage of this. Ask your student to take you on a guided tour in English of their home or workplace. Do a shopping class, where you and your student go to several shops together. Or just go for a walk outside with your student and do your class like that one day. A change of environment is very good for refocusing the mind, and there are lots of new topics for language study that you can get just from walking down the street.

5. Questionnaires
Prepare a series of question prompts on a topic. For example, if your topic was sports you could have the following question prompts:
- /like sports?
- what/ sports/play?
- what / sports /watch on television?
- ever / win / sports award? etc.
First, interview the student using the prompts. Then ask the student to do the same for you. When you are finished, review any special vocabulary or grammar that came up. Tell the student that for the next class he or she must prepare a similar list of questions on a different topic to interview you.

6. Index cards
One piece of equipment that is particularly useful for a one-to-one class is a set of index cards. Use them to keep track of new vocabulary. The cards can then be used from time to time to review this. You can also use index cards as cue cards for a presentation. Help the student write their cues for a mini presentation on a topic, then get them to give you the presentation using only their cues. You can also write different conversation topics or role plays on individual cards. Ask the student to choose one at random and talk about or act out the situation on the card.

7. Think of someone who
Many teachers of one-to-one classes are frustrated by textbook or resource material that is only suitable for large groups. However, some of these activities can be adapted. For instance, the classic Find Someone WhoThink of Someone Who and used with only one student. Using a Find Someone WhoFind Someone Who activity with a large class.

8. SWAT for one
In a typical “swat” activity, the teacher or tutor writes or tapes vocabulary words at random all over the board. activity can be changed to a worksheet, ask the student to write the names of people that he or she knows who match each category. The student must do this without telling you anything. He or she must also write the names down in a different order than they appear on the worksheet. Do the same yourself with another copy of the same sheet. Then swap papers. The objective is to ask and answer questions to find out which person written down on the paper matches which category. You and the student will therefore be asking and answering the questions several times, just like in a The words must be from past lessons, so that students are already familiar with them. Pairs of students are given fly swatters (hence the name “swat”). When the teacher calls out a word, the students race to see who can find and swat the word first. This is excellent for practicing scanning and sight word reading. In a one to one setting, write words on scraps of paper or on sticky notes. Distribute them on the table or desk top. As you call out the word, the student scans, then slaps or points to the word as quickly as possible. Use a stop watch to add to the challenge.

Dice Questions

Purpose: to give lower level students speaking and listening practice; to give higher level students practice with critical thinking skills, as well as speaking and listening

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Materials: white board and markers for a group; typed or written page for one-to-one; dice (one die for each individual, pair, or small group); an object or picture for intermediate/advanced level

Prep: Prepare a list of 6 questions related to the current unit of study or the selected object or picture

Beginning level example: questions about family

1. Who lives with you?

2. How many people in your family live in Minnesota?

3. Where do the people in your family live? What countries?

4. Do you have children? How old are they?

5. What is a name that many people in your family have?

6. How many cousins do you have?

Intermediate/advanced example: Show students an object or picture. Ask questions that require different levels of critical thinking. For an object, ask questions about it and for a picture of a person, ask questions with she or he.

1. Describe: What does it/he/she look like, feel like, etc.

2. Compare: What/how is something like or different from something else?

3. Associate: What does it/he/she remind you of?

4. Analyze (only if the topic is a thing): What parts does it have? What is it made of?

5. Apply: What does it/he/she do? What might you use it for?

6. Argue for or against: good, bad, why?

Procedure:

1. If using a board, write the list of six questions or instructions that students can respond to about the topic, object, or picture.

2. Check for comprehension of vocabulary and instructions.

3. Model the activity with several students.

4. Students work with partners or in small groups. One student rolls the die to see which question he/she needs to answer about the assigned topic. Then the next student takes a turn with a new question.

A Great Resource for teachers and tutors

Notebook: Resources for the Adult Educator is a 16-page resource designed especially for teachers and tutors. It is published three times per year as a benefit for ProLiteracy members. Each article in Notebook describes a ready-to-use teaching idea related to reading, writing, listening and speaking, numeracy, or a practical application of literacy skills such as making a budget. Most articles contain reading material and/or worksheets that can be photocopied for students to use. In some instances, additional worksheets are made available online for tutors and teachers who want to do additional work on the topic. Each issue also contains an inspirational story about a learner or an instructor as well as a resources section that lists events or links to other valuable teaching resources.

The Spring 2011 issue of Notebook: Resources for the Adult Educator, is available online and we have been encouraged to share the link with tutors and teachers in our network.

In this issue:

• Health Literacy
• Applied Literacy
• Numeracy
• Exploring Resources
• Tutor Profile

Access an electronic version of this issue along with related expansion materials here.

For more information about ProLiteracy, visit http://www.proliteracy.org/.