Digital Learning Archives - Stanwork

What is ‘Kitchen Language’?

Anika H Ahmed MD — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 21:52:50 +0000

As more and more people migrate and start their lives in another country, they are often bilingual, if not trilingual. The first generation may be fluent in their mother tongues but the second generation that hears the language only at home gets exposed to ‘kitchen language’ and labelled as ‘Heritage Language Speakers’.

By definition heritage learners are the ones who have grown up in a home where a language other than English is spoken and they are bilingual to a certain extent. The level of their second language besides English can vary greatly depending on whether they have previously lived in a foreign country where the language was spoken, lived in a country where English is the official language but is not spoken at home, or used the second language at home all the time, to communicate with family members. The language skills of the heritage language will vary from learner to learner, depending upon the degree of exposure and usage of the second language.

Research indicates even before a person is born, the fetus has already tuned in to the voice of the mother and that is why a newborn baby usually calms down when the mother holds and talks to it. This means that heritage language learners have some familiarity with the language even before they are born!

One characteristic that is common across all heritage language learners is that they have sharp comprehension skills. The level of comprehension may vary from learner to learner depending on how much they have paid attention to the ‘kitchen language’. Another common factor between them is that they can usually not read or write.

Depending upon their speaking skills, it is a common practice to divide heritage language learners into the following four categories:

Category 1: Able to exchange greetings and recognize only high frequency, everyday words like water, egg, bread, rice, names of some fruits and vegetables, some colors and maybe a few numbers. They are unable to make any meaningful sentences.

Category 2: Able to exchange greetings and introduce themselves. They are able also to make very short sentences and may be able to respond to questions like ‘what is your name?’ , ‘where are you from?’, ‘where are you?’ . They may have language skills to survive in a foreign country but will not be able to sustain a conversation.

Category 3: Heritage learners able to speak on every day familiar topics and exchange biographic information, talk about the weather, work, daily routine, commute etc. They are able to discuss every day social, political, economic, health issues. They are fluent but may lack very specialized vocabulary for which they may need help.

Category 4: Advanced heritage learners who have a big vocabulary bank due to frequent use of the language at home as the main language to communicate, socialize and entertain. These learners may still not be able to understand the grammar or read or write but can actively participate in a discussion.

Heritage language speakers certainly have an advantage over others who have no second language skills. How fluent they are all depends on how much time they spend with grandma in the kitchen!

Copyright Anika H. Ahmed, MD, The Stanwork Group

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Effective Lesson Plan on a Digital Platform

Anika H Ahmed MD — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 22:30:22 +0000

Effective Lesson Plan on a Digital Platform

Among the many challenges posed by COVID-19, a major one has been in the field of education, faced by teachers, trainers, and educators across the globe. They all agree that presently the biggest challenge on a digital platform at all levels of education, has been keeping their students ENGAGED.

Attention spans across all ages and levels of education appear to be shorter on a solely digital platform, in comparison with an in-person or a hybrid model, with a mix of in-person and virtual classes.

The first step towards an effective engaging lesson plan is to chalk out the objectives of the lesson.

If the goal is to master for example the perfect tense, then activities should be supplementary to the objective and should be helpful towards its understanding, application, and production.

Some suggestions for an effective lesson plan to keep students engaged through classes, on a daily basis, are:

Warm up should be started with a very short video on the topic of the day.

Video must be level-appropriate, short, easy to understand with many familiar words and preferably in perfect tense, so that the learners can tune in to the application of the introduced perfect tense. This could be followed by a group discussion, preferably in smaller groups in virtual break out rooms on a digital platform.

Graphics that are related and easily understood by the learners work towards reviewing, reinforcing and applying the introduced content.

Various related images can also serve as a springboard for starting a conversation and giving an opportunity to the learners, to show off their newly acquired skill in perfect tense. In addition to the educator providing the images, students can also post related images on the digital whiteboard, thus taking ownership while running with their thoughts and ideas.

Showing resources through share screen is another way of expanding the knowledge of the learners, walking them through various websites with handy information or activities that again can work towards keeping the students engaged with full participation.

Group Activities in the form of role plays from real world scenario has proven time and time as an effective mode of application of newly acquired knowledge that can also show strengths and weaknesses of the learners.

Using Templates of presentations while making good use of the white board and shared screen features of most of the offered digital platforms.

Recording presentations of the learners on topics of their interest and listening to the recording with them, while giving them an opportunity of doing self-corrections.

All the ideas above help create a lesson plan that boosts the creativity and imagination of the students. Participating actively in all their classes, they will keep engaged!

Copyright Anika H. Ahmed, MD, The Stanwork Group

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Managing a Virtual Classroom

Anika H Ahmed MD — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 20:36:37 +0000

Managing a Virtual Classroom

As we continue with life with Coronavirus breathing down our necks, we continue to make good use of technology to stay safe and for that we have established virtual classrooms at all levels of education. Digital learning can be successfully done at elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels of education at school, college, and university level.

The trick is for instructors to be fully trained to be able to run a virtual classroom and provide a digital learning environment, in which students of different backgrounds, educational needs, and levels can learn.

An interesting fact to know is that presently in the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics reports that 53% of the public schools in the United States have high schoolers registered for distance learning courses.

The key to conducting a virtual classroom successfully is to build on the best practices of traditional, old-fashioned in-person teaching and managing the digitally tuned learners from various locations successfully.

Every teacher training workshop emphasizes keeping the students engaged by:

staying organized,
catering for the specific needs of each and every student,
keeping students involved by bringing in their topics of interest,
designing small group activities with peer work and staying punctual with a fixed routine.

The above mentioned are the key factors that can make any classroom, whether virtual or in-person, a good learning environment that can help each student grow its wealth of knowledge in any field.

Specifically for successful digital learning, some suggestions are:

Multiple assigned learning areas for example students can be sub grouped to group activities in breakout rooms on zoom or similar digital platform for peer work, self-study areas with availability of a facilitator, a chat room for questions or side by side conversations, and have an option to record and review individual or group activity.
Assign to groups and regroup on a need basis, for new activities. Never let your student feel isolated, try to pair a student with one or more with similar interests, needs and most importantly level. Nothing is more frustrating for a student than to feel isolated and not able to keep up with the rest of the students.
Organize resources available to all students. All syllabus, teaching material that includes digital textbooks, supporting exercises and activities, quizzes and assessments should be easily available and students should know exactly how and where to access all material.
Share lesson plans for the semester, quarter, week, and the day. Every student likes to be prepared and know exactly what shall be covered moving forward. This creates trust and fulfills expectations of the students from the instructor.
Stay with the students during assigned teaching hours. Even if the students are doing an assignment in class or reading on provided content, a good instructor remains available throughout, just in case any student needs support or has a question.
Encourage students to use reaction icons when on a digital platform. Many times multiple people are speaking especially during a group discussion. A good instructor must establish ground rules before jumping into a lesson. This would include either using sign language for example raising hand when needs instructor attention, thumbs up to indicate understanding and affirmation of that, or crossing fingers to indicate lack of understanding or confusion. In addition to these students should be encouraged to use the reaction button and make good use of green check button for a ‘yes’, red cross button for a ‘No’, raise hand button for asking a question or the various emojis to express emotions.

Encourage group participation but do watch out for lack of participation or lack of completion of assignments on time. That would be the time when some ‘behind the scenes’ contact may be initiated through either email or direct contact through chat and schedule for a meeting to discuss the factors causing lack of participation.

Digital learning can be the most productive, awesome experience for both the educators and the students, provided the instructor is conscious of the fact that there are humans at the other end of the screen with a keyboard that can keep them very engaged with multiple clicks, at each end of the digital communication in a productive, structured and engaging digital learning environment!

Copyright Anika H. Ahmed, MD, The Stanwork Group

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What is Blended Learning? What are its Advantages and Disadvantages?

Anika H Ahmed MD — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 00:32:30 +0000

What is ‘Blended Learning’?

Anika H. Ahmed, MD

With another year wrapping up with Coronavirus among us, the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding with new variants, many wonder how 2022 will set foot in our lives. The last few days of 2021 have been productive in the health sector, bringing a new wave of excitement, as some pharmaceutical companies get emergency approval from the United States Food & Drug Authority for COVID-19 vaccination for infants and toddlers too in addition to children, teenagers, and adults and the first antiviral anti-COVID-19 pill!

As we get ready for the new year, many parents are being given a choice in 2022, of either sending their children for an in-person classes on campuses, total virtual on-line classes, or a hybrid model with blended learning.

Blended learning, also identified by many as a hybrid model, owes its design to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It enables parents and students to opt for a combination of both online education and the old-fashioned traditional campus-based education, with availability of educational materials and instructions both virtually and in-person.

In addition to education many organizations are also opting for a hybrid model for professional development and trainings.

The main advantage of blended learning is that for many parents and students it is more affordable, a difference especially seen in college tuitions, with zero room and board fees. There is availability of course materials and trainings, easy participation in group discussions and activities on virtual platforms like blackboard, quiz let, brain space, zoom, google meet, go to meeting, teams, and WebEx etc.

Staying in the comfort of your home with no commute, rush hour delays, bad weather mishaps and frustrations, does certainly improve the quality of life and certainly saves hours on the road. Not only does it offer flexibility, comfort and more productive hours on the clock, but it also offers availability of material from anywhere, with internet access and still have the benefits of face-to-face instructions and support from instructors.

On the other hand, there are two main immediate disadvantages of blended learning.

Firstly, students may experience a marked cognitive overload, as instructors get carried away and give a heavy load of content, with supplementary exercises and activities that can burn out the students. Furthermore, since blended learning is a new concept, many instructors may lack the required training to teach and manage a virtual classroom.

Secondly, one must bear in mind that not every child or instructor may have the luxury of having their own independent computer and a family with limited resources may find it hard to keep every family member connected to technology for virtual access of educational lessons, content, online materials, projects, exercises, and activities.

So far, the studies conducted on blended learning indicate that ‘hybrid models of learning’ do incorporate multiple methods of instruction, while making good use of technology and in person access to education. They demonstrate an effective learning outcome for most students. Due to modern, fast technology, teachers also have more flexibility and time to reach their students for additional support and feedback.

Copyright Anika H. Ahmed, MD, The Stanwork Group

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Differential Learning: One Size does NOT Fit All!

Anika H Ahmed MD — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 03:03:47 +0000

Differential Learning- Four Key Principles of Tomlinson: One Size does NOT Fit All!

Anika H. Ahmed, MD

It can get very challenging for an instructor when he or she has to cater for students at different levels in the same classroom. This is a situation faced by many educationists on a daily basis and it becomes especially challenging when a certain standardized curriculum needs to be followed. A particular group of students may not only have different learning styles – visual, auditory, written, or kinesthetic that leads to a different learning process, but could also be at different intellectual levels.

For example, some in the same group may be totally unfamiliar with the content, others somewhat familiar and even others very familiar with content, possibly even beyond the level of instruction.

A well experienced instructor will surely follow the four key principles of Tomlinson, to differentiate instruction and provide learning through four different ways:

Content- what the students sees, hears, reads, or does in class.

In other words what kind of material is given out catering for the four senses- audio, visual, written words to read and move around. Bloom’s Taxonomy can be applied here that gives a classification of six different intellectual levels namely remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Students on the lower end of the spectrum that are unfamiliar with a lesson could be asked to complete tasks on the lower levels- remembering and understanding. On the other hand, students with somewhat mastery over the introduced content could be asked to apply and analyze the content and the remaining students that have higher levels of mastery could be asked to completed tasks in the context of evaluating and creating on their own.

Process- how the students, based on their individual learning styles, make use of their four senses: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and through words.

This also focuses on the fact that not all the students require the same support from the instructor and students could choose to work in pairs, small groups or even individually. Each student shall process the material given to them and shall channel it out with their unique individual, pair, or group production. Examples of such differentiating activities are:

Match vocabulary words to their meanings.
Process a text and answer related questions.
Simulate a situation that happened to a character in the story and a different outcome.
Differentiate fact from opinion in the story and give your interpretation.
Identify the tone, writer’s position and provide evidence to support this.
Make a presentation summarizing the lesson.

Some examples of process are providing students with written material in the case of visual and word learners, letting auditory learners listen to audio recordings, and giving kinesthetic learners a chance to complete an interactive assignment.

Teachers can facilitate student learning by offering support based on individual needs

Product- this is what the student is able to deliver on, at the end of a lesson to show how much he or she has absorbed and mastered the content given.

Product could be in the form of tests, projects, reports or individual or group presentations or activities. For example, a book report, oral presentation, illustrations of a story, etcetera.

Learning Environment- the key to success here is with having a friendly, flexible classroom, both in physical and psychological aspects, that provides a supportive learning environment, allowing students to have individual, paired, or grouped activities.

For example, break students into groups according to their learning styles and levels, allow students to perform individually, if they so desire and provide quiet spaces with no distraction, like break out rooms on zoom, when in an on line virtual learning environment.

Copyright Anika H. Ahmed, MD, The Stanwork Group

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Four Different Styles of Learning

Anika H Ahmed MD — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 05:51:36 +0000

The Four Different Styles of Learning: Which One is Yours?

Anika H. Ahmed, MD

Having spent almost two decades in the field of education while giving training to adult learners, I have seen it proven time and again that every learner is unique and has his or her own style of learning. The brain processes all information in a unique manner and just as everyone has a unique fingerprint, they also have a unique brain print. This means that different learners learn in different ways and how their brain processes information and stores it, determines their unique style of learning. The individual preferred styles of learning can vary, and a learner could be an auditory, visual, auditory, written and kinesthetic.

Research indicates that 65% of the population comprises of visual learners. A visual leaner needs to see it, in order to learn it. This could be in the form of printed or written information or even images of pictures and videos related to the topic introduced. Visuals add a component that written and verbal methods do not and that is speed! Scientific studies have indicated that brain processes visuals like videos and images 60,000 faster than written text, hence making image-based learning far superior to other styles.

On the other hand, the second biggest learning style group are the auditory learners that comprise of about 35% of the population. They grasp information better when they hear lectures, group discussions etc. Being an auditory learner means that the learner needs to hear it repeatedly in order to grasp it, process it, understand and store it. For application of the knowledge acquired, an auditory learner needs to hear it either in his or her own voice and the auditory output of the learner reenforces the knowledge gained, as it sees its application. This could be a solo performance or participation in a group activity or discussion. They do well in debates, narrating a story or a joke and enjoy group discussions. They are also able to recall 75% of the information that they have heard.

A reader learner is the one who does very well with written material and loves having hands out. Reading and writing is what they enjoy, and they are able to process and retain information once they read it on paper or a screen. They eagerly wait for written handouts with agendas, objectives, and explanations. Written text for them is way more powerful with deeper impact than hearing or seeing images. They do well in the real world as in most workplaces’ communication happens mainly through emails, reports, printed material and written notes. For students if vocabulary is being introduced, a list of nouns, verbs and adjectives can do wonders for them!

A kinesthetic learner also labelled as a tactile learner is the most physical of all the learners and research shows that they comprise about 5% of the population. A kinesthetic learner absorbs information the most through touch, movement, and motion. It cashes on the ability of the human body to sense body position and movement. So, all kinesthetic learners in order to really understand something do need to touch it, feel it, and move it around. These learners learn by carrying out physical activities rather than listening to a lecture or watching images, videos, or various demonstrations. They have more of a hands-on approach with ability to process information and store in brain by physically applying the knowledge gained. Many such learners also are dyslexic, or show ADD (attention deficit disorder).

In order to cater for all four-above kind of learners which may be encountered in a classroom setting of any grade at school, college, or university level, one should have a differential learning approach focusing on the content, methodology, output, and a productive learning environment.

Copyright Anika H. Ahmed, MD, The Stanwork Group

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