ISSUE
02
May 2014
The BelizeTESOL Association
Exploring new ways to teaching English language learners (ELLs) ...
In This Issue: Newsletter Launching at US Embassy P.1 Belize TESOL on Open Your Eyes P.2
Every teacher should be
Belize TESOL Presentation at BNTU P.3
emotionally intelligent (Mortiboys 2002). Having
Belize TESOL Calendar of Events P.4
primary, secondary and tertiary level English teaching
Literacy Alive Project P.5
experience gave me insight on
KAINA’s New Development P.6
the many perplexities ELLs of all ages suffer when they
High School Drop Out—Key Factors P.7
instinctively use their native language structures and rules
SIOP Instruction & Lesson Planning P.8
as a scaffold when acquiring a
Facebook Page & Membership Form P. 9
second language. A teacher’s lack of emotional intelligence impedes students from a holistic learning experience (Mortiboys 2002). It is common in Belize to witness teachers reprimanding students for using their native language during an English lesson. While we want to encourage students to use the English language, they will occasionally code switch or code slide. Therefore, every English teacher should assist students to acquire the English language while ensuring that only positive and productive emotions are at play. —-Erica S. Aguilar
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Belize TESOL Newsletter Launching at US Embassy Ever since Ms. Emilia Adams came to the jewel, the pioneers of BelizeTESOL have been doubly encouraged to make BelizeTESOL a success story. Ably assisted by Ms. Denise Fuller and other officers at the US Embassy in Belmopan, all efforts have been geared towards this goal. In February, Ms. Jen McArthur, the Regional Language Officer for Central America visited Belize. Officers of BelizeTESOL met with Ms. McArthur on February 6th, then met with members of BelizeTESOL on Saturday, February 8, 2014. Both meetings were extremely informative. Ms. McArthur shared valuable information about her role as Regional Language Officer, TESOL International and its benefits, the offering of Online Educational courses in Belize, the role that BelizeTESOL can and will play in Belize, and the necessity of facilitating our membership in TESOL International. Dr. Silvaana Udz charmed the audience with an interactive and informative presentation on Kriol Methodology. One of the highlights of the meeting was when Mrs. Erica Aguilar, editor, designer presented us with the first edition of the first ever Belize TESOL newsletter. We were positively impacted by Ms. McArthur’s visit and the pioneers of BelizeTESOL, Dr. Alberita Enriquez, Mrs. Erica Aguilar, Mrs. Margaret Enriquez, our coaches, Ms. Adams and Ms. Fuller, our supporters Ms. Jennifer Tatum and Ms. Cecile Ramirez have increased their efforts to promote Belize TESOL. —-Ethnelda Paulino First President, BelizeTESOL
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BelizeTESOL on Open Your Eyes
Open Your Eyes is a morning talk show on Channel 5 Belize news hosted by William Neal and Marleni Cuellar (Left). Guests were Ms. Ethnelda Paulino, BelizeTESOL President; Alberita Enriquez, BelizeTESOL Vice President, and Amelia Adams a USA Embassy Representative and BelizeTESOL supporter.
Exploring new ways to teaching English language learners (ELLs) ... 3
Belize TESOL Presentation at BNTU BNTU/ 2 for the Price of 1, BelizeTESOL Membership Drive! One of the main reasons for promoting a TESOL Association in Belize is to give support to all Belizean teachers. All Belizean teachers are teachers of English, whether we care to admit it or not! In the interest of the learners of Belize, we feel obligated to prepare the children of today for the lives they will live and the positions they will hold in the future. The lives of the teachers who are teaching them today will be in their hands tomorrow. Seriously! In our effort to increase membership, the president of BelizeTESOL made a presentation to at the BNTU convention on Wednesday April 23th, on why Belize should become an affiliate member and the benefits of TESOL. There was a TESOL membership drive (2 for the Price of 1, BelizeTESOL Membership Drive). This fundraising drive was successfully conducted by BelizeTESOL Treasurer, Mrs. Margaret Enriquez. The membership now stands at 36 persons. Please be reminded that the minimum number for becoming an affiliate is 50. Join us!! —Ethnelda Paulino First President, BelizeTESOL
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Belize TESOL Calendar of Events
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Literacy Alive Project with Ms. Martinez The Literacy Alive Project began in September 2012 as a Rotary district program. The partners are Rotary District 5370, the rotary club of San Ignacio, Lion’s club partnering with the Literacy Alive and also with Saturday intervention classes which is continuous throughout the year every Saturday from 9:00am 12:00am and the Ministry of Education. This program provides professional development for teachers in Belize, in the areas of: Language Arts, Math and Science. The objectives of the program are: Professional development for teachers. Establishment and maintenance of technical and communication capacity to improve teachers support in teaching methods. To improve the educational experience in Belizean schools. Reduce the student dropout rate by 100% and student passes on national exam. To create a highly motivate teacher with print rich positive attitude classroom. To have children read to their reading level. Since its induction the Literacy Alive project has hosted many educational and fun-filled activities such as: (1) Literacy parade, whereby the children from the St. Martin’s Government School participated in the literacy parade under the theme Literacy for Peace. (2) Belize literacy unit testing, done in October and post-test was done in May in three schools. The results for the pre test was discuss with schools before the post test was given. Our lady of Fatima got the highest results followed by St. Martin’s and followed by Valley of Peace. (3) Culture Day, Mrs. Emily did a special presentation to implement the food, attire, customs and beliefs, music etc. of the culture. Children had to read, research, write and presentation on the Garifuna culture. (4) Intervention workshop, The teachers at St. Martin school were given a workshop reviewing the Mico and how to implement intervention s strategies. (5) CPD’s - Continuous Development Workshop for teacher in San Ignacio and Belmopan. (6) Literacy Alive Summer Program. (7) Parents and students literacy night. (8) Field trip to Placencia. The field was to Placencia and the purpose of the field trip was to reward the children as well as to create a friendly community spirit in families in Belmopan, it’s a form of uniting families and also to develop experiences in children that they can read and write about their experiences. There is so much going on in Belmopan! If you wish to join this educational and fulfilling endeavor, please contact Ms. Emily Martinez at 630-0572 or e-mail her at: emilypmartinez@yahoo.com.
Ms. Emily Martinez Literacy Alive Project Coach 6
KAINA’s New Developments
Kaina Online High School is the first online high school of Belize. It is the brainchild of Ethnelda Ramirez Paulino. The name, Kaina is the name of the founder’s mother. Dr. Rita Enriquez is the co-founder of the Kaina Online High School. Kaina Online High School will offer courses taught in regular high schools. It requires internet access. It will, for example eliminate the expenses of purchasing costly foot wear, uniforms, and providing money for transportation, lunch, and books. It will offer the four years of high School; upon successful completion, a person will earn a high school diploma, thereby enabling that person to access college and university education. The school accepts persons who want to do four years of high school and persons who wish to complete high school. For example, if someone successfully completed 2nd form, then he /she will be accepted into 3rd form and so on. Such a person needs to submit a high school transcript. A prospective form one student needs to submit his/her last report card or Primary School leaving Certificate. students for ATLIB. Kaina Online will also offer electives like agriculture, clothing and textiles, as well as non-traditional subjects like grooming (barbering, pedicure, manicure, hair processing). There will be a Face to Face orientation in order to teach students how to work online. Teachers will chat online, accept calls, text messages, and e-mails, as we progress. They will also require a few Face to Face Sessions as the need arises and when students request it. The registration fee is a non-refundable 25BZD per year and the fees are $300 per semester. A student can pay the 300.00 in full or pay $350.00 in installments. Each year, there will be two semesters. This is the plan. We decided that we need at least 10 students per class. So, you are free to invite others to apply. Although we intend to start later this month we may even begin a little later since it takes a while for new ideas to catch on. The good thing about online is that we can begin anytime. Yours in Education, Ethnelda Ramirez Paulino
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SIOP Instruction Approach for ELLs On January 7th and 8th 2013, Dr. Hale, a fulbright scholar from Boise State University, in partnership with the University of Belize, held a two-day workshop at the University of Belize, Belmopan Campus. FEA faculty members were given training on the “Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model,” this pedagogical tool consists of eight components that must be present within each lesson plan, especially formulated for teachers of English learners (ELs). In efforts to also train primary school teachers, with the assistance of UB lecturers: myself (Erica Aguilar), Ms. Cecile Ramirez and Ms. Kimberly Stuart, Dr. Hale extended her workshop sessions to Kuxlin Ha Government School. This three day workshop proved useful and the teachers were excited to present their own mini lessons using the SIOP Model; however, the teachers expressed their discontent in having to constantly adjust to the many variations of lesson plans existing in almost every school. Some of these teachers, are current UB FEA students, while some are newly transferred teachers, therefore, their major assertion is that there should be only one lesson plan used by both the University of Belize and in every school in Belize. The SIOP Model is yet another model for lesson planning they need to adjust to. While standardization is certainly necessary for lesson plans teachers use in Government schools, the components in the SIOP lesson plan are similar, worded differently, but synonymous to those found in the UB lesson plan and Kuxlin Ha’s Lesson plan. The SIOP lesson plan calls for both “content objectives” and “language objectives” to be clearly and specifically written. Nevertheless, after explaining the similarity and differences between the UB lesson plan the SIOP lesson plan-the workshop was productive. As educators we should all know that over 98% of our students, at all levels, are ELs. In essence, we need to teach these students accordingly; we have already began testing this model within the Belizean context. This model is for all subject areas- not just English class. Because it is important to cater for our ELs, you will soon be reading about our research progress using the SIOP Model within the Belizean classroom. Ms. Stuart and I have been observing bi-weekly lessons using the SIOP Model since February 3, 2014 at Kuxlin Ha and St. Martin’s Government school-we will keep you informed. —- Erica S. Aguilar M.Sc. English/TESOL Facilitator at the University of Belize
Dr. Hale
Summer Workshop at Kuxlin Ha-Introduction to the SIOP Model 8
SIOP Instruction What Is It? The SIOP Model is a USA based lesson planning model-a product of a collaborated effort among American educational stakeholders. This Model emerged as the end product of a research project sponsored by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE); CREDE is a national research center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, to support the USA’s ELs demographic, inclusive of those at risk of educational failure (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). The lesson planning model consists of eight components: preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment. The SIOP features for preparation include: clearly defined content and language objectives, content concepts appropriate for age and level, supplemental materials used to make lesson effective, adaptation of content to all levels of student proficiency, meaningful activities that integrate lesson concepts with language practice opportunities for all four language learning skills. The SIOP features for Building Background focus on: concepts explicitly linked to students’ background experiences, learning new concepts and key vocabulary emphasized. The SIOP features of comprehensible input highlights speech appropriateness for students’ proficiency levels; clear explanation of academic tasks and techniques used to make content concepts clear. The SIOP features for strategies encompasses the ample opportunities for students to use strategies, consistent use of scaffolding techniques throughout lesson, assisting and supporting student understanding, and usage of question types, including those that promote higher order thinking-throughout lesson. The SIOP feature of Interaction speaks to ensuring frequent opportunities for student-teacher and student-student interactions is encouraged, group configurations that suppose language and content objectives of lesson, sufficient wait time is frequently given to students contribution, and ensuring ample opportunities is given for students to clarify key concepts in L1 as needed with aide, peer, etc. The SIOP feature of practice and application illustrates the hands-on materials and/or manipulative for students to practice using their new content and language knowledge in the classroom, and uses activities that integrate all four language skills. Almost there, the SIOP feature of lesson delivery evaluates whether content and language objectives are clearly supported by the lesson, whether it engaged the entire class, and is appropriate for students’ ability. Finally, the SIOP feature of review/assessment mentions review of vocabulary, key content concepts, regularly provided feedback on students’ input, conducting assessment of students’ understanding and learning of all objectives throughout lesson (Echevarria, & Vogt, 2005). Certainly a lot to consider when planning a lesson. Kudos to our teachers! We will keep you informed with more on the SIOP Model. 9
Belize TESOL’s New Facebook Page! The Belize TESOL Association opened its Facebook page on April 29, 2014. Nevertheless, weeks later, on May 23rd, we switched to our current Belize TESOL Facebook fan page. Personally, I am a Facebook user, log on approximately five times a week, but like many, I only bothered to know the basics. Thanks to Ms. Emilia Adams over at the US Embassy, Ms. Denise Fuller and Marci, they have been kind to us in offering tutoring sessions on the administrative side to Facebook-it is amazing to learn something new! Currently we are at a 277 likes and counting! This initiative is of highest importance to the Belize TESOL Association, for our prime objective is to have paying members countrywide. Our dream is to have every single Belizean teacher as a member and every person who is an educational stakeholder. Together united, we believe, we can reform and transform the way we teach our Belizean students. Currently there are many opportunities we are considering to have member benefit and enjoy, such as, discounts at your local school supply stores, tailored summer workshops in specific areas demanded by teachers, travel opportunities to attend conferences hosted by TESOL international. The next TESOL international conference is in September, 2014 to be held in Panama. Nevertheless, first things first, considering that the administrative members of Belize TESOL all hold their own 8-5 jobs, at this stage, we implore that you join the Belize TESOL Association—we need to meet a certain criteria in regards to members in order to gain international recognition. JOIN US TODAY!
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Belize TESOL’s Membership Form
Dr. Alberita Enriquez, Educator and Co-founder of Kaina Online High School.
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TESOL Activities Using Prepositions Preposiciones-Prepositions can be tricky for English language learners (ELLs), especially native Spanish speakers of all levels. There are many reasons why ELLs have difficulty with prepositions- a discussion for another time. Consequently, it is important to use Dolch’s sight words list, and lots of pronoun related activities to promote ELLs’ confidence when using prepositions at the Kindergarten level and up. However, you don’t have to wait for a topic under preposition to use these activities; use these activities after lessons. Thanks to the article, “On Your Marks: 7 Super Easy Activities for Teaching Prepositions of Location” by Busy Teacher. Highlighted below are four of these activities, some of which I have done with my four year old daughter prior to reading this article, most of them can be modified to suit your students’ age level. Have fun with your students in class or with you child at home! -Erica Aguilar
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Where is it? Have each students bring their own special item from home. They will each take turns hiding the item and then have the class guess where it is using prepositions.
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Draw a picture: this pair work activity requires one student to listening and draw, while the other student give instructions using a list of pronouns provided by teacher- switch roles.
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A Messy Room: Kindergarteners may have a messy section in their classroom use it! Have them clean up the room ensuring to use prepositions. To ensure each student participate in an orderly fashion, call by name asking them to do a task, e.g., Tsunade, hang the dress on the wall please.
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Egg Hunt: is my favorite because children love playing with plastic Easter eggs all year round! Something about plastic eggs! Hide eggs, have students take turns looking for the egg, once they find it, they need to give one sentence stating where they found the egg, e.g., I found the egg in teacher Valerie’s cup. Optional-reward them by inserting a treat inside the egg.
Reference: Busy Teacher. (2014). On Your Marks: 7 Super Easy Activities for Teaching Prepositions of Location. Retrieved from: http://busyteacher.org/13962-how-to-teach-prepositions-of-location-7-super.html
Newsletter Editor/Organizer:
Erica S. Aguilar (hi.aguilar@hotmail.com)
BelizeTESOL Association
To contact the BelizeTESOL Association please call:
Issue 02, May 2014
501-601-8081 12