netTrekker Blog

Kissing Frogs brings Literature and Culture to the Classroom

The Princess and the Frog will debut in theaters this December.  Disney brings to us, “a modern twist on a classic tale.”  Set in the bayous of Louisiana, this film follows the adventures of a frog prince and a beautiful girl.

As this movie is filled with Cajun culture and a definite contrast to classic literature, it provides the perfect introduction to a multicultural unit of study centered around familiar classic folk or fairy tales, as well as, any other topics related to holidays or cultural events.

netTrekker’s Multicultural Pavilion and other portions of the ELL channel contain a wealth of resources to help students study classic literature and the cultural  traditions represented in diverse school populations.

Choose a familiar classic folk or fairy tale or any other topic relating to culture.  In the Elementary tab of netTrekker, do a keyword search for Venn Diagrams.  Use the subject refinement and choose Language Arts>Literature.  On this page you will find a great place to begin planning,  Scholastic: Myths, Folktales, and Fairy Tales: Online Activity Teacher’s Guide. Scholastic’s Online Activities are designed to support the teaching of standards-based skills. While participating in the Myths, Folktales, and Fairy Tales project, students become proficient with the skills listed below, only to mention a few.

* Appreciate diverse cultures and traditions through folklore and folktales.
* Compare historic world cultures with contemporary ones.
* Demonstrate understanding of the genres by responding to questions.

Select a story based on your content standards and the cultural diversity of your student population. For example, you many choose to study the Persian version of Cinderella. You will find that this Cinderella may prefer a sturdy sandal to a glass slipper so that she may trek through the sandy Persian terrain. If you are a physical education teacher, you may choose to focus on the sports of a particular culture. Math teachers may be interested in converting currency or analyzing climate statistics.

Use the resources in the Multicultural Pavilion and/or any other portion of the ELL channel in netTrekker to locate resources to help students study the food, geographic features, weather and climate, dress, or any other topics pertinent to your curriculum.

For the assessment of this project, create a plan for students to produce a visual representation of what they’ve learned.  Encourage students to cook authentic dishes, create cultural costumes and enjoy  associated art and music to produce a shared Cultural Literacy Festival.

To learn more about the Multicultural Pavilion and other resources to support your ELL student population, contact your Account Manager. We’d love to provide the perfect Professional Development solution for you.

Tags: ELL, language arts, multiculture, profess, professional development, standards, Training

A Look at English Language Learners Channel (Part II of III)

(This is a continuation of a previous blog post on netTrekker’s English Language Learners Channel and the resources it offers for ELL teachers and students. The previous entry focused on ELL skill development. To read Part I of this blog series on nT’s ELL Channel, click here.)

Multicultural Pavilion

• Sites on geographic and cultural information on continents, countries, and regions;

• Resources on ethnic identity, acculturation, cultural sensitivities, diversity, cultural heritage, and social justice issues.

One goal of the resources in nT’s Multicultural Pavilion is to go beyond restating facts and offering data. Students benefit from understanding not only the unique languages, religions, and traditions unique to each culture but also the common threads that tie together the entire human race. The United Nations’ Cyberschoolbus (http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/), which offers versions of its site in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, opens students’ eyes to important global issues, such as poverty, peace, discrimination, and hunger, and promotes understanding and response to these topics via interactive games and quizzes, webcasts, news stories, and teacher materials. nT links to 100 resources from this site.

A hot topic today in America is immigration, and the Multicultural Pavilion offers several resources on this topic, one such being PBS’ In the Mix, which shares the stories of five teen immigrants.  In the Mix is the online companion to a PBS program of the same name and offers a collection of immigration-related links, “myths and facts”, and clips from the show. Another great PBS link is the Immigration Myths & Realities Quiz, also in our immigration resources. And yet another site worth checking out is the Library of Congress’ Immigration feature, complete with vocabulary activities, recipes, and interviews.

For our next and final blog in the ELL channel, we’ll look at ELL Feature Enhancements, such as the Dictionary Hot Key, and ELL Reference Tools, which will boost the ELL Learner’s educational experiences, both in the classroom and on the web.

Tags: ELL, ELL Resources, English Language Learners, Multicultural Resources

A Look at English Language Learners Channel (Part I of III)

Are you a teacher of English language learners, looking for resources to facilitate classroom instruction as well as for tools to enhance students’ own learning experiences? Look no further than the English Language Learners (ELL) channel, with resources available for English learners of all grade levels. Clicking on the “English Learners” link will open two pathways: “Skill Development” and “Multicultural Pavilion” resources.

Depending on whether you are in Elementary, Middle, or High School, these pathways will present you with a different list of nodes and associated resources. However, the gist of these pathways, no matter what level, is pretty much the same. netTrekker’s Help section covering the ELL channel offers a detailed description of the channel’s offerings, but here are some highlights of the first pathway, ELL Skill Development, provided below:

ELL Skill Development

• Sites on reading and writing, listening, and speaking skills,
• Sites on critical thinking and fluency;
• Access to a broad collection of resources on ELL teaching methodologies;
• Access to assessment, research, and proficiency standards;
• Resources for parents of ELL students.

Included in the collection of ELL Skill Development resources are online quizzes and activities from The Internet TESL Journal (http://iteslj.org/) and Activities for ESL Students (http://a4esl.org/). nT has cataloged nearly 70 links from these sites, covering topics such as subject-verb agreement, irregular verbs, parts of speech,  sentence completion, and vocabulary.

To augment students’ English-language growth, resources geared toward helping ELL students understanding of important math and science vocabulary words and concepts are a must. An example of one such resource is Harcourt’s Math Glossary, which makes new math terms easy-to-understand with colorful animations, audio clips, charts, and diagrams.

nT also offers links to bilingual dictionaries, resources for natives speakers of Chinese and Spanish, print resources, tutorials, and other sites references appropriate for learners of English. Be sure to check out http://www.diccionarios.com/ and http://www.tomisimo.org/, great for native speakers of Spanish, and Look Way Up (http://lookwayup.com/free/dictionary.htm) a dictionary offering multilingual translation to and from English.

Next time, we’ll continue our look at netTrekker’s ELL offerings, specifically the next pathway, the Multicultural Pavilion and its resources.

Tags: ELL, ELL Skill Development, English Language Learners, ESL