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Many English Language Learners need to develop their reading skills. Many teachers of ELLs know how to help students improve their reading comprehension. A disconnect occurs when students need help with basic literacy skills such as developing phonemic awareness. This is especially problematic for adolescent learners who are expected to
A couple weeks ago, I had brunch with two Chinese friends. They were a husband and wife whom I’d first met in Wuhan, China, in the winter of 1990 when I went to teach at the university where they studied and worked. The wife became my first Chinese language teacher
I had to work during my summer college vacations but every summer I also made a point to read one Shakespeare play and one Russian novel. This wasn’t a required assignment; I just enjoyed reading those particular forms of literature. Looking back, I see that I was engaged in
I’m not really a fan of Impressionism but this painting made an impression on me. Of course I had art classes when I was in school (those were the days!) but I was never very good at it. The Dance Class by Degas; source: Wikimedia Commons Then, after I became
As the school year in the U.S. winds down, it’s natural to be thinking about summer vacation and how you will enjoy sleeping in… Source: The World Factbook Then, at the end of summer, I reserved the last week before school resumed for myself, just to get in the right
While it is true that students need to put effort into their work, they will do so far more readily when they receive positive feedback. Providing positive encouragement is, nowadays, generally accepted to be good teaching practice. But when I was a graduate student learning about different approaches to teaching
I admire Abigail Adams, a woman ahead of her time in many ways. What I know of her I learned mostly by watching The Adams Chronicles, a decades-old TV miniseries that was, at the time, riveting. If I were still teaching in a classroom, I would make a banner of
I’ve been watching episodes of the 1970s TV show Kung Fu lately. I remember watching the show as a kid but I had no idea then that I would someday live in China or that I would eventually become a teacher. Aside from the kung fu itself which, as a
I was familiar with the first line of this famous quotation but not the second; indeed, I had never read the poem from which these lines come until yesterday. I had no idea, either, what a Pierian spring was until I looked it up. It turns out that Pierian spring
Moving from Massachusetts to Arizona has been an eye-opener in many ways! Of course, the weather is different—while my former town was shoveling out from under eight feet of snow, I was walking around in T-shirts and sandals in Tucson. It also takes a lot longer to get from one
Do you feel like you’re in one of Rodney Dangerfield’s jokes: Teachers don’t get no respect? Well, it isn’t a joke. All the teachers I know feel under attack and overwhelmed by the demands placed upon them. Many have told me they don’t know how they can hold out until
The third reason why I enjoy teaching English Language Learners is because of the curriculum. Or rather, the lack of one. None of the places where I taught had an actual ESL curriculum and it was up to me to design all my courses and lessons myself. The first thing
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