Hi all

I'm new to this list--I teach Level 1 ESL at a community center in
Chicago--classes include many students with low levels of literacy/little
education in native countries.  I wanted to share a few thoughts on using
authentic materials in the low level ESL class:

- I often find it useful to modify the task rather than modifying an
authentic text.... so, for example, if we are looking at an apartment lease,
instead of re-writing the lease myself, I would have them read (scan?) for
specific information, not read line-by-line.  I find that when I modify
things, I tend to oversimplify them..... which is not to say that I never do
it, of course!
- Elsa's comments on what is authentic to me (teacher) vs. what is authentic
to my students definitely rings true for me.  I always ask students to bring
in examples of things they need to read in English, but finally (with some
clearer explanations, a lucky good lesson, and good old bribery(candy)) I am
managing to get more things.  Lots of children's homework (that was the
example lesson) and also lots of "junk" mail...  which has turned out to be
quite important to students.
- Having sudents bring things in is necessary and vital, especially for the
"bringing the outside in" element of "what works."  But I am realizing that
they are not sufficient to create the "rich" "exploration of a variety of
texts" that Drs. Wrigley and Condelli talk about.  For things like... poems,
short news articles, personal stories....  I need to find them.  When I as a
teacher am struggling to do a good job of teaching life skills in an
authentic and student-centered way, to go beyond that, to enrich that, to
teach a very full range of metacognitive and other reading skills
(especially things like phonics that I don't know that much about) sounds
like a huge challenge (but definitely an exciting one!)

Really enjoying this discussion.

Thanks!

Kathleen
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