A.G. Stromsdorfer is currently
teaching ESOL at Soldan International
Studies High
School, SLPS District. One of her more recent
teaching positions includes Saint
Louis University’s
ESL program, where she served as Associate Professor. She also taught various
levels of ESL learners overseas.
As the editor of
this Teaching Tips Corner, I would like to encourage all educators
to share their teaching expertise by writing
brief ( 500-750 words), relevant articles to be included in
this Newsletter section. Submissions can be emailed to stromsag@peoplepc.com.
Twenty Easy Steps to Preparing An
ESOL Newsletter:
For our ESOL learners, seeing any of their own written
material in print in fancy format
is publishing, be that a class
foldout-newsletter or just a typed-up, edited single sheet; such material is a great source of pride to them.
When I was able to prepare a newsletter through our school
print shop with the various selections my students themselves had created,
albeit without much attention to revisions past the first draft despite
my numerous requests. Nonetheless, as the newsletter contained only writing they had created, many
of the contributors became proud enough to do revisions after the publication.
Those that were not interested in doing any writing for our paper, be it
a life-moment anecdote, a joke, or a story, sorely regretted their neglect,
or irresponsible attitude. They offered to write for the next edition, accusing
me of not having been more punitive for their lack of initiative. Do not
fall into this trap if you have any intention of following through with
such a project and getting all the members of your classes involved. Here
are some tips to help guide you:
-
Do give a simple writing assignment in class, emphasizing
the deadline for publication with the intention of using it for the
newsletter later.
-
Do not ask them to write long essay-like pieces unless
it is something they are very familiar with, such as personal anecdotes
-
Do ask them to pick out and add online illustrations
to their work
-
Do encourage them to write jokes (clean ones) from
their culture. This can be especially challenging as the translation
will have to be content-oriented and not a verbatim explanation to retain
the humor.
-
Do work with each writer, as much as time allows,
to point out what needs more attention
-
Do explain that the work will receive extra points
-
Do have the student type his work and save on disk
-
Do save yourself time and effort by saving
each writing onto your flash drive so that editing and formatting will
be simpler
-
Do repeat these assignments as homework with revisions
to be done in class conferences
with the teacher numerous times
-
Do make sure that the students understand the deadline
as final submission day.
-
Do not pay for this out of pocket, but utilize the
print shop your district might work with
-
Do review the material carefully for appropriateness
of content
-
Do request your more advanced students to assist the
less advanced ones with the mechanics of the writing, or even
proofreading of their work
-
Do coax your less
eager students into putting down
some sort of a “How to..” paragraph, such as making a
simple dish or a salad.
-
Do not correct the work of anyone if only one
draft has been handed in as the finished product. Let them do the work
themselves first
-
Do print sufficient copies to distribute to all your
students who collaborated, and
share the extras with the others.
-
Do ask whether colleagues in other departments might
also enjoy reading the various cultural
bon mots that
your students created.
-
Do look for the
self-contented look on the faces of those pupils who persevered and
contributed; they are now famous
published authors to their classmates, and to their parents.
-
What a good way to teach the steps to writing, collaboration,
pride in a job well done, and have something impressive that is devoid
of the teacher’s red correction
marks across the pages.
-
Do keep a copy to display in your classroom for the
following group
of writing students.
