Preparing effective PowerPoint slideshows for English Language Learners

Students that are English language learners are a growing population of students in today’s classroom.  A 2003 report from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows a thirty percent increase in English language learners.  Of these students Spanish speaking students are the fastest growing group.  Sixty-five percent of all non-English speaking immigrants are Hispanic yet only forty-four percent scored proficient or higher on a reading test in a NCES study conducted in 2004.  There are many ways to use technology to assist students that may be an English language learner.  Typically these students have some mastery of English though it is usually behind that of native speakers and is usually greatest in understanding the written word not the spoken.

            So the challenge is to convey a concept or idea appropriate to a student that may be very intelligent but that has an English reading comprehension level several years behind their physical age.  To do this there are several strategies you can employee.  One of these strategies is to use pictures as much as possible.  Because many times, especially with complicated issues, it is more helpful for students to see a picture.  Another helpful feature to aid in the teaching of an English language learners is video.  This helps because if a picture is worth a thousand words a three minute video clip is worth at least ten times that.  By hearing the audio play while seeing the action and maybe a short written concept, the concept is re-enforced and by re-enforcing the concepts you want to teach it makes it easier for students to grasp.

            Another way for English language learners to benefit from technology such as powerpoint presentation is that it allows for interaction not only with the teacher but with the actual presentation.  This allows technology to be hands on such as a powerpoint that is controlled by individual students that may read slower because of them being an English language learner.  This can be helpful not only with the students making a better grade but with help they maintain a positive outlook on their learning so that they do not become frustrated.

            More and more technology such as smart boards and powerpoint presentations are finding their way into our classrooms.  While at the same time as teachers, we are also finding more and more students that are English language learners.  By effectively using the techniques I discussed, maximizing the amount of pictures that are used using minimal verbiage except in conjunction with pictures/video and using video/audio in presentations whenever possible.  And lastly, make the technology interactive with all students.  By following these techniques you can successfully use technology to break down any language barrier.

Here is an example of a powerpoint slide that takes advantage of pictures and words to get a concept across.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1002160

http://books.google.com/books?id=JggmAQAAIAAJ&q=The+sourcebook+for+teac            hing+science:+Strategies,+activities,+and+instructional++resources&dq=The+sourc            ebook+for+teaching+science:+Strategies,+activities,+and+instructional++resources            &hl=en&sa=X&ei=QWxMT_LnAcvjsQLdj9UO&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA

Wake Island POW’s

             Approximately 2,000 miles west of Hawaii sets three small islands collectively known as Wake.  Until the 1930’s the islands were uninhabited.  In the mid 1930’s, Pan American Airlines setup a refueling station for its Pacific clippers.  Then in January of 1941, civilian contractors began the task of turning Wake into a military base.  By December 1941, Wake had become a working military base with a compliment of:

• 38 officers
• 485 enlisted men
• 1,200 civilian contract employees.

This included Marine Fighter Squadron, VMF-211, and comprised of 12 Grumman F4F-3 Hellcats.   The First Marine Defense Battalion had:

Quantity	Description
12	Three inch anti-aircraft guns
24	.50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns
30	Ground defense .30 caliber machine guns
3	Five inch naval defense batteries

However, only the naval defense batteries were manned at anywhere near full strength, and there were only enough guns for 449 of the Marines.¹ 

            On December 6, 1941, the senior officers on Wake were Major James Devereux of the First Marine Defense Battalion; Commander Winfield Cunningham who was the officer in charge of naval activities and commander of the defense of Wake; Major Paul Putnam who was the commander of VMF-211; and Nathan Dan Teters who was the construction superintendent in charge of Wake’s civilian contractors.

            At 0700 Monday December 8, a message was received from Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field stating that Pearl Harbor was under attack.  By 0845 all of Wake’s defensive positions were “manned and ready.”²  By noon, the attack on Wake had begun by a flight of 27 Mitsubishi “Nells” bombers from the Chitose Air Group of Japans 24^th Air Flotilla.  The Japanese continued their hit and run attacks with the Wake defenders holding their own.  This continued until 0900 on December 21.  Forty-nine dive bombers escorted by 18 zeros fighters from the Japanese carriers Hiryo and Soryo lead the second Japanese invasion force.  At 0235 on December 23^rd; 1,500 Japanese marines landed on Wake.  After the landing, Wake’s marines and civilian contractors gave as good as they got, especially considering there was a lack of weapons and number of service men.  By 0730, Devereaux rigged a white flag.  He then left his command post and headed south.³  By 1430 the last shot had been fired.  The remaining 433 military and 1,104 civilians became prisoners of war (POW’s).

            The Wake POW’s were rounded up and made to strip to their skivvies and marched to the airfield where their hands were bound by telephone wire and then a second length was looped around their necks and tied to their hands.  Admiral Kajioka, the Japanese commander, seemed uncertain what to do with so many prisoners.  “He radioed his headquarters at Truk.  After a lengthy delay the reply came back ‘you are authorized to take prisoners.’”⁴  “At 1700 Admiral Kajioka arrived at the airfield and gave the following proclamation ‘here it is proclaimed that the entire islands of Wake are now the property of the Great Empire of Japan.’  Public notice the Great Empire of Japan, who loves peace and respects justice, has been obliged to take arms against the challenge of President Roosevelt.   Therefore in accordance with the peace loving spirit of the Great Empire of Japan, Japanese Imperial Navy will not inflict harm to those people though they have been our enemy—who do not hold hostility against us in any respect so they can be in peace!  But whoever violates our spirit or whoever is not obedient shall be severely punished by our martial law issued by the headquarters of the Japanese Imperial Navy.”⁵  The first 48 hours of captivity were torture; prisoners were made to endure two days exposed to the elements with little or no clothing and practically no food or water.  On Christmas day, the prisoners were given a thin gruel of rice and “a gift of sorts when several vehicles appeared at the airstrip, piled with articles of discarded clothing.”⁶   That evening the POW’s were moved to the remaining barracks.  Where the civilian cooks were allowed to prepare two hot meals a day and bread and jam at night, this lasted till January 11, 1942.  A former passenger liner the Nitta Maru arrived at Wake.  At about noon the next day, Japanese guards informed the prisoners that they had exactly one hour to prepare for departure.  About 1,150 of Wake’s defenders, enlisted men, and civilians would be crammed into the ships cargo hold with a little straw bedding and a few five gallon buckets for sanitary facilities.  Then 28 officers were herded into what had been the ships mailroom.  All of the prisoners had to run a gauntlet of Japanese sailors raining kicks and blows on the newly boarded passengers.  “They made us jump onto the ship and if we did not move fast enough to suit them they beat the hell out of us,” PFC Artie Stocks remembered.⁷  “A sign which was posted in the hold in the ship stated the regulations the prisoners must obey.  An example would be, the prisoners disobeying the following orders will be punished with immediate death:  disobeying orders and instructions, showing a motion of antagonism and raising a sign of opposition, talking without permission, resisting mutually, climbing a ladder without order, etc…”⁸  During the twelve day voyage five prisoners were beheaded and no one knows why or how these five men were chosen for execution by Lt. Toshio Sato, commander at the Japanese guard detachment.⁹  After about a week at sea, the Nitta Maru pulls into Tokyo where a few prisoners are taken off.  The Nitta Maru continued on to Shanghai, China, the location of the Woosung Prison Camp.  In January of 1942, Woosung was home to 1,500 prisoners and was commanded by Colonel Goici Yuse who was notorious for his violent and unpredictable temper.  He organized the prisoners in ten man shooting squads explaining if one man escaped the other nine dies.  He died in March of 1942 and was replaced by Colonel Satoshi Otera who wasn’t much better.  An example of his cruelty is when he discovered a hole in a 100 pound bag of sugar; he retaliated by denying food to all prisoners for 72 hours.  Though this only amounted to about 1,500 calories it was sorely missed by the prisoners.  Despite the starvation diet, Major Deveraux insisted on the same military discipline found at a state side marine base and insisted that the marines exercise daily.  The prisoners continued to fight their captors anyway they could.  “When they were put to work repairing roads they widened or deepened potholes or loose packed the dirt so the holes would soon get worse.  When assigned to clean weapons they polished the metal until it was too thin to be safely fired, lost parts, hid bearings, loosened bolts, and/or substituted parts.”¹⁰  The discipline Major Devereaux instilled served the Wake marines well and was one of the reasons that Wake prisoners had one of the best mortality rates of any group of prisoners during the war but no amount of exercise could have saved civilian Lonnie Riddle when a prison guard shot him or kept other accidents from happening.  Another reason for the Wake prisoner’s relative good health was Edouard Eagle, a Swiss representative of the International Red Cross.  He was very insistent on providing medical and dental help for the prisoners.  He also provided warm clothing, food, and medical supplies; although he was not the only person to come to the prisoner’s aid.  American “Shanghai” Jimmy James, a Minnesotan that owned four American style restaurants in Shanghai, provided the Wake prisoners a Christmas tree with trimmings, cigars, cigarettes, and a hot turkey dinner for the Christmas of 1942.  He also continued to send food, medicine, and other help until he too was interned in the prison camp.¹¹

            In all, 44 military personnel and 82 civilians were killed in action on Wake; 442 service men and 1,118 civilians were captured.¹²  Two civilians died after the seize fire.  Twenty-seven service men and 115 civilian died in POW camps or in route.¹²  There were 98 civilians that were kept on Wake and forced to assist the Japanese with the rebuilding of the islands defenses.¹²  However by October 7, 1943, there was nothing left to build and nothing left to build with.  The Japanese Commandant of Wake, Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara ordered Lt. Torashi Ito to take all the prisoners to the beach near the northwestern extremity of Wake proper and execute them. 

            Not all stories about Wake are as tragic.  One of the most inspirational stories is that of Lt. John Kinney, who escaped from the Japanese and made it across almost all of China before he was picked up by an army C-47 and returned to the United States.¹³  Although it took longer, a grand total of 415 servicemen and 901 civilians were repatriated.¹⁴ 

Notes

            1. Bill Sloan, Given Up For Dead: America’s Heroic Stand At Wake Island (New York: Bantam Dell, 2003), 51.

            2. Sloan, Given Up for Dead, 87

            3. Sloan, Given Up for Dead, 238

            4. Sloan, Given Up for Dead, 393

            5. Sloan, Given Up for Dead, 394-395

            6. Sloan, Given Up for Dead, 400

            7. Sloan, Given Up for Dead, 407

            8. Harry Spiller, American POWS In World War II: Twelve Personal Accounts Of Captivity by Germany and Japan (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 2009), 16-17.

            9. Spiller, American POWS In World War II, 17

            10. James W. Wensyel, “Wake Island Prisoners of World War II,” HistoryNet (2001), http://www.historynet.com/wake-island-prisoners-of-world-war-ii.htm

            11. Wensyel, “Wake Island”, http://www.historynet.com/wake-island-prisoners-of-world-war-ii.htm

            12. Spiller, American POWS In World War II, 27

            13. John F. Kinney and James M. McCaffrey, “Escape,” in The Wake Island Pilot: A World War II Memoir, (Washington: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1995), 137-160.

            14. Kinney and McCcaffrey, Wake Island Pilot, 137-160

Bibliography

Kinney, John F. and James M. McCaffrey, “Escape.” In The Wake Island Pilot: A World War II

Memoir, 137-160.  Washington: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data,

1995.

Sloan, Bill.  Given Up For Dead: America’s Heroic Stand At Wake Island.  New York: Bantam

            Dell, 2003.

Spiller, Harry.  American POWS In World War II: Twelve Personal Accounts Of Captivity by

Germany and Japan.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 2009.

Wensyel, James W.  “Wake Island Prisoners of World War II,” HistoryNet (2001),

http://www.historynet.com/wake-island-prisoners-of-world-war-ii.htm