Editor's note: As part of his participation in the writing team at the Notre Dame Education Center, George Canella kept a reflection journal of his teaching. George's journal reflects the daily ups and downs of teaching ESOL students, and especially illustrates the way a teacher uses students' work to identify and address the grammatical problems that arise in class.

March 4 2004. While reading my students' work I noticed two distinct things. One was how amazing their stories were. The second was that most of the writings were in the present (tense.) I decided to do a quick refresher about the past tense. I first asked my class to get into study pairs and then I wrote a list of past tense words on the board. I asked each pair to select five words and create sentences with each one. I then went around to each pair and corrected any errors. When I corrected an error I would ask that pair to explain to me why I did so. At first my class didn't understand what I was doing mainly because have not corrected them like this before. I think they will do better next time I use this style....

March 30 2004. Today I tackled a fine grammar point that I have noticed my students have been missing—the article THE! This article is difficult, especially for my Asian students. I photocopied an Azar text [see Resources] to help my students and myself understand this all too common but difficult word. I didn't get as far as I would have wanted and I sensed the class did not understand my explanations so I asked them to write sentences using "the" for homework. I hope some extra time will help them understand what I was trying to explain. I plan on reviewing their sentences in class tomorrow and using their work as a springboard to further explanations.

April 6, 2004. Today we wrote letters of grievance. I had the students write letters about something in Boston they felt needed to be changed. Most of the students wrote about the public transportation system and how they thought the city could improve (it.) I am tempted to have them continue this exercise and do formal letters to the city. However, I don't know if some of my students would feel comfortable expressing anything negative to the city. I think I will encourage them to write more and to express any grievances they have when they are ready to.

April 20, 2004. Today was such a fantastic class. My students produced some lively writings about what they did over the break. I gave them the writing prompt. "What did you do with the time you would have been in class that week?" I don't think they understood what I wanted them to write because at first they wrote about how they spend hours studying English and how much they missed not having class. I noticed what they were writing as I was circulating around the room, so I stopped them and had a little discussion session. I said "I want to know what you did over the vacation...Did you go to the park? If you went somewhere different from your normal routine for coming to school write about that." Once I said that their writing changed and they started writing about how they went with their children to the mall and to different places in the city like the public garden. Sometimes when I give writing prompts I need to be a bit more specific, because after I was done their work was phenomenal.

April 28, 2004. Today was not a good class attendance-wise. Most of my students were absent. I only had four students. I had elaborate plans to teach but since the class was too small my plans would not have worked. Therefore, I had the class do another activity. After we read a dialogue I had the students write sentences using some of the words in the activity. It took them long time to write these sentences because my higher-level students were absent. However, after reading their work I can relate better to the students who were there who are sometimes so confused they can't ask a question. I am glad to know where they are coming from now and I will write up a worksheet using some of their sentences for inspiration.

May 4, 2004. Today had to be one of my best days as an ESOL teacher! Because of the writing exercises and my extensive conversation with Sr. Peggy Nawn I was able to present my students with a concise lesson about direct object pronouns, possessive adjectives, and subject pronouns that each person understood beautifully. When I used examples inspired by my students to show common errors it was like a light bulb went off above some of them. They all understand this lesson and I feel really good. I am still new at this so I am learning as I go, sometimes, but I never thought to ask what my students might know about a topic before I present it. I think I will do this again when we get to the next unit and I know I will keep this in mind for the future.

George Cannella teaches ESOL at the Notre Dame Education Center in South Boston. He can be reached at 617-464-7924.