I had a few ideas for changing the class description. It is always a great idea to review and revise anything you are working on for a class. I definitely need to add some kind of sentence or two covering the types of class materials; texts, readings, Youtube, etc. I haven't quite worked out what yet, but expect a change in the statement next time I write.
Okay, we are at one of the more difficult parts of building a curriculum; determining objectives and deciding on how to assess them. I won't talk too much on formatting your objectives. SWBAT works just fine or some other statement of the same format. Objectives need to be clear. Have some people read what you come up with and try to tell you what the objectives mean in their own words. If you get a match, you probably have a good objective. Also, I never want for vocabulary to be an objective on its own, otherwise you get an objective that is not so productive. For example,, it might sound something like this; "students will be able to memorize fifteen vocabulary words ...." Instead, it is more productive to include vocabulary within in your objective. Personally, I like to include some vocabulary in every lesson. I believe it is a natural part of learning another language and your students will always have questions about words they do not readily understand. Objectives need to be able to be assessed easily. You may not always be the one presenting your lesson and other instructors will need to understand them in order to assess results. Finally, objectives need to be attainable. it is frustrating to not be able to achieve an objective; especially for ELL students. It is important to also understand that you as an instructor will certainly have some parts of your objective that are implied within your lessons.
Let's take a look at a simple objective on our topic of employment. "Students will be able to identify key parts of a standard job application." So, some questions; "what are the key parts of a standard job application?" And, "what is a standard job application?" These are the parts of your objective that will be implied from your lesson plans. So, the answer to the two questions are essentially up to you the instructor, but most adult Americans will have a good idea of what both mean. You have to convey this generality to ELL students who may have never seen or filled in a job application.
To ensure the students can achieve this objective, you as the instructor would build a lesson plan that explained what a standard job application looks like and what the key parts are that it contains. I don't want to get to far down into the minutia of it, but looking over a few sample applications will help you to define these concepts. As mentioned, vocabulary would included in the lesson and would be assessed as part of the overall objective. I would try to limit the new vocabulary presented to 5-7 words or terms. Students will definitely add a handful of additional words/terms as you present your lesson and as they ask questions on what is presented. The end goal is to have introduced no more that around 15 new words.terms; anymore will be difficult to retain. In my opinion less is more here. Thoroughly learning 10 words is better than sort of learning 20.
I think from there you could include a second lesson covering applications, ensuring that you build in some time for review. Thus, by the end of your block of lessons, you will have introduced somewhere around 20 new words/terms over your two lessons and will have reviewed the other important points of your objective. All that is left is to then include this objective in some form of assessment. We will get to that in a few posts.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Curriculum Part 2
At this point we have had a chance to mull over our gathered information. I would, at this stage, start to think about any "special" issues I may have in mind for my curriculum to be. By this I mean things like searching out and inviting guest speakers, any media issues, text and reading selections, and whatever else may come to mind.
Guest speakers could be any employment related speakers. For example, it might be great to invite someone who does job interviews or who writes employment/job descriptions. This would be a chance to have the students ask questions. This fits into both listening and speaking skills. Media can be almost anything, but specifically would include videos you might want to show. The internet is loaded with practice interviews and presentations about jobs and employment issues in general. These types of things are always works in process, so visit the web frequently. A good rule of thumb is to always pre-check your links at the beginning of any semester and always before each class. Technology is changing and links often disappear and change with little or no warning. Texts are a hard issue. I have not been fortunate to find many texts relating to specific ELL topics like employment and especially when the students are primarily adults. I doubt a search for an ELL-focused text solely on employment will 100% fruitful. However, there may be parts of texts that do address this topic and certainly there are some articles out there somewhere. Again, this takes a ton of prep time, but the payoff is certainly worth it in the end. The students will appreciate your hard work. As an aside, I have found that Adult ELL students are generally some of the most appreciative students I have ever found. Other items that may come to mind are things like gathering some real-world job applications (these are fun and informative to practice filling out), collect some links to a few job advertisement web sites (Monster.com being an obvious one), and perhaps collect a few resume templates.
The next step is perhaps one of the most difficult ones in this process; develop a class overview statement. In this statement you needs to address the end state of your course. Again, this can be a work in progress. However, this statement is what people will base their interest in your course upon. It is also a statement of what tools a typical student should leave your class with. Another word of caution; avoid using numbers in your statement. Numbers imply specific expectations, and if those exist, then it is imperative that you deliver exactly the numbers you promote. A better course of action is to try to make a specific, but all encompassing statement of purpose. An example for this course here might be something like my example below. As always, this is a fluid statement that will be revised as we go through the process.
Employment for ELLs can be a matter of the utmost importance. ELL105 will provide students with an overview of employment in the United States. Vocabulary will be focused on employment/job-related terms. Students will be exposed to many aspects of employment such as; resumes, job interviews, job descriptions, the application process, employment reviews, and job/salary negotiations. The course will include practical exercises to aid in the job search and the application process. Students completing the course will be better able to successfully seek out employment as well as understand the process as a whole.
So, now we have a course ready for its next step. Let's think a bit on what that step is and I will be back in a few days to give you my thoughts.
Guest speakers could be any employment related speakers. For example, it might be great to invite someone who does job interviews or who writes employment/job descriptions. This would be a chance to have the students ask questions. This fits into both listening and speaking skills. Media can be almost anything, but specifically would include videos you might want to show. The internet is loaded with practice interviews and presentations about jobs and employment issues in general. These types of things are always works in process, so visit the web frequently. A good rule of thumb is to always pre-check your links at the beginning of any semester and always before each class. Technology is changing and links often disappear and change with little or no warning. Texts are a hard issue. I have not been fortunate to find many texts relating to specific ELL topics like employment and especially when the students are primarily adults. I doubt a search for an ELL-focused text solely on employment will 100% fruitful. However, there may be parts of texts that do address this topic and certainly there are some articles out there somewhere. Again, this takes a ton of prep time, but the payoff is certainly worth it in the end. The students will appreciate your hard work. As an aside, I have found that Adult ELL students are generally some of the most appreciative students I have ever found. Other items that may come to mind are things like gathering some real-world job applications (these are fun and informative to practice filling out), collect some links to a few job advertisement web sites (Monster.com being an obvious one), and perhaps collect a few resume templates.
The next step is perhaps one of the most difficult ones in this process; develop a class overview statement. In this statement you needs to address the end state of your course. Again, this can be a work in progress. However, this statement is what people will base their interest in your course upon. It is also a statement of what tools a typical student should leave your class with. Another word of caution; avoid using numbers in your statement. Numbers imply specific expectations, and if those exist, then it is imperative that you deliver exactly the numbers you promote. A better course of action is to try to make a specific, but all encompassing statement of purpose. An example for this course here might be something like my example below. As always, this is a fluid statement that will be revised as we go through the process.
Employment for ELLs can be a matter of the utmost importance. ELL105 will provide students with an overview of employment in the United States. Vocabulary will be focused on employment/job-related terms. Students will be exposed to many aspects of employment such as; resumes, job interviews, job descriptions, the application process, employment reviews, and job/salary negotiations. The course will include practical exercises to aid in the job search and the application process. Students completing the course will be better able to successfully seek out employment as well as understand the process as a whole.
So, now we have a course ready for its next step. Let's think a bit on what that step is and I will be back in a few days to give you my thoughts.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Curriculum Part 1
I wanted to write something a little more substantial than my last few posts. Summer has made me lazy.
So, I wanted to talk about curriculum. I had the opportunity to help rewrite a course while I served in the military. Basically it was an older course designed with language acquisition in mind. The decision was made that the material and goals of the course were outdated and my office of three and then two was asked to rewrite and update the course for presentation at the next language manager's conference. I want to take the time over my next few post and write a bit about how we got there and, perhaps, what we might have done differently.
We decided to start with a questioning period. We sent out requests to all our consumers, so to speak, and as we waited we, as a small group, began to deconstruct the course as it existed. In sending out requests we essentially were searching for feedback from those actually using the knowledge from the course. We asked them to tell us what worked and what didn't. We made it clear that no issue was sacred and we were willing to change any and everything. As I stated, this was to be a complete rewrite if necessary. Of course, being able to use some of the existing material would have made the job easier, but we didn't want to arbitrarily limit ourselves.
As an instructor, I would not want to try and rewrite a course. However, perhaps you are wanting to pitch the idea of a new course to your school or to some organization. This type of approach would be an excellent starting point. Get out there and ask questions. Find out where the need is and try to build around that. From a practical standpoint I would look at several sources for my initial information. In most cases my first step would be to go to a mentor or someone whose experience I trusted and get their ideas. Remember to take notes as it is easy to forget details. If you work in a larger place you can talk to other instructors, even those teaching different subjects. There could be some gem of creativity out there being used by a Biology teacher which you could adapt to language study. It never hurts to ask for information. I would also check back at my course feedback. Sometimes students write something that makes sense ... joke intended! Furthermore, I would perhaps just ask some former students or even current students. Find out what they expected and if you met their expectations. Lastly, I would search the internet and just take a peek at what others are doing around the world. There are just too many resources on the internet to not take its content into account.
Once the information is gathered, the next step is to put into some form of usable content. From there we can start working with it as we build a new curriculum. Personally, I like sticky notes all over a wall mounted board, but go with whatever works. With sticky notes you can easily group and color-code information that you have gathered. Be sure to take into account the amount of time you have available for the course overall and that it is broken into blocks that include not just periods for instruction, but also for review and assessment.
As an example I want to use a pretty common topic that my adult ELLs always ask about; employment. So, let us say we are working with a class that meets three hours a week for 15 weeks which is a typical college semester. For example's sake the course will be ELL105 Employment in the U.S. Let that work in your mind a bit and I will follow up with part two of this blog.
So, I wanted to talk about curriculum. I had the opportunity to help rewrite a course while I served in the military. Basically it was an older course designed with language acquisition in mind. The decision was made that the material and goals of the course were outdated and my office of three and then two was asked to rewrite and update the course for presentation at the next language manager's conference. I want to take the time over my next few post and write a bit about how we got there and, perhaps, what we might have done differently.
We decided to start with a questioning period. We sent out requests to all our consumers, so to speak, and as we waited we, as a small group, began to deconstruct the course as it existed. In sending out requests we essentially were searching for feedback from those actually using the knowledge from the course. We asked them to tell us what worked and what didn't. We made it clear that no issue was sacred and we were willing to change any and everything. As I stated, this was to be a complete rewrite if necessary. Of course, being able to use some of the existing material would have made the job easier, but we didn't want to arbitrarily limit ourselves.
As an instructor, I would not want to try and rewrite a course. However, perhaps you are wanting to pitch the idea of a new course to your school or to some organization. This type of approach would be an excellent starting point. Get out there and ask questions. Find out where the need is and try to build around that. From a practical standpoint I would look at several sources for my initial information. In most cases my first step would be to go to a mentor or someone whose experience I trusted and get their ideas. Remember to take notes as it is easy to forget details. If you work in a larger place you can talk to other instructors, even those teaching different subjects. There could be some gem of creativity out there being used by a Biology teacher which you could adapt to language study. It never hurts to ask for information. I would also check back at my course feedback. Sometimes students write something that makes sense ... joke intended! Furthermore, I would perhaps just ask some former students or even current students. Find out what they expected and if you met their expectations. Lastly, I would search the internet and just take a peek at what others are doing around the world. There are just too many resources on the internet to not take its content into account.
Once the information is gathered, the next step is to put into some form of usable content. From there we can start working with it as we build a new curriculum. Personally, I like sticky notes all over a wall mounted board, but go with whatever works. With sticky notes you can easily group and color-code information that you have gathered. Be sure to take into account the amount of time you have available for the course overall and that it is broken into blocks that include not just periods for instruction, but also for review and assessment.
As an example I want to use a pretty common topic that my adult ELLs always ask about; employment. So, let us say we are working with a class that meets three hours a week for 15 weeks which is a typical college semester. For example's sake the course will be ELL105 Employment in the U.S. Let that work in your mind a bit and I will follow up with part two of this blog.
Friday, June 9, 2017
Vacationing With an Being from Outer Space
As the title suggests, I have been on a bit of vacation/break with an entity from outer space. Actually he is our exchange student from China. As I have stated many times, I have lived all over the world and many times I have lived in very close quarters to people from all walks of life. I always thought of myself as pretty patient, understanding and even cosmopolitan, if you will. Well, that was a mistake on my part. Over the course of our vacation, I was astounded to find myself very perplexed by the young man who has been sharing our house. Was he, in fact, and alien? He is very gifted in the analytical fields, but he seemed to have little to no understanding of anything else. He has been very much an introvert while here, so I decided to have him help with some gardening and other outdoor activities. I soon discovered that he had never used a broom. He was unsure of even how to properly hold it for sweeping. I moved him to some light raking and he immediately turned the rake upside down and began to push it across the grass. I wanted to laugh, but did not want to embarrass him too much. Next we decided to do some walking and he got a blister the first day out. Bikes were out as he did not know how to ride one. I was just at a loss for words when I discovered how little about basic summer activities this young teen even understood. To say the least, it was an interesting time.
I relate this brief story as a lesson. Often we as instructors enter a class with preconceptions about our students based on what we see, think that we know, or have perhaps experienced in the past. In this case I approached my student with the idea that he knew basic gardening etc. Obviously, I was wrong and I found myself feeling a little guilty about my line of thought. I should have been more patient and rewarded what he was capable of rather than bemoaning what he was not. As an instructor it is important to be a bit humble at times. We have to work with the students we have not the students we think we have.
I relate this brief story as a lesson. Often we as instructors enter a class with preconceptions about our students based on what we see, think that we know, or have perhaps experienced in the past. In this case I approached my student with the idea that he knew basic gardening etc. Obviously, I was wrong and I found myself feeling a little guilty about my line of thought. I should have been more patient and rewarded what he was capable of rather than bemoaning what he was not. As an instructor it is important to be a bit humble at times. We have to work with the students we have not the students we think we have.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
The Fine Line: Culture and Accomodation
I started reading a book about multicultural teaching. I am trying to get a bit ahead for the upcoming semester. I know if I don't do a little prep now the summer will come and go before I realize and I will start off behind in my work.
I was reading through the preface; the book is a new edition and I wanted to get an idea of what changes had been made. The author made a point about instructors needing to realize that there is also a culture of gender. I never thought of gender as a culture, but her point made a lot of sense. We seem to see the obvious differences of race and ethnicity. However, within these broader categories there is also a distinct issue of gender. This is most especially apparent when dealing with an Islamic culture. In my last post I wrote briefly about the two young Muslim women who received awards at the local university. After reading through the beginning of this new book, I came to realize that in addition to the challenges to overcome stereotypes that these young women had to face; their instructors had to work equally as hard overcoming their own biases. I thought about how I might overcome some of the religiously based gender issues when preparing a lesson plan. Of course, female students from other cultures have issues to overcome, but it is most glaring in the case of Muslim women. I admit I am not an expert, but there has to be topics and even types of drills that might simply be offensive to a woman of Islamic faith. I know in the strictest sense there are cases where Muslim women and men simply do not participate in classes together. So, the question is, how do I accommodate something like this and still teach to my other students; especially males from the same background or from backgrounds diametrically opposed to Muslim culture? It become a very fine line. I like to think that any good instructor can and will adapt. Yet, what is our requirement to do so and to what degree? In the end do we go with gender based classes. I know when I was a child we would separate for our annual "sex" talks. Boys always seemed to get a coach and I have no idea who taught the girls. I think there may come a period of time when something like this is done for more types of classes than just sex education. Until then we seem stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place".
The text also mentioned the increasing rise in the immigrant make-up of our educational population; especially in public schools. I think we will approach about 40% of K-12 students being from immigrant families by 2020. I don't have the text here, so I may be off a bit in my numbers. I will try to look it up and correct the number when I get a chance.
The beauty of blogging is that one can do it on one's smart phone as I am doing with this post. However, I don't generally carry texts with me while doing normal, routine tasks.
Anyway, back to the topic. I thought for a few days about how I might accommodate a student from a unique cultural background? The simple answer is that I don't know. I do know that I would try my best and perhaps seek out some help from a more experience educator. Ideally, I might go to an educator of the same cultural background. It might be easiest to do that, but I doubt if some small town teacher from a rural area would have as easy a time finding help as I might. I think the first step is to simply be aware that this type of situation is on the rise and try to educate ourselves before it happens to us. From there I would try to adapt lesson plans to meet the needs of the student or students in need. Again, I think there might be significant work involved, but it is certainly something that can be done.
The next big question for me is how far would I go to accommodate a single student over a class of say 20 other students. This is where the "fine line" comes in. I truly think it is a potentially messy situation to go too far in one or the other direction. Obviously experience helps, but in the end the individual teacher has to make some choices.
Perhaps ask yourself the same question. Would you be able to change from what has worked well for you in the past and accept the challenge to adapt?
I was reading through the preface; the book is a new edition and I wanted to get an idea of what changes had been made. The author made a point about instructors needing to realize that there is also a culture of gender. I never thought of gender as a culture, but her point made a lot of sense. We seem to see the obvious differences of race and ethnicity. However, within these broader categories there is also a distinct issue of gender. This is most especially apparent when dealing with an Islamic culture. In my last post I wrote briefly about the two young Muslim women who received awards at the local university. After reading through the beginning of this new book, I came to realize that in addition to the challenges to overcome stereotypes that these young women had to face; their instructors had to work equally as hard overcoming their own biases. I thought about how I might overcome some of the religiously based gender issues when preparing a lesson plan. Of course, female students from other cultures have issues to overcome, but it is most glaring in the case of Muslim women. I admit I am not an expert, but there has to be topics and even types of drills that might simply be offensive to a woman of Islamic faith. I know in the strictest sense there are cases where Muslim women and men simply do not participate in classes together. So, the question is, how do I accommodate something like this and still teach to my other students; especially males from the same background or from backgrounds diametrically opposed to Muslim culture? It become a very fine line. I like to think that any good instructor can and will adapt. Yet, what is our requirement to do so and to what degree? In the end do we go with gender based classes. I know when I was a child we would separate for our annual "sex" talks. Boys always seemed to get a coach and I have no idea who taught the girls. I think there may come a period of time when something like this is done for more types of classes than just sex education. Until then we seem stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place".
The text also mentioned the increasing rise in the immigrant make-up of our educational population; especially in public schools. I think we will approach about 40% of K-12 students being from immigrant families by 2020. I don't have the text here, so I may be off a bit in my numbers. I will try to look it up and correct the number when I get a chance.
The beauty of blogging is that one can do it on one's smart phone as I am doing with this post. However, I don't generally carry texts with me while doing normal, routine tasks.
Anyway, back to the topic. I thought for a few days about how I might accommodate a student from a unique cultural background? The simple answer is that I don't know. I do know that I would try my best and perhaps seek out some help from a more experience educator. Ideally, I might go to an educator of the same cultural background. It might be easiest to do that, but I doubt if some small town teacher from a rural area would have as easy a time finding help as I might. I think the first step is to simply be aware that this type of situation is on the rise and try to educate ourselves before it happens to us. From there I would try to adapt lesson plans to meet the needs of the student or students in need. Again, I think there might be significant work involved, but it is certainly something that can be done.
The next big question for me is how far would I go to accommodate a single student over a class of say 20 other students. This is where the "fine line" comes in. I truly think it is a potentially messy situation to go too far in one or the other direction. Obviously experience helps, but in the end the individual teacher has to make some choices.
Perhaps ask yourself the same question. Would you be able to change from what has worked well for you in the past and accept the challenge to adapt?
Monday, May 8, 2017
Musings of Harmony and Pronunciation
I have a couple interesting, but short items I would like to write about in this post. I hope they will be interesting to some of you as well.
I had a chance to attend an awards ceremony at the local university. My wife received a scholarship and an award for community engagement. I am, as always, proud of her work. However, what struck me as a bit ironic was another situation. There were two sisters who seemed to steal the show from all the other award winners. Both of these young women were awarded multiple scholarships, won several awards and were generally praised throughout the ceremony. The interesting fact was that they were adherents of the Islamic faith. I have lived in the Middle East and I am aware of some of the issues of Islam as it relates to other faiths and cultures. What I found a bit ironic was that the news is overloaded with instances of racism and a general xenophobia in America, especially with regards to Islam. Yet, in the midst of all the hate and jingoism here were two Muslim women who were not only accepted by their peers but generally overwhelmingly praised by them as well. Sadly, I looked around and saw no television crews. I guess instances of peace and cooperation are just not as newsworthy. I also found it interesting that in many Muslim dominated countries these young ladies may not have even had the opportunity to attend a university. I like to think that most Americans would have been as proud of their recognition as I was and that they would have seen past race, religion and sex. America is truly a unique and wonderful country at times.
Another issue that came up recently was a question brought forth by a student of mine. He asked me why Americans get to mispronounce their English, but he, as a ELL student had to practice proper pronunciation. I honestly had no real answer for him. I told him that some of it was a simple laziness of use and ownership. "It is our language, so we can mispronounce it if we wish," I laughingly stated. This, of course, is not a great answer and not the answer to give. I felt that there was really no adequate answer to give him. However, I do have to think that my flippant response was probably the right one. Between, the regional patterns of American English, the lack of pronunciation training, and yes, the general laziness of American English speakers, we have sort of allowed pronunciation to slip and take a back seat to general usage. I think that I am now more certain I should endeavor to present my own speech with an ear towards proper pronunciation. I will tell you, it is not as easy as it sounds. I also want to encourage all my fellow instructors to be mindful of this issue as well. I think we owe our students a bit more in this area.
I had a chance to attend an awards ceremony at the local university. My wife received a scholarship and an award for community engagement. I am, as always, proud of her work. However, what struck me as a bit ironic was another situation. There were two sisters who seemed to steal the show from all the other award winners. Both of these young women were awarded multiple scholarships, won several awards and were generally praised throughout the ceremony. The interesting fact was that they were adherents of the Islamic faith. I have lived in the Middle East and I am aware of some of the issues of Islam as it relates to other faiths and cultures. What I found a bit ironic was that the news is overloaded with instances of racism and a general xenophobia in America, especially with regards to Islam. Yet, in the midst of all the hate and jingoism here were two Muslim women who were not only accepted by their peers but generally overwhelmingly praised by them as well. Sadly, I looked around and saw no television crews. I guess instances of peace and cooperation are just not as newsworthy. I also found it interesting that in many Muslim dominated countries these young ladies may not have even had the opportunity to attend a university. I like to think that most Americans would have been as proud of their recognition as I was and that they would have seen past race, religion and sex. America is truly a unique and wonderful country at times.
Another issue that came up recently was a question brought forth by a student of mine. He asked me why Americans get to mispronounce their English, but he, as a ELL student had to practice proper pronunciation. I honestly had no real answer for him. I told him that some of it was a simple laziness of use and ownership. "It is our language, so we can mispronounce it if we wish," I laughingly stated. This, of course, is not a great answer and not the answer to give. I felt that there was really no adequate answer to give him. However, I do have to think that my flippant response was probably the right one. Between, the regional patterns of American English, the lack of pronunciation training, and yes, the general laziness of American English speakers, we have sort of allowed pronunciation to slip and take a back seat to general usage. I think that I am now more certain I should endeavor to present my own speech with an ear towards proper pronunciation. I will tell you, it is not as easy as it sounds. I also want to encourage all my fellow instructors to be mindful of this issue as well. I think we owe our students a bit more in this area.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Chickens!!
My wife and I decided to try and raise some chickens. We have both decided to try and become a little more Earth friendly and this is one of the ideas we came up with. How does this pertain to teaching ELL students? I am glad the question is in your mind as you read this post.
One of the biggest challenges an instructor faces in a multicultural classroom is making the initial connection to one's students. It can be a huge impediment to learning. I would suggest that many Americans, in general, have little knowledge of life in the rest of the world. Sure, there is Europe and some parts of Asia that most Americans could be comfortable residing in for a period. But, how do you relate to a student from a third-world country; chickens!
Chickens are ubiquitous in most poorer countries. I can't even remember the number of places I have visited where chickens were underfoot and everywhere. Now that I am raising chickens myself, I have a perfect place from which to open up a discussion. I would be shocked if in a class of ELL students I wouldn't find someone who had chickens around at some point in their lives. There is a wealth of material in just this one simple connection.
There is all manner of vocabulary just about food; eating chicken for a meal or eggs. What are some good recipes for chicken? What do chickens themselves eat? From there one could talk about raising chickens or raising animals in general. Did anyone have a pet or have to do work related to chickens or other animals. The list of potential topic is as endless as one's imagination.
The point is that making that initial connection is key to getting a class moving in the right direction and stimulating participation and conversation ... so, don't discount chickens when it comes to ELL learners.
One of the biggest challenges an instructor faces in a multicultural classroom is making the initial connection to one's students. It can be a huge impediment to learning. I would suggest that many Americans, in general, have little knowledge of life in the rest of the world. Sure, there is Europe and some parts of Asia that most Americans could be comfortable residing in for a period. But, how do you relate to a student from a third-world country; chickens!
Chickens are ubiquitous in most poorer countries. I can't even remember the number of places I have visited where chickens were underfoot and everywhere. Now that I am raising chickens myself, I have a perfect place from which to open up a discussion. I would be shocked if in a class of ELL students I wouldn't find someone who had chickens around at some point in their lives. There is a wealth of material in just this one simple connection.
There is all manner of vocabulary just about food; eating chicken for a meal or eggs. What are some good recipes for chicken? What do chickens themselves eat? From there one could talk about raising chickens or raising animals in general. Did anyone have a pet or have to do work related to chickens or other animals. The list of potential topic is as endless as one's imagination.
The point is that making that initial connection is key to getting a class moving in the right direction and stimulating participation and conversation ... so, don't discount chickens when it comes to ELL learners.
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