My cute English-learning lady usually works on a quick phonics activity and sentence strip work. I write sentences (with high-frequency and other decodable words) on our great dry erase sentence strips. This is a quick and effective way to have a block of text to read that allows her to feel successful, but also be challenged at the same time!
Keeping things relevant and interesting for this 14-year-old has brought its challenges. Sentences like "The nice cat and the dog take a trip to the lake" just doesn't cut it. Snoring boring. So we write about things happening in our lives, and in our culture. You would be amazed how much more motivating Beyonce is than a cat. My lady came in this morning telling me about an article her mom read about Jay-Z and Beyonce's new baby (no really...this is what we talk about in my classroom ;) ). She described how Jay-Z may be changing up his music since he now has a child and doesn't not want to "have the baby hear bad music" and she described it to me.
So we wrote about it. Sentence strip style.
"I wonder if Jay-Z will change his music."
"It is a right decision to have a change of heart."
"Beyonce has been blessed with a beautiful baby girl."
"Would you change your life and job if you had a new baby like Jay-Z?"
"It will not be good for a child to hear bad words."
Besides the fact that this is a hoot and we keep things funky with pop culture references...SHE IS READING THESE SENTENCES. Oh excuse me. Sometimes I forgot how undeniably exciting this is. Thank you Jesus! And also thank you Jay-Z. And Beyonce. And your tiny famous baby. Not for your love and providence, but for your inappropriate song lyrics and inspiring life changes. You have motivated our reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment