Open Source ESL/EFL Curriculum for Young Learners

Writing Class with Tar Heel Readers

I’ve started to encourage my fourth grade-equivalent class to create Tar Heel Readers. So far they’ve published two, and have another three currently in draft form. They really enjoy it and get a kick out of checking out where the stories are getting read around the world.

I have them go through the entire writing process, from pre-writing to publishing, and require them to be responsible for every step. The stories have been well-rated so far. That being noted, even though I asked them not to I suspect my students almost certainly went home and rated themselves…

The School Story: Trapped!

About Korea

Where the stories have been read:

There is something very powerful about the feedback loop. My students are taking the process of writing these stories very seriously now that they understand, for perhaps the first time with their writing, that there is an audience they’re engaging through what they produce, and that those readers appreciate their effort.

Teaching Village

Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto graciously allowed me to do a guest post about formative assessment on her excellent Teaching Village website. I appreciate the opportunity to contribute the genuinely constructive global discussion about ELT that takes place on her blog.

Under Construction

I’ve started to build the repository for the Immersion Quest Curriculum. It will be at least a week before there is any content to look at, but in fairly short order it’ll be possible to get a sense of the overall vision of the project in action.

The Khan Academy

Just came across this today in another blog/link meander, but Salman Khan is doing- albeit with a current emphasis primarily on math and science (and Napoleon)- almost exactly what I envision doing for ESL/EFL with the Immersion Quest Project.

Just like the Tar Heel Readers with beginning readers,  his video tutorials are highly functional, engaging, content-rich and free. With some 1400+ videos currently uploaded over 4 years, he clearly is a guy that gets on with getting on to the utilitarian stuff without a whole lot of fuss.

I can honestly say the following video gave me very practical insight into how online content should be put together. When he notes how essentially unscripted he is going into a problem/focus presented in a given video, it’s an observation that absolutely resonates. I’ll expand on why in a follow-up post.

The City of CleverKey

Jason Renshaw has started to post ESL/EFL content from his excellent English Raven subscription-based website onto his blog. These had previously been member-only resources, but now he’s making them available for free.

The most recent offering is the City of Cleverkey, which is an activity that allows students to “build their own city” and use it for a variety of tasks and purposes. I first used CleverKey in 2005, and for a couple of years was one of my favorite activities to do with my elementary-aged students.

I’m very happy to see it as a free resource. Kudos to him for doing this.

Zooburst

While I continue to brush up on my JavaScript skills, here’s a fantastic new site I came across while blog surfing for creating augmented reality 3D pop-up books called Zooburst. Check it out:

Very, very cool stuff.

The National Education Technology Plan 2010

For anyone interested in educational technology, the above linked recently released report by the U.S. Department of Education is excellent reading:

“The model of 21st century learning described in this plan calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners. The model asks that we focus what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where and when they will learn, and who needs to learn. It brings state-of-the art technology into learning to enable, motivate, and inspire all students, regardless of background, languages, or disabilities, to achieve. It leverages the power of technology to provide personalized learning instead of a one-size-fits-all curriculum, pace of teaching, and instructional practices.“ - Executive Summary

Although focused on the United States, the articulated vision is certainly applicable to the world of ESL/EFL.

Teaching Every Student

The Center for Applied Special Technology, the originators of the Universal Design for Learning, offers an excellent set of tools for curriculum development, learning profiles and lesson planning.

3D Virtual Reading Room

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