Editing ESL/ESL class summaries and lesson plans (section)

== Wed Jan 15 ==
We had five students tonight. 

Overview:

* Spent the majority of class reviewing the Christmas vocabulary sheet. Sat with the students and went around the group and had each student pronounce the next word then practice together. 
** Pulled up images on the projector for words that students may be less familiar with . like "wreath", "holly", "shepherds", and "poinsettia". It was fun to hear the students give the different names for things like how poinsettias are nochebuenas in Mexico, but called flor de pascua in Guatemala.
** Reviewed some of the trickier words on the board (holy vs holly) and (Mr., Mrs., and Ms.)
* Had students review family member vocab with an exercise on the board. I pulled up a family tree from the Step Forward books and had the students answer questions individually and then write the answers on the board.
* While the students were working on the exercise I worked with a new student who is very new to English. He came in with a completed packet of worksheets he got from last Sunday. 
** We started going over the first two pages. He was getting the idea of two or more people using "they", for a man "he", a woman "she". With the conjugation of "to be" he had a little more trouble. I gave him some examples in English and Spanish but ran out of time.
* We ended class with the Hail Mary. I handed out the last of your prayer cards (sorry Michael!)

Thoughts for next time:
* Would like to get to possessive pronouns next week. Would allow us to build off of past vocab and lessons. (my brother, your aunt, my arm hurts, etc).
* Was speaking with Michael after class about how to best help newer students, and especially students with little or no classroom experience. There is a bit of an added learning curve to just pick up how to fill out worksheets or practice things in class. With time our students will pick these things up, but may be worth circling back and making sure we cover class room relevant phrases. During class today after I said "let's repeat together" and waved my hands around, Julio looked to one of the students and asked "junto" and they quickly explained which was a great help. 
** Phrases around "I do not understand", "repeat", "say", "listen", "write" may be a good starting point.
* On the other side of the coin, it may be helpful just to start with phrases that would be used frequently and help students day to day life. A friend of mine in school studied to be a Spanish teacher, and at the time (over ten years ago!) the trend was to start with teaching phrases to get the students speaking and immersed in the language, then layer in grammar. At the time I thought that was odd because I always appreciated the structure and rules around why each word is chosen, but not everyone learns the same way. Now I have come to appreciate that idea more because it can get you more engaged faster. This could all be out of date, and I'm not a professional, but could be an interesting way to introduce new material.
** This is a very long winded way of saying that it may help to come up with common phrases for students to practice out in the world. Asking about bus stops can help introduce letters and numbers, and the metro gives us a chance to learn and practice colors. 
** Michael's worksheets on dialogue practice is a great jumping off point here.