Core Thoughts - Putting ULAs to the Test
For the Action Research part of our project, I chose to focus on six of the Universal Language Actions (ULAs) in Katy Arnett and Renée Bourgoin’s book, "Access for Success: Making Inclusion Work for Language Learners". (You can find the list of ULAs here) Most of them were things I was already doing, but for the project I chose to be more intentional about them, planning ahead instead of using them on the fly.
Here are my reflections on my experience with each one ...
ULA Action 1.5 Providing wait time when presenting new information, after asking a question, or before inviting learners to start a task
This action was a hard task for myself to get over. I only have 30 minutes in the classroom which can be a barrier itself to get started. I did make myself flexible by allowing the students that needed time to sit out for short period and observe. One particular student in class needs time to watch the activity before he can join in, and that is ok because he knew my expectation, and he knew he had some time to observe.
Other times when we would learn new vocabulary or a new game, I would give them a few moments to sit and reflect on the new material. I found this to be fairly effective as it made the students think about their task to accomplish and usually would get good results, more so than teaching the material and saying “go”.
ULA Action 2.6 Choosing grouping arrangements that favour peer communication
Every classroom is organized in a different way. As an itinerant teacher you usually don’t have much say in how a classroom is organized, and this has made me come up with a system that usually works with whatever might be thrown at me. I either make popsicle sticks (that are sometimes made by their homeroom teacher) or input students’ names in the random group generator from Smartboard. The students learn the expectation that this is how groups are going to be chosen, and they are to meet with this person(s) for the activity.
When in their groups, I often (and mostly) had sentence starters already on the smartboard. The students generally got used to them and were able to start their sentences off in French, and that was ok for me, even if they tailed off into English.
ULA Action 2.5 Using pedagogical and language production routines
In our school routine is so important. I organize the days of the week with the class at the start of the year. What that means is each day the students know exactly what we are doing. For example on Mondays and Tuesdays we generally do word work and learn vocabulary from our new unit. On Wednesdays we play card games in French. On Thursdays we use technology, whether it is a game or quiz or drawing using our new vocab. On Fridays the students really took to using Kahoot this year, and would reflect (read and answer) questions and vocab that was used in the week. It was nice because they knew the expectation everyday for what we were going to do.
There is always structure inside the structure and I just want to share one example of our routine during the word work days. Towards the end of class I would have them share words that they learned in a sentence to their group. I had the students draw a picture (quick sketch) of what they wanted to say. This sketch would help them say their sentence and remember things that we talked about earlier in the lesson and to articulate their ideas in another language, and this got them ready to talk!
ULA Action 2.3 Creating and displaying linguistic supports around the classroom
I was already providing on Smartboard but thought about making laminated versions to go on groups of desks to provide choices but didn’t get to it. This is a next step for me.
ULA Action 3.2 Dividing lessons, activities, and and tasks into many small steps (to reduce overload)
I spoke about routines earlier in this section, and for me this section is directly related to routine. Our routine is built into our schedule, and within this routine each task/activity is divided into even smaller steps.
Over the years I have grown a lot in this aspect. When I first started as a teacher it was: deliver the lesson, now go to work. Things are so much easier and students are much more successful when they have their day in a routine, and divided into small steps.
Like the example above: we learn the new words, we repeat the new words, we reflect on the new words, we have an example, we speak the new words in a sentence.
On my game days we review the games we are allowed to play. We reflect on what game we would like to play, we practice one sentence from the game that we want to play, and we go play.
ULA Action 3.6 Explain the relevance of what is being taught
Making the language authentic! Where could we use the language that we are learning? In what circumstance might we encounter? This was a really fun conversation with some students, as we would often imagine ourselves in some situation somewhere in the world and our community that we have to use our second language and the vocabulary that we are learning.
An example is our directions unit. We would go through our routine of learning the new words, and the final task was to explain the directions (using Google Earth) for how to get to your house. The situation that the students came up with was that you had a French speaking taxi driver! We went with it and each took a turn being the taxi driver and the other was the passenger.
Paul
Here are my reflections on my experience with each one ...
ULA Action 1.5 Providing wait time when presenting new information, after asking a question, or before inviting learners to start a task
This action was a hard task for myself to get over. I only have 30 minutes in the classroom which can be a barrier itself to get started. I did make myself flexible by allowing the students that needed time to sit out for short period and observe. One particular student in class needs time to watch the activity before he can join in, and that is ok because he knew my expectation, and he knew he had some time to observe.
Other times when we would learn new vocabulary or a new game, I would give them a few moments to sit and reflect on the new material. I found this to be fairly effective as it made the students think about their task to accomplish and usually would get good results, more so than teaching the material and saying “go”.
ULA Action 2.6 Choosing grouping arrangements that favour peer communication
Every classroom is organized in a different way. As an itinerant teacher you usually don’t have much say in how a classroom is organized, and this has made me come up with a system that usually works with whatever might be thrown at me. I either make popsicle sticks (that are sometimes made by their homeroom teacher) or input students’ names in the random group generator from Smartboard. The students learn the expectation that this is how groups are going to be chosen, and they are to meet with this person(s) for the activity.
When in their groups, I often (and mostly) had sentence starters already on the smartboard. The students generally got used to them and were able to start their sentences off in French, and that was ok for me, even if they tailed off into English.
ULA Action 2.5 Using pedagogical and language production routines
In our school routine is so important. I organize the days of the week with the class at the start of the year. What that means is each day the students know exactly what we are doing. For example on Mondays and Tuesdays we generally do word work and learn vocabulary from our new unit. On Wednesdays we play card games in French. On Thursdays we use technology, whether it is a game or quiz or drawing using our new vocab. On Fridays the students really took to using Kahoot this year, and would reflect (read and answer) questions and vocab that was used in the week. It was nice because they knew the expectation everyday for what we were going to do.
There is always structure inside the structure and I just want to share one example of our routine during the word work days. Towards the end of class I would have them share words that they learned in a sentence to their group. I had the students draw a picture (quick sketch) of what they wanted to say. This sketch would help them say their sentence and remember things that we talked about earlier in the lesson and to articulate their ideas in another language, and this got them ready to talk!
ULA Action 2.3 Creating and displaying linguistic supports around the classroom
I was already providing on Smartboard but thought about making laminated versions to go on groups of desks to provide choices but didn’t get to it. This is a next step for me.
ULA Action 3.2 Dividing lessons, activities, and and tasks into many small steps (to reduce overload)
I spoke about routines earlier in this section, and for me this section is directly related to routine. Our routine is built into our schedule, and within this routine each task/activity is divided into even smaller steps.
Over the years I have grown a lot in this aspect. When I first started as a teacher it was: deliver the lesson, now go to work. Things are so much easier and students are much more successful when they have their day in a routine, and divided into small steps.
Like the example above: we learn the new words, we repeat the new words, we reflect on the new words, we have an example, we speak the new words in a sentence.
On my game days we review the games we are allowed to play. We reflect on what game we would like to play, we practice one sentence from the game that we want to play, and we go play.
ULA Action 3.6 Explain the relevance of what is being taught
Making the language authentic! Where could we use the language that we are learning? In what circumstance might we encounter? This was a really fun conversation with some students, as we would often imagine ourselves in some situation somewhere in the world and our community that we have to use our second language and the vocabulary that we are learning.
An example is our directions unit. We would go through our routine of learning the new words, and the final task was to explain the directions (using Google Earth) for how to get to your house. The situation that the students came up with was that you had a French speaking taxi driver! We went with it and each took a turn being the taxi driver and the other was the passenger.
Paul
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