Reference: Working with English Language Learners, Chapters 2 and 3, S. Cary
Chapter 2 addresses the question, "How do I find useful information on a student's cultural background?" I thought that this chapter was extremely helpful because I thought this was a question that I had no idea how to answer. Lenny, the teacher in the classroom, got a new student who the secretary called "Ka or Kas" and all the secretary could say about him was that "he was Asian" (pg. 21). This totally surprised me, because I have learned that this just seems very derogatory and that students should not be referred to as merely 'Asian' and as the author says on page 22, "Asian [is] a convenient, one-size-fits-all label" which is completely true. Students who are from Asia do share similar customs or languages, but they all have a culture all their own, the Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian, does not matter. As ESL teachers, it is imperative that we never put students in a box, like we talked about today in practicum about the essentialist versus non-essentialist approach; we cannot pigeon-hole students to be a certain way just because they belong to a certain culture and there are always exceptions to the so-called 'rules'.
It was funny and ironic that we discussed what Hmong was today in practicum and then this chapter was about a student from that culture, so I was excited to learn more about that specific culture. I was amazed at what the culture has been through in recent years and what sort of past they are bringing into the classroom. I think that Lenny should be the model for every ESL teacher and I would like to model myself after him for the future; as we talked about before, teachers need to be researchers as well as role models and mentors, especially for ESL student. He asked himself the right questions, like "Where were the potential conflict points between Hmong and American mainstream culture? What specific aspects of an American 5th grade class might Ka and his family find puzzling or troublesome?" or "What English sounds or structures would Ka find unusually difficult?" (pg. 23). These are all excellent questions to ask before going into the classroom and editing your teaching style to help fit this student's needs among everyone else's needs in the class. I think what is important is that teachers know certain aspects of their culture that might interfere with other beliefs in the classroom, and what specific linguistic knowledge will come in handy, which we find out later in the chapter that he must implement different strategies in order to accommodate Ka's learning style.
Something else that really struck me about this teacher was that he used the student helper in the class, Emilio. I thought this was a very useful tool; I am learning in my methods course right about having student helpers and students you can trust to get things done in the classroom, and Emilio seems like one of those types of children. It's important to find a student with good leadership skills and a higher English proficiency, but does understand where the new student is coming from, like later on when they are reading the story and Ka did not understand "beginning" and "ending" and Emilio helped Ka to understand what those words meant by using circumlocution. Current teachers need to take cues from Lenny, and I plan on definitely trying to implement these types of procedures in my future ESL classroom. I think that teachers should have to believe that they are alone in teaching; they should learn to be independent, but have a certain amount of interdependence on their colleagues, peers, and even their own students. Education is not a one-way street, per se; there needs to be a rapport between teacher and student, teacher and colleague, and many other combinations within the school system.
Chapter 3, "How do I make my spoken language more understandable?", I found to be a bit confusing at first because the process was so long in teaching these students the book, but I saw the merit in many things that Jeff (the teacher) did. An important thing that they mention first in the chapter is this, "But Jeff worried how the book would fly this year, given the change in class makeup" (pg. 37), which is certainly something I would not think to consider right away. One does have to think about what the book entails, what types of cultural stereotypes or customs may be brought up, and will students be able to understand the material brought forth to them. I think going over the book with a fine tooth comb and making sure there is going to be no negative connotations or consequences is a good plan. Otherwise, one definitely needs to plan for the fact that books can change over the next couple of years, and personally, I think they should just to add some variety, but I do understand at the same time that it creates extra work for the teacher who has to plan all the lessons based on the book, and it is certainly much easier to keep the original lesson plans and just add or edit things in the previously made lesson plans. When you're a teacher, time to make lessons does not come around too often and so making lesson plans to use for years is always beneficial.
When Jeff was reading "Stone Fox" to his class, I think that he put a lot of preparation into setting up the book, like giving the kids prior knowledge and understanding to contextualize the book, which is always imperative in any classroom, especially an ESL one where students rely heavily on experiences and visuals. "Jeff asked the kids to tell what they saw and predict storyline elements" (pg. 39), which is something every teacher should strive for in literacy, because making connections and making predictions is a huge part of reading comprehension. I think that the students seemed to really respond to this decision-making process and I am sure that makes them eager to keep reading the story because they want to find out if their predictions are true. Jeff also used paraphrasing during his reading of the text so that the kids would be able to understand the material better, and this is a tool many teachers (not just ESL teachers) use in the classroom, especially in foreign languages as well where students do not understand the phrasing that a native speaker would use, like slang or jargon. Something else that Jeff allowed for in the classroom was the telling of spin-off stories in order to make connections to the story at hand, like "the death of the dog and Stone Fox's remarkable gesture of kindness" (pg. 41) seemed to allow for a lot of different interpretations and kids telling stories about their own pets or kind things they had seen people do in movies or in real life. It is important with reading and listening skills to make your own visual and emotional connections to a story; otherwise it will make no absolutely no impact on the kids. I remember reading stories in elementary or middle school and feeling like I could not connect with it at all, and needless to say I cannot remember a single detail or title from any of those stories.
The really cool thing about this chapter was that it gave the format for watching movies, like the student who did "Pursuit of Happyness" and either was able to write or draw what they saw on the screen and talk about their opinions on the film. I definitely want to photocopy that and use it for my own future classes. I think it is a great visual tool for students and for teachers so that they can see where a student is at in written language and in listening comprehension as well.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
1/25 Readings
Reference: Intro and Chapter 1 of Working with English Language Learners - S. Cary
Upon beginning the introduction to this book, I could immediately tell it was going to be more easily readable and more accessible than other materials I have read in the TESOL field. I think that Cary's ten "How Do I" questions are relevant to what is currently going on in our classrooms and I really liked the fact that these questions were frequently asked by real educators facing those issues in their own classrooms, so it is a very practical approach to second language teaching. I remember getting a very good impression of the articles that we read by Cary in 345 and it will be nice to get a refresher on those articles in a more holistic context as a textbook. I suppose the questions that I am most eager to have answered or find out more about are: "How do I make my spoken language more understandable?", "How do I teach grade-level content to English beginners?" and "How do I help students build learning strategies?" (pg. 3). I feel that these are very important issues to me and ones that I struggle answer even with my Spanish education background, as well. I really want my students to understand and comprehend my directions, and with ESL, it is even more complicated because I likely will not speak any of their languages, so I will have no way of being able to do translations for them. The question about content is something that I find interesting in my own personal academic research goals since I am interested in the content-based approach in second language education, and finally that I would just like to learn more about learning strategies and how to implement them in the classroom because I feel as if I am a little lost on the topic, like what works for students, what does not, and what these specific learning strategies are called (terminology).
I was bit surprised to see the list of the most common languages currently; obviously, I knew Spanish would be number one, which is a huge plus for me with my educational background, but Hmong? Haitian Creole? I do not even know what countries these are spoken in, let alone what they sound like! It just seems like a very daunting task considering the clearly varied backgrounds with these students. I think that an important question that needs to be addressed in my own life is that how do I bridge the gap between low-level and high-level students? How do I meet the students' needs that are higher functioning in English whereas some might be extremely minimal or have had no exposure at all? It's a scary thought. I think what is important that Cary points out is that the students do have a common learning goal: "they need to become fluent, communicatively competent speakers and proficient readers and writers of English" (pg. 5). I suppose this can unite a lot of students, and I think it is extremely important that the teacher tell them that they want to meet this goal for them, as well. We need to show them that we are there to help, and we are on their side, so to speak. In any classroom, there needs to be a common objective for learning; otherwise, things tend to fall apart.
Another aspect of the book that I already know that I'm going to enjoy is the actual classroom dialogue that goes on; it shows the reader what is going on in the classroom and what ways that things work or do not work depending on your own personal opinion. Obviously, everyone has a different teaching philosophy and approach to education, but I think it is excellent to have dialogues to interpret and assess our own reactions. I like that we as readers have a set-up to the story and can understand the classroom environment and have our own ideas of how we could handle it. I really like books that get me constantly thinking and assessing my own behaviors; I love the sociological aspect of it.
In Chapter 1 ("How do I assess a student's English?"), an important issue is discussed. When is the proper time to test a student in their English capabilities? What is the best method of doing so? I suppose with assessment there is a lot of unanswered questions from the administration and sometimes an apparent lack of support in that area as far as ESL goes. I like that Lisa, the teacher in this chapter, allowed students this so-called 'break-in time' for a couple of weeks before they took any kind of examinations. I think this is an excellent idea; students lose a lot over the summer and maybe are not around English as much as they should be. I find myself having the same problem with Spanish. I have no one around me at home during breaks who can speak with me and help me practice my language and then I feel a little lost for a bit when I come back to college and have to be immersed in it again. I think students definitely need a little time at the beginning to get their bearings and become accustomed to school again.
The chapter later on in the section called 'four-box assessment' mentions the idea of modeling and how it pays off with the students who are building bridges (pg. 11). I think modeling is extremely important in the ESL context; hand gestures, facial expressions, all of that comes into play when you have students who have limited ability in listening or speaking. They can then model the behaviors of the teacher to get their point across and then learn something along the way. I know that modeling was one of the things I knew I needed to work on when we did our mock lessons in 345. Examples, examples, examples are key to a students' comprehension in any classroom. The student, Amalia, even though the teacher noted that she was "making lots of errors with pronunciation, syntax, and prepositions" (pg. 12), at least she was speaking at all! I think something else that is essential with ESL students, especially those who do not want to speak, is giving them something that excites them and prompts them to talk. Finding out their interests ahead of time, like in the first couple days of school, is a big deal and can influence their learning for the rest of the year.
A lot of my professors and teachers I have worked with here at ISU have always said the big thing right now is to trick students into learning. Unfortunately that is the standard for this day and age. Students are constantly inundated with media and excitement and then once they go to school, there just is not enough stimulus to get them through the day. It sounds like a daunting task, and I have heard from peers and colleagues that we cannot do a superb lesson every day; it drains you and makes you lose focus on more important things. However, something we can do is sneak an activity once an hour or day that is fun and engaging so that the students do not think it is necessarily school work, like the bridges that Lisa used. Lisa was right in wanting to elicit "authentic language" (pg. 16). She wanted to create tasks that fostered team building and cooperation from her students, and for them to want to use English to get their point across. Formal testing tends to glaze over the fact that students learn at different paces and have different learning styles. They also do not take into account the anxiety of the students taking the test. I do not know how these problems can be fixed other than that formal testing needs a makeover. It needs to be a more relaxed, comfortable environment and not just multiple-choice questions or true/false, but unfortunately, testing companies do not want to do the work or they do not seem to listen to teachers. That is sort of the downfall of that system.
What Lisa is doing with her students is an excellent way of assessing their improvements; she does it informally and in a relaxed and comfortable environment for the students. She includes activities that the students actually want to do, and does not force them to use English. She does a lot of informal assessing which I feel that education is starting to lean towards nowadays. Lisa also does a good job in communicating with the parents and talking to them about their child's progress; that is an extremely important aspect of education that a lot of teachers tend to overlook.
Upon beginning the introduction to this book, I could immediately tell it was going to be more easily readable and more accessible than other materials I have read in the TESOL field. I think that Cary's ten "How Do I" questions are relevant to what is currently going on in our classrooms and I really liked the fact that these questions were frequently asked by real educators facing those issues in their own classrooms, so it is a very practical approach to second language teaching. I remember getting a very good impression of the articles that we read by Cary in 345 and it will be nice to get a refresher on those articles in a more holistic context as a textbook. I suppose the questions that I am most eager to have answered or find out more about are: "How do I make my spoken language more understandable?", "How do I teach grade-level content to English beginners?" and "How do I help students build learning strategies?" (pg. 3). I feel that these are very important issues to me and ones that I struggle answer even with my Spanish education background, as well. I really want my students to understand and comprehend my directions, and with ESL, it is even more complicated because I likely will not speak any of their languages, so I will have no way of being able to do translations for them. The question about content is something that I find interesting in my own personal academic research goals since I am interested in the content-based approach in second language education, and finally that I would just like to learn more about learning strategies and how to implement them in the classroom because I feel as if I am a little lost on the topic, like what works for students, what does not, and what these specific learning strategies are called (terminology).
I was bit surprised to see the list of the most common languages currently; obviously, I knew Spanish would be number one, which is a huge plus for me with my educational background, but Hmong? Haitian Creole? I do not even know what countries these are spoken in, let alone what they sound like! It just seems like a very daunting task considering the clearly varied backgrounds with these students. I think that an important question that needs to be addressed in my own life is that how do I bridge the gap between low-level and high-level students? How do I meet the students' needs that are higher functioning in English whereas some might be extremely minimal or have had no exposure at all? It's a scary thought. I think what is important that Cary points out is that the students do have a common learning goal: "they need to become fluent, communicatively competent speakers and proficient readers and writers of English" (pg. 5). I suppose this can unite a lot of students, and I think it is extremely important that the teacher tell them that they want to meet this goal for them, as well. We need to show them that we are there to help, and we are on their side, so to speak. In any classroom, there needs to be a common objective for learning; otherwise, things tend to fall apart.
Another aspect of the book that I already know that I'm going to enjoy is the actual classroom dialogue that goes on; it shows the reader what is going on in the classroom and what ways that things work or do not work depending on your own personal opinion. Obviously, everyone has a different teaching philosophy and approach to education, but I think it is excellent to have dialogues to interpret and assess our own reactions. I like that we as readers have a set-up to the story and can understand the classroom environment and have our own ideas of how we could handle it. I really like books that get me constantly thinking and assessing my own behaviors; I love the sociological aspect of it.
In Chapter 1 ("How do I assess a student's English?"), an important issue is discussed. When is the proper time to test a student in their English capabilities? What is the best method of doing so? I suppose with assessment there is a lot of unanswered questions from the administration and sometimes an apparent lack of support in that area as far as ESL goes. I like that Lisa, the teacher in this chapter, allowed students this so-called 'break-in time' for a couple of weeks before they took any kind of examinations. I think this is an excellent idea; students lose a lot over the summer and maybe are not around English as much as they should be. I find myself having the same problem with Spanish. I have no one around me at home during breaks who can speak with me and help me practice my language and then I feel a little lost for a bit when I come back to college and have to be immersed in it again. I think students definitely need a little time at the beginning to get their bearings and become accustomed to school again.
The chapter later on in the section called 'four-box assessment' mentions the idea of modeling and how it pays off with the students who are building bridges (pg. 11). I think modeling is extremely important in the ESL context; hand gestures, facial expressions, all of that comes into play when you have students who have limited ability in listening or speaking. They can then model the behaviors of the teacher to get their point across and then learn something along the way. I know that modeling was one of the things I knew I needed to work on when we did our mock lessons in 345. Examples, examples, examples are key to a students' comprehension in any classroom. The student, Amalia, even though the teacher noted that she was "making lots of errors with pronunciation, syntax, and prepositions" (pg. 12), at least she was speaking at all! I think something else that is essential with ESL students, especially those who do not want to speak, is giving them something that excites them and prompts them to talk. Finding out their interests ahead of time, like in the first couple days of school, is a big deal and can influence their learning for the rest of the year.
A lot of my professors and teachers I have worked with here at ISU have always said the big thing right now is to trick students into learning. Unfortunately that is the standard for this day and age. Students are constantly inundated with media and excitement and then once they go to school, there just is not enough stimulus to get them through the day. It sounds like a daunting task, and I have heard from peers and colleagues that we cannot do a superb lesson every day; it drains you and makes you lose focus on more important things. However, something we can do is sneak an activity once an hour or day that is fun and engaging so that the students do not think it is necessarily school work, like the bridges that Lisa used. Lisa was right in wanting to elicit "authentic language" (pg. 16). She wanted to create tasks that fostered team building and cooperation from her students, and for them to want to use English to get their point across. Formal testing tends to glaze over the fact that students learn at different paces and have different learning styles. They also do not take into account the anxiety of the students taking the test. I do not know how these problems can be fixed other than that formal testing needs a makeover. It needs to be a more relaxed, comfortable environment and not just multiple-choice questions or true/false, but unfortunately, testing companies do not want to do the work or they do not seem to listen to teachers. That is sort of the downfall of that system.
What Lisa is doing with her students is an excellent way of assessing their improvements; she does it informally and in a relaxed and comfortable environment for the students. She includes activities that the students actually want to do, and does not force them to use English. She does a lot of informal assessing which I feel that education is starting to lean towards nowadays. Lisa also does a good job in communicating with the parents and talking to them about their child's progress; that is an extremely important aspect of education that a lot of teachers tend to overlook.
A Little About Me
Hi! I am Kelsey Kuzniewski and this is my blog for my TESOL Practicum at Illinois State University. I hope to be working with the middle school level here in Bloomington-Normal. I am a Spanish Education major with a Middle School Endorsement and my minor is TESOL. My areas of academic interest/research are education in the foreign languages field, curriculum implementation, content-based instruction in foreign languages or ESL, and issues of gender in the classroom. I also would like to get more into the sociolinguistics area, as well when I have the time. In my ever so limited spare time, I enjoy hanging out with my friends, watching all kinds of movies, reading, writing my novel, and listening to music.
With this practicum, I am hoping to gain some insight into the second language education field from the ESL perspective rather than the foreign language perspective, and delve more into my academic interests. I also really hope to be able to make a connection with my future students and learn more about where they come from and how they approach learning English.
Enjoy my blog!
Kelsey
With this practicum, I am hoping to gain some insight into the second language education field from the ESL perspective rather than the foreign language perspective, and delve more into my academic interests. I also really hope to be able to make a connection with my future students and learn more about where they come from and how they approach learning English.
Enjoy my blog!
Kelsey
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