NJ Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/
NJ Bilingual Educators

---

In this issue:

Look forward to the Spring Conference in 2011 now located at the Hyatt in New Brunswick. Find some way to ensure your attendance at this exceptional professional development opportunity- so that you can continue to be your best. Gain strength from the workshops and return to your districts ready to face detractors. Recruit your colleagues who are not members of NJTESOL/NJBE and impress upon them the importance of joining our ranks. There is strength in numbers.

Judie Haynes [has] been thinking a lot about volunteerism and why educators in the field of bilingual/ESL education give so much of themselves.

Cassandra Lawrence announced the theme of the 2011 Spring Conference: Creating Global Learning Communities for ELLs. This theme addresses the need to integrate world perspectives in our classrooms, use technology to facilitate and enhance learning, and to develop online networks for professional growth. Educators and advocates for ELLs must come together as a community to share best practices, access advice, resources, and tools, and most of all, to support each other.

Language Difficulties or Learning Deficits? Magdalia Manson is concerned with how “…to facilitate an understanding of the differences between I. & R. S. students who may be misidentified by committees as potentially learning disabled, when in fact they are struggling with English language learning issues.”

October Testing and Teacher Flexibility/ Visiting China by Janet Kaback will provide links to important NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards’ resources that help you with lesson planning. She also reports on her summer trip to China with some stunning photos.

Tests, Tests, and More Tests by Sandee McBride focuses on the “discussion on our Hotlist regarding the various testing instruments used in our school districts” while Social Networking for the Early Childhood Special Interest Group by Karen Nemeth and Sandee McBride looks at “…the social networking worlds of Facebook and Twitter…[where you]… will find resources and will be able to exchange ideas that are useful with English language learners.”

Learning a New Language, Learning About a New Land is a personal reflection by Noreen Drucker: “On a cold, gray January morning, over thirty years ago, I found myself saying goodbye to my parents and friends at JFK airport. I was leaving for Costa Rica to spend the last semester of my college career at the University of Costa Rica…”

Tina Kern writes about those students Born in America who are ELLs. She tells how “Teachers of ELLs are magicians…[with] ‘bags of tricks’… we change a group of students with beginning English skills into participating members of our school community. Poof!

Christina Namendorf tells of Moving from Isolation to Involvement to Rejuvenation “I felt isolated and alone working as the only high school ESL teacher with no advice or guidance from anyone. Then…”

Marianne Hsu Santelli reports on research conducted by Dr. Robert A. Bjork, a psychologist at UCLA [who] presents an argument against well- held beliefs that you need to study in a quiet, well-lit room or area. In fact, what Dr. Bjork found was that when students changed the room in which they studied, the information they were learning was retained longer in part because of the changed environment.

Dave Greer reminds us that as English language learner (ELL) educators, we need to keep abreast of which students in our districts might be classified LD and in need of English language services.

Jory Samkoff: “My original plan was to boycott this new film that had been creating a lot of buzz, not just in the education world, but among non-educators and in homes throughout America alike. Then, I realized that I needed to be able to respond to people who believed the hype, so I went to see it…” Read the rest of Jory’s review of this controversial and disturbing “Waiting for Superman.”

Regina Postogna reports on the disturbing trend in New Jersey towards eliminating highly qualified supervisors in bilingual/ESL programs.

The Kean University Writing Project (KUWP) under the direction of Dr. Linda Best of the English Department was awarded National Writing Project (NWP) status in 2008. Gail Verdi interviewed Dr. Best to learn more about the process of applying to NWP, the approach to writing that teachers experience when they become involved in the project, and the impact this form of professional development has on both native and non-native speakers of English.

Marilyn Pongracz reviews Kindersite, a free website that provides links to learning activities for children ages two to twelve, some of which are suitable for ELLs. If you are looking for online activities for younger learners, she tells you why this site is a place to start.

Marilyn Pongracz also submitted stories that first appeared in ELRC NOTES: The Newsletter of the English Language Resource Center at Bergen Community College, the April 2010 issue. The five students’ own stories attest to the success that ELL students can achieve.

Monica Schnee awaited her “amazing” students’ ACCESS scores with great anticipation. But, she tells us, “As I looked at the scores, my heart fell! My best students had scored incredibly low in the writing portion. How could this be?…The scoring machine was not able to read the penciled in scores for the writing portion. So it “assumed” the children had scored the lowest scores…” Read Monica’s report and learn how she resolved this dilemma and had the scores corrected through real detective work and determination on her students’ behalf.

Roselyn Rauch, Ed.D., is a retired Paterson ESL teacher. She is a consultant with ESL Unlimited.

---

President’s Message

By Judie Haynes

I have been thinking a lot about volunteerism and why educators in the field of bilingual/ESL education give so much of themselves. NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board members are an example of this dedication to our field. I’d like to share with you their amazing commitment. Board members attend seven 3-hour Friday night meetings and two all-day Saturday meetings during the school year. Many present workshops and work the NJTESOL/NJBE booth at NJEA in November. In addition to that, Board members attend online committee meetings during the year. Some of the NJTESOL Board members also represent our organization at the board meetings of other organizations such as NJASCD, NJFLENJ, and NJEA. Other members are busy staying abreast with the advocacy issues that come up in the field of ESL and bilingual education. We have members who work countless hours on Voices or our website and discussion list. All of our Special Interest Group Chairs are required to write an article for Voices, participate in answering questions that are asked on our discussion list, and keep current on issues affecting their SIG.

In May just prior to our Spring Conference, Board members attend a Friday night meeting to prepare folders, lunch tickets, and presenter packets. They meet again the night before the conference to setup at the hotel. And during the hours of the conference, they work at least four hours each day to keep the conference running smoothly. In addition to that, the Conference Chair and Liaison spend countless hours scheduling workshops, planning the dinner, and preparing the conference program book. Although many organizations are having difficulty recruiting young people into leadership positions, the NJTESOL/NJBE Board is comprised of members of all ages.

Members of NJTESOL/NJBE are all dedicated to our students. I am proud to be President of this group of amazing professionals and especially proud of our Executive Board.

There has been a surfeit of information about the crisis in U.S. education that should be of interest to NJTESOL/NJBE members. In addition to the plethora of magazine, newspaper and blog articles as well as the movie Waiting for Superman, there have been outstanding discussions on Twitter about this topic. If you want to join this discussion, go to Twitter and read the Tweets at #educationnation.

Some of our members are also involved in #ELLCHAT, a weekly discussion group about issues and information for teachers of English language learners. I believe that we should all be part of these discussions so that the educational needs of our students are not overlooked. Civil rights groups are now claiming that reviewers of state applications for Race to the Top didn’t adequately consider the needs of ELLs when grading proposals. Shouldn’t advocates of ELLs be part of this discussion? We also have been left out of the discussion on Common Core Standards. One of the most important aspects of our role as ESL/bilingual educators is being an advocate for our students. NJTESOL/NJBE has been posting information for you to read on our Facebook page. You can reach this by going to our website and clicking on the Facebook logo. Become a fan and write a comment. I look forward to seeing you there.

---

Vice-President’s Message: 

Creating Global Learning Communities for ELLs: The 2011 Spring Conference

By Cassandra Lawrence

As the Vice President of NJTESOL/NJBE it is my pleasure to announce the theme of the 2011 Spring Conference: Creating Global Learning Communities for ELLs. This theme addresses the need to integrate world perspectives in our classrooms, use technology to facilitate and enhance learning, and to develop online networks for professional growth. Educators and advocates for Ells must come together as a community to share best practices, access advice, resources, and tools, and most of all, to support each other. Now more than ever, we have the ability to learn and connect across cities, states, and even countries to discuss what works best for our students. Our 2011 Spring Conference will prove to be a perfect venue for doing just that.

The 2011 conference will be held on Tuesday May 24th and Wednesday May 25th. We’re excited about our new conference venue. Our event will take place at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick. The Hyatt, which is centrally located and easily accessible, sits in downtown New Brunswick, near several great shops and restaurants. You may reach it by car or train, as the Albany Street train stations just a few blocks away. There is plenty of space in the hotel’s parking deck; please see their website for details about parking and facilities. There are also city lots nearby. But, we encourage you to carpool. As is customary, we have arranged for the hotel to offer conference attendees a special conference rate of $129 per night. Please, spread the word to your colleagues about the new conference location.

The Call for Proposals is currently online at the NJTESOL/NJBE website. The proposal adjudication process, which will take place in early December, will be extra selective; priority will be given to high-quality, high-interest, and dynamic proposals that reflect the ideals of our theme: community, instructional technology, best practices, curriculum, networking, and global perspectives. The deadline for proposals submissions is October 31, 2010. Proposals will deselected in December and posted in a tentative schedule on our website in January. Conference registration forms can also be found on the NJTESOL/NJBE website. Schools are advised to take advantage of the special Early Registration fees. Early registration deadline is March 1, 2011. Consider becoming a member of NJTESOL/NJBE.

Conference registration fees are $35 less for members. Early registration and member registration are the way to go! You can find membership forms on our website.

Please check back to our website often for announcements regarding conference speakers, featured presentations, the Awards Dinner, and other breaking news. Be sure to join us on our Facebook page and Twitter for the latest news as well.

Cassandra Lawrence is Vice President of NJTESOL/NJBE and 2011 Spring Conference Chair.

---

2011 Spring Conference: Call for Proposals for Workshops OCTOBER 31, 2010 DEADLINE

May 24th and 25th

The 2011 NJTESOL-NJBE Spring Conference will be held on May 24th and May 25th. The Call for Proposals is currently online at the NJTESOL-NJBE website. Workshops, Demonstrations, Papers, Seminars, Research and Poster Sessions may be submitted. Priority will be given to high-quality proposals related to the conference theme, Creating Global Learning Communities for ELLs. The deadline for proposal submissions will be October 31st, 2010. Proposals will be adjudicated in December and a tentative schedule will be posted on the NJTESOL/NJBE web site in February.

---

2011 Spring Conference Writing Awards and Scholarships

In previous years, the generous NJTESOL/NJBE prizes and/or scholarships for winners of the 4th,8th, 12th grades, and Higher Education writing competitions have been funded from our general revenues. However, due to the current economy and escalating costs incurred to provide you, our membership, with a quality conference and professional development opportunities, we have to change the way that this has been done.

We all support our favorite charities; we don’t hesitate to donate to those causes. We all give back to our students in a myriad of ways. Now NJTESOL/NJBE is asking its members, and friends of English language learners, to make donations to help New Jersey’s students in ESL and bilingual programs. These funds will help our ELLs to secure a better future and better opportunities in this, their new country.

Beginning with the 2011 awards and scholarships, the number and amount of the scholarships given to our winners will be dependent on your contributions. NJTESOL/NJBE, Inc. is a charitable organization and, as such, your contribution is tax deductible. We ask you to be generous—to give with your heart—to donate to finance a scholarship fund that will benefit our children.

TO DONATE:

1. Go to our home page and click on Scholarship Donation Online and make your generous donation  through Paypal. OR
2. Make out your check to: NJTESOL-NJBE Scholarship Fund 

All contributions are tax deductible.

---

New Brunswick: NEW VENUE FOR SPRING CONFERENCE

SPRING CONFERENCE HAS MOVED

The 2011 conference will be held on Tuesday May 24th and Wednesday May 25th. We’re excited about our new conference venue. Our event will take place at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick. The Hyatt, which is centrally located and easily accessible, sits in downtown New Brunswick, near several great shops and restaurants. You may reach it by car or train, as the Albany Street train station is just a few blocks away. There is plenty of space in the hotel’s parking deck; please see their website for details about parking and facilities. There are also city lots nearby. But, we encourage you to carpool. As is customary, we have arranged for the hotel to offer conference attendees a special conference rate of $129 per night. Please, spread the word to your colleagues about the new conference location.

---

ESL Students’ Success Stories at Bergen Community College

By Marilyn Pongracz

The following stories first appeared in ELRC NOTES: The Newsletter of the English Language Resource Center at Bergen Community College, the April 2010 issue. They were submitted by Marilyn Pongracz, Supervisor of the English Language Resource Center and Technology Coordinator for NJTESOL/NJBE.

From the Beginning

By Mayara Guimaraes

Imagine yourself sitting in a classroom full of people from different parts of the world and the only thing you all have in common is that no one has any idea what the person standing in front of you is talking about…… That is how I felt in my first day of class at Bergen Community College’s ALP program.

I came here three years ago and took the English placement test. I remember looking at the test and thinking, “Can’t I just tell them that I have never studied English before?” But I couldn’t. My perception was that the test would evaluate how bad I was. And I was really bad. So I was placed in the foundations level, and soon my adventure began.

Apart from all the personal and cultural problems I was facing because of my decision to come to the US., not being able to communicate with people was the worst emotion I have ever felt. I did not even know how to count my own change, “A coin? What is that?” Being in a place without the ability to speak the language makes you feel like you are a baby again. You are afraid to go out alone. And you also feel helpless because there isn’t a single problem that you can solve by yourself.

During my first semester here, I realized that people assume that you speak enough English to understand basic information. They do not fully realize that they while they are talking, and probably giving you important directions, you are complete unaware of what they are talking about. During the orientation day, for example, the International Students Counselors give the students a great amount of important information that some of them just do not understand. I was one of these people.

Learning a new language is a perfect mix of happiness and frustration. You are happy because you are learning to communicate, to be able to create new relationships with people from all over the world and to discover how magical language is. You are also frustrated. During a significant part of the process of learning English all you want to do is talk and write in English, but you can’t. You want to be able to use everything you learn the minute you learn it in a new sentence, but that magical new sentence has a bigger chance to come out wrong than it has to come out right. And you see the corrections of a paragraph written by you to realize that every chance you took by introducing new vocabulary words on your assignments came out as a mistake. But you need to keep trying. Playing it safe to get good grades will not improve your English, so you feel a pressure that is not only coming from your teacher; it is coming from you, too.

But sooner or later you learn. You discover that you are thinking, dreaming and writing in English. You start asking your native language friends to talk to you only in English because as you learn, your need for new vocabulary grows bigger. You then notice that you can read out loud to people, and they will actually understand what you are saying. And it feels great. It gives you power and confidence to believe that you can do anything you want.

I am proof that it is possible.

Mayara Guimaraes, ELRC Student Tutor, Spring 2010

Helping Our Students on the Journey

By Zohreh Koupaei

True learning means that we can apply our knowledge when we need it. Learning a language requires the application of various different skills: grammar, conversation, reading, and writing. International students have many difficulties in learning and mastering these skills.

Since the English language is the second official language in many countries, it is, therefore, a required subject from the first year of elementary school. For most students, grammar is the easiest part of learning a language. They just need to know the rules and memorize them. However, it can be difficult when students do not have some of the English grammar structures in their native languages. For example, Arabic does not have the past perfect tense, and Persian places the verb at the end of a sentence. From my experience as an ESL tutor, most international students at BCC know the basic grammar rules relatively well, but when they try to apply the rules in their conversation, they find it hard. Since I am also bilingual, I understand this problem. To solve it, I try to explain the rules in simple language and then I ask my tutees to write some examples from their daily life. It helps the students understand the grammar rules and apply them.

Conversation helps students master the language. However, this skill is not emphasized when English is taught in most countries since there is no need to use it. Even in the United States; it is hard for students to find a native speaker to talk to and practice English. When they have an appointment, I give them an opportunity to speak, to find their grammar and pronunciation mistakes, and to ask for corrections. Most of my tutees are very smart and intelligent, but they are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at. Consequently, they do not participate in conversation voluntarily. In my conversation group, I receive many complements for giving them an opportunity and encouraging them to talk. One of my students started talking for the first time in my group without being embarrassed or shy.

Another application of learning a language is writing. For many bilingual students, writing is totally different in format, style, and organization from the way they use it in their culture, and in some countries, writing isn’t emphasized. There are some international students who don’t have an academic background in their native language, so when they come to college and start taking writing classes, they don’t know what to do. When students need to know how to organize their ideas through an essay, I give them the example of a divided plate. I explain to them that in order to organize their ideas, they should separate them in the way that they serve food on a plate. They should describe their ideas in separate paragraphs so the readers can understand their points instead of mixing them like a bowl of soup.

Another and perhaps the biggest problem that almost all inter-national students have in writing is translating. This problem is inevitable unless they have contacts with English speakers or read a lot. The foundation of reading and understanding is vocabulary. Without a good knowledge of vocabulary, understanding even one sentence is impossible. Learning vocabulary is a self-study process. Other people cannot do this for the student. Once tutees comprehend the text, they can easily answer questions about it. There are some students who want the tutors to teach them the concept of the text without knowing the meaning of the vocabulary. I always want students to find out the meaning of the vocabulary in a dictionary and try to understand the words by themselves before asking for any help. Then if they still have difficulty, they could seek assistance. I, therefore, believe that learning this segment of the English language requires the students’ efforts and 90%of improvement in this issue depends on the students themselves.

Considering all the points mentioned above, learning English requires patience, knowledge, effort, persistence, practice, and interest. Without these tools, students should not expect to learn English in a short period of time.

Zohreh Koupaei, ELRC Professional Tutor

The Transition

By Gina Maria Rivera

From the first day I decided to go back to school, I felt nervous because I thought that I couldn’t make it. My native language is Spanish, and my English was poor. I had learned mostly street English. It was a big challenge to study not only because the classes were in English, but also be- cause I wanted to become part of the English speaking world.

When I started to study, I was surprised how many things I needed to learn in order to speak, write, and read well. It was a big challenge for me because I only knew how to communicate in Spanish. In other words, all my thoughts were in Spanish and when I tried to translate them, I made a mess. All my ideas were disorganized and unclear. I felt that my Spanish and English together had created a new language. It was really hard to start thinking in English. That was what my teacher always said. I thought, “How can I think in English if my thoughts are always in Spanish?” I couldn’t figure it out. Moreover, the professor recommended that we use an English-English dictionary, not a Spanish-English dictionary. I thought that by doing this, I would be only wasting my time.

Finally one day, I said to myself, “Let’s try to do it the way that the professor says.” I would think in English and then write everything down in English. It was hard in the beginning, but it was not impossible. Now I can write everything down in English even though I sometimes make mistakes.

In conclusion, the transition I had to make from Spanish to English continues to give me little problems, but it doesn’t mean that I cannot do it. I believe English as a first language is necessary for everyone, not only so you can have a successful professional career, but so you can be part of the bilingual world.

Gina Maria Rivera, ELRC Student Receptionist, Spring 2010

Think Like an American!!

By Esra Ileri

I first started to learn English when I was 9 years old. I was going to a private elementary school. Our teacher used to tell us, “Think like an American!” How was it possible for a Turkish elementary school student to think like an American elementary school student? I never understood the meaning behind it until I started high school six years later. My English teacher back in elementary school was trying to tell us to read, listen, write and try to learn about American culture. Today I strongly believe that these are the key elements of speaking another language. Without experiencing the culture, I don’t think you should consider yourself a speaker of that language.

It has been more than 20 years now since I have been speaking and learning English. I consider myself as a lucky person because for the last 8 years I have been living in the United States. I can observe the changes I have been going through in my language skills. For example, as a Turkish native, even today I speak Turkish at home. But when I am talking in Turkish, I usually remember the word in English and my brain translates it into Turkish in few seconds. It used to be vice versa. I used to feel very uncomfortable with my accent. But in order to improve my language skills, I knew I shouldn’t feel ashamed. The people in this country taught me that it was okay. They appreciate effort and willingness. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what your gender is, or how old you are!

Of course it is not always very easy to try to explain yourself in another language sometimes because of the culture. Since I grew up in another culture, and I was 23 years old when I first came to this country, in the beginning I had a very hard time adjusting. For example, American humor wasn’t easy to understand. I believe it had nothing to do with knowing the language or not because I knew English, but I wasn’t very familiar with the culture. I came to the realization again what my English teacher was trying to tell us. In order to be able to think like an American, I think you should live in that country at least for a while. You should expose yourself to the culture. By that I mean the music, the food, the idioms, and the daily life.

Now I am very fortunate because I am working as a professional tutor in the ELRC. Every day is a learning experience for me. I am very lucky because I have native speaker superiors who are always very helpful to me and answer my questions, and I am surrounded by students from all around the world. Every day I can see what they are going through because I was in their shoes too. That’s why I keep reminding them try to think like Americans. Learning a new language doesn’t only mean learning its grammar. You need to experience the language too with talking, reading, writing, watching and listening. And every day I meet students who think they are too old to learn a new language, or they feel ashamed because of their accent! It gives me great pleasure to remind them that their accent is like a spice in the meal; it makes the meal richer, but if you put too many spices, it could be hard to eat that meal. It is like every other aspect of life, the more you do it, the better you will get. I remind them that more they read, write, talk and listen, the better their language skills will get. And one last thing I keep reminding myself and my students; it is never too late to learn.

Esra Ileri, ELRC Professional Tutor

Arriving

By Samia Habashee

Learning English has allowed me to study hard subjects like philosophy and literature here at BCC. I feel great that I am able to philosophize in English as if I were a native speaker. When I first started taking that class online and found out that the discussions are what make up most of the grade, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I discovered that I could!

Literature is hard for non native speakers, and my course requires paraphrasing poems. First, there were some poems from Emily Dickinson to paraphrase in class with the teacher. Then I started to test the beautiful meaning of the poems and started to paraphrase by myself. That made me interested, so I researched the poet, Emily Dickinson. I was reading a lot in English, and I realized something greater. In the first test I found myself sitting in a class with Americans, and I was doing the same work as they were. I could get good grades like them and might be better than some.

Samia Habashee, ELRC Student Tutor

---

Kindergarten ACCESS Scores, a Cautionary Tale

By Monica Schnee

Did you think your ACCESS scores were low this year? I would like to share my experience with the Kindergarten ACCESS scores with all of you ELL educators.

We administer the Kindergarten ACCESS Test to our own students, with the exception of some districts which may have other test administrators helping out. Last March and April, I administered the test to all of my twenty-eight Kindergarten students. Though it is a taxing and tiring time, I really look forward to it, believe it or not. The reason: I want to see how my students respond to an assessment that is so accurately designed and balanced. I have been administering the ACCESS test to Kindergarten for the past 4 years and I have found it extremely reliable and valid. I use the scores as one of the essential criteria to decide the students’ placement for the following year.

I am the ESL coordinator for the program. I go back to my school in August to check out the scores for the district. I have been doing this for the past 3 years so that I make sure that all data is correct be- fore the window for reporting closes in mid-August.

This summer, I was away until the end of August. Upon my return, I hurried back to school with great anticipation. I had had some amazing students in Kindergarten in 2009-2010 and was anxious to see their scores. The manilla envelope from Metritech was waiting for me in my room. As I looked at the scores, my heart fell! My best students had scored incredibly low in the writing portion. How could this be? I proceeded to study every score, in every domain for each student. “There must have been an error,” I thought. Half of my class had scored below my expectations. Did I do such a poor job teaching them? Did I make a mistake scoring? Did I not follow the rubrics? The only way to find out was to call Metritech.

I collected all my information and contacted Metritech. I said that I knew these students very well and that I found it impossible for them to have scored this low. I looked over the score and checked it against the rubrics and samples. I knew there must have been an error in scoring. I apologized for in- forming Metritech after the window for reporting had closed but I explained that no one in my district would be able to know if there were any scoring errors except for me. They kindly agreed to retrieve the tests of the 10 students I had questioned and would get back to me as soon as possible.

Outcome: the scores were wrong! Yes, my very best students did not score an overall 3.2 in average but 5.6!

What happened? The scoring machine was not able to read the penciled in scores for the writing portion. So it “assumed” the children had scored the lowest scores. Since no human being looks at these tests, no one would have noticed the discrepancy between the scores and the errors. Metritech went through each booklet, penciled over my scores and re-scanned the tests. Consequently, students’ results were the correct ones. Those who I knew would exit with honors did. Those who I knew still had work to do before exiting are still in the program.

Moral of the story:

Check your students’ scores carefully. Only you, their teacher, will know if they are correct, not the secretary or your supervisor. You, your students, and their families work incredibly hard to help them succeed. You owe it to them to ensure that their efforts are reflected in the test scores. In some cases, the future of a student is decided by using incorrect data to place him/her. The students or their parents would not know that this can happen. They trust YOU more than anyone else in the school. Know what your students are capable of doing beyond a test score. If you do, then you will be able to fight for them when you know that there is a mistake. If the window for reporting has closed, Metritech will resend the scores to the DOE. You need to make sure that they get the new scores so both, your students’ scores and the AYP, are correct!

Monica Schnee is the current Chair of the Bergen-Passaic Chapter of NJTESOL-NJBE.

---

Technology: Favorite Websites-Kindersite

By Marilyn Pongracz

[Editors’ Note, August 2024: As of this date, only the Switcheroo Zoo is still working.]

Kindersite is a free website that provides links to learning activities for children ages two to twelve, some of which are suitable for ELLs. The search option on the site helps the teacher choose activities by age and type, and educational, fun, and playability values. Registered users can save their choices. Most of the activities have sound so that the words presented are also read and heard. The original focus of the site was ages two through eight so children can learn about colors and shapes, match the two halves of pictures, count, practice the alphabet, or work on phonemes. There are a few Spanish games as well.

A recent addition is a list of activities for children through age twelve. Like the links for ages two to eight, the links for children ages eight to twelve are often single activities although a few of the links open to the home page of other sites.

One of these sites is the Switcheroo Zoo, where children can create crazy animals while learning about the habitat, diet, and features of the parts of the animals they are choosing for their own creations. Afterwards, they can write about their animals following suggested questions. One of the best features for ELLs is the animal descriptions in the “resources.” These are brief and non-technical and give facts that are of interest to children, such as baby hippos being born under water, so they “have to swim the moment they are born.” A surprisingly simple activity is “Build an Online Habitat” for different animals with five choices of animals, biome, vegetation, and precipitation, each of which has vocabulary and pictures.

Another link from Kindersite recommended for ages eight to twelve is the Devolver Movie Maker . The choices of stock scenes and characters are limited, but they lend themselves to creativity for any student who watches television. The resulting movie is an animated comic strip that can be e-mailed or embedded in a website such as a blog or wiki. This is a public site but students can use nicknames. Although e-mail is required to obtain the link back to the comic, it doesn’t have to be the student’s. Once a comic is completed, others can make comments about them. Vocabulary Can Be Fun is also linked from Kindersite. The “Match” game is good for beginning language learners. The words under the pictures on the cards are read every time a student clicks on a card. The topics are everyday words such as animals, kitchen, transportation, clothing, colors, food, and nature. The compound word games could also be helpful to reinforce a lesson. The antonym and synonyms are useful although the grade levels given on the site should be higher. The parts of speech games reinforce grammar. Especially fun are the story blanks, which are like “Mad-Libs”.

The activities on Kindersite link to websites such as PBS Kids, BBC, and ABC Australia. Hence, the accent on the audio can be British, Australian, or American. One limitation of the site is that the linked sites are enclosed in the Kindersite frame, so the address of the website is hidden, and for full use of some of the sites, it is some- times necessary to search for the site and go to it outside of the Kindersite frame. However, if you are looking for online activities for younger learners, this site is a place to start.

Marilyn Pongracz is the Technology Coordinator for NJTESOL/NJBE and the English Language Resource Center Supervisor at Bergen Community College.

---

Fall 2010 SIGs / 2010 About
Summer 2010 Features / SIGs
Voices Home Page / NJTESOL/NJBE Home Page