Less Paper to Paperless Activities in the ESL Classroom

Presenters: Gretchen Bitterlin and Ann Marie Damrau November 17, 18, 2009

I. To copy or not to copy? Ask these questions:

a. What is the goal of the activity – listening, speaking, reading, or writing? If listening and speaking is the goal, why copy the page?

b. Is it legal to copy the page or pages?

c. Can I project the page on the whiteboard instead of copying it? (or post around the room)

d. Can the students copy the exercise in their notebooks without taking up too much time?
e. Can the teacher dictate the key parts of the page? (higher level classes)

f. How many ways can I use a paper that I copy? How many days can I use a paper?

g. If I do make some copies, can I copy on the backs of used papers?

II. Activities for Getting the Most out of textbook Lessons Without Using the Copy Machine

Guessing/ Prediction Exercise –

· Before handing out a reading or dialogue, ask the students a series of “or” questions. For example, Is the story about a man or a woman ? Is the person under 50 or over 50 ?, etc.

· Write the students’ predictions on the board. Ask them to listen to the story or dialogue or read the story to confirm or deny their predictions. This helps teaching skimming and scanning skills as well as focused listening skills.

Listening exercises / Comprehension Exercises

· Have students listen to a story or dialogue before they read it themselves.

· Ask them True/false comprehension questions. They can number 1-5 on a piece of notebook paper to record their answers.

· Ask them WH questions. Have students collaborate to report the correct answers.

Vocabulary words in context - Before a reading lesson, write some sentences on the board using the targeted vocabulary. Have students copy the sentences from the board and in pairs guess the meaning of the underlined words.

Re-telling a story - After studying a story, especially after the first day, write key words on the board that refer to parts of the story. Ask for volunteers to look at the key words and practice telling the story orally to the rest of the class.

Grammar focus – Ask students to number the paragraphs in a story. Ask them to choose one or more paragraphs and write down all the verbs in the story. Then have students group the verbs as to whether they are regular or irregular verbs. If applicable have students re-write the story , using a different verb tense.

Pronunciation focus - Ask students to look at a paragraph or a dialogue and copy it from the board or book and do the following:

· Underline the words in the sentences that carry the most important meaning. Have students read the sentences, stressing and lengthening these words.

· Circle the stressed syllables in words. Have students practice reading the sentences, lengthening and raising the pitch of the stressed syllables.

· Underline final letters in words that students may not pronounce very well. Have them practice these sentences, focusing on pronouncing the final sounds.

· Mark phrase groups. Have students practice reading the sentences, pausing after the phrase groups.

Pronunciation/ phonics focus - Ask students to underline or copy words in a paragraph or dialogue with certain sounds, e.g. short “a”. Then have students practice the pronunciation of these words.

Vocabulary – Pull words out of an article or story and ask students to write the opposite or words that mean the same. Have students categorize words from a lesson.

Spelling – Create spelling lists from a story or article that will be on a test or quiz. For practice, write them on the board with letters missing ( cloze ) and have students copy them supplying the correct letters at the beginning of a class.

Grammar focus - Write some sentences on the board about people in a story, e.g. William B. is from northern California, etc. Have students write sentences about themselves that agree or disagree with the statement, e.g. I am not from Northern California. This provides practice in writing negative forms or forms of agreement.

Memory - Show a picture. Ask students in teams to try and remember as many items as they can. Then have students alphabetize the words or sequence them in some fashion.

Recollection - Several days after a story, ask students to recall what a story was about. Write the story summary on the board as the students report it. Use this paragraph for dictation later on.

Question formation - After a reading, ask the students to generate comprehension questions about the story. Students can then practice writing the answers to the questions.

Writing - Write parts of a story or dialogue on the board with blanks ( cloze ). Students write the complete story, filling in the blanks.

n.Writing – Write key words on the board. Students write sentences which become a summary of the story previously studied.

Writing - Write sentences with errors on the board (preferably sentences students have written before.) Ask the students to work in pairs and correct the sentences. Check the sentences all together.

Have all students practice written textbook exercises orally, especially questions and answers.

When there are word boxes, ask the students to number the words. Then pairs of students can practice orally with each other, e.g. “ What’s number 3?”

Follow-up exercises after a reading that don’t require copying:

· Have students role play the story, if appropriate

· Have students write a letter to a character in the story

· Have students write an opinion about the story, supporting their ideas for examples or details.

· Have students research a related topic on the internet and report back to the class.

III. Other Paperless Activities

A. Board Activities to Review Lesson Content
i. Correct the sentences – sample sentences with errors from student writing.
ii. Unscramble sentences and put in order.
iii. Write a cloze exercise on the board.
iv. Create a language experience story from a picture in a book or from an experience
v. Practice grammar using grids or charts
vi. Write cue words from dialogues or stories. Students generate the conversations or story orally.
vii. Put weekly spelling words or vocabulary words on the board. Students write the words on a Bingo grid. Then the class plays bingo.
viii. Paired dictation from the board. One student sits with their back to the board. The other faces the board and dictates to their partner.
ix. Disappearing dialogue. Write a dialogue on the board. Then slowly erase it until students are reciting it without any text on the board or just word clues.
x. Send students to the board to do dictation or other tasks.

B. Use a set of picture cards or word cards in a variety of ways
i. Conversation mingle. Students circulate and ask each other questions with picture cards.
ii. Have students match pictures to word cards.
iii. Have students put pictures on a number grid (info gap). Have students keep the number grid to use again.
iv. Put names on picture cards and have students write sentences about the pictures.
v. Four part grid with word cards
1. I know these.
2. I don’t know these.
3. I need more practice
4. _________________
C. Use mini white boards.
In groups of 4, one student writes on the board, the others advise the student what to write. Then they pass the board to the next student. Great way to practice for dictation.
D. Conversation circles:
Write conversation questions on one paper that a group of 3-4 share and take turns asking each other the questions.
E. Use the roundtable strategy – Students pass one paper to brainstorm vocabulary words.
F. Use the classroom for everything. Have students talk about the classroom. Make a map in the classroom to do directions. Rows are streets, etc.
G. Use cooperative learning structures that get students interacting without paper:
i. Interviews
ii. Inside Outside circles
iii. Line ups
iv. Corners conversations
H. Technology
1. email
2. text messages
3. Blogs
4. Google Docs
5. Digital camera/ Picasa
6. Record instructions on ipod touch
7. Record instructions on language master cards
8. Have students practice via Quia exercises or other online websites