Introductions

Objectives:

Duration:

    2 hours

Materials:

Activities:

1. Teacher welcomes learners to class and explains lesson objectives. Explanation of objectives stresses that people learn in different ways, have different interests and different language strengths. The purpose of the first lesson is for learners to think about how they learn best and what they think they need to learn most. The lesson activities will help them learn about themselves as they learn about their fellow classmates. 

2. Learners complete the What Do You Want to Learn? questionnaire. Teacher writes categories on the board and asks for the learners' priorities to each category. For example, teacher points to "driving a car" and asks, "How many 5s? How many 4s, etc. Learners identify the top 6-8 subjects. Teacher collects questionnaires, telling learners that they will receive the session schedule next at the beginning of the meeting.

3. Teacher distributes Who Are You? interest inventory/learning styles menu and models the expectations by choosing a learner and asking him/her to write their name in two squares that describe them, or what they like to do for fun. Teacher then has learners take turns reading aloud the words in the squares. Learners gather as many names as they can in 10 minutes.

4. Teacher explains that people are "smart" in different ways (tutors should complete the MI Inventory of their own learning styles before beginning this lesson). Some learn best by reading, by hearing or by doing. Also, some people are very musical, or mathematical, or learn best by sharing. Others prefer to learn alone. These different ways are called "learning styles (more information on learning styles and multiple intelligences is available for teachers at: http://www.surfaquarium.com/im.htm)." Teacher writes Howard Gardner's seven learning styles on the board and uses the menu to describe his/her own style. Teacher then asks learners to identify their individual learning styles and share their discovery with the learner next to them. Teacher calls on volunteers to share their findings with the class, allowing 15 minutes for a general discussion. Teacher collects menus for tabulation and returns menus during next class meeting. Note: when writing the seven learning styles on the board, it may be best to use more familiar vocabulary. For example, visual/spatial intelligence could be written as "I learn best by seeing." Kinesthetic intelligence could be expressed as "I learn best by moving, or using my hands."  

5. Teacher distributes Introductions worksheet and explains that learners will interview three people in class. Learners will do their best to write responses in complete sentences in the appropriate boxes. Following the three interviews, each learner will fill in the top portion of the worksheet, filling in the blanks with personal information. Each learner will then choose one of their interviewees to introduce to the class, filling in that person's personal information in the spaces provided. Learners take turns introducing their choices to the class. If there is an odd number of learners in the class, the teacher will participate.

Assessment:

Teacher monitors verbal and written responses of individual learners.