Bringing Reading and Writing to Life with Experiential Learning Activities
by Mady Rodriguez
I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream! That is the tongue twister Aurora yelled to the crowd, repeating it quickly three times during the recent class play called The Language Journey performed by learners of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Adult Education program.
Aurora and 14 other students aided their instructor, Mady Rodriguez, by selecting content for the play that highlighted what they had learned in their High Intermediate/Advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) class this past year. Various reading techniques were used in the classroom to activate background knowledge, use context clues, and visualize the content.
The play started off with the journey of three students from different countries and how they ended up in the U.S. in an ESL classroom. The goal was to show the diversity of ESL learners in a classroom. In addition to tongue twisters, a class recipe and haikus about spring and themselves were shared. A skit on dumpster diving was also included because of a recent lesson on identity theft.
Once the rough draft of the script was created, the instructor put students in groups of four and had them read, review, and report back with any changes or suggestions. As a group, the script was then read again with these changes and roles were assigned. It was interesting to see how classmates already had in mind who they thought should take specific roles. Students practiced the script regularly both in and out of the classroom, and provided revisions to the format and content. The play ended up being a group collaboration and opportunity to explore areas beyond the English learning environment.
Throughout the 23–24 school year, students from all levels of society shared about their own personal journeys through group discussions and regularly practiced tongue twisters. Short tongue twisters, long tongue twisters, funny tongue twisters, complicated tongue twisters—you name it, they practiced it! The instructor’s goal was to improve fluency, but more so to exercise oral movements that may not be used in a student’s native language.
Pilar’s favorite tongue twister was “Eddie edited it!” and Gloria’s favorite tongue twister was “I thought I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen!” Now say those at least three times each as fast as you can! As soon as a new tongue twister was presented at the start of class, students were ready and eager to exercise their tongue muscles. Visualizing the content was a technique used with tongue twisters to help students get faster. You would hear laughter — the noise level would quickly increase — and the competition was on to see who could repeat the tongue twister the fastest three times consecutively.
Along with tongue twisters, students shared their favorite recipes with each other. They shared why they were so special, who typically made their favorite foods, and how to make them. These interactions resulted in the class creating a cookbook filled with recipes from Yemen, Mexico, Afghanistan, Peru, Vietnam, Honduras, China, El Salvador, Japan, and Guatemala. The exercise, as a whole, was an emotional journey as many had not had their favorite meals in years and the process brought back so many memories. Nonetheless, it created an opportunity to explore the world through food and have experiences directly from the source. This learning experience, which lasted about three weeks, activated background knowledge and the opportunity to visualize the content through reading classmates’ recipes and asking questions for clarification.
In March, for World Poetry Day, students were presented with spring Haikus. After reading several poems, students reflected on the meaning of each and broke down complex phrases. Many had never drafted a poem before but once the Haiku pattern was introduced, they created fabulous poems embracing spring. At times, it took several attempts at reading and re-reading a word for students to hear the number of syllables, but they quickly caught on.
Mohammad’s poem reads,
Coming spring season;
Blooming all of flowers then;
Enjoying the spring.
Margarita’s poem reads,
I saw three tulips;
Blooming time in my garden;
They are beautiful.
In addition to writing about spring, students drafted poems about themselves. Gracia’s poem reads,
Thousand years ago;
Universe created dust;
Stardust I’m made of.
The students took considerable pride in their work and wanted to share these poems as part of The Language Journey play.
In class, students used the Stand Out curriculum in addition to the activities mentioned above which I, their instructor, feel have opened the learners’ imagination and creativity. The reading techniques implemented throughout the semester helped students master challenging material and understand vocabulary/phrases. Through poetry, tongue twisters, idioms, and real-life scenarios; students engaged and embraced the language learning process and gained a new level of confidence. The script and vocabulary were provided to students from the other lower-level classes who would be watching the play. This allowed the instructors to give context and cues to help prepare students for the play. A listing of tongue twisters referenced in the play was provided to participants the day of the play. Highlighting what they had learned provided students in other classes with a glimpse of where they can be in the future. This play will hopefully be one of many more for our program as we continue to highlight our learners’ growth.
Mady Rodriguez began her career in adult education at the age of 19 in 1997 as a volunteer for the Northern Shenandoah Valley Adult Education program. She found her passion for serving others and pursued a master’s degree in human services. She continues to teach ESL and provide assistance with outreach and registration to the local program.