|  | | | Guide to Using Journeys | | |
Journeys: Stories and Poems to Open Your Mind is a journal of writings by learners in adult literacy programs throughout Minnesota. Following are ways you can use this publication in an English as a Second Language or Adult Basic Education class or tutoring session.
- Choose one reading that will interest your students because of the topic, ethnicity of the author, or type of story. Or choose a reading with a certain grammatical structure (e.g., the past tense, possessives, etc.) or particular vocabulary or idiomatic phrases. Photocopy the story at a large size so it is easy for learners to read. Create exercises (see below) that reflect your current work with the students.
- Provide a class set of Journeys to use for reading exercises. Have students choose a reading as a group, or choose an appropriate reading for them. Have students of similar skill levels read silently and then discuss the reading together. Create a list of general questions to discuss about each reading: main characters, story, moral, etc. Possible questions might be: "Have you had similar experiences?" "Was the story interesting? Why or why not?" After their discussion the students may write responses on a worksheet or journal to hand in to you.
- Have a set of Journeys that students can borrow, read, and return. Students can photocopy their favorite stories, and complete a worksheet of exercises (vocabulary, grammar, general comprehension) that you provide. Give feedback to students on their work. Students may also choose to read Journeys for pleasure.
- Select two stories that are similar or different, and after the students read the stories, make a compare- or contrast-chart as a class.
- For writing classes, have students identify topic sentences, development sentences, and conclusion sentences in each paragraph of longer essays.
- For low level classes, choose one short essay that contains basic information about the author. Read the story aloud to the students, and ask basic comprehension questions: "Where is she from?" "What is his name?" etc. Students can write the answers or circle the answers on their papers.
Creating Exercises for Readings
- Comprehension: Type or write two or three comprehension questions and cut and paste them onto the bottom of your photocopy.
- Vocabulary: Add a vocabulary section by choosing and defining three to five words. Ask students to re-read the sentence in the text using each vocabulary word and write an original sentence using the new word.
- Grammar: Identify an example of a phrase in the reading that contains the grammar structure you are practicing, such as past tense. Have students underline all past tense verbs. Then have them choose one or two verbs and write their own sentences in the past tense.
- Cloze Exercises: Remove key words from the reading and have students fill in the blanks. You may randomly delete words to practice reading comprehension, or you may choose to delete certain words or grammatical structures based on what you are working on in class.
- Writing: Discuss a reading and then have learners use it as a model for their own story or poem. Or have students respond to a reading by writing a letter to the author.
- Scanning: Ask students to scan the text for a letter, sight word, grammatical structure, specific information, etc.
- Editing: Challenge more advanced learners by asking them to find and correct language errors in the reading. They can also discuss other aspects of composition such as organization, unity, and register (formal, informal language).
- Discussion: Write one or two interesting discussion questions at the bottom of the page. These questions should take an idea from the reading and relate it to the lives of the students. Examples: "Did you ever live in a refugee camp?" "Have you ever had problems with work because you could not read English well?" "Do you think that her family was helping her?" "In this situation, what would your family do?"
- Alternatives: Have students choose readings for class work. Create exercises for these readings or ask students to create their own exercises for these readings.
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Journeys_Guide.pdf
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