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        <title>Educational & English Learner Services</title>
        <link>http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com</link>
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                <title>Talking Stick</title>
                <description><![CDATA[Talking stick is one of my favorite routines for getting kids talking in small groups during the &amp;ldquo;You Do Together&amp;rdquo; portion of the lesson. The beauty of this routine is that students get more than one opportunity to talk, freeing you up to walk around and really listen. Remember, as with any routine, make sure to start by teaching the simplest variation, with language your students already know, before using it with the target language and moving on to more complex variations. Focusing on this routine over the course of consecutive days will help your students understand your expectations, allowing you to then introduce fun variations. Sample Script for teaching the Routine: Teacher : I need 4 volunteers to help me teach the class how to use Talking Stick. Everyone else needs to watch and listen so you can do this routine with your groups. The talking stick is going to travel around the circle without skipping anyone. The person with the talking stick gets to talk first and everyone else listens so they can give feedback. As the volunteers &amp;ldquo;fishbowl&amp;rdquo; this routine, use the sample chart below to help students clearly understand your expectations. Yes No I talked using the target language when I had the stick I passed the talking stick to the next person when I was done I listened to the person that had the talking stick to make sure what they said made sense I politely let others know if they made a mistake Now debrief using the sample chart. Next, have your students practice in small groups and then debrief again using the chart above. Keep practicing and using the chart to debrief until you are satisfied with students participation in this routine. Change the prompt as you practice to keep interest. Tips for Success Start simple with language your students already know to help them master the routine. Have a clear signal letting students know when to start, such as starting a timer. Let students know that they should keep going after they finish one round. Challenge them to see how many rounds they can complete in the time allotted. Teach your students how to give polite feedback to help other students self-correct. Variations Question/Answer- One person poses a question and everyone else takes a turn answering. On the next round, the second person asks the question and everyone answers, etc. Question/Answer Chain- One student asks a question, the next one answers and then asks a new question of the next person. That person continues the chain by answering and then asking a new question of the following person. Hot Seat: When students need to use materials such as picture cards, have the materials on one desk and the students move. Instead of passing the taking stick and the materials, students rotate from one seat to the next. The person sitting in front of the materials speaks. Original Thinker: Students cannot repeat what someone else already said. They must create their own sentence. You can support students in doing this by letting them cross off vocabulary that they have already used (great for small posters and dry erase pens). After the groups do talking stick, each group chooses one sentence to share with the whole class. Use the echo routine to have the whole class repeat. Take it to Writing Choose one sentence to take to writing after a few rounds of talking stick. ]]></description>
                <link>http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com/news/view?id=1356615790829</link>
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                <pubDate>Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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                <title>Partner Talk (Part 2)</title>
                <description><![CDATA[You are the experts when it comes to knowing your students&amp;rsquo; strengths, needs, social skills, and personalities. Put your expertise to good use when establishing partners. Here are some different ways to think about partnering: Think Personality: Very verbal students might overwhelm the quieter students who need more thinking time to feel safe sharing. Be sure that the partners are balanced enough that each person will feel safe thinking, listening, and speaking. This is especially important at the beginning of the year when students are still getting to know each other. Think Gender: In my third grade classroom I had some difficulty convincing my students that boys could be partners with girls and vice versa. What I found was that my students were a lot more tolerant of working with people they wouldn&amp;rsquo;t necessarily choose to work with when they knew that sometimes they would get a choice or that they would be partnering with multiple people on the same day. Think Maturity Level: Even within the same grade level, we notice students at vastly different maturity levels. Sometimes matching a more mature student with a less mature student helps bring out the best in both. The mature student can play the role of peer mentor and the less mature student has a good model. Make sure that your more mature students also get a chance to work with their similarly mature peers. I found that my mature third grade students were especially appreciative of such pairings. Ask your students: Have your students generate a list of a few students they feel they would work well with. Make sure that they understand that they may not get to work with these students at all times, but that you will give them a chance to work with them over the course of a few weeks or months. Showing your students that they have a voice might help create an environment of trust and sharing. Mix it up: Variety is the spice of life for kids and adults alike. Make sure that your students have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of partners throughout the year. Please send us your suggestions for partnering. We would love to hear more great ideas that are working in your classrooms! ]]></description>
                <link>http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com/news/view?id=1356608015814</link>
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                <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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                <title>Partner Talk (Part 1)</title>
                <description><![CDATA[Many of us have had the experience of telling a class of English Learners to &amp;ldquo;turn to a partner and share.&amp;rdquo; The results often vary from our students staring at one another without exchanging a single word to a hectic scene ensuing. How do we as teachers set our students up for successful partnering experiences? How do we ensure that our students are not only speaking but speaking accurately about the given prompt? Before doing any partnering, it may be helpful to &amp;ldquo;fishbowl&amp;rdquo; for your students what being a good partner looks like and sounds like. Just as you would observe fish in a bowl, your students can watch you and a student ask and answer a simple question. Remember, the point here is not the language but the actions of being a good partner. Here are some aspects of partnering to explicitly teach : Turn taking : Turn taking might feel threatening to a child if she does not know that she will soon get her turn again. The key here is to make the turns very short, so that within a few second the student has her turn again. This makes turn taking less threatening. As your students gain experience with turn taking, they will be able to take longer turns. Elementary teachers, this is a great time to introduce the A/B lanyards found in your Sys ELD Support Kits. You can highlight how you expect students to keep these lanyards around their necks without playing with them and explain that everyone will have a chance to be an A and a B over the course of a few days or weeks. Be sure to label the turns verbally, announcing, &amp;ldquo;A&amp;rsquo;s turn! B&amp;rsquo;s turn!&amp;rdquo; each time you switch. Listening : Making eye contact shows our partner and our teacher that we are listening. It also helps us, as listeners (and speakers), remember what we are focused on. Explicitly modeling what turn taking looks like with and without eye contact will show students what listening does and does not look like. The listener can also give a thumb up to show that what she heard was correct. Responding : Respond using the target language and frame. Most of the time, our responses need to incorporate what our partners said. For example, if partner A says, &amp;ldquo;I enjoy playing soccer. Do you enjoy soccer?&amp;rdquo; partner B cannot respond, &amp;ldquo;Yes, I enjoy playing golf.&amp;rdquo; Show your students that doing a good job talking means that they will also have to do a good job listening. Personal Space : Some students need more personal space than others even when doing partner work. Demonstrate about how far you would like your students to stand or sit away from one another. This is a good time to stress that partners do not need to touch. Volume : After students know how far apart they will be standing from each other, you will be better able to demonstrate the volume that they keep their voices. Pointing out where one partner&amp;rsquo;s mouth is in relation to the other partner&amp;rsquo;s ears helps students see that they do not need to speak too loudly. Again, give examples of non-examples of the volume level you expect. Let students experiment as a whole group so they hear how the class as a whole should sound when doing partner talk. Coaching your partner : Give your students the tools to respectfully correct their partners if they hear a mistake. The listener can either give a thumb up say something like, &amp;ldquo;Almost, try again.&amp;rdquo; Part 2 of Partner Talk will be coming soon. ]]></description>
                <link>http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com/news/view?id=1346928307672</link>
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                <pubDate>Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
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                <title>My Turn, Your Turn</title>
                <description><![CDATA[My Turn, Your Turn is a great structured language practice routine to introduce to your class as an &amp;ldquo;I Do/We Do.&amp;rdquo; As with Hear It/Say It (Echo), the routine we looked at last week, My Turn, Your Turn uses choral response to get every student producing language simultaneously. Here the teacher poses a prompt or a question and the students respond or answer the question chorally. You may need to break it apart using Hear It/Say It (Echo) before putting all together as My Turn, Your Turn. Sample Script: Teacher: If I want to know if one of your chores is walking the dog, I could ask, &amp;ldquo;Do you usually walk the dog?&amp;rdquo; Now, let&amp;rsquo;s look at the language pattern we are going to use to answer our question. I usually , but I never . The first part of the sentence tells about the action and the but lets us know that the next part of the sentence is going to say something different from the first part. You might say, &amp;ldquo;I usually walk the dog, but I never feed him.&amp;rdquo; Now let&amp;rsquo;s put it all together. I&amp;rsquo;ll ask the question and everyone will answer it at the same time. &amp;ldquo;Do you usually walk the dog?&amp;rdquo; Students: &amp;ldquo;I usually walk the dog, but I never feed him.&amp;rdquo; Tips for Success Use visuals to give students the support they need to flexibly reply to the prompt. For example, when talking about chores you may want have a set of the picture cards at each table group so students can easily access them. Have a visual signal for when it is your turn and when it is your students&amp;rsquo; turn. Teach this signal to your students. Wait time ensures that all students participate. Variations Group to Group- Divide students into smaller groups and have one group pose the question and the other groups chorally respond. The groups take turns asking and answering the prompt. Small Group Work- Have students work within their small groups. One student can pose the question and the other group members respond chorally. Each group member takes a turn asking the question. Add writing- Have students write down what their &amp;ldquo;part&amp;rdquo; will be before saying it or after saying it. This allows them to connect the written word to their oral language production. Coming Soon : Moving from &amp;ldquo;My Turn/Your Turn&amp;rdquo; to A/B partner routines. ]]></description>
                <link>http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com/news/view?id=1346923959297</link>
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                <pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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                <title>Echo Talk (Repeat)</title>
                <description><![CDATA[This variation of My Turn, Your Turn may be one of the first routines to introduce to your class. It is a staple of the I Do, We Do. It uses choral response to get every student producing language simultaneously. The teacher introduces new language (a sentence, a phrase, word, perhaps even a sound) and the students chorally repeat. Syndie Moore at MacQuiddy calls this Hear It/Say It which gives the students a clear task for each part of the routine. Sample Script: Teacher: If you want to describe when you do your chores, you could say, &amp;ldquo;I make my bed after breakfast. Hear it : I make my bed after breakfast. Say it . Students: I make my bed after breakfast. Teacher: If you make your bed before eating, you could say, &amp;ldquo;I make my bed a before breakfast . &amp;rdquo; Hear it : I make my bed before breakfast. Say it . Students: I make my bed before breakfast. Tips for success Have a clear signal for when students should begin to repeat so that they all begin and end at the same time. Monitor accuracy of production. This is your chance to provide corrective feedback. Break down the language into smaller chunks if students are having difficulty and have them repeat the smaller chunks before going back to the entire sentence. Monitor participation. Break students into smaller groups for accountability if needed. Variations Have students echo/repeat language that other students produce. This works well for the We Do or closing. Divide students into smaller groups/teams and have each team repeat. Competition works well for some students. If you notice a number of students all struggling with the same language during You Do practice, stop the You Do practice and use Hear It/Say It to review. For example, if students are saying, I do my bed before breakfast,&amp;rdquo; instead of &amp;ldquo;I make my bed before breakfast,&amp;rdquo; draw the whole class&amp;rsquo; attention to the error and have them practice correctly using Hear It/Say It. ]]></description>
                <link>http://pps-pajaro-ca.schoolloop.com/news/view?id=1346923959973</link>
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                <pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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