Mary Finnocchiaro's Twelve Points

Let's get this poster on walls in classrooms.

You can find this poster along with a poster using lyrics by Coolio on my gmail Drive account.

Here is the link
reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson;

Copyright is a sticky issue.  There's "fair use" in an educational setting.  Well, this blog is my classroom and you are my audience.   I'm just sharing with you in an educational "fair use" way that promotes the ideas of Mary Finnocchiaro.  Her 12 points ought to be on walls in schools.

Here's a quote:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

This post brings to your attention the life and work of a notable teacher.  You can learn more here:

http://www.tesol.org/about-tesol/tesol-awards-grants/tesol-awards-for-excellence-service/the-mary-finocchiaro-award-for-excellence-in-nonpublished-pedagogical-materials

What's your philosophy of education? I've got more than four points. (part 2)

See Part 1

The difficulty comes when i find out the current goals instead of the long term goals.

At some schools  where I've worked, the policies are convenient to the administration and the studernt is expected to adapt to the situation.

Students ask me, "Why can't i get what i want?  Why does the school offer only one way to do [this] or [that]" and I make the mistake of asking the student to look at the situation from the school's point of view and then the discussion expands and I usually ask the student to think outside the box.   "What are your options?"   That's a question that many school administrators don't want students to explore.

5.  I also arrange to meet the students after school sometime during the week, i make it optional, i try not to force the idea and I try not to exclude anyone.  

6. I also try to go on an afternoon or evening trip... $40 limosouine tour of miami beach.   oh?     why not rent a van and go together?

it's often a long night but memorable.

i say, "Why should we end at 4 hours?   after the obligatory tour of 6-10 pm, i'm off the clock but I'm happy to see that the student has good memories.   We often return after 1 a.m.

I take a longer view than some school administrators take.   Tom Peters says "one size fits all?   One size fits one or often few or none"

The policy at some schools is to keep teachers separate from students.  "Teachers deliver a lesson and then leave the school."  When the school stops paying, at the end of the class, the teacher is expected to leave the building.

Flexibility

Those are some of the procedures that I use.   

7.  The student sis the center of my classroom.  I use the CELTA technique of arranging the room so that the students see each other's faces when talking and every moment as an opportunity to practice speaking and listening.  

8. teachers speak less than 20% of the time and students are engaged -- well, they are invited to be engaged in a range of activities.

9.  The aim is to build a portfolio of experiences and a record of examples of students' work.  The portfolio shows the students what they have learned.

10.  There is a balance between (a) evidence of actual work (that is real work) and (b) getting "something" flashy produced and physically in the hand of the students within two weeks (such as an audio CD or DVD or some videos) which is like a yearbook

The "flashy" or techie item might never be looked at, but it is a sense that "I did that" and the student carries something -- perhaps a memory -- of a procedure that had real change in the brain, even if the vocabulary is forgotten.

11.  Students remember how they were treated long after they have forgotten what was actually taught or presented or practiced or produced or discussed in class.

12.  very few worksheets = "shut up" sheets

very little busy work

13.  Some students have a mindset that they want to study grammar and i'm happy to give them what they want.   I know that the level of each student is different, each has different holes, so I ask them to participate in the swiss cheese approach.  find the holes and plug them.

14.  my philosophy is one student at a time

treat all the student the same differently

(give every student some amount of attention, but the type of attention will be adapted to the expressed or anticipated needs of the person)

find their goals

build individual personal learning plans

15.  Use numbers in lists so that people can discuss the point in class "I want to talk about point number 4" and everyone in the room knows what part of the board to look at.  

www.BigPicture.org

16.  use dennis littky techniques

Click Here 

My technique is "open the book somewhere and use that quote to stimulate a discussion in class."

Here's an example of some Internet materials that might be introduced in class.

Search Results

1. 
   CNN Student News - CNN.com
   www.cnn.com/studentnews‎
2. 
   National and world news with background material, activities, discussion starters and teaching guides. USA.

CNN Student News/Quick CNN Student News/Quick Guides & Transcripts. FOLLOW THIS ...	Student News A to Z with Carl The weblog of CNN Student News.
CNN Student News (video) CNN Student News utilizes CNN's worldwide resources to bring	CNN iReport Welcome to the CNN Student News iReport assignment group
Daily Discussion CNN Student News/Daily Discussion & Newsquiz ...	April 16, 2013 CNN Student News Transcript - April 16, 2013. updated 7:13 ...
More results from cnn.com »

3. 
   iTunes - Podcasts - CNN Student News (video) by CNN
   https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cnn-student-news.../id179950332‎
4. Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes for free from CNN Student News (video) by CNN on the iTunes Store.
5. Carl Azuz - CNN Student News Official | Facebook
   www.facebook.com/CNNStudentNews‎
6. 
   Carl Azuz - CNN Student News Official. 89866 likes · 715 talking about this.
   
7. 
   CNN Student News | Facebook
   www.facebook.com/pages/CNN-Student-News/223024161084827‎
• 
  
8. 
   CNN Student News (CNNStudentNews) on Twitter
   https://twitter.com/CNNStudentNews‎
• 
  
9. 
   CNN Student News - 2/15/13 - YouTube
   www.youtube.com/watch?v=alEQN6GX2-Q‎
10. Friday's edition of CNN Student News covers everything from a damaged cruise ship to an asteroid passing ...
    
    

See Part 1 and find Mary Finocchiaro's 12 points

What's your philosophy of education? I got it down to four points.

This post is dedicated to two of my favorite administrators of language schools, Tony and Leslie.  They have inspired the best in me.

Principles that I try to use in classes

a) find out what each student wants to learn

b) have an overall plan for the class

c) but serve each student when possible

d) make sure every student speaks often

Search "cnn student news"

=============  

in an English language class

find out what the students want to learn

deliver it

create a culture of learning and self-pushing

make each day a possible 

I'm re-reading Mary Finocchiaro and i like her list of twelve

a) to know intimately
the students and the
community in which
they live

"should"s or principles from 

Finocchiaro's book about ESL  p. 74

I particularly like the first principle.

a) to know intimately the students and the community in which they live in order to relate new language and cultural materials to probable experiences and interests of the students.

other points... (highlights, excerpts)

b) to broaden students' experiences through discussion of music, art, hobbies and other areas of interest in the school curriculum or in the community.

c) to enrich the students' vocabulary

d) to teach as quickly as feasible the formulas of English

e) to present all new vocabulary in easily demonstrable situations

f) to exploit every language learning activity so that it will reinforce and facilitate communication

g) to proceed from tightly controlled drill to freer, more authentic creative expression from the very first day of the language program.

h) to reintroduce structures and vocabulary of high frequency as often as possible

i) to add authentic, meaningful language activities and sort, two or three line dialogues for frequent dramatization.

j) to suggest or encourage students to suggest alternative sentence sin the dialogue utterances so that they will not always expect the responses they will have learned in the original dialogue.

k) to modify the sequences and order of materials in textbooks so that questions o all kinds and the pronouns I and you are introduced and practiced very early.

l) to remember that understanding the meaning of any utterance depends on knowing its single elements of pronunciation, of grammar, of vocabulary and of culture.

Finocchiaro, pages 74-76, recommended by Mario Llorente

I post this list on the wall so students can say, "Hey, Steve, you didn't do numbers h and j today."

How does this approach translate into a class?  What procedures do I use?  What stages are set in the class?  

1.  There's a plan, a grammar point, some dialogue, pronunciation practice, an interesting reading point and something to listen to from CNN perhaps   

2. i like the studentnews transcript that is available each week

I found it easily by typing a search without spaces  "cnnstudentnews"

3. My job is to present materials for learning and then adjust to each student's needs and requests.  I'm a concierge.

4. I arrange time to meet with each person and get their goals on paper in the first day.

Other points of interest and inspiration (see part 2)