Recording for Your Learner Via Computer

Kudos to Favorite Tutor of the Week, Teel Haas, who sent us this very well-developed idea about how to use a resource you may already have close at hand to teach listening skills. Here's Teel:

What I recorded:  My learner has very limited opportunities to practice speaking and hearing English, so I decided to record one of the books we are using so she can go back and listen to the lessons and speak along with them.  The book I recorded is the Basic Level version of  English for Everyday Activities – A Picture Process Dictionary by Lawrence Zwier.  My learner really likes this book because it talks about things she does every day:  cooking rice, making salad, cleaning, doing laundry.  Since she knows these activities, it helps her build her English vocabulary and her confidence.

I was looking at going “old school” with a tape recorder, but accidentally discovered that my new laptop, which has Windows 7, has this great feature called “sound recorder.” 

"Old School"

Here’s what to do:

1. Click on the Windows "Start" button, a 4-color flag icon (bottom left of computer screen)
2. A window box opens up that says, “Search programs and files”
3. In that box type in the words: sound recorder
4. A small rectangular box labeled “Sound Recorder” will appear on your screen
5. On the left side of the box, click on the “button” that says “Start Recording.”  Speak slowly and clearly into the computer microphone.I read through each lesson twice,  the first time at a slightly slowed rate, so the learner can get a feeling for how a native speaker sounds. The second time through I read much more slowly, being careful to enunciate words, with the instruction that she should read along with me. There are some sounds and words that are particularly difficult for my learner because those sounds don’t exist in her native Wolof, so I stop and repeat those words for her.
6. When finished recording, save the audio file to your computer.
7. I then burned a CD for my learner, since she has access to a computer and that’s the easiest way for her to play the CD back to listen and practice. (You can also copy the file to a USB flash drive or similar portable memory stick, if that’s more convenient.)

 

What if you don’t have Windows 7?  Check with a public library near you to find out if their public use computers operate with Windows 7.  (The Madison Libraries website doesn’t indicate what operating system(s) they have available.)

PowerPoint to the People!

Literacy Network recently gave an in-service workshop of interest to tutors. The PowerPoint presentation for it is now available on Google Docs for any one who would like to see it. All you need to do is click this link.
What you'll find there is tips on Direct Instruction method and how to apply it to the fundamental skills of reading. Those skills are Alphabetics (which includes phoneme awareness, sounding-out and sight words), Vocabulary, Fluency and Comprehension. Of course, what you are getting here are the notes without the lecture, so to speak. But keep your ears open. The workshop may be repeated one day.

Get Organized!

Graphic organizers help readers with comprehension and retention problems by arranging the events, details and characters of a story visually. At the 2009 GED/HSED conference I got an introduction to a multitude of formats to make the abstract visible. You can choose one you think might help your learner and, if the first one doesn't work, try another. Here is one organizer from the website
graphicorganizers.com/:

It organizes a story by asking the Who? What? When? Why? questions a reporter asks and leaves room at the bottom to draw a conclusion. Below you can see a similar organizer that takes on Chapter 11 of Huckleberry Finn,
a relatively complex story. In this case each minor event has its own question at the top of the box and below it the learner fills in the answers as he reads or rereads the story. The site linked here has 41 organizers — Venn circles, character studies, branching diagrams and others.

Another very nice website is freeology.com. In addition to graphic organizers you will find worksheets and word games to play. Like graphicorganizers.com it has many different ways to arrange story elements visually. One of my favorites, for its simplicity and directness, is the cause-and-effect organizer. Here is a screen grab of that item:

I filled in this organizer with details from the Wikipedia entry for the topic of global warming. You and your learner might organize some of the thoughts as you see at left. You could just as easily run the organizer backwards, starting with effects and then listing their causes beneath them. Everyone's mind works differently, which is why it's such a good thing that there are so many different organizers out there. Please give it a look and see what might work for your learner's mind. You might try it out on your own first, graphically organizing a story from the newspaper before you try it with your learner. Best of luck, and have fun!