Thursday the 21^st of January, François Legault announced changes to the MEQ ESL plans. The scheduled implementation of the new programs in grade 3 and the re-structuring of the primary cycles from 2 to 3 which implied school board exams at the end of grade 4 and 6 seems to have been set back a year. It would also seem that the basic plan set out by the MEQ only effects the first year. The schedule for other levels would continue as planned.

Language monitors: Five schools in the board responded to the invitation and requested a second language monitor in 1999-2000. The monitors are university level students who work in schools 25 hours a week for about $15,000 that is covered by the governments. The program costs the participating schools between $1500 and $2000 plus a participation in the selection of the candidates for the following year. This year there is a monitor at the Ste-Marguerite elementary school working with Bob Gauvin and his intensive classes.

The S.E.V.E.C. summer exchange program, which has been implanted in the Magog sector for many years, will continue this summer. Mr. Bill Hogg is the co-ordinator of the programme and he will be sending out his monitors to the schools in May to recruit students who would like to spend the month of July practicing their English through activities with students from Ontario. While the center is at Le Transit in Magog, the programme will be offered to young teenagers throughout the board.

ESL-LA teachers are invited to send in their student's work to be shared with other classes throughout Québec. Get the details on the annexed Calling all teachers flyer.(paper issue)

Expressions - Impressions is a newsletter of students' work that can be used in the ESL-LA classroom.

Intensive: Daniel Bernier, vice-president of SPEAQ and CP from Les Bois Francs is working on setting up regional meetings for interested: intensive teachers. Meetings are planned in Quebec (May 21) and Montreal (April 15 or 16) this spring but there would also be the possibility of setting up such a meeting on a planning day in the region according to numbers. Around thirty participants would warrant a regional meeting for intensive teachers.

See news on SPEAQ CAMPUS

That's about it. If you would like more details, give me a call or send an email.

CP News………………………………1

Guide ………………………………2

Meetings ………….…………………3

Ours ………………………………4

Links

Food For Thought *

Page On ESL Standards: *

Other Reviews From Atout Micro *

Story Hour *

Teaching Reading To Beginners *

Nouns 1 *

Animals *

Research *

World Fact Book *

Trivia Quizzes *

Environmental Project *

Task *

Web Site Resources *

Last Tango In Carcass Canyon *

Garbage -The Annenberg/CPB Project *

Year Of The Tiger *

Changing Seas *

Habitat By National Geographic *

Everglades By The National Parks System *

The Process *

Television Announcement *

Radio Announcement *

Editorial Announcement *

Internet Web Page *

Teaching With Video *

Many of the popular new teaching practices and theories are often highlighted at such conferences. They are often part of the concepts underlying the new pedagogical programs. They include multiple intelligences, competencies and standards, cognitive theories, the student as a global communicator, constructivism, and so on. I am starting to collect Internet links to information on these topics more as a personal aide for myself but that I will post on the REACH-OUT site for those of you who might like to consult them. (see the site address at the bottom of each page)

Highlighting OUR own teachers, their original ideas and activities.

Web page projects are underway in the classes of at least two our teachers - Julie Malouin in secondary 2 at Le Tournesol and Marie Meilleur in grade 6 intensive at St-Gabriel, Windsor. Looking forward to seeing them all on the 'net.

Not only tons of lesson plans and activities, informative research sites and projects are available on the Internet, here are exerts from a site linked to an Educational Standards site,

http://putwest.boces.org/standards.html

Food for thought

Here a teacher from North Carolina gives insight into the practices used in the classroom.

Monty Coggins - Best Practices

http://www.ofps.dpi.state.nc.us/OFPS/tc/treasures/montycogginsbp.htm

Introduction: The practices that follow are based on my belief that students are responsible for their own learning. I feel that my job as a teacher is to analyze the needs of my students, compare them with the curriculum, and design a realistic, challenging environment that encourages self - directed learning activities, cooperation, and students teaching students.

1.MISSION STATEMENT:

On the first day of class, I give my students a very simple list of conditions that I think make a classroom functional. The list is short, and focuses on the concept of respect; respect for self, peers, teacher, and the opportunity to learn. I then ask my students to brainstorm on factors that existed in the best class they ever had. We list those on one side of the chalkboard. I then ask them to brainstorm on characteristics of the worst class they ever had. We list them on the other side of the board. I then talk about mission statements. I show them a couple from various businesses, schools, school systems, etc. At that point, I divide the class into 3 or 4 groups, asking each group to take into account my requirements, the factors listed on the board, and the mission statements they have read, and use them to write a mission statement. When they finish, I immediately make a transparency of each one. We look at them as a class, editing by consensus. I then ask a student to take home our working copy and type it up. The next day, we look at it again, making final changes. At this point, we all sign it and post it. This document then serves as a guide for our work through the year. We revisit it 3 times, and make modifications as needed.

2.COOPERATIVE LEARNING TEAMS:

For the past 3 years, I have placed all students in cooperative teams for all our tasks. I have found that this organization facilitates collaboration and students teaching other students. Further: cooperative teams make it efficient to address different learning styles, provide practice in planning, collaboration, and negotiation, and to increase student accountability. The teams in my classes include the following roles with the listed responsibilities (abridged list)

Communicator:

• Spokesperson for the team
• Reports attendance to teacher
• Distributes papers to students in team
• Coordinates writing of lab reports
• Evaluates team members on communication / cooperation

• Negotiates individual assignments in the team
• Sets deadlines for work in advance of teacher deadlines
• Keeps a log of student work during the unit
• Submits paper assignments to teacher
• Evaluates team members on timely completion of work

• Leads the process of correcting written work
• Administers practice test
• Evaluates members on accuracy of work

• Prepares lab materials
• Leads team in laboratory
• Evaluates team members on lab procedure, contributions, safety

This practice is really very simple, but surprisingly, not that many teachers follow it. On every assignment I give students, I list the objectives at the top of the page. If the course is one with a NC SCS curriculum, I lift the objectives directly from the curriculum. I also communicate these objectives to parents at the first of the year, along with a description of how we will address them. Further, as I plan the unit, I evaluate every activity based on how it addresses a given objective or objectives. The curriculum is posted in the classroom alongside the units which have the objectives addressed at the top. This is a very efficient way to build lessons and the students begin to evaluate themselves based

on the objectives.

Page on ESL Standards:

http://www.cal.org/public/ESLStds/

Other reviews from Atout micro

• Le dictionnaire Harrap's Shorter anglais/français - français/anglaisde LiRiS Interactive (Atout Micro, vol. 10, no 5)
• Kid Phonics de Davidson et Éditions Profil (Atout Micro, vol.11, no 3)
• Parlons Anglais de The Learning Company (Atout Micro, vol.10, no 9)
• Je parle l'anglais d'Infogrames ou Triple Play Plus de Syracuse (Atout Micro, vol. 9, no 6)
• Les verbes irréguliers anglais de Génération 5 (Atout Micro, vol. 11, no 6)
• All-in-one Language Fun de Syracuse Language Systems (Atout Micro, vol. 9, no 1)
• Le dictionnaire Harrap's Multilingue en douze langues de LiRiS Interactive (Atout Micro, vol. 10, no 3)

Story Hour

http://www.ipl.org/youth/StoryHour/StoryHour.html

the Internet Public Library

Internet stories for young readers

• Mother Goose on the Web
• Mousie's Adventures
• It's Magic!
• The Tortoise and the Hare
• Molly Whuppie
• Do Spiders Live on the World Wide Web?
• The Fisherman and His Wife
• The Boy Who Drew Cats

Children's Story Collections

At the Children's Literary Web Guide

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/new.html

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 15:32:38 EST

From: berhan <adler@TM.NET.MY>

Subject: Teaching Reading to Beginners
 
 

This is in addition to the thread on teaching beginners.

One thing that I used to do when I was teaching Indian students in a vernacular primary school in Malaysia (where English was/is considered an ‘alien’ language after Bahasa Melayu and Tamil respectively) was to make mistakes. For example, whenever we read a particular passage for the second time (acknowledging in mind that the students have already understood the sounds of particular words or the sequenced structure of a phrase) I’d deliberately mispronounced/misread them. Having learnt the correct pronunciation/structure and being able to identify that the teacher’s pronunciation/structure was wrong the students would always correct it loudly together thinking that the teacher was careless enough to mispronounce/read it. Having ‘realized’ that there were smart enough to identify the mistakes and being able to correct the teacher really boosted their morale and confidence for further reading/practice that entailed. I found that I never failed to make my classes love reading aloud (for that matter) or pronunciation practice using this ‘deliberate error’ technique. In fact, it motivated them to read more and practiced often on their own so that the next time around the teacher makes a ‘mistake’ they’d be prepared to show the teacher how skillful they are. regards, •

berhan-

adler@tm.net.my TEKNIK, Malaysia

Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 17:02:56 EST

From: Anthea Tillyer <ABTHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: For beginners/low level X-

yes One of the most interesting and student-empowering activities to do with beginners and very low level students is "language experience". In this activity, learners try to tell a story, an experience, in English. They prepare the necessary vocabulary in advance. Then, in class, one student begins to tell his/her story to the teacher and the rest of the class. the teacher is standing at the blackboard and listens carefully to the student, writing the student’s story on the board IN CORRECT, FLUENT, AND CURRENT ENGLISH. The student often has to struggle to get the teacher to understand what the story is, but in the end it is always sucessful (with the help of other students and all the dictionaries the group has). A good story for this kind of activity is pretty short and simple, and sometimes the teacher can model a story - one from childhood is good - in advance. Don’t worry about whether or not the students have "learned that yet"...just go ahead and copy what the narrator is saying, in whatever tense or structure‘ is appropriate (in other words, do NOT write what the student is actually saying; write what the student is TRYING to say and would say - if he were a native or near-native speaker. By the way, this can take A LONG TIME! At the end, the complete story is on the board, and everyone is very excited and proud because it is a group effort and "belongs’ to them. You can bet that no one in that classroom will ever forget any of the vocabulary or grammar in that tale! Later, the narrator can be asked to dictate the story again to the whole class, and everyone writes it down again. Since they already know the story and are intimate with every detail and every word of its construction, this dictation is not arduous, but it serves to reinforce the structures and vocabulary and to develop good pronunciation. A nice thing to do is to have the whole group create a class book of all the stories

Anthea Tillyer

***************************************
 
 

Nouns 1

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/vq/mc-n1.html

 
Animals

http://www.discovery.ca/animals/index.htm

Visit this super site on animals.

Activity 1:

Choose an animal and report back to the class. Work in teams or individually.

Answer the following questions:

What is the name of the animal?

Where does it live?

What does it look like?

What does it like to eat?

What special characteristics does it have?

Activity 2 :

Take the QUIZ. From the information you learn, write 5 facts and quiz your classmates.

Research

MY VIRTUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

http://www.refdesk.com/myency.html

Offers links to:

Acronyms - Atomic Clock - Calculator - Calendar - Classifieds - Comics - Crosswords - Daily Almanac-Bartlett's Quotations - Biography - Census - Document Center - Encyclopedia.com - Information Please-Funk&Wagnalls - OneLook Dicts. - Maps - People Search - Ready Ref. - Roget's Thesaurus - Statistics - Stock Quotes - Symbols - Travel - Unit Converter - Webster's - World Fact Book - Yellow Pages - Zip2 -Reference Shelves on the Internet - Technology News - USA & World Newspapers

World Fact Book

From the archives of the American CIA

The World Fact Book combines the flag, map and descriptions of all countries.

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Trivia Quizzes

B&E's Selected Trivia Quiz and Resource Links.

http://people.delphi.com/nuitsblanc/links1.html

Check out Internet links to a very long list of pages dealing with quizzes.

Welcome To Trivia World!

http://www.triviaworld.com/

Environmental Project

Planet Earth

http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/teaching_learning/mt&r/YouMakeDifference.htm

Make a difference

Introduction

So many environmental issues but so little time. This activity requires you to connect with a single environmental issue, and develop a strategy to acquire support for the problem within your community. You will learn a few facts about the issue, but your main job will be to convince your classmates that they should be committed to helping solve the problem.

Task

Select one of the issues below. Learn all you can about the topic, but most importantly, identify the reason why people should really care about the environment. Your job will be to develop a television, radio, newspaper or internet public service announcement that will cause your classmates to make a personal commitment to help the environment.

Remember, before you can ask others to make a commitment, you must make the commitment yourself.

Web Site Resources

Last Tango in Carcass Canyon by Discovery On-Line

The Grand Staircase-Escalante is our nation’s newest national monument, however, is becoming a national monument a good thing? Are the scheduled parking lots, roads and stores an " improvement " over its current natural state?

Here are a few questions you must answer before you create your announcement.

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

Garbage by The Annenberg/CPB Project

This Web site attempts to answer the following question about recycling:

" How can we find ways to meet our current economic and social needs without compromising the ability of our children, and our children’s children, to do the same? " Your job is to create a public service announcement that supports or rejects committing public funds to recycling.

1.Travel to each (solid waste, hazardous waste and sewage) link, and pick out one fact from each that you find the most amazing. 2.Follow the global efforts link, and play the Shrinking a Landfill game. (Click on the trash can) Determine which type of recycling is the most cost effective.

3.List one thing you can do each day to help your community reduce garbage?

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

Year of the Tiger by The World Wildlife Federation

Navigate the links in this site, and produce a tiger public service announcement.

Do not fill in your name anywhere on the site without your teacher’s permission.

Here are a few questions you must answer.

1.Visit the message wall and determine why other people care about the tigers.

2.Why should a person in the United States be concerned with saving the tigers?

3.List three interesting facts about tigers.

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

Dumptown Game by the Environmental Protection Agency (Requires Shockwave Plug in)

This is an really cool interactive game, but you will need to read the directions carefully. The game will show you that it costs money to recycle. Your job is to create a public service announcement that supports or rejects committing public funds to recycling.

After playing the Dumptown game, here are the question you must answer.

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

Changing Seas by the World Wildlife Federation

The United Nations has named 1998 the Year of the Ocean. Here are a few questions you must answer before you create your announcement. Your job is to create a public service announcement that convinces a person that they can help the ocean even if they don’t live near it.

Habitat by National Geographic

Deep in the Monongahela National Forest of West Virginia the United States Forest Service is studying the process by which a forest evolves. Your job is to study old growth forests and create a public service announcement that supports or rejects plans to stop cutting down old growth forests.

1.Compare the 2 year old stand with the 86 year old stand. What are the differences?

2.Why would anyone cut down an old growth forest?

3.Play the Fantastic Forest game. Who lives in the old growth forest?

What happens to the wildlife after an old forest stand is cut down?

4.Why should people care about the old growth forests?

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

Everglades by the National Parks System

" No other place combines a subtropical climate, a broad, shallow river, and a stunning diversity of plants and animals into such a complex and fragile ecosystem. " Your job is to study about the Everglades and create a public service announcement that supports saving the Everglades.

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

8.Yosemite Visual Simulations by the National Parks System

In 1980, a plan was proposed to help restore the majestic Yosemite valley floor to its natural condition. View the Visual Simulations pages to get a feeling of what the park is trying to do. Your job is to create a public service announcement either supporting or rejecting the restoration plan.

1.Why would people not want to restore the parks natural condition?

What would they have to give up?

2.Why should people care about the Yosemite Valley?

3.List three interesting facts about Yosemite.

4.Is the purpose of a national monument/park to preserve the environment or provide access for people to enjoy the park?

After you have answered the questions, go to the proposal maker to begin creating your public service announcement.

The Process

Television Announcement

Get together with your group members and develop a skit that expresses why people should support your cause. If you have access to a video camera, you might try taping your skit. Remember, television is a visual medium, so pictures, graphs, props, and videos are your best resources. Good Luck! The environment is counting on you.

Radio Announcement

Develop an announcement that vividly expresses your issue. If you have a tape recorder, make a recording of your announcement. Remember people can’t see you, so you will need to find items that make the sounds you will need to convince someone that your topic is important.

Editorial Announcement

Write a letter to the editor or create a cartoon that tells the story behind your issue. You don’t have the luxury of sound, so your words must be vivid. How about turning it into your local paper.

Internet Web page

Use Filamentality to create a Web page that supports your topic. Carefully follow the directions provided in Filamentality, and you will successfully create your page. Include a link to the Web site you used to gather your information.

Last Revised 03/16/98

By Keith Nuthall

Techniques for Teaching with Video

http://www.phregents.com/techniqu.html

These five techniques, - Freeze Frame, Sound Only, Silent Viewing, Jigsaw Viewing, and Normal Viewing, - have become popular for teaching language with video. All suggest working with short sequences of action (one to three minutes long), repeated several times. A typical class period, or even a single activity, may incorporate more than one technique. For examples of these techniques in action, be sure to visit our Activity of the Month. And remember, print this page for easy reference.

Contact: