Using The New Teacher Advocate Fall 2014 Articles
as a Quick Icebreaker in a Chapter Meeting
Directions: Choose an article and activity from the list below. Download the specific article from the Kappa Delta
Pi Resource Catalog, copy and circulate to members after completing the activity as a group.
Fall 2014 New Teacher Advocate Articles and Activities (online access: http://bit.ly/NTAF14v22)
1. Yang, Diana, “PICTURE Perfect Writing.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 The author, Diana Yang used PICTURE as an acronym for her tips in teaching writing to English
Language Learners. If “P” stands for Prewriting, “C” stands for Corrective Feedback, “U” stands for
Understanding Mistakes and “E” stands for Editing with a Peer, what do the “I”, “T” and “R” stand
for? Find a partner, and in two minutes try to decipher what these letters may stand for.
2. Kovarik, Madeline, “TELL ELLs About Culture.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 Is it soda or is it pop? Each is correct depending on the part of the country where you grew up. Test
your knowledge on these examples of our cultural upbringing.
True or False: Culture must be taught, and fosters acceptance of others.
True or False: Culture does not relate to events. The school and home culture are the same.
True or False: All Spanish-speaking individuals share the same culture.
3. Burnett, Christal B. “Opening the Door to Family Involvement.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 What is one strategy you have to involve families in your classroom? In five minutes share your ideas
with five people (one minute per person). Debrief as a large group: What is the best idea for families of
elementary, middle and high school students?
4. Aydogan, Ahmet, “Classrooms Without Walls.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 Download and run off copies of the article, “Classrooms Without Walls.” Distribute among meeting
participants. In pairs, read the article together and discuss what you thought and what you will share
about: 1) the article and 2) suggested applications in two different content areas. As a group, create your
own word wall and list core word and phrases from the article.
5. DeAngelo, Megan W., “5 Guidelines to Support Culturally Transitioning Students.” The New Teacher
Advocate, Fall 2014
 Choose two of the five guidelines and write each one on a large piece of paper and tape to the wall. As
participants come to the meeting ask them to write down suggested strategies and teaching tips to meet
the guidelines.
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6. Rushmore, Sally, “Fave Five: English Language Learner (ELL) Tips.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 As a group, try out Fave Five #4 to give chapter members a sense of how this would play out in a
classroom.
o Fave #4 – You will need the book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff and
enough pictures of the mouse, a cookie, a glass of milk, and a napkin to distribute to all
participants. (Pinterest has great ones!) Distribute the pictures. As you read the book aloud, have
participants stand when their object is mentioned.
7. Pangan, Dr. Catherine, “The Dr. Is In: Hints & Tips for a Healthy Classroom From Doctor P.” The New
Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 In “Teachers as Cultural Workers,” Paulo Friere wrote that educators need to know what happens in the
world of the children with whom they work. If each participant made home visits, what is one question
they would like to ask the family? Have them write down the question and then one tip for success
before, during and after a home visit. Combine the questions and tips, and email them out to all
members and include the links on the side of the article.
8. Page, Marco, “Give Your Hand to ELLs in Language Arts.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 Before English language learners can begin reading they need to understand words and sentence
structure. Here is an easy way to remember some great ideas! Ask all participants to get out a piece of
paper and trace their hands. Then as you read each description, have them put a few words about each
on the appropriate finger – for thumb: word patterns; for pointer: high frequency words; for middle
finger: prefixes/root words/suffixes; for ring finger: recasting and pinkie: peer support. On the middle
of hand have everyone write one additional teaching strategy and share with one person on each side of
them or in front and behind them.
9. Strawhorn, Mieka, “Extra! Extra! Learn All About Using Newspapers in the Classroom!” The New Teacher
Advocate, Fall 2014
 Divide the meeting participants into five groups (for larger meetings, divide the people into groups of
five). Run off copies of each strategy and distribute one strategy per group along with the section of a
newspaper. Ask each group to spend a few minutes trying out their activity and then be ready to share
what they did with the entire group and the ways this this can be an effective strategy with new language
learners.
10. Harvey, Ann, “Vocabulary Tablecloths for Secondary Content Reading.” The New Teacher Advocate, Fall 2014
 Don’t miss this article, “Vocabulary Tablecloths for Secondary Content Reading.” Bringing meaning
especially to secondary social studies and science terms is difficult for English Language Learners. Dr.
Harvey showcases an effective technique called a Vocabulary Tablecloth to build vocabulary context.
11. Segal, Beth, “4 Reading Strategies to Give ELLs Understanding and Confidence.” The New Teacher Advocate,
Fall 2014
 For English Language Learners, vocabulary taught exclusively with definitions or synonyms can be
memorized but not necessarily understood. Four reading strategies to Give ELLs understanding and
confidence include:
 frontloading vocabulary – select vocabulary words that might be unknown to students and
teach these before the reading;
 visual images – present pictures with vocabulary word or phases;
 shared images - describe, draw or act out an association to words; and
 collaborative reading strategies – participate in reading circles or small group read alouds.
As a group brainstorm a list of other tactics to assist learners in strengthening their comprehension
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