Monday, June 11th – Softball
Monday nights are always fun; I get to hang out with my old accounting co-workers on our company softball team. We’re not very good but it’s really just an excuse to get out of the office with the people you practically live with during tax season. Firm bonding outside the office always helps things when you’re back at work. I’ve always wanted to learn how to score a softball game and tonight, I did. My metacognitive strategy of “directed attention” was important, since I was learning while the game was going on. This was something that I was motivated to do and I had to keep myself focused instead of being distracted by exciting plays in the game. Actually scoring the game turned out to be an easier task than I thought. By using the cognitive strategy of “imagery,” I just had to assign each person in the field with a number. Picturing myself at second base with an assigned number and my teammates around me with their own numbers was an easy way to learn how to document each hit or out. We’re all accountants to keeping the actual score wasn’t a problem, although adding without our ten-key calculators took some practice!
Tuesday, June 12th – How to Perform an Incurred Cost Submission at Work
Until August, I am still doing some part-time work for an accounting firm in the area and at work today my manager asked if I had experience with an Incurred Cost Submission (ICS) for the government. She tasked another co-worker of mine and I to complete an ICS for a client that afternoon. Then my manager described the process several times and walked us through the key factors of the assignment. I used the metacognitive strategy of “delayed production” initially because I wanted to learn as much as I could from listening comprehension while she explained it. That strategy led naturally into the cognitive strategy of note taking. I didn’t have to write down the main idea but the important points and outline of the project requirements were helpful to refer back to when we had questions. Because I haven’t had much experience with this type of work, it was also necessary for me to use socioaffective strategies. First, my co-worker and I used “cooperation.” We worked together and pooled the information both of us could bring to the table to complete the project. Finally, we used the strategy “question for clarification” several times to make sure we were on the right track. It was helpful to get examples from our manager using this strategy in order to have something to work from and model after.
Wednesday, June 13th – Determine My Learning/Brain Type
Tonight I am going to give myself a test to see which type of learner I am. I have several that Dr. Robbins passed out at Thursday’s lecture which I’ll use tonight. My brief and informal hypothesis is that I will be “balance-brained” if there is such a thing. I think this may be true for several reasons but most importantly because of my career path thus far. I spent three years in public accounting before deciding to switch to ESL teaching. I love working with numbers (using my calculator of course) and my favorite subject in school was always math. From this, I could say that I’m predominantly left-brained and have a preference for things that are more concrete. On the other hand though, my second favorite subject in school was Spanish! I think I also have a creative and free side that has helped inspire me to become a teacher, which would make me more right-brained. Maybe that “no boundaries” feeling is why I ended up leaving accounting; it certainly wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy the numbers anymore. The third reason I’ll give in support of me being balance-brained is that sometimes I remember names; other times its faces, and most of the time I can come up with both! So which one am I, right or left brained? Or is it possible to be equally balanced between both? Maybe this test will help me figure it out.
After taking the test that Dr. Robbins gave out in class, I’ve discovered that I am “moderately left-brained.” This makes sense to me because I originally thought I was balanced-brained, meaning I didn’t prefer one side of my brain over the other. With these results, it shows that I have a slight tendency for my left side of my brain, but not by an overwhelming amount. While I primarily use logical reasoning and organized thoughts, that’s not the only way I function.
Thursday, June 14th – Esperanto in class
Tonight we had a very interesting presentation in class, the first expert group presented on L1 and L2 acquisition. Suzanne and Alexandra reviewed the background theories behind L1 and L2 acquisition and discussed their articles relating to each topic. What I found most entertaining about their presentation was the practical application activity that they had prepared for the class. They passed out ten sentences in Esperanto and asked the class to translate them into English. Ugh, I thought to myself, this is going to be embarrassing! It was amazing to see how many sentences we translated correctly having no exposure to the language before. In my own personal strategy for translating the sentences, the main method I used was my previous knowledge of my second language, Spanish. Using the cognitive strategy of “translation” I used the words and sentence structure as a base for understanding and related them to similar spellings and phrases in Spanish. I also used the cognitive strategy of “transfer” as I identified cognates first and linked my previous linguistic knowledge for this new language learning task. Once I had the general idea of the sentence, I was able to use “inferencing” and make a good guess at the other words in context. After a couple sentences were completed, it was easy to then take the patterns and vocabulary words from previous sentences to fill in the missing pieces. While I didn’t correctly translate all of them, it surprised me that I figured any out at all. This brief classroom experiment makes me curious to think about the probability of picking up an L2, L3, L4, etc. if the languages are similar. So, for example, using the same strategies that I did to translate Esperanto into English, would that make it easier for a person who learns Spanish as L2 to then pick up Italian as L3 because of the romance language similarities?
Friday, June 15th – Navigating a New Restaurant
Last night my boyfriend and I finally found some down time and had planned to go to dinner and a movie, just the two of us! I guess you can say this could be considered using the metacognitive strategy of “functional planning.” We discussed the components of the evening, selected a brand new restaurant in Ballston (Vapiano) and a newly released movie (Once), and worked out the logistics for meeting at a specific time and carrying out the plan, or as we liked to call it, a date! We arrived at the restaurant and the hostess greeted us, handed us each a plastic card, and told us to enjoy our meal. We had absolutely no idea what to do. He and I started to use the strategy of “deduction.” We walked around the place, saw that it was a pizza/pasta/salad bar-type restaurant, but we weren’t sure at all how it worked. We sat ourselves down in the back and tried to imitate others, were they helping themselves? What were they using the card for? Was a waitress serving each table? Finally, we had to resort to a socioaffective strategy and “question for clarification.” We went back up to the friendly hostess and she walked us through the process. In order to enjoy the meal, we used the cognitive strategy of “repetition.” The food was so delicious that we practiced and rehearsed eating with our many trips back up to the counter for more taste testing!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Learning Strategies Diary, Melissa Duprat
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
While my intentions were lofty and I had planned on starting much earlier, I am only beginning to study today for the Praxis II exam that I will take on Saturday, June 9. Since I had already determined that there was no extensive study guide that I could purchase, I have printed out a six-page “About This Test” booklet from the Web. It contains sample questions and answers and lists the types of things that will be covered, specifically:
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Today I used the cognitive strategy of grouping to figure out what I was going to deal with first. I decided to go with the area where I am weakest, which is phonology, including phonetic transcriptions and place and manner of articulation. I placed out of this class because I have an MA in Linguistics – but I obtained that degree several years ago and forget the details of phonology. Since I did not keep any of my books or notes from my Masters (big mistake!), I need to obtain the information anew. I asked a classmate, who gave me some Web links, and I asked Dr. Robbins, who directed me to her Web site for TRED 256. By asking questions I was using the social/affective strategy of questioning for clarification.
Once I got the information, I printed it out and looked it over. The knowledge started flooding back! I put the material in a folder for later reference.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Today I decided to write out the key aspects of the main teaching theories, methods, and approaches, with the names of the men who developed them (cognitive strategy of note taking). I made sure to include the names of the methods mentioned in the guide that I printed out. Some of this information was in my notes from my Educational Psychology class so I pulled out those notes.
I also looked at my textbooks for topics listed in the guide such as “components needed in a lesson when teaching a skill discretely or integratively” and wrote notes on those.
One of the sample questions in the guide gave a table of contents in an ESOL textbook and asked if it was organized in a hierarchical, grammatical, notional-functional, or core way. I could not answer the question so I did research on all the terms (cognitive strategy of resourcing) and took notes.
I put all of the notes into a folder.
Monday, June 4, 2007
I wasn’t able to study over the weekend because of homework for my two classes. I am starting to feel a bit panicked because I am still pulling together information but have not yet started to memorize anything.
There is one other area where I know nothing, and that is “legal foundations for ESOL programs, including Lau vs. Nichols,” as the Praxis II mini-study guide states. I used the Internet (cognitive strategy of resourcing) to find out what Lau vs. Nichols was, printed it out, and put it in my folder.
Tonight I listened for the first time to the Web sites that my classmate told me about, where a person speaks the various sounds in the IPA while I looked at the symbols. How can I possibly memorize all of these symbols? I can’t. I decide to learn what I think are the main vowel symbols (metacognitive strategy of selective attention).
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Today I decided I am finished gathering information. Now it is time to learn it all and memorize as much as necessary. I took all my notes, punched holes in them and put them into a green three-hole binder. I did not put the material in any particular order, since I have to learn it all and it won’t be in order on the test.
During the time at my high school that I am not teaching or assisting this week, I will study (metacognitive strategy of self-management).
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Today I was able to study for about two hours while at school. I worked on about the first third of the notebook. The way I study is to first read the material. Some of it I have learned in class already and I just need to review it once or twice to internalize it. However, some of the material is “new,” which means I never learned it in class, e.g., the Lau court case, or pidginization, which I had not yet learned about, or the International Phonetic Alphabet, which I knew once but have forgotten. For the latter items, I will circle or underline them since I really need to memorize them. Then I will study them, one at a time, and try to write them down on a separate piece of paper without looking at my notes. I will repeat the study/write process until I can write the information without looking at my notes at all (cognitive strategy: summarizing).
Friday, June 8, 2007
I spent most of the afternoon and evening studying. I used the strategy mentioned above to plow through the rest of my notebook. In addition, to learn the IPA vowels, I drew a picture that shows an abstract version of the mouth and the high, low, front, and back vowels. By doing this I was using the cognitive strategy of imagery.
For some of the items I needed to know, I used mnemonic devices as a strategy. For example, for the characteristics of communicative language teaching, I remember PUFFS: pragmatic and authentic material, unrehearsed discourse, fluency, facilitator (teacher), and strategies.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Test day. In terms of learning and testing environment, UDC is rather appalling. The concrete is breaking apart, walls are peeling, there is minimal air circulation, and there is an unbelievably foul smell that permeates the hallways and the classroom where we took our test. The CD and/or boom box that were used to play the sound portion of the test failed midstream and it took a while to get things working again.
Before the test, I was a bit anxious. I took my green notebook to cram during the half hour I had in advance of the start time. I used the social/affective strategy of self-talk to tell myself I would do all right.
The test was difficult. Using the metacognitive strategy of self-assessment, I am fairly happy with what and how I studied. There was nothing I chose to study that I should have learned more thoroughly. My shortfalls had to do with not selecting certain things to put in my notebook to study, such as more court cases other than Lau and more IPA symbols. I missed a couple of questions by not having done that. A few questions used terminology that I did not recognize and now that the test is over, I don’t even remember what the terms were. I certainly missed those questions.
The good news is that one needs to get only 55% of the questions correct in order to pass the test, and I am pretty confident that I did at least that well. I will know in another week or two.
While my intentions were lofty and I had planned on starting much earlier, I am only beginning to study today for the Praxis II exam that I will take on Saturday, June 9. Since I had already determined that there was no extensive study guide that I could purchase, I have printed out a six-page “About This Test” booklet from the Web. It contains sample questions and answers and lists the types of things that will be covered, specifically:
Analysis of Student Language Production
Linguistic Theory
Teaching Methods and Techniques
Assessment Techniques and Cultural Issues
Professional Issues
Under each of these topics are listed dozens of subtopics, for example, under Linguistic Theory are listed phonetic transcriptions; bound, free, and derivational morphemes; code-switching; communicative competence; and theorists such as Krashen and Cummins.
Today I used the metacognitive strategy of advance organization because I previewed what I was going to have to learn. I reviewed the list of every topic and subtopic and underlined the ones that I don’t think I already know inside and out – in other words, the ones I have to study. This amounts to more than 100 topics. It is pretty disheartening!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Today I used the cognitive strategy of grouping to figure out what I was going to deal with first. I decided to go with the area where I am weakest, which is phonology, including phonetic transcriptions and place and manner of articulation. I placed out of this class because I have an MA in Linguistics – but I obtained that degree several years ago and forget the details of phonology. Since I did not keep any of my books or notes from my Masters (big mistake!), I need to obtain the information anew. I asked a classmate, who gave me some Web links, and I asked Dr. Robbins, who directed me to her Web site for TRED 256. By asking questions I was using the social/affective strategy of questioning for clarification.
Once I got the information, I printed it out and looked it over. The knowledge started flooding back! I put the material in a folder for later reference.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Today I decided to write out the key aspects of the main teaching theories, methods, and approaches, with the names of the men who developed them (cognitive strategy of note taking). I made sure to include the names of the methods mentioned in the guide that I printed out. Some of this information was in my notes from my Educational Psychology class so I pulled out those notes.
I also looked at my textbooks for topics listed in the guide such as “components needed in a lesson when teaching a skill discretely or integratively” and wrote notes on those.
One of the sample questions in the guide gave a table of contents in an ESOL textbook and asked if it was organized in a hierarchical, grammatical, notional-functional, or core way. I could not answer the question so I did research on all the terms (cognitive strategy of resourcing) and took notes.
I put all of the notes into a folder.
Monday, June 4, 2007
I wasn’t able to study over the weekend because of homework for my two classes. I am starting to feel a bit panicked because I am still pulling together information but have not yet started to memorize anything.
There is one other area where I know nothing, and that is “legal foundations for ESOL programs, including Lau vs. Nichols,” as the Praxis II mini-study guide states. I used the Internet (cognitive strategy of resourcing) to find out what Lau vs. Nichols was, printed it out, and put it in my folder.
Tonight I listened for the first time to the Web sites that my classmate told me about, where a person speaks the various sounds in the IPA while I looked at the symbols. How can I possibly memorize all of these symbols? I can’t. I decide to learn what I think are the main vowel symbols (metacognitive strategy of selective attention).
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Today I decided I am finished gathering information. Now it is time to learn it all and memorize as much as necessary. I took all my notes, punched holes in them and put them into a green three-hole binder. I did not put the material in any particular order, since I have to learn it all and it won’t be in order on the test.
During the time at my high school that I am not teaching or assisting this week, I will study (metacognitive strategy of self-management).
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Today I was able to study for about two hours while at school. I worked on about the first third of the notebook. The way I study is to first read the material. Some of it I have learned in class already and I just need to review it once or twice to internalize it. However, some of the material is “new,” which means I never learned it in class, e.g., the Lau court case, or pidginization, which I had not yet learned about, or the International Phonetic Alphabet, which I knew once but have forgotten. For the latter items, I will circle or underline them since I really need to memorize them. Then I will study them, one at a time, and try to write them down on a separate piece of paper without looking at my notes. I will repeat the study/write process until I can write the information without looking at my notes at all (cognitive strategy: summarizing).
Friday, June 8, 2007
I spent most of the afternoon and evening studying. I used the strategy mentioned above to plow through the rest of my notebook. In addition, to learn the IPA vowels, I drew a picture that shows an abstract version of the mouth and the high, low, front, and back vowels. By doing this I was using the cognitive strategy of imagery.
For some of the items I needed to know, I used mnemonic devices as a strategy. For example, for the characteristics of communicative language teaching, I remember PUFFS: pragmatic and authentic material, unrehearsed discourse, fluency, facilitator (teacher), and strategies.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Test day. In terms of learning and testing environment, UDC is rather appalling. The concrete is breaking apart, walls are peeling, there is minimal air circulation, and there is an unbelievably foul smell that permeates the hallways and the classroom where we took our test. The CD and/or boom box that were used to play the sound portion of the test failed midstream and it took a while to get things working again.
Before the test, I was a bit anxious. I took my green notebook to cram during the half hour I had in advance of the start time. I used the social/affective strategy of self-talk to tell myself I would do all right.
The test was difficult. Using the metacognitive strategy of self-assessment, I am fairly happy with what and how I studied. There was nothing I chose to study that I should have learned more thoroughly. My shortfalls had to do with not selecting certain things to put in my notebook to study, such as more court cases other than Lau and more IPA symbols. I missed a couple of questions by not having done that. A few questions used terminology that I did not recognize and now that the test is over, I don’t even remember what the terms were. I certainly missed those questions.
The good news is that one needs to get only 55% of the questions correct in order to pass the test, and I am pretty confident that I did at least that well. I will know in another week or two.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Melissa Cummins' Learning Strategies Diary
June 15, 2007
My husband and I bought a house two weeks ago. Since then, I have finished the school year, attended all the 8th grade end-of-year activities, taken 45 6th graders on a weeklong trip to the mountains of North Carolina, and attended class. Today I am sitting down to survey the house, finally. During the last 2 hours, I have made 3 lists. A “to buy” list, a “to fix” list, and a “to do” list. My next task is to break down each list into the specific stores to shop in, the supplies we will need for fixing the house, and the days I will accomplish the “to do” list tasks. I am currently the queen of the organizational planning learning strategy.
This is an inherited strategy from my mom, who kept lists of everything in our house. The lists worked for her and now they are working for me. My lists are not color coded or, frankly, very well organized, but they do keep me focused during my short breaks to help me maximize my time. The key for now will be to not lose the lists ☺
June 16, 2007 (am)
My husband and I are reviewing our “to buy” list today. My parents are coming into town next week and we don’t have a stove, a grill, or a microwave. This will be a problem when we have to eat cereal and sandwiches for a week with my parents. Instead of hitting every store in town, we are using advance organization to look at the available models on the internet. We can skim a variety of websites and preview the available models. We will then call up local stores to determine the availability of the different models. We are managing all this information using note-taking.
June 16, 2007 (pm)
We are now the proud owners of a stove and a grill. Well, we will be the owners of a stove when it is delivered on Tuesday. The comparison shopping paid off in terms of the price of the stoves. However, we ran into a small problem when we went to finalize the prices. Gas stoves have additional charges for installation due to the danger of the gas lines. The fees ranged from $169-$400 for installation. We had to add this information to our notes to determine the real best price. Even our advanced planning did not prepare us for all the details of purchasing appliances. Fortunately our notes allowed us to quickly adjust for the price of installation.
June 17, 2007
Moving from a 450 square foot condo into a real house has left a few empty rooms. Today I convinced my husband to go shopping for armchairs for our living room. Selective attention was our best friend as we ran around Northern Virginia furniture stores for 6 hours. We don’t leave the District often, especially to venture to the far suburbs. However, our best bet for comparison shopping for furniture we can afford is in the ‘burbs. We were able to maximize our time by focusing only on leather armchairs.
We also knew that we wanted chairs with the same overall shape as our couch. So, we could quickly glance over the leather armchairs and narrow down our choice even further. In some stores, we did not even bother to sit in any of the chairs because none of the options matched our idea. Our selective attention allowed us to find two excellent chairs that will match our couch.
Now that we are home, we are using imagery to choose from our top two options. We have made phantom chairs by cutting out newspaper to match the size of the base of the chairs. We are moving them around the living room to determine which chairs will fit the best. It has become clear that the armchairs from Belfort are the best fit. I will be making the trip back to the store tomorrow to make our order!
June 19, 2007
My lists are shrinking now that we have picked up the blinds for the upstairs bedrooms. My parents are coming tomorrow night and they will be pleased that their every move will not be visible to our neighbors! As usual, the packaging ensured us that the installation would be a breeze. Of course, the lack of installation instructions made it a bit more difficult! We used the resourcing strategy to search the internet for instructions. We were saved when we found a site with installation instructions for our specific make and model of blinds. Hurray for technology!
Armed with the instructions, my husband and I used cooperation to install the blinds. He pre-drilled the holes while I followed with the brackets. The blinds snapped into place fairly easily. My husband then opened the next package while I adjusted the blinds to ensure that they worked properly. The installation went smoothly from that point.
June 21, 2007
Our stove was just delivered. The new stove replaced a stove that was only two years old. We were surprised that such a new appliance could leak gas. Time for another learning strategy: questioning for clarification. I peppered the poor technician with questions about gas stoves. What can we do to extend the life expectancy of our stove? Why would a new stove leak? How can we check for leaks on our new stove? I asked him to check twice for leaks. I was never nervous in our condo because I didn’t realize that new stoves can leak gas. Now I will probably be a bit overly cautious.
Reflecting back over my week, I see that learning strategies are everywhere. The events of the week definitely tested my abilities to pre-plan and then execute that plan. Our house is coming together and my list is down to three things. More importantly, the learning strategies allowed me to whittle down my list efficiently and gave me some time to enjoy my break.
My husband and I bought a house two weeks ago. Since then, I have finished the school year, attended all the 8th grade end-of-year activities, taken 45 6th graders on a weeklong trip to the mountains of North Carolina, and attended class. Today I am sitting down to survey the house, finally. During the last 2 hours, I have made 3 lists. A “to buy” list, a “to fix” list, and a “to do” list. My next task is to break down each list into the specific stores to shop in, the supplies we will need for fixing the house, and the days I will accomplish the “to do” list tasks. I am currently the queen of the organizational planning learning strategy.
This is an inherited strategy from my mom, who kept lists of everything in our house. The lists worked for her and now they are working for me. My lists are not color coded or, frankly, very well organized, but they do keep me focused during my short breaks to help me maximize my time. The key for now will be to not lose the lists ☺
June 16, 2007 (am)
My husband and I are reviewing our “to buy” list today. My parents are coming into town next week and we don’t have a stove, a grill, or a microwave. This will be a problem when we have to eat cereal and sandwiches for a week with my parents. Instead of hitting every store in town, we are using advance organization to look at the available models on the internet. We can skim a variety of websites and preview the available models. We will then call up local stores to determine the availability of the different models. We are managing all this information using note-taking.
June 16, 2007 (pm)
We are now the proud owners of a stove and a grill. Well, we will be the owners of a stove when it is delivered on Tuesday. The comparison shopping paid off in terms of the price of the stoves. However, we ran into a small problem when we went to finalize the prices. Gas stoves have additional charges for installation due to the danger of the gas lines. The fees ranged from $169-$400 for installation. We had to add this information to our notes to determine the real best price. Even our advanced planning did not prepare us for all the details of purchasing appliances. Fortunately our notes allowed us to quickly adjust for the price of installation.
June 17, 2007
Moving from a 450 square foot condo into a real house has left a few empty rooms. Today I convinced my husband to go shopping for armchairs for our living room. Selective attention was our best friend as we ran around Northern Virginia furniture stores for 6 hours. We don’t leave the District often, especially to venture to the far suburbs. However, our best bet for comparison shopping for furniture we can afford is in the ‘burbs. We were able to maximize our time by focusing only on leather armchairs.
We also knew that we wanted chairs with the same overall shape as our couch. So, we could quickly glance over the leather armchairs and narrow down our choice even further. In some stores, we did not even bother to sit in any of the chairs because none of the options matched our idea. Our selective attention allowed us to find two excellent chairs that will match our couch.
Now that we are home, we are using imagery to choose from our top two options. We have made phantom chairs by cutting out newspaper to match the size of the base of the chairs. We are moving them around the living room to determine which chairs will fit the best. It has become clear that the armchairs from Belfort are the best fit. I will be making the trip back to the store tomorrow to make our order!
June 19, 2007
My lists are shrinking now that we have picked up the blinds for the upstairs bedrooms. My parents are coming tomorrow night and they will be pleased that their every move will not be visible to our neighbors! As usual, the packaging ensured us that the installation would be a breeze. Of course, the lack of installation instructions made it a bit more difficult! We used the resourcing strategy to search the internet for instructions. We were saved when we found a site with installation instructions for our specific make and model of blinds. Hurray for technology!
Armed with the instructions, my husband and I used cooperation to install the blinds. He pre-drilled the holes while I followed with the brackets. The blinds snapped into place fairly easily. My husband then opened the next package while I adjusted the blinds to ensure that they worked properly. The installation went smoothly from that point.
June 21, 2007
Our stove was just delivered. The new stove replaced a stove that was only two years old. We were surprised that such a new appliance could leak gas. Time for another learning strategy: questioning for clarification. I peppered the poor technician with questions about gas stoves. What can we do to extend the life expectancy of our stove? Why would a new stove leak? How can we check for leaks on our new stove? I asked him to check twice for leaks. I was never nervous in our condo because I didn’t realize that new stoves can leak gas. Now I will probably be a bit overly cautious.
Reflecting back over my week, I see that learning strategies are everywhere. The events of the week definitely tested my abilities to pre-plan and then execute that plan. Our house is coming together and my list is down to three things. More importantly, the learning strategies allowed me to whittle down my list efficiently and gave me some time to enjoy my break.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
John's Trials and Tribulations Learning Amharic
John’s Trials and Tribulations Learning Amharic
DAY ONE….
Well, I broke down and bought a book/CD set called colloquial Amharic – The Complete Course for Beginners. It was wickedly expensive - $85! – but it’s seems to be the only available Amharic language course around.
This is BEGINNING Amharic? In the first couple of pages, they have covered THE ENTIRE WRITING SYSTEM, AND my, your, his, her – possessive phrases. ( In my beginning ESOL 1 text book, possessives don’t come until Unit 4! ) Wow. I have a lot to learn…
Anyway, the book starts into the writing system. It’s called the “fidel”. It’s a really complex writing system – a syllabary. It’s similar to Japanese – it’s not an alphabet as such, but rather each symbol represents a syllable. There are 276 shapes to learn! It is frustrating – I can’t even tell if the shapes are right side up, or upside down! The system is divided into orders of ä, u, i, a, ï, and o.
Amharic is like Japanese - it has it’s own set of symbols for numbers as well. Interesting!...
ENTRY TWO:
The history of Amharic in the book is fascinating. Amharic is spoken by 17.5 million people and is understood throughout the country of Ethiopia. Despite it’s long history, it has only been the written language of Ethiopia since the second half of the 19th century. It is a Semitic language, in the same family as Arabic and Hebrew…
ENTRY THREE:
…I am going over the book. The sounds in Amharic are quite different than in English, like Mongolian, so I can handle this. Amharic has “golottalized” consonants, kind of like what we have in English in BOTTLE and BUTTON.
… I’m really not liking this book! They stop writing out the English pronunciation with the readings by Unit 6! (There are 14 Units in the book.) I guess by Unit 6, you should be able to read things fluently! AND NO PICTURES!
Speaking and listening are so much easier for me! I think I should focus more on conversational Amharic, rather than reading and writing. This book doesn’t even have pictures!
I think I will put an advertisement on Craigslist for a private Amharic tutor. I would really like private lessons, maybe once a week…
ENTRY FOUR:
I was digging around and found an old National Geographic with an featured article about Ethiopia. This is great! I really want to learn more about the culture – about the food, the houses, the people – as well as the language. There is this old church in the article, in the town of Gondor, hewn entirely out of rock…
I am going to be downtown next week. I should stop by the TEMPO bookstore. They specialize in all different kinds of foreign language books. They have a ton of great stuff – dictionaries in Mongolian, language tapes in Slovak.. Maybe they have an easier “Spoken Amahric” language series available
ENTRY FIVE:
Well, I just got back from TEMPO. They have some really great stuff for teaching English. All kinds of ESL Resource books. They even have a translator called a “Quictionary” – it’s a pen-like scanner that you can scan any text and it will translate into the foreign language! I could really use that for Japanese, since I have difficulty reading kanji! The problem is that they are very expensive - $200! They don’t have any in stock, anyway. Oh well! Maybe, I will invest in one later.
But back to the Amharic – they ONLY have the one series for learning Amharic. No luck.
Good news! I just checked my email, and I think I found someone who might be interested in giving me private Amharic lessons! This is great! Hopefully, I will be able to actually be learn to communicate in Amharic, learn about the culture, learn some new vocabulary, order food in a restaurant…
TO BE CONTINUED!......
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Learning Strategies Diary
Thursday, June 14th -
My learning strategies for creating our research-based expert group presentation are varied and consistent with how I learn most things. First, attacking the research articles was somewhat intimidating considering I still have not taken the quantitative methods course yet. I read the introduction first and then skim the articles and look at the tables. Then, I read the conclusion. Second, I read the whole article again (sometimes out loud) and highlight what I think is important. Afterwards, I summarize what I learned and note what I had questions about.
I think I learn the best by summarizing and asking myself questions. However, many times, during the weekly readings, this step gets skipped due to lack of time.
When I don't understand part of the research, I read it again out loud and slowly. Because the field-based vocabulary is still relatively new to me, it takes me longer to digest. Words such as "attrition" and "coefficient" and "heuristic" aren't part of my working vocabulary, so I have to think about them as I read. I have to refer to my notes or the book.
In order to learn the information to present, we made predictions and summarized from the research articles. We "personalized" the information by trying to relate it to our teaching experiences. It is nice to "cooperate" or work with others because it creates a dialogue out of the information which, in turn, makes you more apt to absorb and understand it.
Friday, June 15th.
I drop Isabella at her daycare. We have established a routine. I have to let her carry her lunchbox and tell her the whole time in the car that we are going to school. When we get there, she has to help me put the food in the refrigerator. I am learning to make a quick exit, but she still cries and reaches out for me, and it is extremely difficult.
My main learning experience right now is trying to be a mother. I am learning how to manage my two year old.
When I take her to daycare, she cries. She is also starting to push other kids and, occasionally me, and say"STOP". She also likes to cry and lay on the floor, fight not to put on her diaper, and she hates to get in her car seat or bath. These are all relatively new behaviors that concern me, so I have been trying to learn how to cope.
First, I know and refer to the background knowledge: She was born in Brazil and lived with only me until she was one and a half when we came here and pluncked her in daycare during the day. She stays with her dad at night.
I can "predict" that most of this behavior is normal "two" behavior. However, some of it could be rebelling from the lack of attention. It could also be "spoiled".
I "observe patterns" to see when she is typically exhibiting these behaviors and why. When she is dropped off or picked up at daycare, when she is hungry or tired, and when she is around other children. Many times, I take "notes" to remember what she is doing and when. I also take notes on what other people say.
"Cooperating" has helped me learn some. I cooperate with her teachers, her father, my mother and her school. We try to figure out what to do together. I learn from my friends who have small children. I try the techniques that they say or I use what they say to rule out certain options.
Finally, I consult books, magazines, and the internet to try to find out what to do. I am reading "Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline," by Becky A. Bailey and "How to talk so your kids will listen" whenever I have time. They suggest using "positive intent" (assuming that they awill do what you ask of them if presented correctly and using lots of options to give them some control of the situation. I was struggling with time-out because that is what I had learned. This book suggests against time out. My mother paddled us, so I chose not to consult my mom on this matter.
When the behavior occurs, I definitely engage in self-talk to calm myself down and to think about the options that i have learned. I have established routines that seem to help and giving her options does as well. Explaining why you do things also seems to make sense to her.
However, I am still having a hard time learning a strategy to deal with the pushing of other kids and ugly faces that she makes at them.
Saturday, June 16th
We went to a barbeque at our friends. Isabella stayed on my lap almost the entire time. However, she did eat which is good, and she wanted to see the cat. I remembered to leave before 7:30 because our routine has her in bed by 8:30 after eating and bath.
Sunday, June 17th
We met with my friends from NY who have a one and a half year old. They have recently had a newborn baby boy. Isabella was extremely curious about this and didn't push or make ugly faces. I made a inference, drew a conclusion and predicted that I will not have any more children based on this breakfast.
Yesterday, June 19th
We went to the grocery store to get food. When Isabella sees things that she wants in the store. I let her pick them up and look at them. We appreciate them together, and I learned to ask her to put them back in their houses. She seems okay with this. As of yet, we have never had a problem with "objects" like this.
In conclusion, I am learning everyday, mostly by trial and error. I do a lot of intuitive work and mental note-taking about what I think works. However, the books do seem to think that there are right and wrong ways of doing things. I always have to consult the doctor to see if she is actually sufficiently cognitively developed to handle something like time out and understand a "consequence" like this.
My learning strategies for creating our research-based expert group presentation are varied and consistent with how I learn most things. First, attacking the research articles was somewhat intimidating considering I still have not taken the quantitative methods course yet. I read the introduction first and then skim the articles and look at the tables. Then, I read the conclusion. Second, I read the whole article again (sometimes out loud) and highlight what I think is important. Afterwards, I summarize what I learned and note what I had questions about.
I think I learn the best by summarizing and asking myself questions. However, many times, during the weekly readings, this step gets skipped due to lack of time.
When I don't understand part of the research, I read it again out loud and slowly. Because the field-based vocabulary is still relatively new to me, it takes me longer to digest. Words such as "attrition" and "coefficient" and "heuristic" aren't part of my working vocabulary, so I have to think about them as I read. I have to refer to my notes or the book.
In order to learn the information to present, we made predictions and summarized from the research articles. We "personalized" the information by trying to relate it to our teaching experiences. It is nice to "cooperate" or work with others because it creates a dialogue out of the information which, in turn, makes you more apt to absorb and understand it.
Friday, June 15th.
I drop Isabella at her daycare. We have established a routine. I have to let her carry her lunchbox and tell her the whole time in the car that we are going to school. When we get there, she has to help me put the food in the refrigerator. I am learning to make a quick exit, but she still cries and reaches out for me, and it is extremely difficult.
My main learning experience right now is trying to be a mother. I am learning how to manage my two year old.
When I take her to daycare, she cries. She is also starting to push other kids and, occasionally me, and say"STOP". She also likes to cry and lay on the floor, fight not to put on her diaper, and she hates to get in her car seat or bath. These are all relatively new behaviors that concern me, so I have been trying to learn how to cope.
First, I know and refer to the background knowledge: She was born in Brazil and lived with only me until she was one and a half when we came here and pluncked her in daycare during the day. She stays with her dad at night.
I can "predict" that most of this behavior is normal "two" behavior. However, some of it could be rebelling from the lack of attention. It could also be "spoiled".
I "observe patterns" to see when she is typically exhibiting these behaviors and why. When she is dropped off or picked up at daycare, when she is hungry or tired, and when she is around other children. Many times, I take "notes" to remember what she is doing and when. I also take notes on what other people say.
"Cooperating" has helped me learn some. I cooperate with her teachers, her father, my mother and her school. We try to figure out what to do together. I learn from my friends who have small children. I try the techniques that they say or I use what they say to rule out certain options.
Finally, I consult books, magazines, and the internet to try to find out what to do. I am reading "Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline," by Becky A. Bailey and "How to talk so your kids will listen" whenever I have time. They suggest using "positive intent" (assuming that they awill do what you ask of them if presented correctly and using lots of options to give them some control of the situation. I was struggling with time-out because that is what I had learned. This book suggests against time out. My mother paddled us, so I chose not to consult my mom on this matter.
When the behavior occurs, I definitely engage in self-talk to calm myself down and to think about the options that i have learned. I have established routines that seem to help and giving her options does as well. Explaining why you do things also seems to make sense to her.
However, I am still having a hard time learning a strategy to deal with the pushing of other kids and ugly faces that she makes at them.
Saturday, June 16th
We went to a barbeque at our friends. Isabella stayed on my lap almost the entire time. However, she did eat which is good, and she wanted to see the cat. I remembered to leave before 7:30 because our routine has her in bed by 8:30 after eating and bath.
Sunday, June 17th
We met with my friends from NY who have a one and a half year old. They have recently had a newborn baby boy. Isabella was extremely curious about this and didn't push or make ugly faces. I made a inference, drew a conclusion and predicted that I will not have any more children based on this breakfast.
Yesterday, June 19th
We went to the grocery store to get food. When Isabella sees things that she wants in the store. I let her pick them up and look at them. We appreciate them together, and I learned to ask her to put them back in their houses. She seems okay with this. As of yet, we have never had a problem with "objects" like this.
In conclusion, I am learning everyday, mostly by trial and error. I do a lot of intuitive work and mental note-taking about what I think works. However, the books do seem to think that there are right and wrong ways of doing things. I always have to consult the doctor to see if she is actually sufficiently cognitively developed to handle something like time out and understand a "consequence" like this.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Soy el Sombrero Pensante Carter, Tricia, & CRJ
Harry Potter Sorting Hat Song 
pero no juzgues por lo que ves.
Me comeré a mí mismo si puedes encontrar
un sombrero más inteligente que yo.
Puedes tener bombines negros,
sombreros altos y elegantes.
Pero yo soy el Sombrero Seleccionador de Hogwarts
y puedo superar a todos.
No hay nada escondido en tu cabeza
que el Sombrero Seleccionador no pueda ver.
Así que pruébame y te diré
dónde debes estar:
Puedes pertenecer a Gryffindor,
donde habitan los valientes.
Su osadía, temple y caballerosidad
ponen aparte a los de Gryffindor.
Puedes pertenecer a Hufflepuff,
donde son justos y leales.
Esos perseverantes Hufflepuff
de verdad no temen el trabajo pesado.
O tal vez a la antigua sabiduría de Ravenclaw,
si tienes una menta dispuesta,
porque los de inteligencia y erudición
siempre encontrarán allí a sus semejantes.
O tal vez en Slytherin
harás tus verdaderos amigos.
Esa gente astuta utiliza cualquier medio
para lograr sus fines
¡Así que pruébame! ¡No tengas miedo!
¡Y no recibirás una bofetada!
Estás en buenas manos (aunque yo no las tenga).
Porque soy el Sombrero Pensante.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
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