|
Norwich Public Schools/Adult Education: Resource Review:
Crossroads Café Series*
Teacher:
Joanne Semmelrock, Norwich Adult Education
Type of Resource:
Video series using TV/VCR and broadcast via cable TV (Adelphia)
Description:
Crossroads Café is an English language-learning
program designed for speakers of other languages. It is a 26-episode
video series accompanied by student & teacher books. It blends
comedy and drama and tells the stories of six characters whose
lives come together at a neighborhood restaurant. The episodes
deal with a variety of issues, teach various language skills,
appeal to a variety of learning preferences, and are designed
for ESOL students from low-beginning to high-intermediate levels
of proficiency.
How the resource was used in class:
Although this is not a new resource, it is new
to me. I used it in my beginning class, September to June, once
per week for 2 hours. Within this beginning level, there is a
multi-level component and students seemed to respond well to the
following format:
- Review of vocabulary,
- Preparation, exploration questions before video,
- Story reading before video,
- Video showing with extended pauses to explain, interact with students, ask questions,
note important concepts, and
- Follow-up activities
For this level, material in the work text and
photo stories was used along with supplemental activities from
the reproducible handbook, and teacher’s manual.
The things I like most about the resource
are as follows:
The choices of activities are plentiful. My
beginning class responded well to scrambled conversations, information
gap activities, idiom use, and the ease with which the story progressed.
Having the level of difficulty indicated by
stars (1-beginning, 2-high beginning, 3-intermediate) was fun
& challenging for them.
Limitations and suggestions to overcome
shortcomings:
Crossroads Café works best within a program.
I do not think students want a stand-alone video program. They
want a lot of direct conversation and grammar in context. The
next leveled class at Adult Education will be using it in 03-04
as part of their regular curriculum. This is a more ideal setting
for this series.
Comments:
Having books for all students would be great.
Most programs do not have the financial resources to do so. Packaging
videos with student books & other related materials would
also be a great way to meet some of the needs of our waiting list
students.
*from Technology Implementation —
End-of-Year Report as of June
30, 2003, compiled
by Mary C. Berry, Director
Back
to Norwich Public Schools/Adult Education Lessons Learned index
page
Back
to Main Menu page of Lessons Learned in Year Two (organized
by topic)
|
