Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id eATGpH921630; Wed, 29 Nov 2000 11:51:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 11:51:18 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <20001129164907.3114.qmail@nwcst276.netaddress.usa.net> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: <historyalive!@usa.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:5342] Volunteer training X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Mailer: USANET web-mailer (34FM.0700.4.03) Status: O Content-Length: 1959 Lines: 34 Hello All, I trust everybody had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I finally got caught-up with reading my Email and I wanted to respond to the question of training volunteer ESL tutors/teachers. About five years ago I decided to try my hand at teaching ESL (my degree is in Archaeology). I volunteered through a relatively large organization and received about 4 hours of training before being expected to teach a class of adults. During the session I was told that writing well-thought out lesson plans is helpful. Unfortunately for me, I was the only non-teacher in the training session. Everybody else had taught previously and had a teaching degree/license. Because I wanted to do a good job, I worked on that first lesson plan for weeks!!! I was so greatfull that the coordinator of the program could tell me in advance what pages from a textbook and a workbook I was responsible for teaching. The program was organized so that each volunteer only taught one day per week, but the class meet four days per week. Therefore, we had to complete our assigned section, or else the next volunteer's lesson would not work. I can honestly say that without that amount of structure, I would not have been as effective teaching as I think I was. Currently I am working on a masters and a teaching license for ESL. When I have my own classroom, I would like MUCH more freedom to design the curriculum, but when I was very new to this "teaching thing", I couldn't have done it without a book and very clear instructions. And a friendly teacher who spent 7 hours with me writing my first lesson plan (I think I spent over 30 hours writing that first lesson plan). After one semester of volunteer teaching, I was usually able to write a lesson plan in about 30-45 minutes for a 2 1/2 hour class. Kerry Coverdale ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1
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