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.

 

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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Online activities and opportunities: Work in progress

The short (16 slide) presentation embedded in this blog post represents on-going endeavours mainly to recover from a massive setback in online resource curation. In a nutshell:

This presentation provides snapshots of an individual teacher's recent and ongoing professional development endeavours. It reflects problems of ICT use, mainly discontinuation of a free service for educators, and outlines strategies for addressing them with collaborative partners, tools, and venues of choice. It supplements a working paper submitted to PIGATE.

(Abstract, slide 2)

If you have comments or questions with regard either to the content of slides in that short presentation or the gist of the working paper (Beaufait, 2019) submitted to PIGATE prior to its Annual General Meeting last month (2019.09.14), please feel free to spell them out in threadable comments on this post.

Reference

Beaufait, P. (2019a). Reflection in action: An unavoidable IT transition. PIGATE eigo jugyou gaku kenkyuu-kai kiyou, 26 [English language teaching action research group working papers, issue 26], 32-42.

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A Visual Summary: 32 Learning Theories Every Teacher Should Know

In his post, A Visual Summary: 32 Learning Theories Every Teacher Should Know, Terry Heck displayed a detailed graphic by Richard Millwood.

In that post, Heck asserted that "there are dozens of theories that underpin what and how you teach already, and that the better you understand them, the better chance you’ll have to master your current approach and begin to bring new possibilities into your classroom..." (¶4).


Heck then posted brief additional explanations of the concepts in Millwood's graphic. 

The graphic itself is available ... [as a PDF]: 

• http://blog.richardmillwood.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Learning-Theory.pdf (PDF)

and in a hypertextual concept map with loads of links to additional resources here:

• https://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1LNV3H2J9-HWSVMQ-13LH/ (Cmap).

A follow-up comment by Millwood (2019.06.18) on his one of his own posts that introduced the map (2013.05.10) suggested that he was preparing a new version.

References

• Heck, T. (2019, January 12). A Visual Summary: 32 Learning Theories Every Teacher Should Know [weblog post]. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/a-visual-summary-the-most-important-learning-theories/
• Millwood, R. (2019, June 18). Learning Theory [comment on 2013, May 10 weblog post]. Retrieved from https://blog.richardmillwood.net/2013/05/10/learning-theory/#comment-54999 

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Revisiting communicative competencies (YouTube recording)

This hour-long recording by Dr. Kate Reynolds of Central Washington University's College of Education and Professional Studies[, Chairperson of the Department of Education, Development, Teaching and Learning,] came out about a year ago. It was from a TESOL Teacher Education Interest Section (TEIS) webinar on evolving theories and potential applications of a communicative competence framework for language teaching.

Frames and Reframing:

Recent Discussions on Communicative Competencies 

In that webinar, Dr. Reynolds surveyed "recent developments on the model of communicative competencies and [began to] facilitate an interactive conversation on how teacher educators can use this information" (Abstract, 2018.06.26). Though the webinar chat is invisible in the recording, live discussion opened about 33 minutes in. Dr. Reynolds read and summarized chat entries aloud. She then reflected on contributions and issues that arose, and asked clarification and follow-up questions.

At the end of the webinar, Dr. Reynolds highlighted one of over a dozen selected references for further reading. She also offered to share her PowerPoint slides, and expressed desire to continue discussion in audience-initiated TEIS discussion list posts. That's a TESOL members-only venue, so I (Paul) would be happy to see comments from PIGATE reviewers here [on this post].

Reference

• Reynolds, K. M. (2018, June 26). Frames and reframing: Recent discussions on communicative competencies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs1aRTjnwAY

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The Common Sense Media website: Goodies for parents and educators

Last Saturday, at a monthly gathering (2019.01.12), I mentioned a blog post I'd read recently:

• 5 Ways to Block Porn on Your Kid's Devices
• Topics: Cellphone Parenting, Healthy Media Habits, Internet Basics, Screen Time, Sex in the Media

In that post, one of the main points that Caroline Knorr (2019), Common Sense Media's parenting editor, made was that technological interventions work best in conjunction with ongoing conversations with young learners.

That post is just one of the Must Read items displayed in the For Parents section of the Common Sense Media website, which you can personalize to suit your family or the ages of students you teach.

There also is a For Educators section of the website that is worth exploring for additional age-appropriate recommendations and resources as well.

References

• Common Sense Media. (2019, January 14). Common Sense MediaⓇ. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
• Knorr, Caroline. (2019, January 7). 5 Ways to Block Porn on Your Kid's Devices [weblog post]. Retrieved from: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/5-ways-to-block-porn-on-your-kids-devices

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Blended Learning and Technology Integration: What's the diff.?!?

In this seven and a half minute, video Jen Jonson (2014) explained and illustrated crucial characteristics of blended learning environments. If her delivery is too fast to follow, toggling on the auto-generated transcripts at YouTube, by clicking on "..." at the foot of the display frame, and reading along may help.

• Jonson, Jen. (2014.01.20). Blended learning and technology integration [YouTube video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/KD8AUfGsCKg

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Does seat-time matter?

Kaichi School, Matsumoto, JP, photographed May 31, 2013,
by Paul Beaufait. All rights reserved.

How much time do students spend in school?

"There is no consistent pattern ... among top-performing education systems. / This suggests that when it comes to student performance, more important than the amount of time students spend in class is how that time is spent" (Craw, 2018 [emphasis in original]).

• Craw, J. (2018 February 22). Statistic of the month: How much time do students spend in school? http://ncee.org/2018/02/statistic-of-the-month-how-much-time-do-students-spend-in-school/

Vimeo video about what a blog is (Kelly, 2018)

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? START YOUR BLOG! 

from Berwick Lodge Primary School on Vimeo.

A short kinetic typography video that explains what a blog is. 

Please use. Full Creative Commons License. 

Written and Produced by Rob Kelly, 2018

Reference

Kelly,  Rob. (2018). What are you waiting for? Start your blog! Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/258904090

ASCD Express 9.02 - The Why, What, and When of Assessment

ASCD Express 9.02 - The Why, What, and When of Assessment (Tomlinson & Moon, 2013b)

That newsletter article caught my eye this morning in a list of website bookmarks after discussion at an English Café gathering yesterday, in which participants ... considered ... [among other topics]: 

• Assessment practices in elementary school English-as-an-additional language learning activities slated to become mandatory coursework in the next few years (GU, n.d), and 
• Roles of assistant or partner classroom teachers in occasional or routine team-teaching. 

The article is an adaptation of Tomlinson and Moon (2013a, pp. 19-21), in which the authors described assessment of, for, and as elements of differentiated instruction. Tomlinson and Moon argued for assessments to identify differences in: 

• Individual learners' readiness to learn, 
• Their individual interests or passions, and 
• The learning modalities that individuals prefer (2013b, What to Assess, ¶1).

Tomlinson and Moon also outlined various types of assessment to use before, during, and after instructional units, namely: 

• Pre-instructional assessments,
• Formative or ongoing assessments, and
• Summative assessments (2013b, When to Assess, ¶1).

The article concluded with examples of, and purposes for, combinations of formal and informal assessments. Regarding informal assessments in particular, Tomlinson and Moon asserted:

Informal assessments are useful in giving a teacher a sense of what makes a student tick, providing a big-picture look at how the class as a whole seems to be faring at a given moment, and amassing a growing sense of how specific students work in particular contexts (2013b, When to Assess, ¶2).

The first few examples of informal assessments that Tomlinson and Moon mentioned in their article resonated with remarks that the English Café convener made yesterday with regard to what a team teacher could do when not directly involved in instructional activities.

References

General Union [GU]. (n.d.). MEXT's 2018/2020 "New Course Of Study In Foreign Language Education" Plan. [Retrieved 27 March 2018 from] https://goo.gl/sBjXpo

Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. R. (2013a). Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. R. (2013b). The why, what, and when of assessment. Assessment and Differentiation, 9(2). http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol9/902-tomlinson.aspx

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Personal and professional language development

This post displays Google slides [and references] from part two of the PIGATE gathering on March 10, 2018. The presenter's blurb for the program that day read:

In this workshop, participants will make, share, and refine self-assessments, then project and reflect on goals and resources for additional personal and professional language development.

(PIGATE meeting agendas, 2018.03.10)

To find out about what ensued, please ask one or more of the language teachers who took part, ...

... or post questions in comments on this post, where all of the participants can respond.

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6 Tips for Going Gradeless (Sackstein, 2018)

Can we do some or all of this?

Sackstein, Starr. (2018.01.30). Six tips for going gradeless. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/F56hTKUk8j4

Teachers' resource book in the KGU library

One of the last times we met in the KGU library, the title on the spine of a book (Shin & Crandall, 2014) caught my eye. So I pulled it out to take a peek. It's in the syllabus corner on the first floor: 

KGU OPAC catalog listing (English)
KGU OPAC catalog listing (Japanese)

Here's a preview of the table of contents:

• Preface
• About the Authors
• Chapter 1: Teaching English to Young learners around the World: An Introduction
• Chapter 2: Basic Principles of Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL)
• Chapter 3: Contextualizing Instruction: Creating Thematic Units and Lesson Plans
• Chapter 4: Teaching Listening and Speaking
• Chapter 5: Teaching Reading and Writing
• Chapter 6: Storytelling
• Chapter 7: Assessment
• Chapter 8: Classroom Management
• Chapter 9: Twenty-First-Century Skills in Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL)
• Chapter 10: Professional Development
• Worksheets
• Index

(Source: National Geographic Learning, English Language Teaching, 

Product Information, More, Table of Contents, 

retrieved 2017.11.01)

Would you like to have a go at reviewing it for a future newsletter? If so, please send us a heads-up either in a comment on this post or in a message to our Google Group.

Reference

Shin, J. K, & Crandall, J. (2014). Teaching Young Learners English: From Theory to Practice. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning.

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Play space necessary

Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/play-stone-network-networked-1237457

"The most powerful learning experiences often happen when children are simply given the space to work things out on their own — to come up with their unique way to occupy [their time]" (Gallup, 2017, p. 1).

Reference

Gallup, Inc. (2017). Time to play: A study on children’s free time: How it is spent, prioritized and valued [PDF]. Available from http://www.gallup.com/reports/214766/gallup-melissa-doug-time-to-play-report-2017.aspx

Shadowing for Improving Listening and Reading Skills (Fukushima & Lavin, 2013): A brief review

On June 13th, Mr. Taishi Kaneko (right) made his début as an emcee for guest speakers Mr. Hiroshi Fukushima (left) and Prof. Richard Lavin (center) at the PIGATE gathering in the KGU English Lounge. I hope we'll see and hear from them all again soon!

Mr. Kaneko introduced the guest speakers.

Along with a bit of historical and theoretical background, Mr. Fukushima and Prof. Lavin introduced two types of shadowing. The first focused learners' attention on the sounds of the target language, and the second focused on content–namely vocabulary, syntax (grammar) and meaning. 

PIGATE members had opportunities to try a little of both types. Then Mr. Fukushima reported on an on-going study to assess the effectiveness of shadowing relative to standardized test results. 

Prof. Takaki summed up the session.

Below are a couple of books on shadowing (Kadota, 2007, and Tamai, 2005) highlighted either in the presentation itself or in Prof. Takaki's summary. The other (Kadota, 2012), which I discovered today at Amazon, JP, appears to be a follow-up on the first.

• Kadota, Shuuhei. (2007). シャドーイングと音読の科学 [shadouingu to ondoku no kagaku: the science of shadowing and reading aloud]. Tokyo, JP: Cosmopia.
• Kadota, Shuuhei. (2012). シャドーイング・音読と英語習得の科学 [shadouingu, ondoku to eigo shutoku no kagaku: the science of shadowing, reading aloud and English acquisition]. Tokyo, JP: Cosmopia.
• Tamai, Ken. (2005). リスニング指導法としてのシャドーイングの効果に関する研究 [risuningu shidouhou toshite no shadouingu no kouka ni kan suru kenkyuu: a study of the effects of shadowing as a method for teaching listening]. Tokyo, JP: Kazama Shobou.

Though there seemed to be a general consensus among audience members about the potential of shadowing for dedicated individual language learners, a question remained about how teachers might adopt and adapt such practices for general classroom instructional purposes.

If you have other key readings to suggest, other questions about shadowing, or suggestions regarding shadowing and classroom teaching practices in particular, please feel free to spell them out in comments on this post.

Muppets Treasure Island - Cabin Fever

The Cabin Fever song from a 1996 Muppet movie is based on a classic adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson (Wikipedia, 2015, ¶1). The song has been burning inside my head for the past several days. So I decided to find a video clip that I could share here.

Source: http://youtu.be/CHNJPsCDSqo (Tchailenov, 2010)

This song has been memorable not only because I love the Muppets, but also because the ship-board setting for the song in the video (Baker, 1996) contrasted so vividly with a snow-bound mountain cabin image that I've held from childhood adventures–including reading!

That is, my image related to the second definition of the noun (n.) cabin in WordNet 3.1, and the Muppet movie scene represented the first. As far as collocations go, "cabin fever" may not occur very frequently outside this song. Nevertheless, you may find it catching.

Doing a bit more browsing around the topic of cabin fever, I think I may have found a remedy, namely getting out and communing with nature (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008). Perhaps that's what I should be doing now, instead of planning another post!

References

Baker, Martin G., & Henson, Brian (Producers), & Henson, Brian (Director). (1996). Muppet treasure island [Motion picture]. United States: Jim Henson Productions.

Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., & Kaplan, S. (2008). The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature. Psychological Science, 19(12), 1207–1212. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x

Wikipedia. (2015, February 11). Muppet Cabin Fever. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppet_Treasure_Island

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New Year's resolution worksheets

Looking for a worksheet that you might adopt and adapt for collecting New Year's resolutions, or one simply to serve as inspiration for various sorts of resolutions–if not this year, then maybe next? Check this one out!

Image source: http://blogs.scholastic.com/files/resolution-1.pdf

You'll find a couple more if you read on.

Reflections on the monthly meeting: Dec. 13, 2014

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Ms. Fukushima (right) on her role leading the meeting at KGU on December 13th, 2014. For a teacher in training, it took a lot of courage to do so in English, an additional language for her. I have no doubt that as she gains public speaking experience of that sort she will need to rely less and less upon prepared scripts.

Three other main speakers rounded out the schedule.