ELL Channel Brings World Culture Experience to All Learners
Described in this article are two lesson plan ideas created by NT101 Summer Session participants, Ryan Cummings (Jennings, IN) and Rachel Erickson (Aurora, CO). Both educators used resources from netTrekker’s ELL Channel and the literary tales, The Bear Prince and Jack and the Beanstalk to design an interdisciplinary cultural exploration.
These lessons, through the use of resources from the ELL channel take students to China, France, Mexico, Spain and the United States to learn about mathematics, literature, people and the cultural traditions that surround these countries.
Rachel’s lesson is geared toward primary and elementary students. The lesson is centered around the Mexican folktale, The Bear Prince. Students explore the Sierra Madre Occidental region of Mexico through Google Earth and the eyes of Rosa, a Mexican girl who is forced to marry a mysterious bear. Using interactive websites, videos and images from netTrekker’s ELL channel students will sketch cultural items and work with a partner using Microsoft Paint to create a visual representation depicting the cultural items/traits they researched in My Portfolio folders Rachel compiled.
For secondary students, Ryan brings fun, practical application, and thorough understanding to the complex skills of calculating currency exchange and crop yields.
Students in Ryan’s class will research using netTrekker resources to decide what type of currency Jack takes from the giant depending upon a teacher-assigned geographic location of Jack’s origin. Students will research and decide during which season, in different countries Jack could have planted and grown the beans to yield the best monetary crop. Students will work in groups to design a graph of their choice and present a two-minute debate about where Jack should live to be most successful in his business.
Thanks to Ryan and Rachel for sharing these wonderful lesson ideas for all netTrekker learners. Enjoy reading reflections below from these NT101 Alumni and visit the ELL Channel to explore the amazing tools and resources in the ELL Skill Development and Multicultural Pavilion areas.
“I absolutely love using netTrekker. The different uses I can get out of netTrekker for my everyday lessons are remarkable. The ELL Channel is a feature that is going to help me enhance my students’ knowledge of world culture as I am teaching them mathematics. My students will have a more enriched learning environment because of the ELL Channel in netTrekker.
My Jack and the Beanstalk lesson is going to allow me, using features inside of the ELL Channel, to enrich my students’ understanding that the world we are apart of is much bigger than the town we live. It will allow them to research different areas of the world while sitting in their local classroom. They will be able to experience different cultures that they may not normally get to study. The more I can let my students see what similarities and differences there are in different parts of the world, the more I am going be able to prepare them for their future lives.
The ELL feature also allows them to get help with the understanding and meanings of different words and different languages. With the different options they can use in netTrekker, students will be able to learn at their own reading level and move at their own pace. The other thing I like about this feature is the read aloud button. If an article is a little too difficult for a student to read, then they can use this feature to help them get the understanding they need. What a great feature for all of our students. Each student now has the opportunity to push the limits of their own learning.
Net trekker is a tool that I am so glad our school has for me to use and the ELL Channel is just one part of it that will help me to diversify my students’ learning.”
Ryan Cummings
Secondary Teacher and Coach
Jennings, IN
“The increase in ethnic and language diversity of students in our schools requires educators to teach students to value diversity and understand cultural differences in order to be successful participants in a global society. People don’t often recognize the impact culture has on behavior until they interact with someone whose culture differs from their own. netTrekker’s Multicultural Pavilion within the English Learners’ channel gives both teachers and students a window into various cultures. The resources found provide a means to increase cross-cultural awareness, which will lead to a greater understanding of the world. I am grateful that netTrekker has included the Multicultural Pavilion as part of the English Learners channel so educators and students may benefit from the variety of resources that help us reflect on our own values, beliefs, and perceptions while gaining perspective on cultures that differ from our own.”
Rachel Erickson
Instructional Technology Coach
Aurora, CO
ELL Resources: Inspired testimonials from NT101 Participants
No two children, like the beautiful butterflies that open this blog, are identical. And like butterflies, netTrekker’s ELL Channel and differentiated instruction features help each learner to take flight. As the school year is quickly coming to close, I’m reminded that it’s IEP and 504 plan time. These very important meetings dedicate time to students with special learning needs to have their plan re-evaluated and decide what should be included for the following year.
As the netTrekker 101 online course facilitator, I just wrapped up module six on using netTrekker with English Language Learners. The course participants filled the discussion forums with very thoughtful content which may be helpful to those of you who are writing IEP and 504 plans.
I am delighted to share with you several of the participants’ comments from the discussion board about the Dictionary Hot Key, Read Aloud, Readability, and other refinement features in netTrekker. Enjoy these testimonials from passionate educators.
“ I love these features!! What a wonderful service for students!! First of all, the students LOVE to use earphones—I KNOW they are not just skimming over the information because they are sitting there listening to the netTrekker article…in TOTAL!!
It’s also a great feature for one of my teachers who is legally blind. He loved it because he could listen instead of using his super magnifiers & putting his face up to the screen.
I loved the dictionary hot button when I went to some science related websites via netTrekker. There were words that I didn’t know & instead of moving ahead, I stopped to find out the meaning of the word.
Wonderful Service to students and teachers alike!!!”
Gina Lunsford, Woodlands Christian Academy, TX
“As a high school English teacher, I think the best feature from this week is the read aloud button. In my classroom I have so many different levels (especially reading levels). Many students struggle with reading on their own. This button makes it an even playing field.
I look forward to utilizing this to help the students grasp concepts better in my classroom.”
Carrie Brisbane, Charter Tech High School, NJ
“Even as a regular education teacher my students can benefit from the readability tab and read aloud feature. There are low-level readers in our classrooms as well and it can provide that extra support that the student may need.
I love the dictionary hot key feature because it provides not only a definition but word origin as well. It is always fun to discuss with students where words originate from and how they came to our country.”
Kalin Wilburn, Mansfield School District, OH
“The read aloud feature allows students to explore and learn on their own even if their English reading skills are not particularly strong. Many second language learners learn spoken language much faster than written language because they are immersed in the spoken language of their second language in their new country. Read Aloud provides these learners the opportunity to strengthen their reading skills because the see the words as they listen to the reading.”
Sarah Garrett
Glacier Hills Elementary, MN
To take full advantage of the many resources to support ELL students and to customize enrichment resources for all of your students, visit the ELL Channel in netTrekker.
A few spaces are still available for the Summer 2010 session of NT101. TO REGISTER: Contact your Account Manager. If you have questions or need additional information, please e-mail Amy Ellisor, the NT101 Course facilitator, aellisor@nettrekker.com.