Planting Strawberries for Christmas

Gardening has provided wonderful opportunities for our young ESOL children to communicate and share opinions about a process. These children knew that strawberries were to be planted, but the question was, how were they going to work together to get the job done? These were some of the comments that were heard during the session.

a) The bag of soil is heavy, but I am strong.
b) Potting mix is a funny name.
c) The dirt is squishy.
d) Potting mix is not like that dirt. (pointed to the garden)
e) I see tree in the potting mix.
f)  The plants will be squishy in the pot.
g) There are lots of tiny strawberries.
h) The flowers are pretty. They are like daisies.
g) Plants need sun and water to grow.
h) I like icecream and strawberries.
i) We will all eat the strawberries.

Teacher: You will all have strawberries when they ripe.
               When they are red they will be ready to eat.

The students followed a set of instructions and helped each other to plant and water the strawberry plants. Here is a short slideshow that they wanted to share with you.

The Art of Telling a Story

Our senior ESOL students have been exploring the elements of narrative writing. A painting titled 'The Sad Clown' was shared with three students. The emotion expressed on the clown's face was used as a discussion point aimed at developing vocabulary that could be integrated into a character description.  

What did the students know about clowns? 

What did they know about this clown?

What role did a clown play in a circus? 

After sharing the short story 'The Circus is Coming to Town', and personal circus experiences, our students were asked to plan possible scenarios that would explain the clown's sadness. Following much discussion and planning, drafting began. Each step in the process provided wonderful opportunities for targeted teaching. 

Once the writing was completed and edited, a sound track was made using Garage Band. Sound effects were added by the students. Each student was asked to create a series of colourful pictures to visually reinforce the storyline. They were digitally recorded and stored in iPhoto. Finally the students uploaded the photos onto iMovie and dropped in the soundtrack stored in iTunes. They methodically timed their track, added credits and saved the movie for viewing.  

These movies are excellent examples of how a student can use technology to learn to speak a new language. During the lengthy teaching and learning process, many questions were asked and a great deal of information shared. The greatest incentive for writing was the opportunity to bring their own stories to life and to share them with a wider audience. Two of these students have been learning to speak, read and write English for less than a year. They hope you enjoy their movies.