What does it mean to "know" a word?

The other day I was in the middle of a conversation with someone...

the person I was speaking to suddenly said  

"then how do you know if someone
knows something or not?

The question came because I'd  been ranting that standardized testing was mainly just a test of memory skills or the ability to regurgitate somone else's information without fully understanding it, verifying it for a real truth and that more often than not, tests don't test knowledge.  

So I deserved this question flying back at me to test my own knowledge.

Big, deep breath as the flood of everything I've learned or experienced about learning, everything I disagree with and everything, thought-through, everything I've experimented with and found merit in... all these other-people's-ideas jostling around for top priority 

(pick me! pick me!) 

...in the end, leaving me paralyzed and unable to answer.  I mean, if you've ever been there too, you know the dilemma right?   My god, my god: there's literally a theory for everything under the sun when it comes down to pedagogy (and andragogy) and whoa, this trails all the way back to Socrates and beyond.

I mean what to answer with first? 

There isn't a one right answer.

There are many.

Which probably isn't terribly useful for you... so I should probably leave this post alone except for the fact that my fingers ache from not having blogged for so long and I've gotta share with you - you give me my buzz and keep me thinkin'...

My life has recently turned into this time-consuming, exciting, brain challenging world 

of creating e-learning and m-learning products and we 

(Voxy - I'm their academic consultant, if you missed that update) 

are radically changing the status quo of language learning autonomously
~what we're working on producing next is seriously going to blow your minds :-)

...and, actually, I drafted this post out so very long ago and then never published it.

This is part of the H2LE (How-to-learn-English) posts and is a guide for learners on vocabulary acquistion.   I've been working on it since 2003 and have used it for training teachers on the use of dictionaries in Ecuador and here in Germany use it as a learning-to-learn doc for adult language learners:

I can cheerfully add that everytime I learn something new, it'll change!

• To view in full-screen, see the icon on the right of the black box with slide numbers.
• To embed it on your own site, click on menu to grab the code.
• To embed in a Ning or other learning platform save your own copy and upload into the GoogleDocs app.
• To share this blog post with colleagues, tap on "bookmark" button at the bottom of this post - above the retweet button - and click on the social-networking/envelope/print icon.
• To send just the document to your students, right click over THIS LINK and select the option to copy the link-address then insert this into an email.

Useful links:

• Previous posts on vocabulary

• N is for Noah Webster by Adam Simpson on Vicki Hollett's blog
• Repetition video with Scott Thornbury
  
• Larry Ferlazzo Student-Created Online Content (many, many, many posts!)
• Voxy's word nerds
  
• Ozge Karaoglu's alphabet of web2.0 tools
• Nik Peachey's daily activities (web 2.0 tools for students to explore!)

But going back to my original opening... 

What does it mean to know something?

You know it when you can apply it in a different context, 

at a different time and place.  

You know it when you own it.

Agree?

As always anything to add or share with me - please do!  If you've written a post or two about this subject, don't hesitate to add the link.

Karenne

Bully Me No More (Lesson Plans)

Tomorrow, December 17th 2010, is Anti-Bullying Day and as a person who has been, in different life situations,

the victim, the supporter, the hero... 

the observer, the bully, the oblivious...

I decided to channel my energy into creating a lesson plan on the subject.   I hope you and your students find it interesting and I hope it helps.

1. Tyler Ward's Cover Version of Eminem's No Love

Write the following paragraph on the board or beam on to a whiteboard/IWB:

It's a little too _______ to say that you're ______ now. You kicked me when I was _____ but what you say just don't ______ me, don't hurt me no more. You showed me nothing but ______, you ran me into the _________ but what comes _________ goes _________, what you say just don't hurt me, don't ____ me no more.

Ask your students to guess what the missing words are.

Purchase & play the song http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tyler-ward-covers-vol-3/id406190149

or Watch the video via the internet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz1Y6EZUT10&feature=related 
to confirm the missing lyrics.

Ask your students to tell you if they know who the original song and singers are.

(Eminem & L'il Wayne). Who are they? Ask what they think the song ís about.

2. Eminem & L'il Wayne: No Love (video)

a. Ask your students to jot down notes while they watch about what they see on the screen – start the music video – make sure to play without sound (very adult lyrics)*  
(this is a clean version)






Eminem - No Love ( Feat. Lil Wayne ) from Top Music on Vimeo.

http://www.vimeo.com/17010892 (available Dec2010)*explicit

((some countries have clean versions of the lyrics available -do a google video search))

b. Ask your students to describe (in as much detail as possible) the story they saw in the video and how it made them feel while watching.

c. Ask students if they think that Eminem or L'il Wayne were ever bullied at school. Were either of them the bullies? Why do they think so?

3. What is Bullying?

Ask students – What is bullying? How does it differ from fist-fighting, verbal abuse or other types of hurtful or angry behaviour? 

What factors are usually in place in a situation like the one shown in the video – can we usually tell if someone is being bullied?   What happens to people who fight back?

4. Sticks and Stones

(If you have access to real sticks and stones + cards with common insult words put these up on a table in the front of the class.)

Ask students: Is violence always physical? What does the saying Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never harm me mean?  

Is it true? How do words harm?

5. Stand on the line
hat-tip Anita Kwiatkowska who reminded me of this conflict resolution approach at TESOL-France

Get students to push the desks out of the way and create an open space in the centre of your classroom. Take a roll of tape and draw a line through the middle of the room. Make sure to assert that your classroom is now a safe-place and ask for respect to be shown to each other.  

Example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7QMy54Keg&feature=player_embedded

(Alternatively you can opt for asking students to remain seated and raise their hands or stand up in place when answering yes.)

Ask students to stand on the line whenever they can answer yes to a question and to stand off the line whenever they want to answer no. No elaborating on questions -simply asking them to step on or off the tape. 

*If you're teaching second language learners you may need to clarify some of the vocabulary beforehand.

Stand on the line/ Stand up/ Raise your hand

1. 
   
   ... if you like listening to music...
2. 
   
   " if you have an mp3 player
3. 
   
   " if you have an ipod
4. 
   
   " if you have an itouch/ ipad/ iphone
5. 
   
   " if you have more than 30 albums on your music device
6. 
   
   " if you own any rap music
7. 
   
   " if you have any albums by Eminem or L'il Wayne
8. 
   
   " ~if no one in your family knows about this... :-)
9. 
   
   " if you had an argument with anyone in your family this week
10. 
    
    " if you had an argument with anyone at school last week
11. 
    
    " if you have ever called someone a bad name in private
12. 
    
    " if you have ever called someone a bad name in public
13. 
    
    " if you have ever been called a bad name in private or public
14. 
    
    " if you have ever been hit by anyone else
15. 
    
    " if you have ever hit a brother or sister/ friend
16. 
    
    " if you have ever hit a someone you didn't know well
17. 
    
    " if you have seen someone else hit
18. 
    
    " " … and didn't do anything
19. 
    
    " " … and reported it to an authority
20. 
    
    " " … and hit the person doing the hitting
21. 
    
    " " … and waited, then helped the victim
22. 
    
    " if you have ever been a friend of someone who hurts people
23. 
    
    " if you have ever been a friend of someone who took their own life.

Thank the students for sharing and then get them to help put the desks back in place. Don't talk about the experience or intervene – at this stage - if some students are emotional, allow them to comfort each other.

6. Who feels what? 

Hand out the wordle* Who feels what and the activity sheet asking for the emotions of:

• The Bully
• The Bully's Lieutenants
• The Victim
• The Victim's Supporters
• The Victim's Hero
• The Observers
• The Oblivious

Switch groups after 10-15 minutes. There are no right or wrong answers. If teaching 2ndLanguage learners, allow dictionaries.

*Depending on your culture and the age-group you're teaching, you will need to make a decision on which wordle to use. One of these includes the phrase sexual thrill and uses harder adjectives.

7. Tell your story

As the teacher, you should now tell a story from your own personal experience (your childhood or that of one of your kids) of either being bullied, watching a bullying experience plus what you did or didn't do or, perhaps, even of being the bully yourself in a specific situation.  

It is very important that you share a true personal story rather than something in the news at the moment - if you can - as it will help your students trust you enough to tell their own.

Now ask your students to share a story from their lives: they can write their stories in their blogs or notebooks and make sure that they know that they will not required to share these stories unless they choose to. Stop them after a long enough period has passed and then ask for volunteers of those who would like to share their story publicly: again remind everyone that your classroom is a safe haven today and ask for respect without judgments.

8. Bully Me No More: question cards

Print out enough copies of the card game on coloured paper to create multiple small groups of 3-5 students. Cut the cards and distribute the questions you feel suitable for your age group. Put them face down on the table, the students should turn over the cards and ask each other the questions on them.

9. Write a play

Divide up your class into groups of no less than 6 – 10 students and ask them to script a play about bullying:

Act I: A horrible incident occurs afterschool.

Act II: A school meeting is called to discuss the incident.

Act III: 25 years later, everyone meets at a school reunion.

Who is everyone now? What do they do/ what jobs do they have?  What do they talk about?

If the students would like to, get them to choose characters, act it out / film and/or host on YouTube.

10. Follow-Up: Internet Research and Project Work

Post up the following options on the board and ask students to choose which they would like to research on in order to work collaboratively. Students can then use their computers/web2.0 tools to create posters/ prezis/ glogsters/ animotos/ wallwishers/ comic books/ infographics etc.

• Bullies throughout history:a timeline
• How to: A guide by students to teach teachers how to spot and deal with bullies
• What is cyberbullying: how to report, prevent it and stay safe online
• Cyberbullying: what stories are in the media today?
• How to spot sexual predators (off and online)
• Understanding the psychology of the bully / victim/ supporters/ observers
• What is defamation of character? Understanding the legal issues of slander and libel.
• What is the NOH8 campaign?

Useful links: 
http://www.delicious.com/KalinagoEnglish/bullying

I love hearing from you!

Please add your thoughts if you enjoyed this lesson plan and you feel like there's something you would like to question, add or say about it - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me: it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your own opinions.

Best, Karenne
education 



Download the lesson plan:
bullymenomoreLessonPlanDecember2010KarenneSylvester

Andrew Wright's Tao Story and what we did with it...

A few weeks back Lindsay Clandfield hosted a guest-post from the amazing Andrew Wright, who is for those who unfortunately now teach in an age devoid of supplementary-games-materials books or   are a bit too reliant on the computer, the king of cartoons. 

(if you happen to be wondering why these books disappeared- well, see, they got replaced & all supplementary-type of activities were stuck at the back of teachers' books which no one ever buys or reads... the result of which is, even if you do actually buy the teacher's copy, has been squeezed up and is now non-readable because of  the space vs page and all the financial restrictions of that..ya know

because see,

there happens to be no money in photocopiable stuff)

Anyway, that was a long digression,  let me get on with my stories.

Andrew Wright, probably on a whim one day - how ever did he convince a publisher to print that book (now there's a story) - decided to teach teachers all over the world, how to draw stick-figures on our boards to explain anything from emotions, grammar and easy and difficult lexis...

And he is the man behind me getting my own students drawing cartoons...

last week's post & even more coming next week, but in the meantime pop over to EHerrod's page

I enjoyed Andrew's 60 years on Clandfield's blog so I travelled on from SixThings to Andrew's blog where I was met by a number of delightful stories: mostly aimed at a younger crowd than my adult IT/Banking/Automotive lot.

Still, there was one which grabbed my eye so I printed it out.

Here's what I asked my students to do with it:

Read this story.

What do you think it means? How would you apply this story to business and the way that companies or people in your industry work?

Here's the story:

The Tao Story by Andrew Wright

(republished here with permission)

There was a young woman. She was lying under a tree and she was sleeping.

Suddenly, she heard the roar of a tiger! She woke up! She saw it! The tiger, a huge tiger, its eyes burning bright, its teeth gleaming, was running towards her!



She couldn’t climb the tree. There was nowhere to hide! She ran! She ran away from the tiger. And she ran like the wind! She was fast but the tiger was faster and on great silent feet it came nearer and nearer!

What could she do?

She saw a cliff in front of her. It was the side of a deep gorge. The tiger was just behind her. She half jumped, half fell over the cliff. She caught a vine. She held on to the vine.

The tiger was above her, its burning eyes staring at her, its claws opening and closing on the edge of the cliff.

She climbed down the vine, a little bit further. She looked up. The tiger was silent. Its eyes were closed. Its head was on its paws. It was sleeping.



Thank goodness!

Then she heard another tiger roar below her! At the bottom of the cliff was another tiger, with burning eyes. Its roarings echoing in the gorge.

Then she heard a scratching and a gnawing.

It was a little mouse above her. It was in its hole and it was gnawing at the vine; eating the vine slowly, slowly, eating the vine. But it was a thick vine and it was a little mouse.



And the young woman felt the warm sun on her back. She felt the warm sun on the cliff. She smelled warm, rich smells coming from the little rock flowers and then she saw there were some bunches of dark blue grapes on the vines!

Rich and ripe! Fat and succulent! She reached for a bunch of grapes. She pressed the fat grapes into her mouth.

She lived the moment and forgot about the two tigers and the mouse.

The mouse was still gnawing at the vine.

Here's what two of my students responded:

1 (online)

I have read the story twice. I think the company is the woman in dangerous and risky situation. At the first time, she was scared and ran when she knew she was in seriousness. And she found a cliff. After safety in it, she observed what make her feel unsafe outside. Although she knew the dangerous things is around her but she also knew she was safe in the cliff. Thus, she kept calm and ate grapes. You can see if you want to manage your business well, you should kept calm like the woman but still look around and find out all of dangers could be happened accidentally and the methods to avoid them.

Sometimes, you must forget your present circumstance to relax and to find out the exit way then. About the mouse, I think it symbolizes inside inside factor of the business.
As we know, the mouse ate the vines and the vines is just like the development of the business (has grapes are rich and ripe, fat and succulent) .   Therefore, the mouse is the employees in the business. They do not contribute their talent, skill and ability to grow and expand the company they are working, but take advantage of the company to make their own profit.

2 (face2face, but sent as an email)

How can the tenor of the story be transfered to the modern economy?  The young woman looks like a young and inexperienced market player.   And the tiger symbolizes an old and clever competitor.  Maybe the young woman is enjoying success of a good business so she doesn't think about the jealousy of her competitors and she forgot to secure her advantage. 

Suddenly a competitor is breathing down her neck in the form of the same or better products.  To find a way out of her problems she runs into new markets in a panic.  Luckily for her, the old competitor can't follow her into this new market and the other competitors are now far away.

But while she is enjoying this new sweet success, another small competitor is gnawing at her advantage.

Conclusion: you can't sleep if you do not know who or where the tigers are.

Fun, eh?  How would you have interpreted this story yourself?

Actually after spending about 45mins reviewing their emails/ discussing the various options for the application of this story to their own business scenarios (my students are well-trained in dogme - btw did you see how he picked up the word gnawing and inserted it into his own text, correctly in context -proud TeacherMama I am)...   anyhoo, we naturally flowed on to their own memories of childhood fables and we all had a good time trying to remember stories of foxes and storks and the like... 

And I simply have to share P's with you because, aside from the fact he had us cracking up in class, I just haven't been able to get the core lesson out of my head since.  

I apologize in advance if this story has a copyright somewhere -I'm just going to retell it as P told it.

There was once a little mouse who was being chased by a tiger.   She ran up to the elephant and said "hide me, hide me, I'm in big trouble, there's a tiger chasing me..."

The elephant said "No problem, go behind me."

Then the elephant shat on her...  

Unfortunately, the mouse hadn't curled her tail up next to her so when the tiger came up behind the elephant he could easily see where the mouse was.  

He pulled her out by the tail and then he ate her.

The moral of the story? 

Not everyone who shits on you is bad and not everyone who pulls you out of the shit is good.

Share with me...

I hope these bad words haven't offended you, this is how my student told it and he's an adult, as am I and I decided the story wouldn't make sense without them. 

But my question is, do you think that BE classes should always have BE texts as reading material?  Aside from the news and topical life events I generally have tended to focus in on Business when working with my students but after the success of this exercise I wonder if it's too limiting to think like that.   Have you ever used any fables or any other type of philosophical tales or even plain old-fashioned storytelling in your own adult BE classes?  What texts work best, in your opinion, where do you generally source this material when you're not using a textbook? 

Best,
Karenne
education


Useful links related to this posting:

• Andrew Wright Stories and Articles
• You are a story teller and a story absorber, Andrew Wright
• The beauty of sand, Shelly Terrell
• The culture of the african story
• S is for storytelling by Carol Read
• Storybird, review of a Russell Stannard video by OUP ELT
• Storytelling links&lessons from OneStopEnglish
• Conversation: from description to pedagogy by Scott Thornbury, Diana Slade

Online Dictionaries and the Advanced Language Learner

Conversation between myself and C, an advanced English tele-student.

C: My client in Amsterdam asked me if I use an online dictionary.

Me: Really, why?  Did you ask why she asked?

C: Yes, she said sometimes I use really strange words in my emails.

Me: (laughs gently)  Are you using Leo?

C: Is that a bad dictionary? Do you know a better one?

Me: Leo's good but  I usually use Google Translate.  Well, sometimes.

C: I should talk around the words when I don't know them. (repeating a former instruction of mine)

Me: Yeeh..es - that's a very good strategy.

C: But, sometimes that takes too long.  I would prefer to know the right word.

Me: I understand.

C: I can't learn the right word if I never find it out.

Me: What about an English-English online dictionary? Like Macmillan - that's a good one, it even does pronunciation. And they have a nice blog - I must remember to feed that into our Ning.

C: But if I don't know what the word I want to say is, in English, how can I search the word I want?

Me: There is that! (laughs out loud).  You could try a thesaurus?

C: That takes too long, it's the same problem with using the Leo, I still won't know the word I want.

Me: Mmm.

C: I can't know the word if I don't ever learn it.

Me: Yes.  Hmm...that's why we're having these classes but I know exactly the way you feel.  Sometimes when I have to deal, in German, with my taxes or do stuff to do with my business...  I need an online option too.

C:  Does it work for you?

Me: I don't know - no one tells me when I use strange words.  But I think what your client is noticing is the old fashioned words.  Leo gives you all sorts of options and that includes words that aren't wrong, they're just not... not said anymore.  To be honest, I'm probably doing the same thing as you are. 

I have a good German-English dictionary on my desk but these days I tend to be too lazy to look in it - it's just so big and heavy.

C: What's tend?

 Me: (quiet panic, hesitation).. um, tend is like attend, like pay attention but in this context, I mean more that... I mean that usually I am too lazy or that often I am too lazy to look in my heavy dictionary.

C: It is quicker to use Leo.

Me: Hmm.  Yes, you tend to use Leo when you're stuck for a word. But your client thinks it sounds strange.

C: What about if I talk around the words with you and then you tell me what the right word is?

Me: We can do that.   You can also copy and paste your emails into your blog - just take out the confidential details but I can look specifically for the words that don't fit your context and I'll give you feedback on those.

C: I would like that.  I can store them in my blog.

Me: Exactly.  And when you have enough - I know Google Docs Spreadsheets has a really cool program - all you do is put these words in a list and we can also add the words from our Google Doc feedback sheet - then you can make a game to play at home. 

C: Yes!  I want to do that.  You have to teach me how to make this game.  Did you have a nice week?  Did you finish your article yet?

Readers, have you ever been in this sort of situation? 

What do you think the best way would be for me to handle C's advanced level vocabulary acquisition without really knowing what words she specifically needs to use beforehand in these emails?  To be honest, I fear this (the above, waiting for the words to emerge) might actually be a really long process. 

How do you handle mass-vocabulary acquisition?  As you know by now, being a dogme teacher, I tend not to be too fond of presenting random lists to be learned off by heart without context... Still, I'm in a quandary - isn't there a way for me to deal with this?  Do please share your top tips...

And by the way, are you pro- or anti- dictionary usage in the classroom (online or otherwise)?   Why?



Useful links related to this posting: 
Jason Renshaw: The best compliments are complements
Scott Thornbury: A is for Attention
Google Docs Educational Gadgets
Inside Google Translate
Internet may phase out Oxford Dictionary

Best,
Karenne
education

Google for teaching adults how to describe statistics

Google is just so useful, isn't it?  But did you know that you can get your adult Business English students looking for their own data, specifically relevant to their own interests, projects and responsibilities?

 For fun, drag the yearly scroll bar!

This incredible site, Google Public Data Explorer, offers statistics from the World Bank, Eurostat, OECD and also includes several more country-specific-options as well (Australian Bureau of Statistics, US Bureau of Labour Statistics and much, much more).

Most of the charts are completely customizable and although the fun factor, when messing about on the site trying to decide just how to present the data, is high (you can change years, colours, countries and layouts),  the very real potential for pedagogical application is even higher!

Screenshots can be taken of each data set, printed, turned into jpegs and inserted into PowerPoint/GoogleDoc presentations, however, what I like best is that the charts can be easily embedded directly on to your students' own blogs/pages/ wikis, Nings or any other learning platform you're using to teach with.

For fun, hover over the country names!

What can you encourage your students to do?  

• Give them the link to the site or show in class if you have internet access.
• Ask them to review the options and to personally choose a set of statistics that they are interested in knowing more about or that they need to know about for their own work/study.
• Show them the various options for presenting information: globally vs. the country they're in/ doing business with/ countries they're interested in knowing more about.
• Encourage them to then work in teams (comparing their preferred data sets).
• Tell them to create essays, blog posts or presentations researching and exploring the reasons which explain the data they'd found.

What language could you use this website to practice?

• the langauage of describing statistics
• expressions for trends and changes
• numbers and financial English expressions
• comparatives and superlatives
• range of past structures and present tenses
• predictions for the future
• asking and answering critical questions about the world we live in

Previously on Kalinago English, posts related to this posting:
Why use Google?
More lessons tips for ESP:Financial
More lessons tips for Business English Adults

Useful links
Statistics for a changing world
Search Power
Google Docs presentation on ways to use the Public Data Explorer
Blog about stats (lots of great tips)

Best, Karenne
education