Training those who teach.

At AIMS English, we offer training for each of our systems individually, or as a combination. Read on to find out more about the training for each program.

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Attribute Card Training

Help your students improve their speaking and listening skills with Attribute Cards.

Attribute Cards is the primary listening and speaking system of AIMS English. Instructors will receive and learn how to teach and use a set of 16 10" x 13" cards with commonly used attributes, such as name, color, place and action, that add depth and density to language. The Attributes help instructors provide comprehensible input to students and to quickly elicit words, phrases and sentences from even beginner English students. Each Attribute Card has a small, symbolic Cue Card that, as the student becomes familiar with the system, acts as a prompt to help the student understand and use language. With Attribute Cards, teachers can work on word order, grammar and vocabulary in a natural, authentic way that meets each student at his or her level.

TRAINING IN ATTRIBUTE CARDS INCLUDES:

Principles behind the Attribute Cards and Cue Cards
Teaching the Attribute Cards and Cue Cards to English students
Using the Attribute Cards and Cue Cards as a daily tool to improve comprehension and add depth and density to students’ language
Developing activities for whatever curriculum teachers already use, or whatever content teachers want to present
Reinforcing the Attributes with games
Planning lessons integrating Attribute Cards

The Attribute Card training is 6 hours and costs $1,750 for two trainers and 15 Attribute Card sets. There is an extra charge for additional Attribute Card sets. Programs outside the Denver Metro Area must provide training space. Travel expenses are extra.

Message Design Training

Help your students organize their thoughts for speaking and writing with Message Design.

Message Design is a group of graphic organizers based on four types of rhetoric going back to the time of the Greeks. The four types are: Structural Description, Process Description, Definition and Comparison/Contrast. Instructors can use Message Design to present oral comprehensible input to all levels of learners, and then use it as the basis for composition writing. It is easy for the instructor to teach and use, and acquaints students with Western logic, essential in preparing them for work and/or higher education.

Instructors using the graphic organizers of Message Design employ a system of boxes, labels and key words and phrases to brainstorm ideas about a topic. After the brainstorming element, instructors use arrows to help students organize the flow of the thoughts in the Message Design. Finally, students can either speak from the Message Design or write a composition. Message Design can be used to present content to students, to organize what students know and want to know about a topic, and to demonstrate student learning.

Training in Message Design includes:

The principles behind Message Design
An explanation of each kind of Message Design and its purpose
Modeling of Message Design with content
Opportunities to work with each kind of Message Design, and to take some Designs to the spoken stage, and others to the written stage
Opportunities to look at authentic student work and study the Message Design-to-composition process for different levels of learners
Modeling of how to integrate Attribute Cards with Message Design*
Opportunities to practice integrating Attribute Cards with Message Design*

The Message Design training is $1,000 for two trainers and includes reproducible templates of the four kinds of Message Design. Programs outside of the Denver Metropolitan Area must provide space for the training. Travel expenses are extra.

*Attribute Card training is a prerequisite for these elements to be included.

Book Club Training

Help your students learn to love to read in English through Book Club.

Book Club is the primary reading strand of AIMS English, providing comprehensible input through reading and opportunities for students to negotiate meaning in authentic, post-reading conversations. In Book Club, English students are taught the comprehension strategies that competent readers use to make connections with a story. After reading, they use these strategies to hold a meaningful, interesting conversation.

Book Club can be used with any existing reading instruction to enhance comprehension and the students’ reading enjoyment. In adult classes, students can either start reading with quality children’s literature, or they can read the stories Barbara Vaille and Jennifer QuinnWilliams have written for adult learners. These gripping, interesting stories follow the lives of immigrants to the US, all of whom have an English class in common. Short versions of the stories for beginner students can be downloaded from the University of Michigan website. The full versions can be purchased through the University of Michigan Press.

The 6-hour Book Club training includes

An introduction on why reading is a good form of comprehensible input
An explanation of the three-part book club model
An opportunity to participate in a short Book Club
Modeling of the comprehension strategies for English Language Learners
Modeling of the conversation portion of Book Club for English Language Learners
Extension activities to aid students’ comprehension
Planning lessons incorporating Book Club

The Book Club training is $1,250 for two trainers, and includes 15 copies of one (teacher’s choice) of the full-length versions of a book from the Michigan Stories for Newcomers series, and 5 copies of Creating Book Clubs in the English Language Classroom.

Additional copies of the fiction books are $10 each, while additional copies of Creating Book Clubs are $22.50 each. Programs outside of the Denver Metro Area must provide space for the training. Travel expenses are extra.

Interactive Journals

Get to know each student on a personal level and have daily tool for modeling and assessing progress with Interactive Journals.

Interactive Teacher Journals give instructors an opportunity for modeling a journal entry, and another occasion for students to get comprehensible input form the written word.

Interactive Student Journals provide a forum for students to express themselves in writing. This Interactive Journal is naturally on each student’s English level. Students can write at home or in class, to a prepared prompt or about whatever they are interested in at the moment. It’s up to the teacher and the student. Teachers respond to the students’ entries in writing. This is an opportunity to share information, negotiate for meaning, recast errors in writing and assess student writing.

It Includes:

Rationale for Interactive Journals
Modeling a teacher journal
Teaching students to make and write in a journal
Responding to a student journal
Informal assessment of student work
Planning lessons incorporating Interactive Journals

Instructors will have the opportunity to work with authentic student journal entries from several different English levels.

This charge for this 4-hour training is $700 for two trainers.

Combined Trainings

Combine any of the trainings to address the English skills you want to focus on.

A summary of training costs is:

Attribute Card Training $1,750
Message Design Training $1,000
Book Club Training $1,250
Interactive Journal Training $ 700

AIMS English Basic Training

Get it all! We’ll tailor it to your learning environment.

The AIMS English Basic Training includes all four systems and also incorporates information and discussion on:

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theory
Implications of SLA Theory for Teaching
Working with Adults

The Basic Training is 28 hours, and costs $4,500 ($200 discount).

It includes 15 sets of Attribute Cards, 15 books of fiction (teacher’s choice) and 5 copies of Creating Book Clubs in the English Language Classroom.