Learning re-envisioned

This post showcases slides from a remote presentation to PIGATE on Saturday, March 11th.

Comments and questions about the slides or the actual presentation are welcome on this post.

World Hunger Bites ...

 ... as do climate changes, international conflicts, and pandemics! 

There are representations of all four global problems [that] appear on the interactive World Food Program's HungerMap accessible from the hot-linked snapshot below (click to open).

https://hungermap.wfp.org/

In additional views, the map also can show current hazards to humans flagged for severity, for instance: droughts, floods, storms, volcanos, and wildfires.

Please browse through the map and let us know in comments on this post what most concerns or surprises you, or what else you'd like to know about it. 

We'll be especially keen to hear from teachers who are exploring sustainable development goals (SDGs) with students in classes that they teach.

Last but not least, I'd like to express gratitude to a colleague, K. Tokunaga, who raised my awareness of previous World Food Program (WFP) HungerMaps.

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Overcoming Dyslexia: Second Edition (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020)

Image source: Amazon.com (2021.09.07 [highlighted, PB])             

For adult learners, parents, and teachers keen on learning about reading disorders, dyslexia in particular, an updated book appears to be an important addition to the field.

According to the Amazon book blurb, this edition of Overcoming Dyslexia by Shaywitz and Shaywitz (2020) offers "new information on all aspects of dyslexia and reading problems, and ... the tools that parents, teachers, and all dyslexic individuals need" (Read more, para. 1). The audible sample (Listen [1st author reading aloud?]) starts in Part I, Chapter 1, The Power of Knowing (Look inside, pp. 3-5) at Amazon.com. 

An Online Tutor Business Coach, Joanne Kaminski, who recently streamed a video review, argued that a crucial take-away from this book about dyslexia is the importance of early diagnoses (2021.08.30).

References

Kaminski, J. (2021.08.30). Overcoming Dyslexia Review [online video recording]. https://youtu.be/hscEptUgg_A

Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, J. (2020). Overcoming dyslexia: A major update and revision of the essential program for reading problems at any level, incorporating the latest breakthroughs in science, educational methods, technology, and legal accommodations. Alfred A. Knopf.

 

Developing phonemic awareness: A follow-up on PIGATE's Special Summer Session, Sat. Aug. 14th

During PIGATE's online gathering on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021, participants explained (showed, and told of) a number of their favorite resources and practical techniques for exploiting songs and stories with language learners. Participants' accounts related to various activities with preschool children and early school-aged (elementary and junior high school) English-as-an-additional language learners in particular.

To those inspiring accounts, which I hope you can review via Zoom meeting recordings,  chat transcripts, and other short reports about PIGATE's August gathering, I'd like to add a pointer to a separate webinar recording. That webinar, from the iDTi 2015 Summer Intensive for Teachers, is about ways of developing learners' phonemic awareness, "necessary prerequisites for studying and reading in English" (idDTi Videos, 2021.08.12, description, ¶2).

About 18 minutes into that webinar recording, Karen Frazier Tsai asserted:

"[W]e need to start first with making our children phonemically aware of the sounds in English, those sounds that are different from whatever their first language is." 

(auto-generated YouTube video transcript, 17:23–17:35)

She then asked and answered the questions: "[W]hat do we do; how do we start … to make them have that skill of really focusing in on the sounds" (transcript, 18:21–18:28, ff.). In sum, Tsai explained various ways of helping learners become aware of sounds, rhymes, and syllables by playing with words in a new language. Whether you're teaching pre-reading to young learners, or simply reading stories to children, I highly recommend watching the webinar recording from beginning to end!

Children Playing with Words

(iTDi Videos, 2021.08.12)

Reference

iTDi Videos. (2021.08.12). Children Playing with Words (Karen Frazier Tsai) [video recording]. https://youtu.be/Br10cHS-5Qk

A Long Road to Becoming a Language Teacher

This post showcases a presentation from the Pigate gathering on March 13, 2021. In that presentation pab presented a sweeping retrospective on 60 years in education.

Questions and reflections are welcome in comments on this post.

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Neurodiversity: An award-winning poster presentation from JALT 2020

Alexandra Burke's presentation on Saturday, November 21st, 2020, characterized "the impact of ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, [and] color [vision] issues and how they affect learning for nearly 12.6 million people in Japan." It also "cover[ed] ... clues to look for and where to find publicly-available resources" (session description, https://jalt2020.eventzil.la/session/355 [emphases added]). 

 

Burke asserted that the understandings and behaviors of teachers "are the keys to success for students with hidden disabilities" (poster element). A PDF of the poster is available for download here:

• Neurodiversity, Studying, and Teaching Language

For advice on improving poster presentations in general, please watch psychologist Mike Morrison's videos:

• Generation 1 - Create a better research poster in less time ... (2019.03.25), and
• Generation 2 - Create more a impactful scientific poster with UX Design tips (2020.07.13).
  

PIGATE's first entirely online gathering

This post showcases slides from PIGATE's March gathering (2020.03.14). Previews of slide-building in progress were available the week leading up to PIGATE's first entirely online program. 



The gathering took place in a Zoom meeting room with screen sharing from remote presenters. 

Amplifications and revisions of slides continued afterwards. 

Follow-up questions, reflections, and suggestions are welcome in comments on this blog post.

Except as otherwise noted, slides in that compilation are licensed under a 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 

International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). 

Please attribute adoptions or derivations [of the slides] to The PIGATE 英語授業学研究会 2020.03.14.

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CRAAP: An acronym to guide web research

The CRAAP Test for assessing appropriacy of web resources popped up on my radar in a Pinterest suggestion of a graphic:

The CRAAP Test

gleaned from the Daytona State College Library:

• https://library.daytonastate.edu/reliable/CRAAP,

which in turn apparently adapted content from a library guidance page at California State University, Chico:

• http://libguides.csuchico.edu/LiteratureReviews?p=2822716.

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Dr. Morrow's presentations from December 2019

This post showcases two presentations that Dr. Jeffrey S. Morrow made at the PIGATE gathering on December 14, 2019, on:

1. Keys to Successful Student Motivation; &
2. Successful Pronunciation Teaching.

These are for attendees to review as well as for the perusal of PIGATE members who had other commitments last month.

If you have questions or suggestions regarding either of those presentations, please feel free to:

• Post them in comments on this blog post; 
• Send them in messages to the PIGATE Google Group;
• Voice them at an upcoming PIGATE gathering (Calendar of Events); or 
• Address them directly to Dr. Morrow (contact info. at ends of slide shows).

Except as otherwise noted, each of those presentations is licensed under a 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License:
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Please attribute them to Dr. Jeffrey S. Morrow.

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Motivation matters!

Image source: YouTube, Education Week (2019.12.19)

Education Week recently showcased a series of four videos of Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski explaining ways for teachers to foster learner motivation:

•  What Teachers Can Do to Boost Student Motivation (2019.12.09).

The short videos covered "four specific ways to nurture a sense of intrinsic motivation in students" (¶1), namely:

1. Granting students autonomy,
2. Applauding effort rather than ability;
3. Cultivating interpersonal relationships, and
4. Helping students discover the relevance of learning activities.

A list of further readings followed the videos on the Education Week article, and Larry Ferlazzo linked to additional resources in a follow-up in an Education Week Teacher blog post.

• Everything You Wanted to Know About Student Motivation, But Were Afraid to Ask (2019.12.11).

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